How to cultivate children's independent learning ability and what parents should do

Some parents immediately think of homeschooling when they hear about self-study, and think that it is a choice when they have no confidence in school or cannot meet their personal needs; if you think so, then you have narrowed the meaning of self-study. So how do we cultivate children's autonomy and learning ability?

Facing the future world, every child and every person has the opportunity and the need to develop the ability to learn independently. When parents discipline their children, they hope that their children can be more proactive, from practicing eating and putting away toys when they are young to doing homework, helping with housework, and bravely trying new things when they grow up. How are such traits or abilities formed?

What is autonomy?

Social psychologist Erikson pointed out in his famous theory that there are many developmental tasks in the life cycle, and the most important thing for preschool children is to develop autonomous and automatic abilities.

Philosophers and psychologists have long had many insights into the term self-regulation. A professor pointed out that when a person is autonomous, the actions he takes come from reasons he understands in his heart and he feels a sense of willpower.

This feeling from within is not just a momentary inexplicable emotion, but a feeling that the action you want to take is your own choice, and you can choose whether to do it, what to do, and how to do it.

Scholars believe that autonomy is one of the basic psychological needs of human beings, and when this need is met, it can promote self-growth and a sense of happiness.

Autonomy and self-management

A professor believes that many people mistakenly believe that autonomy means letting people do whatever they want. In fact, to be an autonomous person, it involves not only abilities (what can be done), goals (what to do), and methods (how to do it), but also self-management (willpower, maintaining commitment), and making good use of one's motivation and confidence to accomplish things. With these preparations, and the support of the environment (people or resources), autonomous learning will have a chance to start.

For example, when a child reads a picture book with his parents and there are animals or vehicles that attract him, when he sees real animals or vehicles in his life, he will be motivated to explore, observe carefully, and accumulate more relevant knowledge. Therefore, if you want to start your child's independent learning, you can start by cultivating your child's curiosity, attention, and interest in learning.

Cultivate curiosity

Babies are naturally curious, and they become even more energetic when they enter the toddler stage around one year old. As long as they are awake, they will look around, turn around, and play everywhere, turning every corner of the house into a place for adventure. When they go outdoors, they are likely to be like a wild horse that has broken free from its reins.

Starting from the age of 2, babies are full of desire for knowledge. They no longer stay at the stage of simply observing the world in the past, nor do they just accept the facts they see. They believe that there must be a reason for everything, and go further to seek the answers behind it.

They have so many things they want to know and so many questions they want to solve, but their limited language skills prevent them from fully expressing themselves. By asking "why?", they can get adults to answer all their questions, which just meets their needs, so they naturally keep asking questions.

How can parents cultivate curiosity?

Don’t overprotect your children: Too much protection will deprive children of the opportunity to try and innovate, and will also reduce their ability to solve problems. For example, when a child moves a small chair to climb up to a high place to get something, and a smug look appears on his face, his parents yell: "Danger! Come down quickly!" This may hinder the child's spontaneous behavior and make him afraid to take the initiative. Instead of forbidding children to explore, it is better to teach them how to avoid danger and common sense.

Be patient in responding to children's curiosity and questions: Facing children's series of exploration behaviors and why offensive, parents need nothing more than patience. When children develop strong curiosity and ask questions frequently, if parents can give encouragement and response, it will make children more willing to explore what they observe, which will have a positive impact on their future development.

To see the world from the perspective of a child: parents should slow down their own pace, lower themselves to the level of children, and see the world with a childlike heart, so that they can appreciate the surprise of children when they see any small things. This feeling of happiness is the driving force for continuous learning.

Develop your attention span

Newborn babies already have the attention to receive external information, but they are not yet able to look at what they want. At around 3 and a half months old, babies are able to choose to look at visual stimuli they like, and can also move their gaze in a specific direction in anticipation of a specific target appearing.

The length of attention span is not only related to age, but also affected by the child's innate temperament. Some children can concentrate on listening to stories or playing games for a long time, while some children are easily distracted by external things. Children can usually extend their attention span to 15 to 20 minutes for things they are interested in. Cultivating interest in things is one of the important ways to develop concentration. In principle, start with a short time of 5 minutes as the goal, and then slowly increase the time.

How can parents cultivate attention?

Parents’ company helps children to maintain concentration: When playing games, parents’ participation and varied play styles can often attract children to participate more continuously and attentively.

Choose age-appropriate stimuli and learn gradually: Too much stimulation will distract attention. You can start with a single object and short-term practice, such as showing him a simple picture and asking him to talk about his observations. At the beginning, as long as he can sit still for 5 minutes, give him encouragement, and then gradually extend the time and increase the complexity.

Follow your child's learning rhythm and don't interfere: Usually when your child is well fed and well rested, it is a good time to cultivate attention. To make your child more focused, you must first eliminate the factors that distract him, and parents should not interrupt the game at will.

Avoid exposure to television: The dense but unrealistic sound and light stimulation provided by television may make the brain expect the stimulation it receives to be so high that the stimulation in real life seems insignificant in comparison. The younger the child, the more he should avoid the sound and light stimulation of 3C.