Children collectors: encourage them and accompany them in this learning

In 1996, Creighton University marketing professor Stacey Menzel Baker and her colleague James W. Gentry of the University of Nebraska presented the article Children as Collectors: A Phenomenological Study of First- and Fifth-Graders, published in Advances in Consumer Research.

That document presented the results of interviews with 79 children, 72 of whom had a collection (or several) of various types. Baker and Gentry noted that a child's collection depends on cost, gender norms, and fashions, beginning with movies and television.

Why do children hoard certain things?

Marketers suggest that motivation comes from the following. Parents would do well to pay attention to what might be driving their little collector.

1. The child enjoys the process of collecting because it allows him to escape from boredom and sometimes from reality.
2. Along the way, they learn or satisfy their curiosity about the subject of their collection.
3. They also satisfy their passion for the objects they desire, there is something here that belongs to them and is under their control Of him.
4. They want to differentiate themselves from others.
5. At the same time, they want to associate with others, especially family and friends, based on these interests.

If a child collects, he is seldom a connoisseur. He tends to focus, at least initially, on the number of items he can amass, and doesn't care too much about quality or aesthetic considerations, unless he has developed a strong interest from the influence of his surroundings.

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People like to talk about their collections, and children are no exception. Even if they can't explain or fully see the world of collecting, they have as much fun as an adult in the process. Take this opportunity to talk about what captivates your children's thoughts.

The psychology magazine The Mind Is Wonderful proposes that collecting also helps children get closer to reading, since certain collections make it necessary to read about the characters, objects and characteristics.

There is also promotion of mathematical skills, because to collect you have to keep count. How many do you have? How many are you missing? How many common cards do I need to exchange them for a special one that I don't have? How much time do I have to save to have the new article in the series?

Also, with the help of parents, children can learn that if they want to keep their collection, they must organize and take care of it, otherwise their possessions will annoy the family, be destroyed by pets, or end up lost or in the pile. trash.

Visual discrimination is also involved, especially when very similar elements have to be differentiated, such as two figures of the same character, but in slightly different versions.

Memory and attention will be exercised when the child does not have the collection at hand and needs to remember what she has and what is still missing.

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And collecting can seem like a lonely thing, but it doesn't have to be, there will always be opportunities to talk with the child about what they are passionate about. Then there are exchange opportunities with other fans.

Children will also see the need to learn to wait , when you have to save the expected item, wait until the next birthday or Christmas when a gift can be received, or when the item is simply not available yet or does not arrive.

The benefits of collecting are several. If the child wants to start his collection, encourage him, but also keep an eye on the process, don't leave him once your child is hooked. As the child grows, chances are that his hobby, his knowledge and her skills will too.

Towards a more adult collecting

As they get older, your child will acquire a sense of the value of things , discover cases of people who kept toys or cards that gained value over the years... And they will wonder if they will have the same luck with their belongings.

Baken and Gentry also observed that the child shows, in miniature, the psychological pressures that he sees in the adults around him , who in his own way also collect (trinkets, clothes, documents, profiles on social networks, sports equipment). And so they suggest that parents pay more attention to the reasons that lead them to find an emotional outlet in whatever they are accumulating.

In the book Children's Culture and Multinationals, the educator and activist Shirley R. Steinberg and the pedagogue Joe L. Kincheloe call attention to the fact that today, marketing allows children (and adults) to instantly collect an entire series, without searching , without much need to categorize content, moving away from the concept of "caring for, collecting and sharing" what is collected from one generation to another. "Our postmodern shift to hyperreality has made collecting instantaneous, timeless in accumulation."

In addition, the Institute of Advanced Psychotherapies of Madrid indicates five signs that the collector's behavior has gone off the route and has gone towards hoarding: the 'collection' is always messy, he does not like someone to approach or try to help him to organize or clean, denies that there is disorder, is distressed thinking that something may be lost, there is desperation to buy or acquire , purchases are not used to play or to display in some semblance of order, but remain stacked and packaged.

Caroline Miller of The Child Mind Institute adds that while it's normal for children to collect things or have a messy room, most won't be upset if mom cleans up or orders them to give away duplicate items or throw out old boxes, packaging, and stuff.

“ If her child is extremely attached to seemingly worthless items and gets very upset at even the thought of throwing them away, it may be a sign of hoarding ,” says Ella Miller. "Children who hoard compulsively become very emotionally attached to the things they keep, things that are often thrown away by others." (F)