‘How do children learn all the time?’ should be a common question in children’s education since they are everywhere around us.
Kids and youths learn everywhere and every time – at homes, in schools, shopping centres, among peers, and more importantly, in different ways.
This article will explore briefly the different ways children learn all the time.
1. Children learn from things that appeal to their senses
‘’ Kids learn more readily from what they see, hear, taste, touch, feel and/or smell’’
Children learn more readily by perception. Senses are of natural instinct. Have you ever sat at a place watch a baby or child try to make sense of the things around her? If you have, how intuitive was it?
Interestingly, infants understand the need to reach out, by any possible means, and grab an observed object of interest. A child gains an understanding of an event and learns from it when she responds to a particular stimulus.
These powerful biological instincts tend to provide natural curiosity and make the child a persistent learner. Essentially, through own determined efforts, with surprisingly no instruction, kids learn to reach out, grab, blab, crawl, toddle and practise other skills.
2. Children learn by engaging in free play
‘’Children develop basic life skills through play to enhance their overall welfare and development’’
When the infant eventually captures the object he had sensibly perceived and strived for it in a way or another, plays with it enthusiastically. As she plays with it, she takes note of the mechanics of her interactions with the object and learns more about the object’s characteristics.
It is then important, in a classroom setting, to punctuate all oral lessons with short periods of activities.
Children’s exploration and engagement with life during play develop in them skills like imaginative, social, as well as computing, reading and writing culture which they continuously practice to promote their overall well-being and development for future sustenance.
So, denying a child free play undoubtedly declines the child’s innovation and creativity – a must-have 21st Century skill for every student.
3. Children learn by exploring
‘’ Children do a lot of their learning in extraordinary blasts of passion, energy, and enthusiasm through a self-regulated exploration’’
Children do a lot of their learning in extraordinary blasts of passion, energy, and enthusiasm through a self-regulated exploration. Except those physical skills, which can’t be learnt in some other ways; children and youths seldom learn on the slow, steady timetables that schools set for them.
They exhibit a strong desire to apply themselves in intentional learning situations and naturally in circumstances where there is no external pressure to improve and no feedback or reward other than pure satisfaction.
How do you know your child is learning all the time? Good evidences are insatiably inquisitive to talking and asking questions. Intermittent writing and reading specific interest area from time to time is another. This is accompanied by sudden loss of interest after attaining to some level of satisfaction or total turn to something else of interest. There is also a tendency the child loses interest completely for a while or explores further.
Asking questions through thinking and agitating their mind is an indication of explorative learning.
4. Kids learn by experimenting and creating
‘’ Experimenting with new and unknown tangible objects brings out the creativity in a child’’
Children also learn by handling concrete objects rather than abstract ideals in different ways. When your child manipulates a range of materials, she learns about problem-solving in situations where there are no set or right answers.
The natural desire to experiment on the new and unknown, and gain some control over it, sharpens a child’s acumen, enlarges her artistic powers and puts her on the path of discovery and innovation.
5. Kids learn by repetition
‘’ Kids learn faster by reciting what they have learnt previously’’
If a kid comes to you and asks you, ‘’How do children learn?‘’. You answer the kid’s question by simply asking her to repeat the question she just asked, say about three or four times.
Children have good knowledge-retention ability and learn faster by repeating what they have learnt previously. When an item is repeated over and over (rehearsed), the child tends to remember it quicker.
Rehearsal tends to improve rote recall and elaboration, which invariably promotes retention of units of the subject matter, and enhances comprehension, summarization, evaluation and communication skills
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