Childhood Unmuted

When you look around your centre what do you see? Do you see an environment where the children’s voices are seen and heard in every aspect of the room and the community, or do you see an environment curated by the educators in the room based on what they believe the children need?

Throughout the last 10 years in this field my mindsets and practices around children and what childcare looks like have continuously evolved as I have learnt about myself as well about the children. No educator is the exact same as we were at the beginning of our careers; growth is such an important part of our profession. These changes, along with conversations with others in our field made me realise my passion for children’s rights. Focusing on children’s voices and their right to have input on their daily lives. I am someone that loves independence and I love being able to give that to the children in my care.  

Knowing your passion is one piece of the puzzle now it’s time to build it into our practice. How do we incorporate children’s voices while fulfilling the roles and responsibilities as an educator? We are enriching the environment, creating play experiences as well as teaching and enforcing boundaries that our children need among so many other things. So how do we fit it all in while ensuring that children’s voices are at the centre of our programs?

When I think about the importance of children’s voices, I believe it all comes down to building relationships with the children in our programs. When I add children’s voice into my practice I think about how about how I would feel if everyone else was making all the choices. If I had little to no voice regarding what I could play with, where or how I could play.  I would feel like no one was listening to me, and I don’t know about you, but I would be so frustrated if that’s how everyday was structured for me.

I know that some educators face challenges in incorporating children’s voices. I wanted to reach out to see what the barriers to this practice would for them. Some expressed uncertainty regarding management supporting them, others stated that temporary staff members in the room were a barriers and others expressed that too much choice led to no boundaries. 

Another guiding principle for me in my practice is the process of learning and unlearning, if I could encourage others to unlearn at least one thing, it would be that “too much choice leads to no boundaries”.  When children have choice and are seen as collaborators with their educators it builds and strengthens their relationships. From this perspective does ensuring children’s voices are heard mean they get to do whatever they want? Absolutely not.  When children ask for something that we are unable to do because of timing, policies or licencing we should be using it as an opportunity to collaborate with them.

Collaborating with children might look like if you asked a child what they wanted to add to the snack menu and they said, “Cake every day!”. Using that time to explain that we can’t do cake everyday but maybe we could do a baking day one a week. Followed by asking them what kind of baking should we do? What fruit goes with that? It may feel like a small thing but taking the time to explain the why behind what we do to children goes a long way in establishing trust and respect with them.

When adding choice into your program, the way that I have found to be the most successful is to start small. For example, asking the children if they want to go to the playground or on a neighborhood walk, if they want to use the markers or the crayons. I have seen these small changes and how they develop over time. This leads to children knowing they have the freedom to ask for choice. In my practice the children have collaborated on snack menus, bucket lists, area enhancements, and play activities just to name a few. 

I know firsthand how challenging it can be when we make changes our practice and incorporate new ways of doing things, it can be overwhelming and exhausting! But when children have adults in their lives that value, listen and respect them it creates a special environment for not just the child but the educator too. When you cultivate an environment like this it allows trust, respect, collaboration and relationships to grow. Supporting children is what our work is all about and being able to do that while encouraging them to use their voice is something I don’t want anyone to miss out on.