Great expectations

One of the reasons that people enjoy working with children is the satisfaction gained from knowing that they have made a difference. A child who comes into a nursery feeling slightly bewildered may leave three years later with a bounce in their step and a big smile on their face. The feeling that we can make a positive difference to children's lives is not unfounded. There are various pieces of research suggesting that adults' expectations of children can affect their behaviour, academic performance, and even their personality.

The way in which adults' expectations can make a difference to children has been dubbed the 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. It would seem that the way we perceive, respond to and work with children creates an extraordinary influence on them, so that they in turn show the attributes that are expected of them. The gender and even the name of a child can influence adults' expectations and create the self-fulfilling prophecy. A classic example of this was the report of the naming practices of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana. Children were given names according to the day of the week in which they were born, with each day having assigned characteristics. 'Monday' boys were thought to be calm and quiet, while boys born on a Wednesday were thought to be naturally aggressive. When police files for the area were looked at, they showed, perhaps not surprisingly, that 'Wed-nesday' boys dominated the records.