Individual Interests

As Dr. Deborah Rowe points out her podcast "The Role of Interest and Agency for Written Expression Among Preschoolers," even among two-to-three-year-olds, there are four main groups into which a child's interests roughly fall:  socially oriented, procedural, creative, or conceptually oriented.  When a child is socially oriented, s/he most enjoys relating with others, and--writing-wise--ends up being the most varied because they are flexible in order to do whatever their friends are doing; drama is a particularly effective way to engage these individuals in literacy.  Procedurally oriented children like to do things the right way, and may even practice writing letters on their own, for the pure pleasure of seeing neat rows of nice lettering lining up nicely.  Creative kids discover new uses for items and procedures and are the most likely to experiment, in writing and otherwise; using pretending/roleplaying is a fun way to get them into writing.  Conceptually oriented students are those who have a burning passion for something.  You know you're working with one of these children when you can say, "Jimmy is all about dinosaurs.  He's our resident expert."  These students see mark-making as a way to record their ideas, and science inquiry is often a great way to engage them in literacy activities.

How do these distinctions help parents and teachers?  Knowing the child you're working with and figuring out what makes him/her tick, giggle, and focus is always helpful.  While all individuals engage in each of the four interest groups at some time or another, we all have preferences.  When I'm presented with something to organize, I can sometimes get a little giddy:  my brain works procedurally and loves the opportunity to sit in a corner with a knot to untie or a stack of books to shelve in a library; yet if given the choice, I'll generally choose to sit and chat with a friend or family member even over that strong draw, because even more so, I'm  socially oriented.  Given a chance to read something new and talk it over with a partner or in a small group, I'm a pretty happy camper.  But sometimes I get a little lost when I'm asked to inhabit conceptual-land...it's a place where I often feel I'm in a little over my head.  Knowing that children feel this way--and figuring out the aspects with which they're comfortable and those which make them a little uneasy--makes learning how to engage them in literacy learning a little bit easier.