ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall focus on how the young child learns best and how this capacity is nurtured in the Steiner Waldorf early-childhood setting. We shall be calling on the picture of child development already laid out in Chapter 3 and illustrating how the child’s natural, innate ability to imitate is used as the primary learning method in the Steiner setting. Emphasis is laid on the child’s environment as a source of learning and on the attitudes and behaviour of the adults in it. An explanation is also included of the child’s changing relationship to imitation within the first seven years.
