Photo: Matheus Gomes
With the aim of promoting knowledge combined with effective and interdisciplinary proposals of social impact in childhood, the Childhood Laboratory (LabInf) was created in 2021 in School of Humanities, from PUCRS. Coordinated by PUCRS researcher Andreia Mendes dos Santos, the research structure emerged as a scientific response to the context resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, increasing vulnerabilities and social inequalities for adults and children.
Currently, the laboratory has an interdisciplinary team of professors and postgraduate students from the Schools of Health and Life Sciences, Humanities e Medicine, in addition to being open to academics from other areas. Its work aims to develop integrative projects focused on childhood, articulating teaching, research and extension, through activities aimed at society and academia..
The projects developed have the support of Marist Center for the Promotion of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, with physical space equipped to serve children and families in Brother José Otão Foundation (Fijo), located in building 2 of the PUCRS Campus. According to Andreia, the initiatives seek to offer opportunities to improve childhood experiences and seek to value their experiences, through the intersection between caring, promoting and educating.
“Our structure and activities aim to provide a training space for researchers and students from the most diverse areas of PUCRS. In addition, therapeutic support projects will be developed in order to guarantee a powerful space for physical, cognitive, psychological and social development processes to occur, through planned, pedagogical and structural actions for babies, children and parents.”, explains the researcher.
Photo: LabInf Archive
The project Moving – the body as a workshop for children’s interactions: children’s experiences at university, arises from the expertise of a group of researchers from the Center for Studies on Childhood and Early Childhood Education (NEPIEI) in a socially constructed dialogical relationship at LabInf, in light of the reality perceived during meetings and the need to promote more body-conscious practices during childhood.
The project, aimed at children aged 3 to 6, will consider the social interaction and learning of these children, as they will have access to playful pedagogical practices, physical activities, expanding their gross and fine motor skills, artistic activities and games.
Andreia explains that the programming proposal is based on the understanding that playing in childhood provides a range of new learning when the child is faced with moments of forming bonds with others or with themselves, with experimentation with space, with materials and with imagination.
“It is through playing that children work through their fears, develop skills, create concepts about their values and are able to discover and express what they really like and what they don’t like to do”, scores.
During this project, children will have the opportunity to participate in different learning situations, in an active process of constructing meanings, being able to express themselves through free drawing, speech, body language, gestures, music, and art, experiencing different experiences and sensations, and gradually, they will appropriate the culture, through meaningful situations.
The first pilot class for this project began in October with weekly meetings, with a small group of up to ten families. Activities include building toys with scrap materials, reading stories and playing games with the aim of providing moments of reflection on the actions, practices and evaluation of the project..
Photo: LabInf Archive
Another project developed by LabInf researchers is Play workshop with babies and young children. Designed with the purpose of creating a living and playing space for babies and very young children to explore and also identify developmental discrepancies and support their caregivers as a way of promoting and preventing health, serving the community.
Activities begin in October, every two weeks on Thursdays, for a closed group of five babies and their guardians, who will be involved in four meetings with moments of interaction between adults and babies, exploration of the physical space and stimulating games with fabrics, objects and various materials.
The workshops encompass professional and scientific training objectives, where students and researchers work with studies and interventions with babies and young children, with a space for internship and observation practice. As well as contributing to society with a leisure and meeting space for family members, caregivers and children where babies will be treated as subjects.
Researcher Andreia explains that the proposals are based on the notion that childhood should not be understood only as a biological stage that lasts until about 12 years of age or that is restricted to preparation for adult life. For the professor, childhood is approached as a social construction and children are recognized as actors who produce cultures.
“Their experiences, trajectories, expectations and conflicts are important social demands. Playing is considered a fundamental part of childhood and, therefore, we take it as a challenge to promote the social inclusion of children”, concludes the laboratory coordinator.
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