Children's Ability to Relate to Others Really Matters

Children's relationships with adults and peers provide a powerful social context that influences their behavior. Children observe and model the behaviors they see in others, especially close to them. Children's families, friends outside of school, schools, neighborhoods, and culture also provide powerful contexts from which they will development their social skills and intelligence. Children learn how to relate to one another and to adults by interacting with them. Children cannot learn what they need to become socially adept by interacting only with adults. Negotiating, sharing, and compromising are best learned from interactions with peers.

Social and Emotional Intelligence

All children need social and emotional skills so they can learn and be successful in school and in life. To be successful academically, children need to learn how to control their emotions and how to work in groups; these skills are necessary to thrive in school or any other learning situation. Children who can control their impulses and behaviors are much better prepared to listen and learn.

Society values an individual's cognitive capabilities; yet many people do not stop to consider how individuals actually develop these skills. We want children to be successful in school, and, generally, good grades are measures of success. We may assume that good grades are the results of superior cognitive abilities. However, children need to learn to pay attention and listen so they can develop the thinking skills necessary to become successful students. Paying attention and listening require children to control impulses, delay gratification, and focus on a task. All of these are related to social and emotional development.

Individuals who are socially intelligent are able to:

• Assess the feelings of others;



• Relate to the feelings, motive, and concerns of others;



• Read and respond to social cues; and



• Negotiate and resolve conflicts.

Individuals who are emotionally intelligent are able to:

• Identify and label feelings,



• Express feelings,



• Assess the intensity of feelings,



• Manage feelings,



• Delay gratification,



• Control impulses,



• Know the difference between feelings and actions, and



• Manage stress

( Source: Seven Skills For School Sucess, Pam Schiller)

Treasure Island

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." ~Walt Disney

The Learning Advantage for Children in Mixed-Age Learning Environments

As I facilitate and observe the learning experiences in my program, I have noticed that as the children learn through active engagement with a wide range of learning materials and by simply watching the work and actions of other children in the environment they develop and acquire lots of skills. when younger children and older children within the same environment peer teaching is frequent. The older children enjoy helping the younger children. when children are encouraged and allowed to share their knowledge and skills with others they are gaining skills and learning in a reciprocal way.