ABSTRACT
Nurturing children's involvement with their play is an essential aspect of facilitating learning for young children. Involvement is important for developing concentration, engaging with deeper learning, enabling higher order thinking, building connections, supporting well-being, promoting independence and creating a truly learning environment for all children. Practitioners support children's learning through their involvement and their pedagogy. In its simplest form feelings of involvement are nurtured where you feel you are known and valued. Observation supports practitioners in identifying where children feel that their high involvement activities are at risk. This approach is ultimately valuing of the child, as it does not assume to know them or to live in their world. Laever's refers to the notion of this being seamless with no distance between child and activity. This is supported by children's extended and continuous access, freedom, responsibility and trust with physical spaces and resources. There is something mesmeric and magical about a child absorbed within an activity or idea.
