This is the second post in a series of posts on the fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia approach to childcare. This series is based on a post of ours from a while back located here where we discussed these fundamentals as outlined by the website aneverydaystory. In this series we have expanded on the original concepts and added our own take to the fundamentals of Reggio Emilia.
Children Form an Understanding of Themselves and Their Place in the World Through Social Interactions With Others
Humans are social beings by nature and at a young age it is important to develop social skills, collaborative capabilities and understanding of others
The process of learning from a very young age is inherently social. Think of an infant and their parents, the interaction between caregiver and child provides not only the love and support required to develop healthy attachments, but also the sensory and social inputs for learning fundamentals, most notably language, as children imitate sounds and actions displayed by those around them. As a child grows older, the social aspect of learning morphs into something different but it never goes away.
Humans are naturally social, and children are no exception. It is important for them to practice collaboration skills, develop empathy, and an understanding of others, learn how to regulate their own emotions in interpersonal situations, and use those around them as resources in their educational endeavours. Teachers are an important part of the social education in children’s early years, but so are peers as children go through the process of teasing out their own values and approaches to friendship, teamwork, treating others with kindness and respect, and finding out who they are and what they like.