Recognizing the Developmental Level of Children and Refusing to Help Push Children Prematurely!
Conrad Ho, Shanghai, China, Dec. 13, 2015
It was at the end of the second day of Brain Gym Teacher Practicum in Shanghai on 10 December 2015. A participant who was running a kindergarten asked how Brain Gym could help preschool children to build up a good foundation for handwriting so that they would not hold a pen too tight or encounter other problems. Amy Choi asked, “How old are the kids?” In reply, she said, “Most of them are five to six years old.” Amy told her that according to the physiological development level, children should only begin to learn to write at eight years old.
The participant was surprised. “Nowadays, most kindergarten children start learning to write from four years old onwards. All parents are looking for ways to make children write better. If learning to write should only start at eight….”
At that moment, Conrad Ho joined in the discussion and said, “It does not mean children cannot play with writing using a pen even though they should not start learning to write before eight. But children should do this on their own initiative and may stop if they want to without being scolded. Children would shift their attention to other activities if they are bored or tired of playing with writing. In this way, children would not accumulate stress, and it would be alright to let them write with a pen.”
The participant still wanted to discuss the question further as to how to accommodate market demands in training children to write. However, the market practice of training children to write most probably had not taken into account the developmental level and progress of children! Really, it would not be a blessing for children. Conrad thus interrupted by saying, “I just want to ask you. Do you want to help pushing children prematurely?”
Parents, if you truly wanted to seek well-being for your children, please respect their developmental levels and make reference to it in the process of raising them? If someone made unreasonable requests on your children (for example, kindergarten teachers requiring your children to write neatly within small squares, or primary children were required to attend lessons and do homework all day long in the classroom while not allowed to run in the playground.) which they could not meet or do well. If that somebody came to ask you to help in forcing your child to do such things, would you agree to help?
It was the fourth day of the Brain Gym Teacher Practicum on 12 December 2015. Four groups of to-be-instructors presented their Brain Gym promotion sessions that they designed. Basically, the themes were all around how to help children learn faster and better. That was of course a good thing, and was actively sought after by the market.
Conrad asked the trainee instructors to consider one question. If their service (Brain Gym or otherwise) could help children learn faster and better, what would parents, schools and even the governments do? My personal guess was that they would fill the brains of children with even more stuff.
This was what I meant by “help pushing children”. If more things could be stuffed into the brains of children, adults would do so, given the current societal atmosphere. Facilitating children to learn could relieve their pressure in the short term. However, it may mean even greater pressure for them in the long term.
That was why when I did promotion sessions, apart from providing ways to facilitate learning, if adults were present and circumstances allowed, I would include information regarding developmental stages of children to enable adults to understand the learning effectiveness or developmental limitations of children. In this way, they would know they should stop at appropriate limit, and would not stuff things into the brains of children unreasonably and endlessly.
Again, using learning to write as an example. Why do we say that children should only start at the age of eight or above? One of the reasons is that the wrist and palm bones of younger children are still made of cartilage and have not been fully calcified. Their hands are still very soft, and it is difficult for them to have precision in mechanical operations of the hands. This is why kindergarten children should not be required to write within small squares. During my promotion sessions, I used to remove the upper half of the hard plastic shaft of a ball pen, revealing the soft ink shaft inside. Then, I asked parents to use it to write within small squares, simulating the experience of children when they write. Most parents gave up trying within a few minutes. Imagine how little children would feel when they have to do handwriting exercises and homework everyday.
Not helping push children prematurely is not just an ideal, a belief, a decision or a slogan; it should actually be incorporated in our behaviours and actions. At the same time of promoting courses, we should also educate adults about the principles of children development to enable them to be reasonable in their requests on children.
