Self-Advocacy in Early Years

When actions speak louder than words, children express conversations through gestures and smiles. Fides, being an understanding and caring friend, offers Nora one of two Marigold flowers he has collected. He extends his hand and Nora responds in reciprocity.

It seems both of you are having fun and enjoying a lighthearted interaction - it's a wonderful way to strengthen your relationship. An important part of communication takes place when we learn to focus on a person and an object at the same time. 

Through our daily conversation we learn and practice on ways to voice our opinions. We pose questions related to our points of interests. At this time, we ask this question when we offer something that can be a home for a snail, "Do we think the snail will like this house?". The more we understand that we do not have to think, feel, and like the exact same things as others, the more open we will be to express our honest opinion.

We learn to support our opinions by sharing our thinking behind our choices. This idea of supporting a viewpoint helps us assess the opinions of others and decide which opinions or information we will absorb while forming our own ideas. 

We may be reluctant to share our thoughts and views unless we are encouraged and positively supported when we do. When we express our opinions or disagree, we learn that it is important to listen as well as verbally assert ourselves. 

Elie exhibits her self-advocacy as an ability to speak up on her behalf effectively. In this sense, self-advocacy requires that we first understand ourselves in connection to the context. 

Self-advocacy also requires the ability to communicate our values, our understanding, and our rights. The concept of self-awareness is foundational to our advocacy skills. It gives us understanding of self and being able to tune in to what feels natural and comfortable. 

We attempt to make connections between our understanding of our love for mothers and our awareness of some possible challenging real-life situations. We pose a questions such as - 

• "If we could have choices, how about our Mom?" 
• "Can Mom choose not cook when she is tired?"​

By having these role-playing difficult situations can give us strategies that are empowering. It provides us understanding that we can apply whenever a situation arises.

As we progress we articulate our growing understanding. More importantly, some physical learning experiences promote our overall self-esteem by bringing attention to our strengths and can also help to encourage the formation of a growth mindset by thinking of ways to overcome situations that are more challenging. 

After we are more aware of our needs, we may take the lead in choosing our objectives. "Letting the child determine what to work on first is an important step in their willingness to tolerate the anxiety self-advocating will undoubtedly trigger" (Singer & Mogensen, 2021). 

Wishing all mothers a Happy Mother's Day!! 

​Kindest,
Children & Friends.