Episode 43 - Understanding child development
Author and education consultant, Rae Pica discusses topics from her book, "What if Everybody Understood Child Development?" Straight talk about improving education and children's lives.
Episode 43
Importance of Movement
Learning from Failure
Developmentally Appropriate Practices
Bribes and Threats
Zero Tolerance Policies Concerning Violence
Show and Tell
Links
- Sitting increases fatigue
- Reduces concentration
- Brain stimulated more when moving
- Research shows sitting does not equal learning
- Brain images by Dr. Chuck Hillman shows how much more active the brain is after a 20 minute walk compared to sitting still
Learning from Failure
- Need to let children do things on their own to become independent autonomous adults
- Skills need to be learned in early childhood
- We all learn through our mistakes and failures
- How can we improve next time?
- Can't fully prepare children for future we cannot anticipate, but the skills we can give them like problem solving and cooperation will serve them well throughout their lives
- Kids are now going to college counselors at much higher rates and have a harder time solving their own problems
- Dr. Stuart Brown's study of violent prison inmates showed that none of them engaged in meaningful play as a child
- Dr. Peter Gray shows correlation between lack of play and depression
- Lots of research showing mind and body connection
Developmentally Appropriate Practices
- Research shows that children who do things when they are developmentally ready easily catch up and often surpass kids who are forced to do things before they are developmentally ready
- Early childhood is when kids learn to cooperate, solve problems and it is a developmental progression
- Not all children are developmentally ready to read in kindergarten
- By third grade, you can not tell the difference between early readers and those who read when they were ready later
Bribes and Threats
- They work in the short time
- Rewards then become expected and have a hard time when reward is not there or is no longer motivating
- Does not prepare them for later school and jobs without those rewards
- Want to stimulate intrinsic motivation is what we want - motivation from within rather external motivation
- We want children to grow up with character and you do not build it by only doing something because you will get something in reward
- Just saying "good job," is not helpful to children as they do not know what was good about what you are praising
- Become addicted to praise
- They will have teachers and bosses that will not be saying it all the time
- Eventually children will tune it out
- They can also identify false praise
- Praise should be descriptive
Zero Tolerance Policies Concerning Violence
- Children around the world all use imaginary weapons
- It is dramatic play to work things out in their world
- Nancy Carlson Paige argues that it is healthy for kids to make toy guns and play war games
- Children should not be watching violent tv shows and movies
Show and Tell
- Encourage children to go outside and spend less time on screens
Links
- www.raepica.com
- www.bamradionetwork.com
