The Waldon Approach: A Two Day Workshop

ČAS: 11. 10. 2025 in 12. 10. 2025
LOKACIJA: M HOTEL, Ljubljana

CENA: 280 €

Udeleženci prejmejo potrdilo o prisotnosti na 16 urnem izobraževanju.

Pred približno tridesetimi leti je Ana Filipič Dolničar prosila Katrin Stroh, da predstavi funkcionalno učenje v Sloveniji. Skupaj s svojimi sodelavkami Barbaro Somen, Neno Vovk in Slavico Leneck so se trudile, pogosto v nasprotju z izobraževalno politiko tistega časa, da bi v različnih institucijah uveljavile funkcionalno učenje in kasneje prevedle knjigo Every Child Can Learn avtorjev Katrin Stroh, Thelme Robinson in Alana Proctorja (Sage, 2008) v slovenščino.

Letos sem povabila Jane Blatt in Marilyn Crook, da v Sloveniji izvedeta dvodnevno delavnico o funkcionalnem učenju in Waldon pristopu. V zadnjih letih je Jane funkcionalno učenje približala teoriji in praksi dr. Waldona. Z Marilyn bosta prispevali k dopolnjevanju ter nadaljevanju dela na področju funkcionalnega učenja z nami oktobra 2025.

Dvodnevna delavnica je namenjena staršem, učiteljem, delovnim terapevtom, psihologom in drugim strokovnjakom, ki delajo z otroki, ki potrebujejo dodatno pomoč pri učenju. Jane in Marilyn sta obe voditeljici Waldonovega pristopom k učenju. Pokazali bosta, kako zgodnje učenje mladih otrok temelji na njihovih zgodnjih gibanjih in igrah na načine, ki se morda slišijo nekoliko drugačni, vendar bodo dopolnili vašo prakso!

Delavnica bo izvedena v manjši skupini približno 20 ljudi, da bodo razprave in praktične aktivnosti lahko potekale čim bolj tekoče. Izvajala se bo v angleščini.

Spodaj so zapiski, ki sta jih za delavnico pripravili Jane in Marilyn:

1. DAN

Imeli bomo splošno razpravo o vašem delu z otroki in o tem, ali ste seznanjeni z Waldonovim pristopom. Zanima nas okolje, v katerem delate – ali delate v šoli, zasebno ali z lastnim otrokom in družinami doma.

Predstavili bomo Geoffreyja Waldona in njegovo delo v Manchestru v Angliji pred 50 leti. Nekateri ste morda slišali o njegovem izobraževalnem pristopu prek Tjašine spletne strani in prej skozi delo Katrin Stroh, ki je pred 30 leti predstavila Funkcionalno učenje (temelječe na Waldonovem pristopu) kolegom v Sloveniji. Pojasnili bomo, da Waldonova teorija temelji na opazovanju dojenčkov in majhnih otrok med igro ter da njegova praksa izhaja iz teh opazovanj. Naše delo je usmerjeno v spodbujanje večjega vključevanja, neodvisnosti in čustvene odpornosti pri otrocih, ki imajo težave z učenjem.

Pogledali bomo videoposnetke dojenčkov med njihovim gibanjem in igro ter raziskali, kako se lahko naučimo novih načinov opazovanja in razumevanja dogajanja. Uporabili bomo 'Košaro zakladov' za dojenčke, ki že lahko sedijo, da prikažemo, kako predmete pobirajo, spuščajo in dajejo v usta, ko raziskujejo svoj bližnji prostor.

Predstavili bomo osrednjo idejo Waldonovega pristopa – »splošno razumevanje«, ki ga otroci običajno pridobijo v prvih treh letih življenja in ki tvori temelj vsega kasnejšega »kulturnega razumevanja«.

Otroci, ki potrebujejo podporo pri učenju, pogosto doživljajo igro – učenje skozi delovanje – kot zelo zahtevno. Dr. Waldon je uvedel Asocialno lekcijo, da bi zmanjšal otrokovo tesnobo z zagotavljanjem dejavnosti, ki se osredotočajo na gibanja z visoko stopnjo napora in nizkimi zahtevami glede razumevanja.

