Learner-Centred Learning in the Early Years

I have observed that it encourages children to develop thinking skills as well as to become aware of the ideas of others. It is a wonderful experience to watch children, as part of child-initiated learning, plan what to do and then review what they have done. Basically child-initiated learning refers to all activities that a child might do, that are not explicitly guided by a teacher. What we do through Child initiated learning is give children the opportunity to plan and develop both their play and interests. This is very different from the traditional, teacher-directed approach. Here, children can develop critical skills, concentration, and perseverance that they otherwise wouldn't. Child-initiated play is a style of play where children choose how, where, and what they wish to play with.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Handbook defines child-initiated learning in the following way:

‘A self initiated activity is an activity wholly decided on by the child and is the result of an intrinsic motivation to explore a project, or express an idea. In doing this the child may make use of a variety of resources and demonstrate a complex range of knowledge, skills and understanding.’

Child-initiated play has an important role in children's learning and development. Children explore and learn from their own thoughts and ideas. It gives children the space to be creative with what they do and drive their own exploration. As Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) settings are never empty rooms, all activities will have been set up by an adult - the difference comes in the directions given to the child. For example: Adult-led learning: a member of staff tells a child to get out art supplies and draw their favourite animal. Child-led learning: the child is given free access to different resources - the child then chooses to get out art supplies and draw whatever they want.

Make sure you set aside long chunks of time for child-initiated learning, rather than short bursts of activity. Try and plan the time so there’ll be minimal disruption, so children have time to engage on a deep level. Provide children with resources that will allow them to challenge themselves. This means giving children freedom to use your provision in their own way - for example, it can be enough to give your children access to LEGO bricks without telling them that they need to build a house from them.

There are loads of benefits of child-led learning with open-ended, real and inspirational resources. Open-ended - resources can be used in a variety of ways, limited only by the child’s imagination (e.g. recyclable materials, wooden blocks) Real - add things like real spades to the digging area, or real kettles and oven gloves to your role play kitchen (while considering health and safety)

Inspirational - resources that can enhance a particular area of provision (e.g. laminated road signs put with the toy cars). These aren’t open-ended, but can still be used imaginatively in a range of ways.