Since it is the 14th of February, I want to ponder the idea of love and young children. We, as adults, know what love is, or do we? Is it a feeling, an action, a word, a gift? How do children perceive love? In one of my favorite books, author Gary Chapman, discusses the idea of love and broadens the idea to love and children. He contends that children view and feel love much like we do as adults. I tend to agree, to an extent. Our differences arise because I look at children through my lens of child development.
We know that young children don't have the ability to think abstractly ( thanks Piaget). Children, in their egocentric state, also believe they are the reason the sun rises in the morning and the moon shines at night. With this egocentric frame of mind, it appears to me that love would be something expected as opposed to our adult view of something we give without the expectation.
Regardless, as parents and early childhood educators, we know that love is essential for the developing child to reach their full potential. Happy Valentine's Day!!
1 comment:
I agree. We as parents and educators shape people (sometimes a little scary).
Model love = love learned
I'm feeling Albert Bandura and the power of social modeling
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