Perlman – meta-cognitive language

Meta cognitive language is language that shows awareness of the other.  So any kind of conversation that speaks about the other person’s position, knowledge, understanding, feelings, reflects the speaker’s understanding of their interaction partner.  I think that at its sort of simplest form, researchers have generated lists of words that reflect that knowing understanding.  I’ve applied that in child care.  So just counted how many times does staff use meta cognitive words like when they talk to the child, do you understand, talk about knowledge, talk about feelings?  It’s a very simple, straightforward to much more complex kinds of things like trying to resolve a difference whether it’s between the child or an adult or between children working towards solutions that take both children’s perspective in to account.  So turn taking, sharing, things that in kind of the negotiation language to the extent possible are win-win.  Seeing that as the ultimate goal so that both partners can have as much of what they want as possible.   

We’re finding that people could do a lot more of it across contexts – within families certainly and also in child care programs and early childhood education settings that there’s not a whole lot of it going on and I think that’s a really good target for interventions and training.  And by interventions it could be just professional development opportunities for staff in child care programs just to sort of remind them, scaffold for them, that that’s something they should be doing with the kids they care for. 

Because it’s associated with better social outcomes.  So the kids who are good at it, who pick up earlier that other people have feelings and needs and rights, have better social interactions.  It’s true for adults too.  But I think it’s a reasonable skill to teach, not reasonable, an important skill to teach kids.