
EP 68 | What If We Scaffolded Behaviour Like We Scaffold Learning?
The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood PodcastShow Notes
What if we scaffolded children’s behaviour in the same way we already scaffold every other area of their learning?
As educators, we understand that knowing how to do something and being able to do it independently aren’t necessarily the same thing but, when it comes to behaviour, we can forget this pretty quickly. In this episode, I’m taking Vygotsky’s ideas around scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development and applying them to behaviour, so we can think differently about the support children might need to meet our expectations.
You’ll hear: ✨ How the Zone of Proximal Development can help us understand what children can do independently, with support, and what might currently sit outside their capacity ✨ Why scaffolding behaviour doesn’t automatically mean lowering our expectations ✨ How co-regulation, behavioural momentum, playfulness and boundaries can scaffold children towards the behaviour we’re asking for ✨ Why the same expectation can require completely different levels of support for different children (and even for the same child on different days)
Behaviour deserves the same developmental lens we already bring to learning, and sometimes the most useful thing we can do is stop repeating the expectation and ask what support might help this child actually get there.
Doors to The Behaviour Reset are OPEN! If you want to be able to understand the behaviour you're seeing, decide how to respond, and adapt your approach when things don't go to plan - without constantly questioning whether you're doing behaviour "right" - click here to join us! Doors close on October 22.
More from The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood Podcast
Are we expecting too much from children, or have we become a little too attached to what they should be able to do?
When did praising children become so dang controversial?!
Why can we have hundreds of behaviour strategies at our fingertips and still find ourselves wondering what the heck to actually do when behaviour gets hard?
How do we hold boundaries without becoming harsh - and stay responsive without feeling like we have to let everything go?
Why can a child cope beautifully in one environment yet really struggle in another?