How Does Your Toddler/Preschooler Learn?

Why is it important to foster learning in the early years?

-The first six years of life are crucial to development
-Early experience, particularly during the first three years, affect the wiring and sculpting of
billions of neurons in the brain. This process lasts a lifetime. If these connections arent
developed in the early years, it affects the childs learning for the rest of his/her life.
-This is why we need to have an understanding of how they learn, so we can provide an
environment that encourages optimum development.
How do you view your child?
-Your view of your child is extremely important in their learning process!
-It is important to view children as competent and capable beings. A focus should be put on their
potential as opposed to noticing what they cant do.
-Keep in mind there is nothing your child cant do; they just cant do it YET.
-When you believe your child cant do something, they think they cant do it, and if they dont
have confidence in themselves and their abilities, it impacts their performance.
-Always make sure your child is being challenged. Never take away a challenge to make things
easier for them, instead help them overcome that obstacle.
-Try to provide puzzling age appropriate activities, even if they are difficult for the child. If you
provide activities that are simplified for them, and no longer challenging, it is less beneficial to
them.
What do we do when a child cant do something YET?
- The gap between what a child can do on their own and what they can do with assistance is
sometimes called the Zone of Proximal Development.
-During this gap, is is best to help the child in the least intrusive way so that they can complete
the task as independently as possible. This is sometimes referred to as scaffolding.
-In order to encourage learning and determination it is best not to take over a task for a child
because they are struggling. Instead, they should be encouraged to do it themselves and keep
trying. If this is not possible, we want to help out the most minimal way we can so that they can
still learn themselves. The next times this same task is done, the child should require less help.
The child should require less and less assistance each time, until he/she can do it on his/her own.
-It can be hard to allow a child to be challenged, because it is a timely process, but this is how
they learn. If you know you have somewhere to be, take into consideration if it is going to take a
while for the child to be independent along the way and try to prepare for that.
-Taking over for a child only teaches them that someone will always help them and conquer their
challenges for them, but this obviously isnt true.
How does the child learn?
1. Exploring
-Toddlers and Preschoolers learn through exploring new things.
-Children thrive in spaces that call them to investigate, imagine, problem solve and create, even
more so, when the environment contains open-ended materials that have endless possibilities
- When you see your child playing, it may not look like they are learning, but they are.

-Children explore as they play in order to master a problem. They then assimilate (how children
incorporate new information into their existing knowledge) what they have learned during play
and apply it to existing situations
-The childs interpretation of what they have learned is called a schema
-If the childs schema isnt entirely correct, the process of accommodation is required.
-Example:
-When a child sees a dog outside and points to the dog but calls it by his or her dogs name. The
child has connected that the dog outside is like his or her pet, but doesnt quite yet understand
that the animal is called a dog.
*The child has assimilated the connection about what a dog is, but the schema isnt entirely
correct. When the parent explain that the dog is called a dog, that is accommodation.
2. Involvement
-Children do not learn as effectively when information is being relayed on to them. Mostly
because the interest often isnt there. Children learn best when they are interested and engaged in
what they are learning. This is why circle time often isnt interesting to all the children
attending.
How do we involve children?
-Involve the child in daily processes such as cooking, cleaning, dressing etc. if they enjoy it. This
is how they learn life skills.
-With all activities it is about the Process not Product. The vital skills the child learns through
doing the activity always outweighs how the actual project turns out.
3. Observation
-Children learn through watching what their friends, siblings, parents etc. do. This is why having
positive role models is important.
-Children learn through their social interactions with their peers during play
- As much as children can sometimes mimic negative behaviours, and this can be hard, when
children copy behaviours, parents can take advantage of the situation.
-If you find your child copies behaviours, and you want him/her to learn something, model it.
i.e.: table manners.
Is Screen Time Educational?
-No
-Children under two should have no screen time at all. It deprives them of real environmental
stimulation which they require an abundance of in the first 2 years.
-Children over two should be limited to less than one or two hours, HOWEVER, studies have not
managed to find any benefits from screen time. The only exception is with apps such as
FaceTime where there is human interaction.
- Too much screen time can:
Make it hard for your child to sleep at night
Raise your child's risk of attention problems, anxiety, and depression
Raise your child's risk of obesity
- Screen Time is Anti Social- In the first few years of life, the frontal lobe (responsible for
comprehending social interactions) is developing. If children spend too much time using screens
in this period, they can have trouble making friend later due to lack of development of this lobe.

Apps/ Video Games:

- Apps/Video games have been found to be considered addictive for children.
WHY?
-When every finger swipe results in a response of colors and shapes and sounds, a childs brain
responds with the neurotransmitter dopamine (a key component in our reward system that is
associated with feelings of pleasure). Dopamine hits in the brain can feel almost addictive, and
when a child gets too used to an immediate response from heir actions, they begin to expect it,
even in reality.
-For older children, games often have some form of reward system. This reward system itself can
be addicting. Video games have been shown to increase dopamine levels by as much as 100%.
(Thats doubling the standard dopamine level).