I’m noticing lately how distracted and scattered I can get when I am learning something new. I have a new project in my business, in addition to running a busy practice. Daily, I put things down and forget where I left them, I run errands and forget something important. I am impatient for the outcomes I want and can be emotional if I don’t get results quickly.
I am a relatively well-adjusted adult, and learning new skills while trying to juggle a busy schedule can make me nuts if I let it. It occurs to me that as parents and educators, we ask our children to learn and practice new skills under pressure every day. Learning and growing are obviously necessary for our kids to become happy, healthy adults. However, if we can be aware of the circumstances under which we ask children to learn, it can lead to more effective, natural learning. A little pre-planning goes a long way.
Try these three easy strategies...
- Break a task down into manageable steps. If a task seems easy to us, we might not realize just how complex the same task can seem to a new learner. Saying speech sounds correctly, for example, is something we all know how to do as adults. Children, though, need to learn the specific and precise mouth movements a little bit at a time.
- Allow more time than you think it should take. We all need time to adapt and process new information. Your child may need to see, hear and touch what he is learning multiple times before he can remember it. It’s not about how long it takes to learn a new skill but how well it’s learned.
- Keep it simple. Take steps to make sure you are only introducing one new skill at a time. If you would like to help your child learn to use a fork to eat, make sure the food going onto the new fork is a familiar, favorite food. If I am trying to teach a child a new word, I don’t use a brand new game the child has never seen before. Too many new things at once is overwhelming.
If you can break new tasks into manageable pieces, allow plenty of time and only introduce one new task at a time, you will help your child learn new things without losing their mind!