So many children find school boring or frustrating, but you can help your child find a love of learning that will last! Now that your child is nearly two years old, she is learning to explore and solve problems in new ways. You will find her more interested in trying new activities and materials, and she will be able to concentrate on activities for longer periods of time now that she’s developed a longer attention span. Now is the perfect time to help her develop her Engagement and Persistence skills so that she can build a lifelong love of learning!

Psychologist John Dewey believed that children learn best when they have a sincere interest in what they are learning and can build upon their existing knowledge, experiences, and understanding of the world.¹ While many studies have shown that a child’s engagement in learning is strongly related to improved attendance and achievement,² many children actually become less engaged as they enter their school years, losing interest in class activities, performing low on tests, and responding poorly to instructions or class participation.³

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Engagement and Persistence is an approach to learning that centers on your child’s ability to plan by setting goals and developing tasks, sustain attention on set tasks overtime regardless of distractions, and persist in completing the tasks and goals as planned.⁴ To help interest your child and build her determination to follow through on her learning, consider using these strategies in your playtime together:^2.4

• Explore new concepts by building on your child’s prior knowledge. You can do this by asking her the following questions to help plan your activity together: What do you already know about this subject? What are you wondering about? and What else do want to learn about the subject? By asking these questions, you’ll be able to help her plan out her experiment as well as expand her current knowledge base with the new information she’ll discover.
• Encourage active investigation and independent thinking. Now that your child is gaining independence and wants to strike out on her own to figure things out, let her. Not only will this initiative make her more invested in the learning process, but it will help broaden her cognitive skills by sharpening her problem solving and reasoning skills.
• Offer choices to build your child’s self-confidence and pride of ownership. Similarly, let her make (approved) choices about the activities she participates in. This practice will help give her a sense of self and autonomy,⁶ as well as create pride of ownership in her activities so that she will continue to stay engaged and persistent when she faces challenges or difficulties.
• Foster group interaction and collaboration. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky stated that young children are able maximize their learning through social interactions with trusted teachers and competent peers.⁷ Through group work, your child may be better able to solve problems as she and her friends work together and pool their experiences and ideas.
• Create action plans together that are within your child’s reach.⁸ Your child is learning on multiple levels, so help her reach victory by developing play activities with simple, multi-step instructions that she can complete on her own or with light support from you and/or others. Although you don’t want these experiments to be too easy for her to complete, make sure that they aren’t impossible either! Activities should be adapted to her current abilities and designed to help her master the next step of learning.
• Offer appropriate praise and encouragement.⁵ Be sure to praise your child for her efforts, because it’s the process that counts, not the end result. And remember to offer specific praise when it is deserved and try not to focus on praising her abilities, but rather her efforts and resiliency.⁸ Too much generic or ability-focused praising (e.g. “Good job!” or “You’re so smart completing those puzzles!”) does not necessarily help to build your child’s self-esteem, but instead can make her afraid to try new activities due to the risk of failure. Instead, try offering her encouragement by saying things like “You can do it,” “You finished a really hard puzzle,” and “Don’t stop trying, you can figure it out!”

While it’s important to keep these tips in mind, remember that your child is also more naturally determined to do things on her own at this age anyway! Whether it’s putting on her own socks and shoes, getting out her paint supplies to do artwork, or opening up a container of blocks, she may insist on doing many tasks without your help. Don’t be surprised if you find her swatting or pushing your hand away if you try to help before she thinks she needs it!

Be patient and support her efforts by watching and offering encouragement as she uses her problem-solving skills and persistence to tackle her challenges.⁹ If and when she does get stumped or needs your help, she’ll let you know by handing things over to you for some assistance. And if you see her getting frustrated, offer her a gentle reminder that you are there to help if she needs you.

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your child’s development of Engagement and Persistence skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Create opportunities for your child explore her own ideas and make decisions. Offer suggestions for a variety of activities to do and materials to use. Ask her to think of what she wants to do and help her make it happen (within reason!). As she plays, join her and extend her thinking by asking her open-ended questions that will cause her to think about what she’s doing, why she’s doing it, and how she’s doing it.
2. Help your child predict outcomes. If you see her trying something new, ask her what she thinks will happen as a result of the experiment. This practice will help her think through problems and focus on the possibilities of cause-and-effect relationships. Another way to encourage her to make predictions is to read a book together and discuss possible endings for the story before you finish reading it.
3. Let your child problem solve on her own.^9,10 Encourage her to develop her problem-solving skills and build her persistence on challenging problems by giving her free reign to work independently. While it may take her awhile to figure a task out or cause her some level of frustration, the benefits that come from accomplishing the task on her own (e.g. self-esteem, independence, and competency) will far outweigh these initial roadblocks!

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Engagement and Persistence developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Maintains focus on activities for longer periods of time.
• Enjoys cause and effect activities to develop knowledge and solve problems.

Sources:

¹Mooney, Carol Garhart (2000). Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

²Jablon, Judy R. and Wilkinson, Michael (2006). Using Engagement Strategies to Facilitate Children’s Learning and Success. National Association for the Education of Young People: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200603/JablonBTJ.pdf.

³Rossi, Robert and Montgomery, Alesia (1994). Education reforms and students at risk: A review of the current state of the art. American Institute for Research. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

⁴The Head Start Leaders Guide to Positive Child Outcomes (2003). Domain 7: Approaches to Learning. Head Start, Office of the Administration for Children and Families Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC). Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/teaching/eecd/individualization/temperament/edudev_art_00017txt_061705.html#Top.

⁵Hatfield, Heather. The Right Way to Praise Your Kids. WebMD. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/the-right-way-to-praise-your-kids.

⁶Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

⁷Liu, Angela (2012). Teaching in the Zone: An introduction to Working within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to Drive Effective Early Childhood Instruction. Children’s Progress. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from http://www.childrensprogress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/free-white-paper-vygotsky-zone-of-proximal-development-zpd-early-childhood.pdf.

⁸Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (2009). Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood.

⁹Alaska Department of Education and Early Development and Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. (2007). State of Alaska Early Learning Guidelines: A Resource for Parents and Early Educators.

¹⁰Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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