The Ripples of Wonder: Moving in connection with difference

Photo by Richie Roberts on Unsplash

By Taylor Hansen

I know and love a child who experiences the world in ways distinct from many. Moving through the world with them has deepened my belief in the transformative power of witnessing and experiencing the truth of difference with an open and curious heart and has helped me feel resolute in communicating and modeling what it is to see and experience all children as whole and worthy of respect and love. I want to share a simple story that moves with me always. A story of shared wonder, healing, and deepened connection that emerges through noticing difference and leaning into love and curiosity in response. It is a story that highlights how children often live what adults struggle to practice, and how much we can learn through being with young people. It reminds me daily what a privilege it is to witness their overflowing humanity.
This story is centred around the shared experience of an overflowing eavestrough in a kindergarten yard, one wet spring morning in Nova Scotia. However, before we go further, I must tell you about the happiness shake.
Like the eavestrough, the child I know and love overflows, wonder and awe spilling out of the internal experience and moving through the whole body in waves. When first witnessing this response, most children assume coldness as in many ways the movements mirror a prolonged and extreme shiver. At the age of three, in response to the common question, “Are you cold?” this child clearly and confidently, would state, “No, this is my happiness shake. I shake like this when I feel happy.” With that response, a
new way of seeing and being was created for the other children. The way this child expressed the experience—without fear of judgment—invited their peers in.
Now back to that spring morning. Children moving in all directions—swinging, digging in the sandbox, and climbing trees. Parents linger, offering comfort and goodbyes. Off to the side, this child, and their happiness shake, were connected, through wonder and joy, to the water that spills and rushes over the edge of the eavestrough. As I watched and felt this dialogue, I also noticed the other children. Understanding what the happiness shake signaled, they moved closer, quietly noticing, listening, and feeling — in connection. 
From behind the fence, I heard a parent ask their young child if “that child was cold from the rain?” The child responded, “No dad, that is their happiness shake. They shake like that when they feel love” and with that response, a new way of seeing and being was created as the adult was invited in.

Your Thoughts
As you move through your daily life and practice with young children, pay attention to the ways they quietly invite you, and others, into seeing and being differently. Consider how you might respond to these invitations with curiosity, care and connection, and the impacts of this modeling.

About the author
Taylor Hansen is a mother to two young children and an advocate for children’s rights. Taylor is particularly interested in the dynamic ways diverse children advocate and make space for themselves in their daily lives, as well as the ways caregivers transform space through their courage to care well for children in a world that does not care well for many.

Taylor has worked directly with young people in a variety of capacities and contexts for over 20 years driven by a desire to support others in relating to all children as complete people worthy of dignity and respect. Taylor is a Lecturer in the Department of Child and Youth Study at Mount Saint Vincent University.

Bibliography
Cavicchi, E. (2024). Curiosity opens relationships of the world and with others: Narratives from doing teaching and learning through curiosity. Interchange, 55(3), 261–301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-024-09529-8
Giorza, T. M., & Murris, K. (2021). ‘seeing’ with/in the world: becoming-little. Childhood & Philosophy, 17, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2021.53695
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L. (2017). \ Encounters with materials in early childhood education Routledge.