This contrasts with, for example, age segregation; separating children into age-defined activities and institutions (e.g., some models of organized schooling).
These values are practiced through tasks like co-sleeping and group play which helps bring about close connections within the family and community.
Young girls assist their mothers with beadwork, household chores, chopping wood, etc., and boys are expected to work on canoe-making with the men and are given arrows to learn hunting skills at 5 or 6 years old.
[9] Daily household activities provide the child the ability to learn cultural practices such as different food dishes, hygiene, and parenting skills, as well as the social values and religious beliefs.
This is due to the cultural understanding of "echando a perder se enesena la gente" (throwing to lose, teaches people) which promotes optimism and growth of the child in the community, allowing the youth to feel comfortable making mistakes as long as they keep working towards their goal.
Young children are encouraged to participate by being brought to various meetings and activities by their mothers, so as they grow older, they request to be admitted into the group on their own will.
During assemblies children participated by aiding in the preparation of food and drinks for the crowd, while adolescents brought in groups of peers to further political involvement in the community.
Any repression that the group suffered on behalf of the authorities was not seen as something negative in the experience of the youth, but was instead something that would further motivate their desire to be politically active.
[16] In some immigrant communities, children link their family and friends to the environment around them by translating and paraphrasing words, phrases or occurring situations.
With the increased interaction in larger societies children in Indigenous Mayan communities who are bilingual help monolingual parents as interpreters.
When children join the family business they tend to gain knowledge of a trade such as accounting, public relations and how to be able to time manage.
Some cultures even give children control over specific goods, such as livestock or arable land and the expectations that come with this may also be seen as forms of participation.
A century and a half ago, children in the US had access to a wide range of adult activities and were integrated into multiple aspects of family functioning and survival.
The change from this integration into segregation was a product of industrialization, Western formal schooling, child labor laws, social services agencies, and the rise of disciplines such as Psychology and Education.
A combination of the above caused a shift from family working as a unit to separation of economic activities and services such as childcare emerged.