I just finished teaching a development unit to high school students in my Careers in Education class. The focus was on the first three years of a young child covering all aspects of physical, social-emotional and cognitive areas of development. One topic discussed was how children learn about their environment. They learn to explore, interact, discover, create, formulate questions, answers and opinions by using their senses, language, thought, and imagination.
The high school students and more often the parents I encounter in the preschool lab, can stifle such learning and development. Many times, it's the parents speaking for the child, high school students finishing their sentences or someone pointing to the answer. How do these children learn to think for themselves, develop their skills or become independent learners? The following are some resources to help mold a young child into an independent thinker.
- Book: Nurturing Independent Learners by Donald Meichenbaum and Andrew Biemiller
In our fast paced world it is hard to give kids response time. But you are right how do we allow kids to learn to think on their own. Even in with 5th graders I have to remind myself to slowdown and let the kids complete their thoughts. I try to use the words "why do you think that" to go even deeper in their thinking.
ReplyDeleteI am not typically surrounded by little ones but if I recall, the adults do typically try to finish their thoughts for them. I wonder if this stems from when the children where non-verbal and the parents really did have to try to figure out what the child was trying to say.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteIn my 17 years working with the preschoolers, the children are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves. There have been a few here or there that seemed to be behind cognitively but especially this past year, we find that the parents are the guilty ones who do not stop to allow the children to think, act, or respond. They take their coat off for them, hang up their coat and backpack in their cubby and when we say good morning to the child, it's the parent who answers when we were clearly speaking to the child. I certainly understand the idea of being rushed for time but it's just frustrating from a teacher's point of view...
My boyfriend and I recently had this discussion in reference to his five year old neice. Mom and sometimes Dad finish her sentences, point out the answers to things involving numbers and letters, etc. It really frustrates me. His neice needs to learn these things on her own without using mom, dad or whoever as a crutch.
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law just retired this past year as a preschool teacher. My husband and I have a three-year-old son who (I think) is pretty darn smart. We try not to do things for him or point out the answers. It is amazing how different he is compared to some of his peers at daycare. Okay, this sounds like I am bragging...not so much about our parenting, but about our great kid! When I ask my mother-in-law what we should be doing to help foster his development, she says nothing. We are doing what we should - letting Macklin be a kid and making sure to read to him each night. He is very inquisitive. Instead of giving a childish answer, we try to explain things as clearly as we can using the correct terms...most of the time. It is so important that children grow up to be independent thinkers and problem solvers. That can't happen if Mom and Dad are always doing the thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt takes every resolve I have to not do this for my youngest. She struggles academically and sometimes after an hour of sitting next to her explaining math, there are days that I hurry her along so I can get dinner on the table. It will be easier when I don't have homework to do as well :)
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