ABSTRACT
I have so far discussed things very much from the point of view of the learner. Teaching in any explicit form has not really entered into the picture. I emphasised in connection with early learning and the beginnings of understanding how important a role must be given to adults, and I equally stressed the importance of personal relations between the child and others in this respect. It would not really be right, however, to look on what adults do in relation to babies as a form of teaching—at least, not in general. Parents and other adults do of course perform certain teaching roles in this connection: in, for example, helping the child to learn to walk, and perhaps in helping the child to learn to talk. Even in these cases, however, it may be best to put the matter as I have done, in terms of helping the child to learn, rather than teaching. Moreover, in most areas of the child's early life, what adults do and the kinds of relation that they have with him or her may help the child to learn without the adults' intentionally setting out with this aim in mind. In other words, adults may not be teaching the young children with whom they have to do, however much what they do helps them to learn.
