Mind in the Making: Fostering Perspective Taking

Over the past twenty years, I have had many different roles working with children and families.  I have been a toddler teacher, a parent and teacher educator, worked in family literacy and child care center programs and traveled to hundreds of child care centers for what used to be called the Office of Child Care Policy. Currently, I work in collaboration with a number of early learning programs to prepare future infant-toddler, preschool and early primary teachers in college courses which include many observations, practicums and internships.

When I read Ellen Galinsky’s second chapter about the importance of facilitating the learning of the second life skill, perspective taking, I couldn’t help but think of the “intersection activity” I learned from my colleague, Barbara Yasui, Shoreline Community College Parent Education, and the Early R.E.A.C.H. program (Respecting Ethnic and Cultural Heritage). In this activity, participants are assigned different roles and asked to imagine they are witnesses to a car accident from several different vantage points or roads coming out of an intersection. The ensuing discussion highlights the very different ways we all see the same event. This exercise is then used as a metaphor for recognizing the need to respect cultural perspectives and other aspects of our diverse stations. Chapter Two of Mind in the Making helped remind me that before we can teach young children about perspective taking, we need to remember to sometimes put our own ideas aside in order to better understand the values and points of view of the families who give us their children to care and educate.

Ellen Galinsky helps readers see that perspective taking is also a skill needed for success in the social, emotional and intellectual areas of both school and life.  She details brain research by Amanda Woodward that shows the complexities of how babies develop “people sense.” By as early as five months, babies will look longer at novel events and will notice when a caregiver is acting toward a new goal such as reaching for new objects (79). In addition, they are beginning to have a rudimentary sense of the perspectives of their caregivers - their goals, intentions, feelings and likes/dislikes (80).

When I am out observing my students in their program placements, I am most impressed by teachers who help adults understand that they need to support and expand on the interests of the young child through responsive interactions. In my infant-toddler practicum and seminar, my students learn to become a “dance partner” rather than a director of learning with the youngest children. Galinsky encourages us to watch for “the dance” and celebrate when children increase their skills of interdependence with others. As teachers, we may notice the “I did it!” moments of the young child, but an equal focus on the “We did it together!” moments is also central to learning how to interact and understand others.

A beautiful outcome of facilitating the gradual development of perspective taking is cognitive or intellectual growth.  When we focus on the process of learning, especially when children take on different roles in play, rather than just on the recall of facts, we provide young children with opportunities to strengthen their:

• Inhibitory Control – taking on another’s views requires we stop thinking only from our point of view,
• Cognitive Flexibility – seeing something in different ways, and
• Reflection – pondering both our thinking and that of others.

These are the ABC’s of perspective taking, which is an essential skill for children. After reading Galinsky’s book, I am reminded of how this skill is related to supporting a strong identity, which is facilitated by early childhood educators who work with children and families.  Perspective taking helps children become more aware of themselves and others, to notice what is fair and unfair, and gives them the confidence to create a classroom community that is a safe and nurturing place that allows for many ways of seeing the world!

The goal of this learning community is to discuss and engage with each other about this topic. What do you do that supports the development of perspective taking in young children?

Blog post written by:  Marilyn Chu, EdD
Early Childhood Teacher Educator,

Western Washington University

Mind in the Making: An Introduction

This book, written by Ellen Galinsky, a former NAEYC President, has had a greater impact on my professional thinking than any book I have read in a long time. The cover of this book gives a hint of what is to come.  It is a simple picture:  a stack of seven colored marshmallows, with the title written across the picture.

Have you heard of the “marshmallow test?”  This was a research experiment originally conducted in the late 1960’s at Stanford University by Dr. Walter Mischel, and it continues to be replicated today.  A researcher takes a child in a bare room with just a table and two chairs.  On the table is a plate with one large marshmallow.  The researcher tells the child that she could either eat the one marshmallow now, or if she is willing to wait for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he comes back.  Obviously, the researcher is looking at whether the child can delay gratification, a component of self-control.  In the original study, researchers followed the children into their adulthood and discovered that the ability to wait at four years of age is really quite predictive of success in college and in life.

On this book cover, each marshmallow represents one of the seven essential life skills every child needs.  Galinsky believes that these skills are needed for success, not only in school, but also in life; that they are developing in very young children; that they can be taught in simple ways by parents and teachers; and that it is never too late to teach people these skills. The essential skills are:

• Focus and self-control
• Perspective taking
• Communicating
• Making connections
• Critical thinking
• Taking on challenges
• Self-directed, engaged learning

The book is composed of one chapter on each of these skills. The chapters have a standard format: discussion of recent research on the skill, including relevant brain research; and then a variety of simple and practical strategies to teach that skill.

What I especially appreciate about this book is how simply it is written.  For example, in the first chapter on focus and self-control, Galinsky discusses “executive functions” of the brain.  I have read about executive functions in several sources, but I never came away with a solid understanding of what it really meant.  After reading this book, however, I do have that understanding:  it is simply the ability to use the knowledge and skills you have to accomplish goals.  I have often told parents and teachers, “It’s not what you know that’s important, it’s what you do with what you know that’s important.”  Little did I know that I was talking about executive function!

Chapter 1 also discusses the components of focus and self-control.  So often in teaching, we identify that a child has an issue with self-control, but we aren’t able to pinpoint it further than that.  This book gives us a place to start:  to pinpoint the specific component that is problematic, and then focus on teaching that component skill.

I had a large “aha” moment when I finished reading this book, particularly after reading the chapter on self-directed, engaged learning.  (Maybe it wasn’t as much an “aha” moment as it was an affirmation of my beliefs in a well-articulated manner.)  I work for a large, diverse, urban school district, and so much focus is being given to improving the quality of teaching the content of the curriculum to decrease the achievement gap and the drop-out rate.  What I can articulate more clearly after reading this book is that it is not just the lack of knowledge and the ability to read and do math that is hurting our kids – it is also the lack of these seven essential skills, which are all essential for self-directed, engaged learning for life.

The challenge I’m left with – and the challenge I issue to all of you who read this book – is how we can use this information with parents, with other teachers, and with school personnel to make a difference in educational outcomes, so that kids leaving high school have not only the academic knowledge they need to be happy and productive citizens, but also these seven essential life skills.  Only then will we truly be producing life-long learners.

Blog post written by:  Leslie Meisner

Head Start/ ECEAP Director, Tacoma Public Schools

Former WAEYC President