Experiencing Engagement
What do engaged children experience?
Engagement is more than just busyness, compliance, and safety.
When an educator guides a disengaged child toward positive engagement with environment, objects, and peers in settings of unstructured play, they increase connections that spark positive social habits.
Viewing behavior through an Engagement Lens, we observe the ways a child struggles, thrives, and engages with support during
exploration of the classroom and materials
interaction with the rules, nonverbal cues and conversations of peers and adults; and we look for
conceptualization, the ability to think conceptually with others. This is the most important skill of early learning.
A child who explores comfortably play in proximity to peers. They do not bolt from the environment. They manipulate a variety of objects and materials.
A child who interacts shares reactions and exchange expressions with peers. They respond to bids for attention and have basic conversations. They correctly seek help, and say “no” verbally rather than physically.
A child who conceptualizes can take the perspective of others. They tolerate and enjoy pretending with objects and roles. They can think about the past and present to plan for the future. They have a sense of self-identity, and can also identify with the group.
The Milestones of Engagement
To set engagement goals and track a child’s progress, the Learning Seeds Enlightened Shadow team uses our Milestones of Engagement framework, consisting of seven major experiential categories that emerged from our own examination of our daily practice with children.
