Learning Through Each Other

June 3, 2016

 

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Children learn vicariously through each other. They observe and replicate each other's behaviour. Whether it is repeating, "Uh-oh" upon hearing it from their friends or turning their car upright and driving like so, "they may imitate the behaviour they observe." (McLeod, 2016)

 

During outdoor play one morning, two children were pushing their cars around our front playground. Then, it began to rain. The child in the photo above turned his car upright and said, "Oh! Carwash!"

 

 

Another child saw him and decided to do the same. He turned his car upright and observed his friend turn the wheels on his car.

 

 

With very little exchange of words between each other, they pushed their cars in this manner for about 20 minutes. One would lead and the other would follow. They smiled at each other as they drove their cars in the rain.

 

According to Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory, a "child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people they perceive as similar to himself" (McLeod, 2016). In this scenario, one child decided to follow and do the same thing that he saw his friend doing. It is the start of a budding friendship.

 

by Miss Arigo