Motivation: The train table

The Toddler and Preschool room at the Children’s Museum is a bright and attractive place. No children under three were allowed in the space and the attendant at the door ensured that no children could leave without an adult. The entire room is constructed to 'kidscale'; this rather short adult felt like a giant as I towered over the climbing area, car, water table, and open carpet reading area. Perhaps because even the most petite adults felt ungainly in the space, most parents and caregivers chose to sit in the adult sized chairs lining the margins of play area Unique in that it was the only area we observed where there weren’t hovering parents trying to manage children’s play.

Scenario 1: Tiger vs. Train
I observed the train table where I watched children, mostly toddlers, negotiate the tiny train cars along the track. All but one of the children that I observed at the train table were boys. The first child I watched was a boy wielding a plastic tiger (I'll call him tiger-boy)who was trying to derail the train of another child (I'll call him train-boy). When the train-boy screeched at tiger-boy, the caregiver of the train-boy came over and scolded him for screeching, while the mother of tiger-boy calmly redirected her child without telling him not to attack other kids' toys. The boy who had been scolded abandoned the train while the kid with the tiger grabbed a second toy, a lion, and proceeded to bang them on the train cars. The reactions of both caregivers in this situation really bothered me. Both boys were engaging in play that was fun for them, but when the play of the train-boy was disrupted by what tiger-boy was doing, train-boy cried, either because he was angry or wanted help. Instead of being supported, he was 'shushed' and left the train table. I do think that tiger-boy's caregiver should have corrected her child or asked him to apologize to train-boy. I doubt train-boy understood why he was being scolded, and though he looked like he was having fun at the train table, he was no longer motivated to play there after this interaction.

Scenario 2: The Rules of Attraction

This boy (I'll call him magnet-boy) was adding and adding and adding train cars together but wasn’t pushing them. He seemed most interested that the magnets stick the cars together and kept adding as many cars as he could find from other parts of the train table. He was soon joined by another child (I'll call him tunnel-boy) and they engaged in parallel play for a while. While they both seemed somewhat interested in what the other child was doing, they were each more focused on their own explorations. Tunnel-boy put together a string of cars and pushed them toward the tunnel. Instead of pushing the cars through the tunnel, he picked up each individual car and placed it on the opposite side of the tunnel. Whether or not he understood that he could have pushed the cars through the tunnel, I don't know, but he was engrossed in his activity as he very carefully picked up each car and placed it on the opposite side of the tunnel. Both boys seem more interested in sticking the cars together than moving them. They repeated these activities again and again at different parts of the table. It was not evident which adults were the parents of these children, though the boys did not seem to know one another.

The time on task for both of these children was BY FAR the longest of any I observed that day. They both seemed to be succeeding in the tasks that they had set for themselves. They were given the space to make sense of their environment and adapt to it and appeared to be happy and engaged throughout. Ormond reminds us that "Learners are happy when they succeed. But they also have feelings of pride and satisfaction when they attribute their success to internal causes- for instance, something they themselves have done (p. 204)." Neither boy had an adult swoop in to praise or admonish, to manage or redirect their play and of all of the children I saw at the museum, these two seemed to be having the most authentic play/ learning experience.

For video of the play space, click here.

Baby and Toddler Room

This video shows the layout of the room where only children under the age of three were allowed to play.

While observing the young children and caregivers in this babies and toddlers-only designated play area, I noticed vast differences in the ways that the guardians interacted with the children. In two specific scenarios, I saw caregivers speak to their children in drastically different ways. The first interaction I observed was between a young woman and a boy (presumably her son), who was approximately 2-2 1/2 years old. The little boy was playing at the train table, while the woman watched from a close distance. Then the boy started to walk away from the table toward an area where there were no activities or playthings. The woman quickly walked after the boy, and while pointing to the climbing area, said, "Mac, would you like to go over there? Look how fun that looks!" Then she gently grabbed his hand and physically directed him toward the play area. The other interaction I observed was between an older woman and her child, although she seemed to be chaperoning a field trip along with other parents and teachers, because all of the children and teachers were wearing matching lime green t-shirts with the school's insignia. The child was sitting in a chair surrounded by other children, and they seemed to be doing some sort of pretend play. The mother was sitting on a nearby bench watching the children and the teachers were scattered about, also watching. Then the teachers directed all the children into the shaving cream area. The one little boy stayed seated and watched while the other children all went into the other room. After about a minute, his mother got up and walked over to him, saying "Come". The boy didn't move, so the mother grabbed his arm, said "Come" again and dragged him toward the shaving cream area.

The ways in which caregivers interact with their children may have a lasting impact on children's development. In a 2 1/2 year study done by Betty Hart and Todd Risley, it was shown that children raised in low-income families may hear as many as 30 million less words by the age of three than children raised in high-income families (Hart & Risley, 2003, http://www.nde.state.ne.us/read/ProfessionalDevelopment/HartRisley.pdf). Since I was just a third-party observer at the Children's Museum, I obviously have no context for the two mother's that I described above. However, these two women were markedly different in their interactions with their sons. The first mother used two sentences to explain to hear child that he should go to a different area in the museum. She first asked her son if he would like to go to another play area, and then described it as looking fun, giving her son a chance to be autonomous and make the decision for himself. Then, she gently guided him to the jungle gym area and he willingly followed. In that short moment in which a mother was coaxing her child to play the child heard thirteen words. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the other mother that I observed simply used the word "come" as a command, and then grabbed her son by the arm. The child obviously got the message, but was given no explanation or choice in the decision to go to the shaving cream area. Both mothers got the same outcome, however, the two boys had drastically different learning experiences.