Facilitating Collaborations Among Children

Yesterday Americans observed Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. As Dr. King reminded us in the quote above, there is great satisfaction in sometimes focusing less on our own desires and instead on the well-being of others.

An Out of the Box Training Kit, “Facilitating Collaborations Among Children,” calls early educators to plan for ways to intentionally affirm and support children’s focus on the well-being of each other.

Susan Stacey, whose article forms the basis for the Kit, describes a scene from her work:

“Tara watches from her wheelchair as her preschool peers tear around the playground. Her paraprofessional, Liz, provides playthings and is engaged with her, but Tara is watching the other children play with the wagons. Liz notices the other children's interest in pulling the wagons along the bike trail and calls to them, ‘Hey, would you like a ride?’ Several would, and they approach Liz and Tara. Turning the wheelchair around to face the wagon, Liz puts the handle in Tara's hand. She has a tight grip, and pulls two children around the bike path. Another child with a second wagon notices this, comes over, and holds on to the first wagon. The train-like vehicle is pulled around the bike path for 45 minutes.

As a teaching team, we at Purdue University's Child Development Lab School were inspired by this collaboration between children, and the facilitation that occurred in order to make it happen. When planning the beginning of our school year, the team had been aware that the children in this group (20 children of mixed ages between three and five years, with about 50 percent English language learners and four children with special needs) would need a great deal of support ...”

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