(この投稿の日本語はこちら)
I just got back last night from APDEC 2016 in Taiwan. I’m pretty tired but I want to get some initial thoughts down – hopefully I’ll write more about these topics in the coming weeks (once I recover).
About childhood:
- Play is really, really, really important for children’s development. It’s important for cognitive learning, and also equally important for emotional health (Peter Gray).
- Children spending time away from their parents is really important, and they cope with it very well – they’re not nearly as dependent on us as we (like to?) think they are (Henry Readhead).
- Children need other children to play with – there’s nothing wrong with also playing with adults, but playing with other children is vital.
- Play is also vital for adults – ideally you’ll experience your work as play .
- Parents need help to be the best parents they can be – without training they’ll tend to copy their own parents.
- Educators, parents, and children (and indeed, probably everybody in the world) would all do well to learn Non-Violent Communication. This is something I feel I might be able to help people learn, though I also need to learn a lot more about it too.