Hey McDume,
A fair enough opinion, not one I can agree with however.
If parents step in to assist (beyond spotting them for safety), then they get a false sense of security.
It is how you handle the stepping in that creates a false sense of security - not the stepping in itself.
Whenever our son got himself into a situation where he needed to be rescued we would, in slow motion, simulate ways he could get himself out of trouble while still falling, teaching him several things simultaneously 1) to bring his chin to his chest whenever he was falling 2) how to control a fall and roll out of the motion 3) to think about what he was doing.
I completely agree with you that children should learn through their natural day to day experiences, however, so many children these days simply aren't allowed to climb this or stand on that because it's dangerous or because their parents have fear themselves. One key factor (for all child safety issues) we were never far away enough from our son that he could get himself into a situation that was dangerous and beyond our control. If a young child has managed to climb up onto a swing at age when they can't handle it, the question begs to ask what were they doing out there by themselves in the first place?
My philosophy is to never put my babies in situations they can't get into, and especially out of, themselves.
This is where we differ - our philosophy is to teach him how to handle situations so that we can gradually step out and he knows and we know that he can handle the situation by himself.
It is important that children
learn how to fall before they learn how to climb. There are several advantages to doing this when they are young. Firstly they don't become stiff as they fall (something you want them to hold onto as stiffness when falling often results in far more serious injury). Secondly anything they climb is still quite close to the ground meaning you're not trying to reach over your head to control a fall (much much more difficult) and any fall will be minimal giving them the chance to practice without risk of more than a bruise and a bit of upset.
One example was teaching him how to slide off our double bed safely, always feet first, always with your chin tucked to your chest (that way if they slide too quickly and fall backwards the head does not whack into the ground) always using friction to control the speed of the slide. He had this "game" mastered by the time he 6 months landing lightly on his feet and giggling in delight. We also played drama games about what would happen if he rolled off the bed and would in slow motion simulate the fall, indicating a hard landing and pain through sound effects (all while he was safely cradled in our arms). He loved both games but not once did he roll off our bed. (We were very poor and living in a one room house at the time so he often had to be put on the bed - we had no choice but to teach him).
Over the past seventeen years I have noticed that less and less children know how to handle falling, something I have begun having to teach them in their acrobatics classes. I put this down parents over protecting their children, preventing them from learning the key skills of handling their own body at the right and natural times. Instead parents should be promoting awareness, physical competence and forethought. The ability to logically look at the dangers is very different to promoting a fear of heights or of climbing by constantly stopping them and telling them it's dangerous. If you leave a child to learn to climb when they are old enough to handle it or when they are safe - they will never learn as well as a child who develops this skill naturally and slowly and in line with everything else they are learning in the motorskill department.
Children will climb, children will fall. How they have been exposed to this in their younger years will determine how they handle it when they are older. It is our job as parents to help develop an understanding of the world, we believe we did this. Our son has great forethought, he is not scared of heights but neither is he reckless. He also happens to be a great climber.
As for teaching him to climb, the poor child had no choice (my pregnancy was awful, I lost my company we went from riches to rags in nine months) we lived in a box with everything we owned in one room he learned to climb before he could do anything else because to get from one spot to another you had to climb over things (sometimes under in his case). It would have been negligent of us not to teach him but I am very, very glad we.
I think sometimes in wanting to keep our children safe we go too far. Keeping your child safe means being with them to help them learn how to handle situations and handling them for them when needed. It doesn't mean plonking them down out in the back yard and forbidding them from climbing the slippery dip because they might fall. If your child is old enough to be any where without you by their side then they should have learned the skills the handle the area they are in.
Didn't mean to rave on so much, sorry. I think so many people forget that in nature our first job would be to teach physical survival skills (more so than talking and reading and maths) and our children are particularly tuned in to learning about these aspects of their environment and we can foster a good understanding of what really is dangerous and what can be handled with skill and whether or not they have this skill at quite a young age.
I am putting together a site with videos of my son doing such things when it is up I will post you the address so you can see the sorts of games we played and the resultant climbing skills
Digg
