Challenges of Providing Multi-Age Groupings

[Anonymous]

Share some thoughts about the challenges of providing multi-age groupings

 

[Aliza Llovet]

There’s different skills that are attempting to be mastered at each developmental level. What might be engaging and interesting for a child of 3 years will likely not be for a child of 3 months and likely even in appropriate.

[Anne Reed]

Having a multi aged group is challenging because you have a wide range of abilities. If you focus on one age group to long you lose another. If you get too rambunctious with the older ones you can scare the younger. If you don’t have enough stimulation for the older ones, they make their own. The challenge is to balance the energy level yet keep everyone engaged, building sibling awareness.

[Amy Brownell]

It can be difficult to plan for sessions with children of a range of ages because all of the music activities need to be applicable to each child in some way. If a task is too simple, the older children may get bored and stop engaging, and if it is too difficult, the younger children will not be able to participate. To help with this, older children can be given tasks to assist the younger children or can be given more independence while the adults play with the babies. In a group with siblings, the music can be used to help with bonding as they move and play together.

[Hannah Floyd]

Multi-Age Grouping can be challenging as each child could be in a very different place developmentally. Some might find it engaging, while others may loose interest. A way to work around this is to make experiences be open to different levels, or to allow children to are further along to have more responsibilities (like, asking what move we should do next, etc). It’s important to find the balance in everything.

[Emily Fabian]

Multi-age groupings can be challenging for a myriad of reasons: they are all at different developmental levels, different developmental milestones, different abilities, along with varying likes/preferences. Adding all things together, and you have to navigate how to create a plan and environment that will be engaging for all as well individualize in the areas you can where needed.

[Jessica Gelineau]

While I have lead circle time in a preschool setting for children ages 2-4 years old, I believe that leading multi age groups may present some different challenges. One challenge would be finding the balance between stimulation within the group. Younger children would most likely need less stimulation, and older children would most likely need more. It may be challenging to balance the music in a way where all children are actively engaged/ enthusiastic. I think the most challenging part would be making sure that children who are easily over stimulated do not get overwhelmed during the group, and ensuring that children who need more stimulation do not become bored.

[Amy Brownell]

Keeping the right amount of stimulation is definitely key – we may have to change up what we are doing in the moment in order to keep everyone engaged!

[Author]

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