Forum
Welcome to the Waldon Forum — a collaborative space to explore, question,
and share ideas around the theory and practice of the Waldon approach to learning and development.
The combined theory of learning and development; the philosophy
Where are the basic ideas that underlie the Waldon Approach to Education to be found on this website?
The document Geoffrey Waldon: Chief Interests, linked to from the home page and also appearing in Introductory Papers (under Resources) briefly describes, in his own words, the enormous scope of his ideas about human understanding and behaviour.
The central ideas are fleshed out in his essay Understanding Understanding, under Introductory Papers. The first part outlines the development of general understanding and cultural particular understanding, with a short excursion into the world of the vulnerable learner; and the second part, the endnotes, provides the grounding for, and expands upon, crucial points in the main text. These endnotes are an excellent starting point for getting to grips with Waldon theories of child development and learning (especially the earliest stage, of learning-how-to-learn).
Terry
@waldonassociation Interesting to see John Gooding's document is in 'Other Papers' - a really clear description of early infant development.
In the document titled ‘1. Notes for Waldon facilitators’ under Resources/Other Papers the footnote describes bodily integration as the process of the body becoming an organism, with the limbs and trunk acting as a unified whole, each part complementing and supporting the others.
It is worth pointing out that, in Waldon, the limbs include the head, so the bodily system can be viewed as a trunk with five protruding limbs. In early learning-development the activities of the upper three limbs create a region of increasingly familiar and ‘understood’ space at the natural convergence point of the head and arms/hands; this expands steadily to include, eventually, all of the child’s available bodily space. Although, given human anatomy and the actions of joints, broadly frontal regions of space will tend to be the most thoroughly explored and understood by the developing child.
Terry
Postscript There is now a complementary, longer paper - '2. More notes for Waldon facilitators' - in the same section. You might notice some overlap between the two documents: important points about the child's learning-development and the asocial lesson have been re-emphasised in the second paper.
Where can Waldon's developmental diagram be found on your website? I think it would be great to be in a prominent place and easy to find!? Also: I have come across the term extrapolation in relation to coding and wonder what exactly is meant by that?
@sibylle This is the link to the diagram - https://waldonassociation.org.uk/gw-82-diagram/
It's linked to in the Understanding Understanding essay, on the Contents page (page 1), although you do have to click two links (second time p.11) to get to it, which is not ideal, admittedly.
Regarding extrapolation: Waldon uses it in the usual sense of 'making an estimate, or educated guess, based on current information, about what might happen in the future'.
So it is a function of anticipation [about future events] that the baby develops through the emergence of inertial memory towards the end of the first year.
Terry
Postscript It can now be found under Introductory Papers as a separate document - https://waldonassociation.org.uk/introductory-papers/
To add to my previous post ... whilst we are looking at the diagram, questions might arise regarding the relationship between extrapolation and logical inference: whilst extrapolation is specifically about estimating possible outcomes from current conditions, logical inference is a broader process, covering all forms of reasoning by means of which one draws conclusions, or creates hypotheses, from available information.
And it should be pointed out that Reasoning, as the culmination of the process of understanding-development, is itself a broad, inclusive term. From the outset Waldon resists the cognition/affect divide that sometimes plagues texts on psychology: early learning, or learning-how-to-learn, depends crucially upon reinforcement and motivation (the drive to do). It also identifies (positive and negative) reinforcement as the source of the emotions (emotional states).
So, as summarised on p.56 of the booklet The Waldon Approach to Education – summary and reference document - https://waldonassociation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/waldon-associates-the-waldon-approach-to-education-overview.pdf -
‘What is important is to not lose sight of the fact that learning and understanding are no more "cognitive" than they are emotional or physical.
Given our cultural training this might feel, in some sense, alien.
A straightforward way to deal with this is to simply bear in mind that learning is a thoroughly emotional process, and a very physical one too.’
This is why ‘Waldon therapist’ is such an unhelpful and misleading term for a Waldon facilitator. The emotions are intrinsically part of the learning system and, as such, are addressed by educational measures; so the Waldon facilitator, or practitioner, is essentially an educator. If a child strengthens their fundamental, general understanding, or their basic ability to learn-how-to-learn, as a result of Waldon intervention, then it means that, ipso facto, they are more emotionally robust, or resilient, than they were before, and therefore more open to learning opportunities in their day-to-day life.
By the way, do read the final section, pp.58-62, written in interview format in a bid to be more ‘accessible’. Does it work?
Terry
