SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD TO LEARN
Children observe & model their behaviours on adults.
Watching a child learn new skills and building on existing knowledge is highly rewarding. It is a fast and rapidly changing process. Many theories of development have been proposed to attempt to explain this complex progression in abilities and social skill acquisition. Support is focusing on the combination of biological influences, such as brain development, with environmental factors. Hence, it’s a ‘nature and nurture’ collaboration rather than a ‘nature or
nurture’ debate.
Learning through observation
As any parent, caregiver or educator will know, children are active, adaptive explorers who aim to control their environment. They do this by watching the actions of others and copying them. Caregivers and parents provide the strongest observable behaviour in the first five years of life. However, as children get older, they choose to watch friends and teachers, as well as other people who they consider important. The person being observed is called a ‘model’ and most children will have someone that they imitate.
Who do children model?
It might be a real person such as a caregiver or an older sibling. It can also be a person in the media, sporting environment or even a fictitious character such as a superhero. Young children carefully watch the model’s behaviour and actively learn from what they observe.
Research has shown children are more likely to copy behaviour when the potential models:
• provide the child with social praise or affection
• are similar gender, age and interests
• are visibly dominant peers or adults in a dominant role such as a teacher or coach.
Therefore, when a child watches a parent use aggression to discipline, they will
not show the aggression in their parent’s presence. However, they will often show this behaviour towards others, especially people viewed as less dominant or similar, such as younger peers or siblings. Similarly, as children age, they are more likely to copy friends and siblings. So, it’s crucial to support a child’s learning by observing who their potential models are, including yourself. A child who views a parent using ipads and screens, will want to copy this behaviour, so remember to practice what you preach.
Learning as an internal thought process
As well as observation, children also learn though creating internal representations or packages of information about their world that psychologists refer to as schemas. Part of a cognitive process, is that children compare, adapt and modify their schemas that act as ‘templates’ which they refer to throughout life. When a child encounters an unpleasant or traumatic event, such as being abandoned, criticised, overprotected, emotionally or physically abused, excluded or deprived, then this can often lead to maladaptive representations being made, especially if they are reinforced and/or modelled by parents or caregivers. According to schema theory, schemas can define later behaviours, thoughts, feelings and relationships with others.
Effective ways to teach appropriate behaviour
An effective way to teach behaviour is through a combination of consistent positive reinforcement, such as parental praise and affection, along with clear explanations and guidance for what is considered as preferred behaviour. It is also essential to provide the same calm clarity to children about what is not acceptable and the consequences of such behaviour. Threatening children does not build trust. However, consistent cause and effect guidance and delivery of the expected outcome is essential for positive learning and adaptive schema production.
Type of learning is linked to brain development
Neuroimaging research has supported many of the developmental theories that come from observational and experiment work. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, research has shown a typical sequential brain development of skills with:
• the motor and sensory regions that sub-serve relatively basic functions, maturing the earliest, followed by
• the maturing of regions associated with basic language skill and spatial attention, then
One of the greatest gifts we can give to children is our knowledge, protection & the sense of being loved.
• the areas linked to higher-order cognitive control functions, such as decision making and the theory of mind, subsequently maturing.
How to promote learning
By viewing a child’s learning as a collaboration between the stage of their brain’s development, how they understand and model the actions and words of those in their lives, adults can maximise their child’s learning potential. Trying to teach a child a skill before their brain has developed the capacity to learn that ability, will only lead to frustration and potential fear of failing for a child. Hence, one of the greatest gifts we can give to children is our knowledge, protection and a sense of being loved. When combined, they provide the best basis to promote and to support your child to learn.
Dr Janine Cooper is a Melbourne based Research Neuropsychologist with a speciality in memory, development and wellbeing. Janine is the founder of
Everyday Neuro that uses online courses, podcasts and workshops to enhance understanding about the human brain, its functions and ultimately how this shapes human behaviour. Janine has numerous scientific publications and can be contacted via her website.