Prva praktična naloga na naši delavnici bo dejavnost, ki jo imenujemo ‘Pobiranje in nameščanje’. Ta ponazarja gibanja, ki jih spodbujamo pri otrocih in ki so osnova njihovega splošnega razumevanja. Sledila bo razprava, v kateri bomo obravnavali, kako so na nas ta gibanja fizično in čustveno vplivala, kako bi jih lahko dodatno prilagodili, zakaj smo sedeli, ter kako velikost mize ali višina stola vplivata na naša gibanja.

2. DAN
Predstavili bomo Waldonovo »Tabelo učnih vzorcev« (Patterns of Learning Chart) ter ponovno poudarili vlogo splošnega razumevanja, ki se izrazi v orodjih za »učenje-kako-se-učiti« (Learning-How-to-Learn Tools).

Ponovno se bomo posvetili asocialni učni uri in vprašanju, zakaj se nekatere osebe ne strinjajo z odsotnostjo »socialne« interakcije v času učenja. Razjasnili bomo, kako te dejavnosti spodbujajo razvoj Splošnega razumevanja.

Vrnili se bomo k dejavnosti »Pobiranje in nameščanje« iz prvega dne in jo povezali s tabelo učnih vzorcev.

Raziskali bomo, kakšen namen in funkcijo imajo otrokova obrambna vedenja ter kako ta vplivajo na nas kot izvajalce. Govorili bomo o tem, kako se soočamo z izzivi in kako lahko razumevanje lastnih občutkov ter spreminjanje določenih pričakovanj spodbuja otrokovo učenje.

Pogovorili se bomo o tem, zakaj v asocialni učni uri omejujemo rabo jezika in zakaj v vsakdanjem življenju zmanjšujemo govorjenje. Razmišljali bomo tudi o tem, kako ta način predstavimo staršem in drugim strokovnjakom.

Druga praktična dejavnost bo v znamenju »tolčenja in praskanja« (Banging and Scraping) ter zgodnje uporabe ročnih orodij, s katerimi ponazorimo grabljenje (Raking). Zastavili si bomo vprašanja: zakaj uporabljamo izmenično levo in desno roko in v vsako dejavnost vnašamo tako veliko sprememb; kako in zakaj povečujemo prostorsko zavedanje; zakaj spodbujamo uporabo preprostih ročnih orodij; ter kako in zakaj spodbujamo preusmerjanje pozornosti.

Predviden bo čas za vprašanja, ki se nanašajo na težave doma, denimo pri hranjenju ali uporabi stranišča, in o tem, kako z Waldonovimi načeli pomagati pri spremembah, ki se tičejo celotne družine.

Ta delavnica bo za nekatere nova izkušnja, za druge pa nadaljevanje že znanega. Čar Waldonovega pristopa in Funkcionalnega učenja je v tem, da vsi – bodisi kot učitelji, starši ali izvajalci – razvijamo lastna orodja za »učenje-kako-se-učiti« ter tako še naprej podpiramo otroke v njihovem učenju!

Jane in Marilyn, januar 2025

Morda vas zanima dodatno gradivo na Waldonovi spletni strani, med drugim članek
Understanding Understanding: waldon-associates-understan#3A7    in
The Waldon Approach to Education: waldon-associates-the-waldo#3AA

Priporočamo tudi knjigo
Every Child Can Learn avtorice Jane Blatt (druga izdaja izvirnega dela, ki so ga napisali Katrin Stroh, Thelma Robinson in Alan Proctor), izdano na Amazonu leta 2021.

 

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ENG version

Around thirty years ago Ana Filipic Dolnicar asked Katrin Stroh to help introduce Functional Learning to Slovenia. With her colleagues Barbara Somen, Nena Vovk and Slavica Leneck, they worked tirelessly, often against the educational policy of the time, to establish Functional Learning in various institutions and later to translate Every Child Can Learn by Katrin Stroh, Thelma Robinson and Alan Proctor (Sage, 2008) into Slovenian.

