

Tips and tricks for learning a new task
01 August, 2022 • Par Laurence Morency-Guay
With school comes many tasks to accomplish: preparing lunches, morning routine (breakfast, dressing, hygiene, etc.), filling the school bag and doing homework. Many parents wonder how to best support their children in learning these tasks and help them become independent in carrying them out. Here are some ideas to support children in their involvement in daily tasks .
Social learning
One of the pillars of learning behaviors in children is modeling . Children learn a lot by observing the adults around them. By modeling the behaviors you want your children to adopt, you provide them with an example to follow and make learning easier when the time comes.
For example, if you have a clear morning routine and your children observe you eating, getting dressed, and brushing your teeth each day, they will naturally be able to follow suit when the time comes. If they observe you doing the steps of packing lunches, it will also be easier for them to incorporate them when they are involved in the task.
Supporting
As Vygotsky presents in his learning theory, the child develops in the heart of different proximal zones, that is to say that there are periods when he will be more inclined to learn certain things and that it is therefore up to the parent to seize these opportunities to help him develop his skills. Early childhood is a proximal zone of development for several skills related to routines and daily tasks, which is why it may be optimal to start encouraging the child to perform certain actions even before he starts school. With the help of scaffolding, the parent can let the child accomplish certain things alone, then help him just to the limit of what he is no longer able to do himself. Concretely, let's take dressing. It is possible that at 4 years old, the child is able to dress all his pieces himself, but that he is not able to do up the zipper of his sweater by himself. By letting him put on his clothes and only intervening to help him do up the zipper, we ensure that we support the child in what he is capable of doing alone without discouraging him by insisting that he finish what is more challenging for him . Eventually, we can put on the fasteners and let him do up the zipper himself to eventually allow him to do it all alone. This is the principle of scaffolding, which I also call learning by levels.
Another example is lunch preparation. First, following the principle of scaffolding, we might expect the child to place the ready-made dishes and bags in his lunch bag, then to start preparing some parts of his lunch (such as snacks), then to make his own sandwich, and so on. The complexity of the task evolves as the child masters the simpler parts of what he has to accomplish.
Concrete thinking
School-age children learn by experimenting and manipulating. According to Piaget's theory, children have concrete thinking from the age of 6-7, which allows them to understand their environment and adapt to it. In order to support children in completing their tasks, it may be relevant to offer them visual cues that are a concrete indication of the steps to follow in completing the different tasks.
For example, why not provide children with a chart with the steps of their morning routine ? This will allow them to guide themselves in relation to each task to be accomplished. We can also give them a visual cue of what should be in their lunch box that could be displayed directly in their lunch box, for example. This will facilitate the development of learning the daily tasks to be performed, until their cognitive abilities allow them to perform them without cues.
Want to learn more about learning a task in steps? Check out our blog post on the topic !
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