Written by: Dr Tessa Grigg

It can be challenging as a parent or carer to watch children develop skills, make mistakes, and finally achieve mastery. This article explains some of the processes that work best when providing a rich learning environment for young problem solvers.

The early childhood environment sets children up for their later lives. ¹As adults, we can provide many rich (not expensive) opportunities for children. A little time, some creativity and a positive, encouraging attitude does the job. It is all about three ‘Es’, explore, experiment and evaluate. The result is a child who is a confident problem solver, and we need many of these in our changing world.

Your child is an explorer – right from day one. Their initial exploration is sensory-based, sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. They gather lots of information, and the brain processes it all. When they start to move, a whole new world of exploration opens up to them ² and they can get to places that were unavailable prior to this newfound skill. This is a time when, as adults, we need to keep them safe, but we also need to let them explore and make little mistakes. Getting stuck under the table or stumbling over something on the ground is all part of learning about how the world works and how we work within it. Remember to encourage your little explorers, even when you want to caution them. Give them solutions rather than a constant message – “careful”. You do not want the child growing up to believe that the world is an unsafe place. Reserve the ‘safety’ message for times when it is crucial. Shouting “stop” as they start to run onto the road is perfectly reasonable. It is a matter of constant risk assessment. Will the child be damaged, or is this a learning opportunity? The road and the oncoming car are not a learning opportunity, there is real danger. However, overbalancing off a low beam might hurt a bit, but the damage will be minimal and that could be a learning opportunity.

Within the exploring comes some experimentation. It is also important for a child to test the boundaries. How far can I climb? What happens when I jump in a puddle? What happens when I post this into that hole? Life for preschoolers is one big experiment, and they seem to be wired to want to know how things work. Studies show that trial-and-error with feedback is an effective learning tool for young children. ³ The ability to experiment or practice the task or skill is vital. Initially, the child makes more mistakes, but over time, this reduces, and the learning is solidly established. Children also learn from watching others, especially if they have had their own opportunities to experiment and explore.⁴

The final ‘e’ is evaluation. If a typically developing child is in an environment where they are kept ultra safe, and they only try tasks they know they will succeed at, they are learning in what is termed an Errorless Training environment. While this is a useful tool for some children with neurodiversity, it removes the opportunity for them to evaluate performance, adjust the skills being used and then make another attempt. So, by creating an ultrasafe, errorless environment, we are making learning more difficult for these children. Vygotsky’s child development theories are well-established in the early childhood world. ⁵ He talks about the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Teachers and carers are constantly assessing: how much ‘help’ does the child need to complete the task? Can the child complete this task independently?

Encourage independence wherever possible, in fact when they are young, actively look for ways that allow your child to be in control of their destiny. Initially, that may mean giving them a couple of choices (clothes are a good example here) while they learn how to make good decisions.

When caring for children, honour your little explorer, allow for safe experimentation and gently support their evaluation. This will build a successful problem solver.

Author:

Dr Tessa Grigg (PhD, Dip Tch Primary and ECE) is an experienced teacher and the Research and Education Manager at GymbaROO-KindyROO.

 

References:

1. Poulton R, Moffitt TE, Silva PA. The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study: Overview of the first 40 years, with an eye to the future. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2015;50:679 – 93.
2. Williams J, Grigg TM. Grandparenting grandchildren. Dunedin, NZ: Exisle Publishing; 2021.
3. Ger E, Roebers CM. Training kindergarten children on learning from their mistakes. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 2024;42(4):478-94.
4. Hwang YS, Vrongistinos K, Kim J, Min AE, editors. Kindergarten children’s metacognitive self-regulated learning during and after watching other child’s problem-solving behaviors. International Society for Technology, Education, and Science; 2021/01/01/2021.
5. Vygotsky LS. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1978.