How Better Understanding can help in Child Development?
The mediating role of the adult in the learning process
The role of the adult is to facilitate the
child's understanding
of his surroundings - to act as a link. There is growing evidence that positive
and responsive interactions with adults impact child development. For example,
it has been shown that children improve their behavior in the classroom and
also perform better in school when teachers deal with behavior problems in a
deliberate manner, care about the child's interests and direct their attention
accordingly.
Toys, siblings, other children in daycare
or school are necessary and contribute to the learning process. But they are
not enough. Child development is nurtured through interaction with the adult
caregiver—at home or in foster care, where many children spend a significant
portion of their time. In addition, consistency—the presence of a primary
caregiver in every setting—secures the child and builds self-esteem increases success rate.
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How do children learn?
By exploring: touching, hitting, putting
things in your mouth
By experimenting: testing, trial-error
Through repetition: keep throwing things on
the ground!
Through imitation: Mimicking those around
them, whether they are adults or other children
They learn from and from everything in
their immediate environment. And what about a child? Many things, many people
and many situations - infinitely many stimuli.
Well, learning is never as great as when an
adult is present. The adult is responsible for conveying, transmitting, and
translating each stimulus to the child.
Here we explore 5 ways Better
Understanding can empower children's learning:
1. Heed the signs and follow their
interests. Beyond offering affection and affection, which are fundamental in
and of themselves, the adult can recognize and respond to the child's forms of
communication, such as:
Naming the object or action of their
interest: “What are you pointing to? Oh! The fairy tale book of the sun and
moon!”
Response when child smiles or babbles
during an action: "You like it when I tickle your feet, don't you?"
Talk to him about what happened: “Yes! I'll
put your socks on so your feet don't get cold."
2. Introduces new concepts and name
everything that is in the environment. For example, during the bath, talk about
how hot or cold the water is, how dry and wet it is, the parts of the body,
mention and point to them. Or at lunchtime, take the opportunity to talk about
food textures, sizes, shapes and colors.
3. Expand the child's knowledge. If the
child says "wow-wow" while watching or reading stories together, add,
"Yes, it's a big dog and it has four legs!" and point to the child.
4. Play! Play is the most important
learning tool for the child and is a lot of fun. Play allows the adult to
participate and enhance role-play - remember, children mimic everything adults
do! – or introduce challenges and problems for the child to solve: open a jar
and take out the contents, put together a puzzle, find an item we hid, and so
on.
Recommendation: The adult can vary the
game, creating increasingly complex but doable challenges. If a game is very
simple and the child can solve it immediately, they will get bored and lose
interest. If it's too complex, he gets frustrated and doesn't want to continue.
5. Positively acknowledge and reinforce
attempts and achievements: Congratulate the child with applause, kisses,
verbalize their achievements and attempts, thus promoting their self-esteem and
encouraging them to continue learning.
Benefits of Understanding
All these practices help the child in many
ways:
1. Development of your language. They
unmask and familiarize him with many new words - which he understands,
internalizes and gradually introduces into his own vocabulary.
2. Enhancing their cognitive and motor
skills. The child becomes familiar with complex concepts such as cause and
effect or object permanence (the object does not disappear just because you can
no longer see it).
3. Developing and stimulating aspects of
executive functioning, such as attention, perseverance, self-regulation, among
others, through facing and overcoming challenges.
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