by Alix Tonsgard
Does your child have a favorite story that you now know by heart because they want to hear it read to them time and time again? Or maybe it’s a favorite game or toy. These requests are not to try our patience. Early experiences are incredibly valuable for a child and actually serve a developmental purpose. As a matter of fact, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child at Harvard University tells us that early experiences can have a profound influence on a child’s brain architecture. In addition, repeating experiences or doing the same activities over and over can build a foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.
Repeated play, learning, and exploration experiences can support the growing brain by:
•Helping to stimulate flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness
•Building confidence on familiar knowledge by allowing children to constantly reexamine understandings about their world
•Engaging children in a learning process that includes making plans and carrying them out, reasoning and problem-solving, as well as interacting with others
• Challenging children to construct new understandings based on new information
•Providing a place where children can demonstrate understanding of skills and concepts
•Offering opportunity to observe and participate in the perspective of others
•Supporting intrinsic motivation to learn through a hands-on and interactive environment.
Repeat experiences are an important part of constructivist learning theory – the foundation of which DuPage Children’s Museum is built upon. We are very intentional in designing exhibits that support growth and development through repeated interactions. As a child grows and develops, the ways that they will engage with our exhibits will change, and as a result the things that they will learn change. What is something you have seen your child interact with differently as they have grown? Does your family have a lifetime favorite exhibit at the Museum? Share your stories on the Museum’s Facebook page: facebook.com/DCMFanPage.
Alix Tonsgard is an early learning specialist at the DuPage Children’s Museum.
