Young children's persistence in a supportive environment

last updated:October 2007

We chose this study because it illustrates how adults built an emotionally supportive and non-judgemental environment in which very young children (aged 3 to 4) were able to show sustained concentration and persistence on challenging tasks. The children attended an inner-city, LEA maintained nursery school with a broad ethnic mix amongst both children and staff. This outdoor education project took place in the grounds of the nursery, as well as an orchard and a country park, which extended the facilities that could be offered to the children.
 
The children used natural materials to make dens and their teachers and another adult with expertise in outdoor education used this as an opportunity to encourage and study their creativity in approaching design and construction problems. The adults and children worked together in an equal partnership. This helped the children to work independently and confidently. Rather than laying down rules, for example, about the safe use of cutting tools, adults described or demonstrated safe practice as and when each child needed to know.

Children were allowed great freedom to explore. Once, a child jumped in a puddle excitedly.  She then looked guiltily at the adult following her, but was reassured when the adult smiled and jumped in, too. Children decided for themselves how long they wanted to spend on a particular task. They proved remarkably persistent, spending long periods of time on activities of their choice, such as making woven wooden panels to decorate their dens, or transporting logs from one place to another. The children often chose to return to the same activity at the start of a new session if they had left it unfinished on the previous occasion.

The adults in the project maintained an often-silent presence and allowed the children to work at their own pace on tasks of their choosing. They were always on hand to support and help the children if their help was needed, but they held back from giving advice or instructions. The sessions (which were recorded) were characterised by long periods of silence, in which the children worked confidently on their self-allotted tasks, reassured by the presence of the adults.

The study found that the attitudes maintained by the adults involved in the project affected the children’s attitudes and boosted their self-confidence. The adults’ belief that the process was at least as important as the outcome of the children’s efforts enabled them to support each individual child’s choice of activity, regardless of whether it was obviously productive or not. The adults’ confidence helped the children. Both understood that failure was part of the process of learning and that they were free to fail.

Learning happened tangentially. For example, the children learned different ways of tying knots when making each den roof. They pursued this interest in the classroom, learning many more knots, some of which were quite intricate. The teachers found that, once a child’s interest was caught, even children who usually had a short concentration span could persist with an activity for an extended period of time. 

Reference: Magraw, I. and Dimmock, E. (2006) Silence and presence: How adult attitude affects the creativity of children. National Teacher Research Panel summary. Available from: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ntrp/publications/