Raising Thinking Children
Learning is closely linked with school in most people's minds, but a growing body of evidence shows children learn more in their first six years than they'll ever learn at school.
That means the foundation for learning is built mainly at home, says Kadriye Lewis, EdD, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"Young children are like little sponges just waiting to soak up anything they can," Dr. Lewis says. "Child development studies show massive development of thinking capacity occurring from infancy through age 5."
By age 4, half of a child's adult intellectual capacity is in place, she says. By age 8, 80 percent exists.
But that doesn't mean parents should stop everything to sit tots down for formal instruction. "Most learning during the early years is incidental," Dr. Lewis says. "Children learn best when their physical needs are met and they feel safe and secure. They learn through social interaction with adults and other children – and through play, which is very important."
Four Forms of Early Learning
The four key categories of early learning include:
- Knowledge: Facts, figures and ideas, usually acquired from hearing, seeing or answers to questions
- Skills, including physical, social, verbal, counting and drawing, learned through direct instruction and practice
- Disposition, or tendencies to respond to certain situations in certain ways, such as curiosity and friendliness. These are developed by a combination of the child's nature and behavior modeled by adults.
- Feelings, including learned feelings and innate emotional states and reactions, such as confidence, security and belonging
"Everybody has different learning styles. Some children need hands-on activities," she says. "Some need visual aids. Others require music." Until it's apparent how a child learns best, exposure to a wide variety of approaches and situations is advisable.
"Learning through real-life activities is best," Dr. Lewis says. "Young children also don't like to be pushed ahead. They may miss some skills and be turned off to learning. If you create an environment of strict rules and regulations without being willing to bend a little, you will not be effective in helping them."
Children want to feel they're succeeding, not failing, so giving them positive feedback is important. Comparing them to peers is often counterproductive, she says.
Questions That Promote Learning
Asking questions is among the most effective ways parents can help children learn – and think, Dr. Lewis says. "Research indicates our brains are most stimulated when we are emotionally engaged. So when you're reading a story, ask questions like, 'What do you think you would do if you were the hero?'"
By asking the right types of questions, parents can help preschoolers move from basic concrete thinking to higher-order abstract and critical thinking skills, she says. She suggests these kinds of questions to help develop thinking at each level:
- Knowledge – testing recall or recognition: "How many eggs are in a dozen?"
- Comprehension – encouraging interpretation: "Explain how an egg comes from a chicken."
- Application – using information in a new situation: "What do an egg and the shape of a globe have in common? Can an egg grow into a cow?"
- Analysis – breaking information into parts: "What's the difference between eggs laid by a frog and by a chicken?"
- Synthesis – combining elements into a pattern: "What would happen if a cow laid eggs?"
- Evaluation – using criteria-based judgment: "What do egg-laying animals have in common?"
"The use of critical thinking is one of the most valuable skills we can pass on to children," Dr. Lewis says.
Computers and educational programs also can be wonderful teaching tools. And caregivers trained
to provide the right learning environment are important, too.
But nothing helps children learn as much as parents who are actively engaged with their children, she says. "Parents are a child's first and most influential teachers."
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