The key to seeing a child’s context

First published in Deccan Herald, 17 June 2025

Though teachers interact with children daily, there are many aspects of a child’s universe that teachers aren’t privy to. The home context of children is an elemental force that shapes them in myriad ways. For teachers to truly understand their students, educators sometimes need to know the domestic realities of individual children. We also need to refrain from making assumptions and attributions about a child without first knowing their domestic contexts.

            Anish (name changed) was an eight-year-old boy who attended remedial classes at a centre that I used to run. The boy was quiet and well-behaved but struggled with literacy skills. Though he was diligent, he would yawn frequently during class. The teachers, including myself, kept telling the child that he should sleep early instead of watching television. Despite repeatedly telling him about the importance of sleeping on time, his yawning persisted.

            I then asked his mother to visit the centre. I started off by telling her how crucial sleep was for the child’s health. She looked at me sheepishly and then started to cry. Apparently, the child’s father was an alcoholic who would return home late most nights and sometimes beat his wife. Anish would often wake up to the sound of his parents quarrelling.

It was my turn to feel sheepish. We had been so wrong aboutthe reason for Anish’s yawns. Given the weight of the emotional baggage he was carrying on his fragile shoulders, we began to see Anish in a different light. We stopped preaching about sleep hygiene and commended the child for the small steps of progress he was showing.

In her inspiring book, Every Child Can, Founder , The Riverside School in Ahmedabad, Kiran Bir Sethi describes how she has used design thinking to create an innovative and safe space for children to plumb their depths to truly discover themselves. Sethi avers that a “key tenet of the design process” is not to make assumptions (like Idid about Anish watching TV late into the night) but to find out for yourself. Just as empathy is a critical component of the design process, educators also need to perceive situations from children’s viewpoints. Often, this involves delving into the myriad contextual factors that impact the lives of our students.

With due humility, Sethi also shares how she also “fell into the trap of righteous bias” by assuming things about a child’s background. One of the students revealed that his mother does not let him go out to play. Sethi called uphis mother and listed the benefits of outdoor play for children. The mother then invited Sethi and her team to their house. On visiting the house, Sethi realized that they had imagined a very different ‘reality.’ There was no safe, outdoor space either in or around the house for the child to play in.

Zarine Rai, an early interventionist for children with developmental issues in Mumbai, recounts how home visits helped her understand children better when she worked as a teacher in a Montessori school. One child was very distracted in class and also exhibited school and work refusal. When she visited his home, Rai saw that the child came from an overstimulated environment. The house was cluttered with objects, including very large stuffed toys with music continually playing in the child’s room.

Rai then understood that the child needed somedowntime every day before he could settle into the more sedate environment of the classroom. So, she got him to help her do chores in the school garden like watering plants, cleaning the slide and washing the trampoline. Gradually, the child learnt to regulate his behaviour. His sitting tolerance and ability to engage in the classroom improved as well.

In another instance, a child was not speaking at school. As both parents were working, the child was dropped off and picked up by the nanny and the teachers could not glean any information from her as she spoke only Gujarati. The teachers were wondering if they should recommend speech therapy for the child. However, a home visit revealed that the child had just moved from Gujarat to Mumbai and only Gujarati was spoken at home. He wasn’t talking in school because he didn’t know the language and was still adjusting to the multiple shifts of a new city, new home and new school.

While it may not be feasible for all teachers to visit children in their homes, we can at least try to solicit information from students and their parents before rushing into headlong conclusions.