9 Ways to Maximize Development of Social Awareness
At our girls-only and boys-only summer camps in the Midwest, we model and emphasize ways for our campers to maximize the development of social awareness. A recent article by Katie Duper has some great ideas on how to raise a child to develop social awareness. Bullets below, with the whole article at this link.
Developing Social Awareness
- Address privilege — and do it early.
- Talk to your child about how these differences often make things more difficult for certain groups of people and continue to talk about privilege when real-life examples come up.
- Make sure your child has diverse choices when it comes to toys, books, and TV.
- Make sure the things your child is playing with and learning from represent a spectrum of identities. If your child engages with materials that don’t promote the values you stand behind, take the opportunity to question, critique, and reflect on what they represent.
- Use childhood curiosity to facilitate teachable moments.
- When a child asks a question about the difference in public (e.g., “Why is that person in a wheelchair?”), instead of shushing them in an attempt to diffuse the situation (and perhaps leave the other person feeling as if you’re unwilling to teach your child about diversity), address your child’s curiosity in a sensitive way, at the moment. Not only does this help your child learn, but it also shows that you are a strong ally to other communities, willing to teach and advocate even in awkward situations.
- Let your child have a voice — and listen.
- Don’t let the power differential between parent and child get in the way of listening and learning about your child’s perspective.
- Talk to your kids about current events in an approachable way.
- When current events highlight injustice, turn it into an open, honest conversation. It’s helpful to know what your child is feeling and to ease concerns while still highlighting the issue at hand.
- Fill in the gaps left by what isn’t taught in schools.
- Pay attention to what your child is learning — and not learning — in school. Make time for lessons about heroes of color, LGBT activists, and indigenous populations — and that’s just a start.
- Engage in service and volunteerism.
- See which organizations in your area need extra love, but have your child pick what to do. Make your child aware of why the inequalities you’re addressing exist, in order to promote actual social understanding.
- When you see something, say something.
- When you notice something, acknowledge it and explain why it’s a problem. Model the values you want your child to embody.
- If you don’t know what to say, own up to it.
- It teaches the valuable lesson that it’s okay not to know everything, while also stressing the importance of educating yourself.