Tag: <span>PreSchooler</span>

Helping Your Pre-Schooler With Math-Avoid Learned Mistakes

Posted in Education by anshbookstore on December 6, 2022 @ 5:59 am

Now that you are actively working with your preschooler’s math and language skills, you are discovering that some learning is easy and almost immediate while other learning is difficult and needs repetition. Sometimes LOTS of repetition! One important thing you need to understand, though, is that “unlearning” a mistake is very difficult and needs to be avoided at all costs.

Please understand that I am not saying your child must not make mistakes. In reality, mistakes are a necessary part of learning. What I am referring to is avoiding LEARNED mistakes. It is important that a mistake not be repeated without correction so many times that it becomes learned.

Researchers have known for decades that the brain easily learns survival-related skills, like touching a hot stove only once. The brain’s sole purpose is survival, and learning non-survival-related skills is difficult for the brain. In the second article of this series: “7 Things you Must Always Do,” item #7 discusses the importance of using “brain-friendly” techniques with your child, and it lists many different examples of such techniques. One of those techniques is frequent review–often called practice or repetition.

Researchers agree that repetition is necessary for many types of learning to occur but the recommended amount of repetition has changed considerably over the years. When I began teaching in 1972, educators believed a skill could be learned with only 4 to 7 repetitions. More recent brain researchers have adjusted the figure much higher. It is now believed that 20 to 50 repetitions are necessary for learning to occur.

Fortunately, preschoolers LOVE repetition. They love reading the same books, playing the same games, and singing the same songs over and over again; and each repetition moves skills, vocabulary, and facts closer to being learned. However, a practiced mistake can become a learned mistake and a learned mistake is very difficult to eliminate. It can take HUNDREDS of correct repetitions to “unlearn” a learned mistake. Yes, that says HUNDREDS of correct repetitions! If you have ever tried to “fix” a bad habit, you know just how true this is.

So what does this mean for you? It means that you must always supervise what your preschooler does, and lovingly correct mistakes as they happen–because they WILL happen. Never criticize your child for a mistake. Gently direct them to discover the correct response and reward it. It also means you NEVER have your child work on worksheets, workbooks, smartphone apps, or computer programs without your very close supervision. All of these tools make practicing mistakes far too easy. Ideally, you don’t ever use ANY of these things with a preschooler at all, but that ia a topic for another day.

Your child’s learning needs to be directed by you. You can prevent learned mistakes from ever happening. Yes, you are THAT important!

Source by Shirley Slick

13 Dec

Helping Your Pre-Schooler With Math-Brain Friendly or Learning Styles?

Posted in Education by anshbookstore on December 13, 2021 @ 8:26 pm

Whether because you have read my other articles in the Early Childhood Education category or because you have researched this topic online, you likely have questions about how the terms “brain friendly” and “learning styles” fit into your work with your preschooler. Certainly the goal of both is to help your child learn, so what’s the difference? Is one better than the other?

“Learning styles” is the older concept and represents the results of several research studies trying to determine how we learn. You will find a summary of these findings in my article “Learning Styles-Should I Have my Child Tested?” (The answer is NO.) These concepts were essentially guesses, based on observation of behavior, about how the brain takes in and stores information. Guesses as to how the brain learns.

I recommend that you read that article to familiarize yourself with the terminology because you are likely to encounter some or all of these concepts as you further study early childhood education. You may even encounter teachers in your child’s future who still hold onto these concepts. Some of these attempts to explain how we learn have more merit than others; there is some truth in each; but none provided the full answer. The concept of learning styles has lost favor in the field of education. In my research for this article I was surprised at how many articles and videos referred to “debunking” this concept of learning styles.

Having taught in public schools in the ’90’s when we were encouraged to test our student’s learning styles, and students were often placed in classes where their learning style matched the teacher’s style, the idea of learning styles being “debunked” initially seemed impossible. However, this change in attitude about education is the result of new developments in brain scan technology, brain surgery, and brain research. We no longer have to guess how the brain learns. We have lots of research and practical verification of techniques that have proven effective for learning to occur.

The field of brain based education and learning is only a couple decades old; and the field is not without its critics; but even Harvard University now offers master’s and doctoral programs through its MBE–Mind, Brain, and Education–program. The study of brain based education is about learning what techniques parents and educators should use to best engage the brain in learning.

Now that we know how the brain actually learns, it is important the you use brain friendly techniques as you work with your preschooler. You don’t need a teaching degree to use brain friendly techniques. I will now summarize here things you need to consider when you work with your child. The brain needs color, exercise/movement, a variety of activities, novelty, processing time, music, limiting stress, information in small “chunks,” plenty of rest, introduction to “the arts”–dance, drama (acting things out), and art, frequent review, good nutrition, and more. There are many specific techniques that teachers use in their classrooms, but this list will give you a good start for working at home..

There are a few things you should notice from the list:

These activities actually utilize all the different concepts of learning styles, which is why you don’t need to test your child, and why I didn’t list them. Using brain friendly techniques addresses what you need to know about learning styles.
You are already using many of these techniques. You are already working in short periods of time, giving time for processing, lots of review, movement, different kinds of activities, watching your child to avoid stress, etc.
Skill & drill worksheets are NOT brain friendly. There are hundreds of sites online offering worksheets for your preschooler. However, unless these worksheets have lots of color, novel and varied activities, are short, are self-checking to avoid practiced mistakes, and you are willing to oversee every moment of their use, you should avoid using them!

If you want more information about brain based learning, I recommend reading Eric Jensen, David Sousa, and/or John Medina.

The answer to the initial question is that “brain friendly” is the learning concept you need to incorporate into your work with your child. Notice that I have not even mentioned math because these techniques are for ALL learning. Remember to always stay positive with your child, be enthusiastic about learning, and avoid boredom in your child. Boredom actually destroys brain cells, and we certainly don’t want that!

Source by Shirley Slick