Proposals

• Children climb instinctively and will set off on their own to climb rocks, boulders, ladders and steps, whenever the opportunity presents itself.

 

• When invited to climb with ropes, helmets and harnesses, children are intrigued by adult equipment and eager to take part. We thought that the equipment could have been usefully augmented with chalk on the children's hands and more time should have been spent choosing the most appropriate footwear. One child did do very well in her slippers!

 

• In the examples analysed, parents were almost always present, supporting each child with their trust in the climbing teams.

 

• Overwhelmingly our results show how effective climbing is as a means of gauging children's capacity for language and communication, as well as that of their attendant adults. Many children as young as two years old proved themselves to be expert communicators.

 

• Adults, parents, practitioners and children sought to verbally support the climbing child to succeed. The dominant adult conception was that it was good for the children to get to the top. This meant that many of the possible ways that the experience could have been shared were lost.

 

• The richest coommunication took place between the children themselves, and between climbers and children where the climbers were prepared to spend time getting in step with the child's expressed experience.

 

• Much of the verbal support offered by adults derived from what they saw the child doing and their view about what might help the child get further up. Only in a minority of instances did the adults establish close enough communication to be in step with the child's experience overall.

 

• Praise was lavish in most instances but in many of these the children themselves seemed not to be particularly engaged with it. There were clear instances in which children were experiencing achievement on their own terms.

 

• Much more could have been made of the familiarisation for the children. Discussing the purpose of the rope with the children and letting them have lots of time on the lower rocks together without ropes seemed to be good strategies.

 

We are conscious that this research has not been predicated by any review of available research literature. The work was predicated, however, by close observation of many children prior to the expeditions being set up. We would very much welcome comment from other researchers, perhaps using different methods to our own.