What Students in Their First Year of School Need to Belong
Co-authored by Kelly-Ann Allen, Ph.D., and Cassie Hudson
A member of our research team handed a five-year-old a crayon and asked her to draw what makes her feel like she belongs at school. She drew herself surrounded by Lego blocks. "I feel like I belong to school when I am playing Lego," she wrote.
This wasn't what we expected in our latest study. After analyzing drawings and conversations with 108 children in their first year of school across Melbourne, our research team discovered something important. Children know exactly what makes them feel like they belong, and it does not always involve other people.
The friendships and teachers were, of course, really important, but we perhaps were not prepared for how important other factors were.
Sixty-one percent of children drew themselves playing. Nearly half of these drawings showed children playing alone. Not lonely. Not isolated. Purposefully engaged with familiar objects that created their sense of security.
One boy filled his entire page with Lego pieces, drawing himself as a faceless figure with wiggly arms reaching for........
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