Scaffolding is a term first used by Bruner, a psychologist in the 1950’s, to describe how parents help children to learn. Scaffolding is about providing support to your child so that they can achieve and learn something new to them and bridge their understanding. In order to fully understand scaffolding, it is important that you understand the zone of proximal development.
The zone of proximal development is a term coined by Vygotsky in 1978, also a psychologist, to describe the area between what your child already knows and what your child does not yet know, but almost knows. Understanding what your child does know and what they do not yet know provides us with useful information to find the next step of discovery for them and how we can support them in that discovery.
Once your establish this on going learning curve, you provide your child with as little scaffolding as possible to help them succeed on their own, with out over compensating for them. It is important that your child feels competent at what they are doing with the level of scaffolding you provide them; we don’t want your child to be over compensated but we also don’t want them to shut down and feel failure, particularly if their resilience is low.
Problem solving plays a big role in your child making the cognitive process towards their discovery. The mental processes that are supported through borrowing the guides thought processes learn to develop effectively on their own with less and less support. Physical guidance and scaffolding also contribute to a child being able to reach their discovery.
A common example I like to use is when a child is just learning to take their first steps, we tend to know when it is right for them and when they are ready (we wouldn’t start before crawling) and then we tend to provide them with the tiny bit of support that they need to get them where they want to go (typically child grasping onto index fingers as they move forward), but so that they are still doing the majority of the work (we wouldn’t do it all for them).
So here are some techniques and tips that help to scaffold your child toward their discovery;
1 – Frame/ plan your activities well so that you know what the big discovery will be.
2 – Think about your zone of physical connection i.e. the distance between you in order to help the child succeed with as little help as possible.
3 – Think about how your verbal and non verbal communication will play a role in supporting your child so that you do not over compensate and instead scaffold just enough for the child to succeed.
4 – Think about your planning and timing in order to allow your child to succeed in the time that they need.
5 – Consider the role that you are expecting your child to fulfil, is it reasonable? Will it benefit them? What will they learn from this interaction?
Next time you have a goal in mind for your child, consider these two things;
1 – Is this goal within my child’s zone of proximal development?
2 – How will I scaffold my child to make this discovery as much as possible on their own?