Childhood development and learning is one of the most important subjects for parents to understand. Knowing the stages of development, and the differences between how children learn from how you learn as an adult can help you work with your child to maximize his or her potential with regard to schoolwork and other education experiences. Here is a brief overview of the way that children learn, and while every child will have differences in learning abilities, this broad approach may help you identify some of the most important things you can do to help the learning process.
Get Kids Involved
Children are naturally curious and tend to have pretty short attention spans, so sitting them down to listen passively to a lecture and hoping they will retain some of that information is not realistic or effective. Instead, students should be actively involved in the process by developing hands-on activities that reinforce the concepts you are trying to teach. You can also incorporate discussions of what the child is learning so they can proactively talk about it.
Integrate Social Learning
From the time a child is born, he or she begins learning behaviors through social interactions--mainly by watching, internalizing, and mimicking behaviors, speech, and more from those around him or her. Social learning techniques also tie into ways to keep children involved in the learning process, since they are fun and interactive. Plus studies have shown that students who know their work will be shared with others will try harder to turn in higher quality work. Some effective social learning techniques include allowing children to work together in groups to solve problems, and providing a good role model for the child so s/he can model behavior after that person.
Make it Meaningful
Many of us, whether we are children or adults, do not like to do something if we believe it has no purpose or is not useful in our day-to-day lives. In order for children to be engaged in learning and development, they should be working on activities that have a clear application in real life. For example, a child working on writing skills could create a card to send to someone they love, or write a passage in a personal journal that describes an experience they went through.
Relating it to Prior Experiences
When information is out of context, it is abstract and can be more difficult to learn, so when you're working with a child on a new concept, one of the most helpful things you can do to increase understanding is relate it to something else that is relevant in their life. Even with prior experience in an area, children sometimes do not connect the two pieces of information, so it's important for a parent, teacher, or other adult to help the child make that connection.
Identify Techniques They Already Use
There are some things that we cannot teach, and in some cases, a child will already have some behaviors that they naturally use to improve their learning and retention. For example, a small child may continuously repeat something you told them in order to remember it, even if you have never taught them to do it. It's important to identify what your child's natural tendencies are, and augment those rather than trying to develop all new ones.
From the time a child is born, and throughout their entire lives, learning and development are an ongoing process. These tips can help you develop your child's natural learning abilities and build new strategies to help them as they navigate through school and life.
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Lawrence Reaves writes for School Tutoring Academy, -http://schooltutoring.com- a company offering specialized tutoring in a wide array of subjects. For more information on School Tutoring Academy or their tutoring programs, go to: -http://schooltutoring.com/tutoring-programs/english-tutors-
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