NewsLetter #10 June 17, 2024
A Tool To Help Your Child Learn
A large part of being a parent is showing your child how to do things. Often these interactions are quick and spontaneously occur throughout the day. Educational Psychology calls these little spontaneous demonstrations, models. You may not realize, but anytime you are showing your child how to do something you are engaging in psychology with you child. Over the course of her childhood, your child will learn many things from you through models you provide her. Understanding something about producing behavioral models will be to your advantage as a parent. Just because you have shown your child how to do an action doesn’t mean your child clearly understood what you showed. The following description of a behavioral model will reduce the risk of that happening to you.
Parts of a Behavioral Model
A behavioral model has three parts: 1) actions performed, 2) explanatory prompts, and 3) an observer. Each of these parts has a specific function in providing your child information about the action you demonstrate. In this explanation of behavioral modeling, we assume you are showing your child the observable actions of some skill.
1) Actions Performed. You have probably chosen to show your child rather than tell her how to do an action. You are relying upon the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, but you are doing one better, you are providing a live demonstration of the actions your child will need to perform in the task you are modeling. Every model is an image of an event or object in the environment. The model is not the object or event but rather represents it. Thus, it is a representation. A representation is an abstraction from the real thing. This is an important concept, because models can easily be mistaken for the reality. The reality is more complex than any model and that fact is important. That simplification makes it useful for teaching.
The fact that your child is watching you perform the action matters in terms of how you will present these actions and what actions you will present. For example, if your child is young, you may simplify the task in recognition of her developmental level. You may also slow down the presentation. This modifications in your performance would not occur if you were simply doing the task as part of your daily work.
As a representation of actions and objects, the model presents information about the things it represents. A model that you create will not present all the information available from a naturally occurring instance of the action or object. This is because the social context in which it is presented, an instructional moment, will lack all the aspects of the natural context. You can include more or less information in your model. If the model represents information the observer has never seen before, then you will want to include less information in the model. For example, suppose you were modeling tying a bow knot with shoe laces to a younger child. For a younger child, a bow knot is a sequence of more complex manipulation of the shoe strings. For your first demonstration, you might want to show just the final step of the task, pulling the two bows tightly to form the knot. Thus, before directing the child’s attention to your model, you would complete the other steps, crossing the strings and forming the two loops. The only information your model is providing is grasping the two loops and pulling them tight to form the knot.
2) Explanatory Prompts. These are any means used to explain parts of the model. An explanatory prompt may be a gesture, a single word, sentences spoken during presentation of the model, pictures or diagrams accompanying the model, or a video accompanying the model. All explanations provided should be consistent with the observer’s cognitive and developmental skills. For example, you would not use complex sentences to explain parts of tying a shoe if the observer does not have the language development to comprehend complex sentences. A child two years of age does not have the language development to understand complex sentences. Such a child could understand simple sentences and individual words, only. A child of fifteen months would only understand gestures and names of objects and actions. Always check to make sure your child understands what you are saying to her.
3) The Observer. This is your child, the person to whom you are presenting the model. Always remember your child is in the process of developing skills. These developmental changes are produced by the natural growth of your child’s body and mind. In addition to the natural growth, there are changes resulting from your child’s experiences. Both are very powerful sources of change. To be an effective parent, you have to stay aware of the changes your child is experiencing. Childhood is a dramatic and confusing time for children. An important job as a parent is to help your child through that confusion.
The observer is part of the model. The models you present you child must take into account the skills your child demonstrates. We might ask, what tools does your child have in her skill tool chest? The purpose of using a model is to put more tools in that tool chest, but you have to begin with the tools that are there. One important characteristic that an observer brings to the model is a desire, really a drive, for competence. Parents want to know how to motivate their children. The most powerful motivating factor a parent possesses is their child’s desire to manage and control her world. Parents who do things for their children because it is more convenient, rob their children of this important characteristic. When their child shows lack of motivation, these parents then use artificial strategies that produce weaker motivation.
Your Child’s Most Influential Teacher
Your child’s most influential teacher is you! You mold your child’s future in important ways through the models that you present everyday. You can’t avoid the fact that your child is an observer of your behavior. You teach your child everyday how to respond to life through the models of your life. Knowing the parts of a model will help you become more aware of this important connection you and your child have. When you show your child how to do something, watch your child’s responses to your demonstration and her efforts to repeat it. Ask yourself, do I need to simplify my model? Should I have shown less or more parts of the task? Do I need to simplify the explanations I used? These questions will help you be more responsive to your child’s efforts and will strengthen the emotional connections between you and your child.