Life can get busy – I get it. A couple of years ago, I decided to eat healthier and exercise more, but I made many excuses to not do it. I used to tell myself that I didn’t have enough money to pay for the gym or sufficient free time to source quality produce for my meals. Eventually, and after many attempts, I formally integrated healthy eating and exercise into my life style. The turning point was when I realized and took responsibility for how I spent money and free time. Today, I believe that most often than not we have the time to do things that we want for ourselves. As a parent or caregiver, the time spent on daily activities expands to your child. Hence, when looking to figure out how and when to work with a child at home, an evaluation of how your time is spent is required. This will help you to maximize all moments of the day. With this in mind, the purpose of this post is to highlight how even a couple of minutes with your child can be an opportunity for him or her to learn – remember each interaction is a learning moment!
A lot of learning moments may be happening during your normal routine with your child. You may currently identify them or not. In fact, after you assess your activities and begin to put into practice suggested actions, you will find yourself contriving learning moments while intentionally using various situations to support your child. Overtime, learning moments will become easy to identify and you’ll be naturally integrating best practices for your child’s growth. I believe that a lot of learning opportunities can be captured during your normal routine, you just have to become more consciously aware and in tune.
By joining a child’s activities and paying attention to what’s most interesting to him/her, you can enhance your child’s social interaction skills. Research on early learning demonstrates that children readily learn when parents or other adults join in on their activities. Actively participating in your child’s activities rather than redirecting them to new activities or not being involved is more effective for their growth. Your verbal and nonverbal response teaches the child social interaction and language skills. As a parent you have the most knowledge about a child’s behavior. You constantly assess the child’s needs based on prior interactions. You provide support, guidance, feedback, or direction based on your knowledge of what has worked before. By assessing the way you respond now and being conscious of what messages are being delivered to the child, your interactions will produce even greater results.
Let’s look at some examples of when you can capture and contrive learning at home:
Scenario 1: You get home with the groceries and want your child to sit in the kitchen while you put them away and/or help with putting them away. You ask him “please sit on the chair.” He sits for a couple of minutes but then something catches his eyes and stands up to walk towards the living room.
What to do: Provide him praise or feedback (reinforcement) as soon as he sits down. This will help to solidify why your request is important in addition to increasing the possibility that he will sit down the next time you ask him. Continue to give him praise and feedback while he continues to sit. You can then ask him to do simple tasks like put items away or in another location. Again, provide praise or help to maintain motivation to continue with demands.
What not to do: Simply ignore the child while putting away the groceries and/or following an instruction. Ignoring him will teach him that he doesn’t have to follow through on your requests. Ignoring in this context will teach a child that he does not have to listen and follow through with instructions.
Tip: Ensure your child has adequate time to respond, at least 3 to 5 seconds before providing help.
Scenario 2: You arrive at a family gathering and you can have the child knock on the door. Model the action of “knocking on door”, and then state aloud “knock on door” while looking into her eyes. This is called a receptive instruction
What to do: You model the action for your child to connect the action with the vocal instruction. Allow them a few seconds to respond. After, if they did not respond, provide the instruction over allowing another 3-5 seconds. Give them praise for any attempts. If this is a new skill, it is ok to hand over hand help them your first few times.
What not to do: Do not stand next to her with a concerned face, or do nothing. Try not to repeat the instruction too many times (barking).
Tip: Ensure you are engaging with your child before making the request so she is already actively present with you.
Scenario 3: You are preparing dinner while your child is close to you. You serve dinner for both of you and move to the dining room. Your child sits and you ask him to start eating. You then realize that a limited amount of his favorite veggies were served.
What to do: You ask him, “would you like more of those veggies?” Your child ignores or doesn’t respond to you and then you can state – “say more” or if they are not able to use words, you can have use some type of gesture.
What not to do: You assume the child would like more veggies and fill the plate with more completely, missing the learning opportunity.
Tip: Ensure you point to the food referenced to solidify the message through various senses.
Remember that any time you are with your child in the same room, you can create a learning moment. Observe what what the child is s doing and see if you can make a request, provide feedback, demonstrate, instruct, or encourage, among other actions. Learning opportunities can be easily practiced during typical activities such as dinner, preparing for bedtime, or daily routines. However, keep in mind that your attention is needed. You don’t want to try to capture or contrive a learning opportunity when in a rush. Also, praise your child for his/her efforts. Even if this may seem irrelevant at times, positive feedback will go a long way!
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