The zone of the closest development: or how to properly build a child's independence

Many parents wonder what to do when they find their child lacking courage. They reflect on the causes by asking why the child is shy? Or, why is my child in a new place using some competencies that he or she does not show in a familiar home environment? Often, in the period of adaptation to a new stage, which is going to a specific educational institution, it turns out that a shy child in kindergarten becomes a problem for the whole family. In the article below, we will focus on the role of the parent in enhancing the child's social and emotional competences.

A new stage: the adaptation period 

At times such as the adaptation period, parents undertake tasks to change their child's behavior. Anxiety or fear are emotions that cause a child to show symptoms of shyness. That is why parents try to protect the child from them.

It is true that we cannot completely get rid of these emotions, and it would even be a disadvantage. However, it is worth knowing what to do when we have a shy child. How to help when we are worried that the emotions we are experiencing do not support its development. Regardless of whether we are talking about learning activities or emotional skills. It is important to look at your child observation method and learn about the correct ways in which we can accompany your child in learning to be independent and in dealing with different experiences.

The concept of Lev Vygotsky

According to many developmental psychologists, the skills a child learns have their origins in being taught by adults. It was assumed that before the child would be able to independently perform a given task, the child would have to perform it several times, first together with an adult. The parent's task will be to familiarize the child with a given activity, e.g. before learning to read, the parent encourages the child to first look at the books, then hold them properly, by reading letters and words in them.

This concept is commonly known as the zone of the closest development of Lev Vygotsky.

According to the author, the child's skills can be divided into two levels: 

• current development zone
• and the zone of immediate development.

The first concerns tasks that a child can and is able to perform alone, for which an adult's help is not required. According to Vygotsky, in the sphere of current development, we are not dealing with learning new skills, but only with their improvement. It is only in the sphere of immediate development that a child learns new things with the help of a parent. This is where parental help becomes effective. Rudolf Schaffer points out, however, that the parent's help must be appropriate. What does it mean when parental help is "appropriate"? We will consider this later in the article.

The overprotective parent and its advantages and disadvantages

Based on Vygotsky's theory, we can conclude that a child will learn more with the 'proper' help of a parent than without it. Searching for an answer to the question of how to help a child make this help - not too big and not too small - is very difficult. First, let's focus on negative attitudeswhich certainly do not support the child's independence, and with a high degree of probability may be the reason why the child is shy.

The second part of this phenomenon may be an attitude of passivity, when parents offer insufficient help for a child to cope with a task. Due to the fact that the parents do not express their attitude about how to approach the task, they do not model how the task should be done. In this way, the child will not learn that a specific task should have a given pattern of behavior. And if the child fails to approach the task at all, the parent gives him a message that he has failed to complete the task or that the way it is done is at a very low level.

What can they learn deagles folding a toy?

So what is the meaning of help that is supportive? Consider Wood's research in which parents of preschoolers taught their children to assemble toys. It was too difficult a task for the children to do on their own. Therefore, parents were faced with a dilemma: how to help the child not to do the task for him, but also not to leave him or her without help, because then the task would become impossible to complete.

Wood, while watching the parents support their children during the assignment, discovered that the lowest effectiveness was guaranteed by presenting the toy to the child or only by providing verbal instructions during the child's independent work. As a consequence, these children have not learned to assemble the toy on their own. Wood observed that the so-called conditional aid was the most effective. Back then, when the parents checked what the child could do on their own and helped them reach the next stage of the task, when the child communicated their difficulty.

Wood's research allowed to discover the dependence of the parent's help on the degree of difficulty shown by the child. Help was effective when the parents praised the child, and they were attentive when the child was coping with the task. On the other hand, when the toddler informed them that he needed the help of a guardian at a given moment, the parents showed the child a lot of support.

Different faces of shyness in a child

In the article, we tried to explain why certain behaviors of adults may be difficult for children or affect the child's perception of their competences as being of low effectiveness, which does not encourage them to build independence.

Parents should not hesitate to consult a specialist in the causes of their child's behavior, because the discovery of developmental difficulties too late slows down and hinders the subsequent therapy process.

Źródła:

Schaffer HR (2006). Social development, childhood and youth. Trans. M. Białecka - Pikul, K. Sikora. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Publishing House;
Wood D. (2006). How children learn and think. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Publishing House.