Enabling and supporting a child’s active participation is valuable from the perspective of both the child’s future and childhood. Every child has the right to have safe experiences in their own peer group. Guaranteeing children’s rights is, in turn, the responsibility of adults. How can we adults do our part to enable a child to express their own voice and to be securely attached to their peer group?

Playing with friends is one of the best parts of early childhood education – at least if you ask children. Enabling safe early childhood experiences is basically a shared goal of all adults involved in a child’s development. However, various problems with friendships, such as bullying and loneliness, are already present in the lives of young children.

The challenge is that negative experiences affect a child’s perception of themselves as part of a wider peer group. Thus, even a small child may say: “I can’t…”, “others don’t like me…” or “I’m a bully…”. In the worst case, bullying or the experience of loneliness becomes a cycle, and harmful behavioral patterns and poor self-esteem follow the child from childhood to adolescence.

Every child has the right to safe experiences in their own peer group.

The Early Childhood Education Curriculum (2018, 20) states that “every child has the right to be heard, seen, taken into account and understood as themselves and as members of their community”. Paying attention to children and supporting their peer relationships is an important and at the same time difficult task for adults. How can a lonely child be enabled to join in play? How can we identify the places where a child’s voice is not heard? What are the ways to prevent bullying and strengthen understanding of diversity?

Attention must be paid to enabling children’s participation and supporting secure attachment not only from the perspective of the realization of children’s rights but also from a national economic perspective: each marginalized young person costs society 1.2 million euros during their lifetime.

That’s why we at RALLA believe that investing in children’s learning and safe development is the best investment in a sustainable future. We want to do our part to ensure that every child has safe experiences with friends. This requires the collective will and efforts of parents, educators, researchers and the entire community. It also requires choices.

Good educational cooperation requires trust, reciprocity and open interaction – also between adults.

A child’s right is an adult’s duty. We adults can support children’s safe growth from many different roles. Through joint preventive work, we can strengthen children’s and young people’s opportunities to experience success in their own peer world. High-quality research data and tools that support educational work have their place when they are brought to the attention of parents and professionals involved in educational work.

Succeeding together requires – as simple as it sounds – success in cooperation. This in turn requires the ability to express one’s own wishes, the willingness to listen and understand the other’s perspectives, and the search for flexible solutions. Fortunately, recent future reviews highlight that it is now trendy to be nice. What can each of us adults – as early childhood educators, parents, or researchers – do to promote open, safe, and positive interaction? And how can we set an example in how to act respectfully towards others?

We at Ralla want to contribute high-quality research information for parents and everyday experts to utilize. Our main goal is to enable every child to have safe experiences in their own peer group through stronger cooperation and better interaction.

“It’s much more fun to play with friends, because you can miss your mom when you’re alone.”

Vilja Laaksonen, Communications and Business Manager
& Bullying Prevention and Children’s Friendships Expert