Children learn best when they are heard

A study shows that children acquire the most knowledge when they are explained how to solve problems with adults.

Photo: Corbis.com

Three psychologists from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee, USA) want to find out if 4-5 year olds can learn better if they have to explain how to solve a problem for another person. or not. They persuaded many parents to participate in the study.

The children saw a series of plastic insects and learned how to group bugs based on color, size and shape - a pretty big challenge for their age. The team asked them to explain the classification results in three ways: tell their mother, whisper to themselves or read out the answer aloud. Then they show them more other plastic insects and repeat the same request and gradually raise the difficulty level of the task.

Experts found that self-answering questions and explaining to mothers helped them solve problems better at the second time. However, the children who explained to their mothers offered a faster and more accurate solution when faced with difficult requirements.

"Just by performing a simple act of listening, adults can significantly increase the amount of information in a child's explanation. Instead of guiding or revealing the answer, we should encourage the child to submit it. "They show how to solve their problems. This helps them to understand the problem better and know how to apply their knowledge and other situations," said Professor Bethany Rittle-Johnson, lead researcher.

Researchers also found that children can know how to solve problems at an earlier age than many people predict.

"This is one of the first tests to prove that children under 8 can explore the world around and effectively apply what they have learned in practice through explaining how to solve problems with themselves. adult, " Bethany said.