Hidden cameras reveal the secret lives of four-year-olds
Monday, February 9, 2015
A documentary observing the interactions of four-year-olds in nursery will air on Channel 4 tonight (10 February).
‘The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds’ follows ten children as they meet for the first time in a nursery environment, and then seven months later, observing their personalities, how they form friendships and their ability to work together.
The hour-long documentary is set in a classroom within a primary school, rigged with cameras.
Under the supervision of two qualified early years practitioners, the children engage in free-flow play and take part in a number of organised activities.
They are also set challenges, designed to replicate the types of situations they would face in their own nurseries and lives. These include building a den in teams and the ‘Chocolate Cake Test’, which tests children’s willpower.
Throughout the programme, the children’s movements and interactions are analysed by Bristol University educational neuroscientist Dr Paul Howard-Jones, and developmental psychologist Dr Sam Wass from the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.
Viewers see the children make friends, experience rivalry over their friendships, learn about the importance of sharing and develop basic practical skills with the support of the early years practitioners.
Dr Howard-Jones said, ‘I think the most important message from the documentary is the value of nursery and the pre-school experience for children as this is where they learn social skills, which open the door for other learning.
‘Most surprising was the intensity and drama of the programme, which demonstrates the real emotional intensity of what it is like to be a four-year-old.
‘Some children, mainly those with siblings, had well developed strategies for making friends, while others struggled to develop friendships.
‘For example, the strategy of one four-year-old in the programme to ask other children to be friends was unsuccessful. As a result he spends a whole day on his own and gets picked on.
‘The breakthrough moment is when he changes tactic to engaging in parallel play, which he finds to be a successful strategy and sees him become the alpha male of the group.’
He added, ‘I was also impressed to see the four-year-olds, mainly the more socially sophisticated children, teaching each other, providing both practical advice and emotional support.’
- ‘The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds’ will be shown on Channel 4 at 8pm on 10 February.
