Educaring^® Principle: Time for Uninterrupted Play

“One of the most important RIE principles is the idea of giving children time for uninterrupted play. We all have this very well-meaning desire to be as helpful to infants as we possibly can, but if we help too much, then they don’t get the joy and excitement of discovery. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was famous for saying, “whenever you teach a child something, you forever destroy her opportunity to discover it for herself.” So we want them to have those moments of, “I did this! I discovered this!” It’s out there, and giving them lots of time to fiddle around and kind of be doing nothing, from an adult point of view. You may think they’re doing nothing, but they’re having an internal experience possibly? They may be following a train of thought that we don’t have any idea what it is they’re considering, but they do think about what they’re doing while they’re doing it, even though they can’t talk necessarily. And if we interrupt, we may be interfering with some important concept that they’re working through. Just imagine if you were writing an email to a work colleague and you were trying to word it just right, and somebody came up and just started talking to you at random while you were really thinking, what word is the best word to use here? It would be an intrusion, right? You would not appreciate that, and it’s okay to talk to babies when they’re playing. If they look at you and ask for a comment, that’s one thing, but to interrupt without an invitation is not the same. So observing them while they play and letting them know how much we value what they’re doing by allowing them to do it in a peaceful, unhurried way, that’s how we can really help them.”

Ruth Anne Hammond, RIE Associate