Children learn through conflict

Children learn a range of skills through arguing, according to new research from the University of Melbourne.

When children argue with other children they are learning to navigate social relationships and developing more complex language skills.

A study from the University’s Graduate School of Education reveals, in many instances, children will benefit from being allowed to resolve the conflict by themselves, and adults need to learn more about when it is appropriate to intervene.

Conflict forces children to pay close attention to the language they use and employ strategies to reach a resolution. The study found that, similar to adult conflict, a successful resolution is only reached in children’s conflicts when a justification for the argument is offered.

Author Dr Amelia Church believes adults need to understand conflicts provide children with an important opportunity to learn valuable social skills. "As adults, we have a tendency to avoid conflict and we often project that onto our children. However, viewing verbal conflict as something best avoided and to be ended as quickly as possible fails to acknowledge the important skills it teaches children, such as negotiation and constructing a reasoned argument.

"We also tend to suggest resolutions to children’s arguments which we would use ourselves. Children, however, do not necessarily negotiate social relationships as adults would. We need to understand more about this process of negotiation among children, so we can learn when to intervene, and how, and when to leave children to their own devices. In turn, this will help us to better support children’s development into healthy, successful young people."

The next steps in Dr Church’s research will investigate what strategies early childhood teachers use to support children’s management of disputes and how effective these are in promoting co-operative interaction between children.

(Source: Universitiy of Melbourne: November 2009)