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Our children
are born learning. They attempt to store all the things
that happen to them into some type of logical form.
Learning
The Webster
dictionary defines learning as gaining knowledge, gaining
an understanding, or gaining a skill. In broader terms,
learning is defined as a lasting change in behavior because
of an experience or a practice. We have to be very careful
then in teaching our children because it can permanently
affect their behavior.
Stages of
Child Development
Children are
thinking machines. If you observe your child closely,
you will realize that their thought patterns are very
different from the way we think. They express their thoughts
and in very different ways.
Jean Piaget
believed that children go through four basic stages of
development during childhood: sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete operational, and formal operational.
1. Sensorimotor
Period
In the sensorimotor
stage, infants develop an understanding of their environment
by matching sensory experiences with physical actions.
Here, the child learns to experience his environment.
He looks, touches, feels, listens, shakes, smells, and
tastes everything in sight. "Here" is this child's sense
of space and "now" is his sense of time. When he learns
to creep, crawl, and walk, you better watch out as his
world becomes much wider. He is now beginning to explore
his environment using his senses as well as physical actions.
Many parents
find this phase very difficult for them because they now
have to start dealing with things such as guidance and
protection. The sensorimotor period lasts from birth until
two years of age. The mode of learning in the first phase
of child development continues through adolescence, but
becomes less sharp as the years pass by.
2. Preoperational
Period
In the preoperational
stage, children build on what they learned in the sensorimotor
stage by expressing words, images, and drawings. This
lasts from two to seven years of age. In this phase, the
child is preoccupied with collecting information. They
then try to figure out how to solve problems. In this
phase, your child now thinks in specifics and finds it
very hard to generalize what he senses. For a child, a
ball is something that he throws, not something that he
uses to play with.
The preoperational
stage is the period when your child asks a lot of question
repeatedly. He actually learns by asking questions. In
general, it does not matter whether your answer is real
or not; young children do not real answers to their questions
at this point in time. When your child asks why you have
flowers in the garden, he only wants to know what it is
for him to play in. Your child needs no technical answers.
Children two
to seven years of age judge everything they see or feel
or experience on the basis of "me". I don't like it. Give
it to me. It does not affect me. They also are incapable
of going back in reason and time. Children in this stage
generally forget what has just happened.
3. Concrete
Operational Period
In the concrete
operational stage, your child can now manipulate data
mentally. He gathers information and begins to process
this information by defining, comparing, and contrasting
it. He develops the ability to reason logically in the
context of specific or concrete examples. Your child in
this stage functions very matter-of-factly, but does not
yet grasp abstract concepts. This stage lasts from about
seven to 11 years.
If you ask
your child, "Why does it rain?" his likely answer would
be: "Because there are showers behind the clouds." On
the other hand, a child who thinks concretely would think
a little more and his likely answer would be something
like this: "Because God is intelligent and he made those
clouds just so children could play in the rain."
An operational
child who thinks concretely can process information logically.
While he still learns using his senses, he no longer depends
on just them to learn. The child is now thinking. In teaching
children in this age group, the teachers should begin
their lessons at the concrete level, then gradually head
to a more generalized level.
For example:
Statement: Jessica is a very nice girl: The teacher would
first tell about what Jessica did to be very nice. (Concrete)
The teacher
then would talk about how Jessica went about being very
nice. (Less concrete and more general)
Finally, the
teacher would teach that Jessica is very nice. (General
concept)
A concrete
operational child thinks very literally. In other words,
your child will absorb everything you teach, do, and say
at face value. Green is green and YELLOW is yellow. In
this stage, your children will have a hard time understanding
figurative language and symbols.
4. Formal Operational
Period:
The final stage
is called the formal operational stage, and it begins
at around 11 years of age through adulthood. In this stage,
your child transitions from concrete rationalization into
more abstract thinking. His thinking is not restricted
to time and space anymore; the child now is now more reflective
on things. He now also hypothesizes and theorizes.
In this period,
you need to help your child develop his cognitive abilities.
There are six types of cognitive abilities:
1. Knowledge
of facts and principles - how your child memorizes names,
dates, words, and definition.
2. Comprehension
- how your child understands ideas and facts.
3. Application
- what your child needs to know and how he applies principles,
procedures, and rules.
4. Analysis
- how your child learns to branch out concepts.
5. Synthesis
- how your child puts information or ideas together.
6. Evaluation
- how your child judges the value of gathered information.
Learning
Factors
1. Children
hardly ever learn in isolation.
2. Children
learn most effectively when they interact with other children
of the same age group.
3. Peer relationships,
motivation, and child-teacher communication are factors
that influence learning.
4. Other factors
include socio-cultural norms, emotional situation, environment,
and physical setting.
In general,
as your child becomes older, his capability of learning
improves. This suggests that, as parents, you should be
more responsible in guiding him to handle his new found
capabilities.
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