... From the UNESCO report on How Children Learn
Of course it does! Thankfully, somethings never change. Despite concepts like understanding rather than memorising and relating lessons to the real world and so on the 10th principle in the UNESCO report on How Children Learn [2002] is about taking time to practise. Many of us may remember our own parents oft repeated mantra that “practice makes perfect”. This is essentially what principle 10 is all about. And the good news is that very young children do this naturally. How many times has you child asked you to read the same story for instance? What you will see them do is repeat the same game, puzzle or pronunciation of a word over and over again.
However, practicing can sometimes be boring and result in resistance. This is where use of modern technology really shows its strength. Learning to play piano Apps are gaining popularity these days and children will watch well-made and engaging videos over and over again and in time they will fully assimilate the learning embedded therein. UNESCO Principle 1, Active Involvement, whereby children are encouraged to take some level of control of, and responsibility over, their learning also comes to the fore when using videos and Apps and reading books, as the child will stop watching a video or reading a book when they have taken all the available benefits from it and will seek new stimulation elsewhere. When people talk about growing out of thing it is really about not needing the lessons learned from them any longer.
Action:
When teaching your children new things go slowly at first and repeat often at the beginning of a new topic, word, example, explanation etc and stay focused on that topic for sufficient repetitions. While comparison with other past topics is desirable it is important not to get side tracked away from the topic in hand until the child has a good grasp of it. You may need several separate sessions on the same topic before the child gets it and some additional reinforcement can be helpfully achieved via mechanisms other than verbal explanation such as reading, exercises, observations/experiments and watching videos of the same or similar topics or using well designed Apps.
Little Wriggler videos are designed to stimulate with real world video used to illustrate a learning point. Our Phonics videos seek to repeat the usage of the letter across several words in real world context. Several or our videos also come with printable workbooks, available here on our website to be used as a practice aid for children to learn things like writing and counting etc. using both video and physical writing practise in concert.
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