This year, I have invited Jane Blatt and Marilyn Crook to come to Slovenia and run a two day Workshop on Functional Learning and the Waldon Approach. In recent years Jane has brought Functional Learning closer to the theory and practice of Dr Waldon and she and Marilyn are excited to contribute to and complement any ongoing Functional Learning work with us in October 2025.

Two day Workshop will be conducted for parents, teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists and other professionals who work with children who need extra help with their learning. Jane and Marilyn are both facilitators working with the Waldon Approach to Learning. They will show how young children’s early learning is based on their early movements and early play in ways that might sound different but should complement your practice!

This Workshop will be for a smallish group of around 20 people, so that discussion and practic

Here are some notes Jane and Marilyn have made for their Workshop:

DAY 1 

We will have a general discussion on your work with children and whether you are familiar with the Waldon Approach. We are interested in the settings you work in, whether in school, privately or with your child and families at home.

There will be an introduction to Geoffrey Waldon and his work in Manchester, England 50 years ago. Some of you will have heard about his Educational Approach through Tsaja’s website and earlier through the work of Katrin Stroh when she introduced Functional Learning (based on the Waldon Approach) to colleagues in Slovenia 30 years ago. We will explain that Waldon’s Theory is based on the observation of babies and young children at play and that his Practice grows out of these observations. Our work aims to promote more engagement, independence and emotional resilience in children who have difficulties in learning.

We will look at videos of babies as they move and play and see how we can learn new ways of observing and understanding what’s happening. We will use the ‘Treasure Basket’ for babies who can sit up to show how objects can be picked up, dropped, mouthed as the baby explores their near space.

We will introduce the core idea of Waldon – “General Understanding” which children normally acquire within the first three years of their life and which forms the foundation of all later “Cultural Understanding”. 

Children who need support for their learning often find play -learning through doing – very challenging. Dr Waldon introduced the Asocial Lesson to reduce anxiety for the child by providing activities that focus on movements with high demand on effort and low demand on understanding.

The first practical work in our Workshop will be an activity we call ‘Picking Up and Putting In’. This illustrates the movements we encourage the children to use that underpin their General Understanding. There will be a follow up discussion including how the movements made us feel, how we might vary them further, why we were sitting, how the size of the table, or height of the chair impacts on our movements.

 

DAY 2 

We will introduce Waldon’s Patterns of Learning Chart and recap on General Understanding which culminates in the Learning-How-to-Learn Tools.

We’ll return to the Asocial Lesson and why the idea of no ‘social’ interaction within the lesson is sometimes considered controversial. We’ll discuss how all the activities should support the development of General Understanding.

It will be interesting for us all to return to the ‘Picking Up and Putting In’ activity of Day 1 and refer back to the chart.

We’ll take a look at our children’s defensive behaviours and their purpose and function - and how they affect us, as facilitators, and how we manage our responses to challenging situations. Understanding our own feelings and changing some of our expectations will most certainly help our child’s learning.

So, for example, we need to be clear, not only why we limit language within the Lesson, or reduce talking in everyday life, but how we model this behaviour to parents and other professionals.

The second practical activity will be centred around ‘Banging and Scraping’ and the early use of handheld tools to illustrate ‘Raking’. Can we now consider some of these questions: Why do we use alternate hands and create so much variation within every activity; why and how do we increase spatial awareness; why do we encourage the use of simple handheld tools and how and why do we encourage switching of attention?

There will be time to discuss questions you may have which focus on issues at home including feeding and toileting and how we use Waldon principles to support the changes needed for the whole family.

This Workshop may be a new experience for some of you. For others it will be more familiar. The joy of the Waldon Approach and Functional Learning is that we all work, whether as teachers or parents or facilitators, to acquire our own Learning-How-to-Learn Tools needed to continue the job of supporting our children to learn!

Jane and Marilyn January 2025

You may be interested in reading material on the Waldon Website including the paper Understanding Understanding: waldon-associates-understan#3A7  

and The Waldon Approach to Education: waldon-associates-the-waldo#3AA

Also, “Every Child Can Learn” by Jane Blatt (second edition of original book written by Katrin Stroh, Thelma Robinson and Alan Proctor) published on Amazon 2021.