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Parents\u27 Interests and Abilities as Sources of Young Children\u27s Everyday Learning Opportunities
Full text linkFindings from a national survey of parents’ strengths (personal interests and individual abilities) and how interests and abilities were used as sources of young children’s everyday learning opportunities are reported. The participants were 368 parents of young children birth to 6 years of age residing in 49 of the 50 United States. Participants were asked to indicate if any of 70 everyday activities were personal interests or individual abilities, if their youngest children were routinely involved in the activities, and if involved, if their children learned new behavior or skills. Data analysis was guided by a transactional, participation-based paradigm where children’s everyday learning was examined in terms of parent strengths as sources of child learning opportunities. Results showed that interests and abilities were highly individualized and that the parents’ children were involved in about 80% of the activities and that between 70% and 80% of the children learned new behavior or skills. The pattern of results is consistent with a positive psychology perspective of human strengths and efforts to engage in positive experiences and events. Implications for practice are described.
Keywords: family strengths, personal interests, individual abilities, child participation, child learning, positive psychology
Author Biography
Carl J. Dunst, Ph.D., is Senior Research Scientist, Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, Asheville, North Carolina ([email protected]). His research and practice includes the use of social and family systems theory for investigating the child, parent, family, and environmental factors that contribute to and promote health child and parent functioning, support and strengthen family functioning, and how knowledge of these factors can be used to improve early childhood intervention practices for young children with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for social environmental reasons. This has included the study of how ordinary, everyday life includes experiences having development-instigating and development-enhancing characteristics and consequences