{"id":8405,"date":"2016-05-18T04:37:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T04:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2016-05-18T04:37:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T04:37:55","slug":"how-to-make-kids-think-effortlessly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/how-to-make-kids-think-effortlessly\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Kids Think \u2026 Effortlessly!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Basanti CS, Senior Faculty at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aicindia.in\/\" target=\"_blank\">Asian International College India<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I first started using Mediated Learning Experience (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thinkingconnections.org\/theory\/MLE.shtml\">MLE\u00a0<\/a>) with a few of my students, what intrigued me was the possibility of the impact that it could have on the kids in all the classrooms in all the schools across the globe. One of the benefits of MLE is that it enable kids to think and become more observant.<\/p>\n<p>MLE\u00a0 is the process where a parent or a teacher mediates to achieve a certain learning outcome by structuring, restructuring\u00a0 or modifying the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Once, I was interacting with a parent who was concerned about the learning levels of his child. The child had developmental delays. After interacting for a while I asked, \u2018 How do you spend time with him?\u2019 The parent said, \u2018We go to a mall on the weekends or to relatives\u2019 place\u2019. I asked again, \u2018How do you spend time with him during the week?\u2019 He said, \u201cSometimes I take him on a bike for grocery shopping. Usually, when I come back from the office he is watching TV and I either do my work or watch movies on my laptop!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Further probing revealed that the kid doesn\u2019t play with anyone as the mother avoids taking him out for play because she feels humiliated that her\u00a0 child doesn\u2019t speak properly. The mother also doesn\u2019t have much time to spend with the kid as she is always trying to catch up with household work.<\/p>\n<p>I asked the parent what would be the first thing they would want their child to learn and they said language. They agreed to work with the child, and a few interventions were suggested based on MLE:<\/p>\n<p>The key in this entire process is\u00a0<strong><em>interaction, instructions<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and how you\u00a0<strong>plan <\/strong>these\u00a0<strong>activities<\/strong>\u00a0that will make the child think and observe. For example, I asked the child\u2019s mother to involve him in small tasks like helping:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In sorting vegetables (when you buy vegetables mix them in the bag so that you can do this activity). You could ask the child, \u201cLet us keep all tomatoes in this bag, and brinjals in this one\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Bringing vegetables or fruits from the fridge. You could say \u201cCan you get me two tomatoes from the fridge?\u201d (Be ready for the mess. You might have to repeat the instruction and get this done under supervision the first time).<\/li>\n<li>Helping in folding clothes. You can demonstrate by folding a hand towel or a handkerchief. Give one to the child at the time when you are demonstrating. (He might not be able to fold anything in the beginning , which is fine!). Do not give up \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Keeping books and toys back in the cupboard, shelf or just stacking up to begin with. It is fine if the child is not able to do the full task, begin with you doing 80% of the task. Remember, it is not going to be easy because the tendency would be to finish household tasks in time. But, as a parent, we have to prioritise child\u2019s learning over work!<\/li>\n<li>Acknowledge the child for the good job he does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I asked the father to do the following things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When you go for grocery shopping ask, \u201cWhere are we going Aryan?\u2019 What are we going to buy?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>How are we going? Taking a bike or are we walking?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There will be more opportunities at the grocery store to ask such questions. The\u00a0 idea is how do we generate meaningful conversation and involve the child in it. It will sound a bit funny in the beginning if you are not a teacher but, gradually, you will see the impact of it. Asking questions is a very important and effective tool in the learning process.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, you need to be patient and it requires a little practice.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, the objective is to make child think, make choices and articulate responses. Sometimes, we tend to give answers when we see them struggling with certain things. For example, if the child is trying to stack up books and keeps a big book over a small one, let the child finish stacking up all the books. The chances are that books will fall or it will be an unsteady structure. Let the child experience this fall. You could tell the child if he wants to try again observe what he does. Generally, we keep teaching them how to stack in the right way, which is not wrong, however, some kids need to experience the unsteady structure first.<\/p>\n<p>All the interventions mentioned require thinking, planning, efforts and practice in the beginning. But, doing it few times and experiencing the impact you would want to use it more and hence it will become effortless in no time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Basanti CS, Senior Faculty at Asian International College India When I first started using Mediated Learning Experience (MLE\u00a0) with a few of my students, what intrigued me was the possibility of the impact that it could have on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-variety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8406,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions\/8406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gyanalok.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}