Report - Bernard van Leer Foundation

Knowledge & Beliefs About How Their Young Children Learn - As Identified byCommunitiesYoung Children learn by …• being around everyday activities & encouraged to participate in them, by adults and siblings;• by being shown how to do things, and having things explained to them, by adults and siblings; ‘... fromaround 2 years, children need to be with older siblings (primary age) because they learn from them.’;• by observing and imitating;• by being encouraged to try & practice real tasks, e.g four year old boy might be give an actual smalltask to take the cows to a nearby place;• by being allowed to make mistakes when they are practising and learning new things‘If young children do not do what is expected we may beat them just once as a warning, but not morebecause their understanding is still small so you must allow them to make mistakes again tomorrow. Ifyou beat them too much the first time, tomorrow you are not allowing mistakes so that they can learn’Orkeswa Women’s Group• playing, e.g. For boys - pretend play with stones for cows; football; For girls – making clay dolls,cooking games, home play etc;• experimenting & experiencing things• adults and siblings laughing with them65