Process of Learning

We all learn to crawl before we can walk, before we can run or skip or master a hundred other movements. No one would expect a child to be able to support her own weight before her muscles and bones, tendons and ligaments, have developed enough to allow her to stand unassisted. The body learns in stages, dependent upon its previous developments, and so it is with the mind. As educators and specialists in preschool-aged children, we find we are consistently fielding questions from parents of young children regarding the acquirement of reading, writing and math skills.

Trust us when we say, relax! Your child will come to these in her own time and in her own way. Every mind is different, but we share some common ground. The following is a kind of checklist to help illustrate the processes of learning to read and write language and work with numbers. We cannot emphasize this point enough: they are processes. A child may appear to wake up one morning and suddenly be able to string together words on a page, read a street sign, or add two and two, but these events are only outward manifestations of several inner processes coming into alignment. These processes take years, and the acquisition and development of language, for example, is one that never ends. As adults we are still learning to properly express the nuances of our languages and continuing to expand our vocabulary, and few of us have plumbed the depths of mathematical understanding.

These are never-ending processes, and should be valued as such! The road doesn’t end when a child can read and write, add and divide. We need to take the pressure off before we squash the joy out of learning completely. So, here are somethings to keep in mind as you observe your child’s progress.

Many of the following are appropriate to more than one category of learning:

  • Awareness of quality (colour, texture, comparatives andsuperlatives)

  • Awareness of quantity (shape, size, amount, density)

  • Classification (grouping, dissection, ordering, sensoryawareness)

  • Completion of a cycle (set-up, commitment to a task,tidy-up) Concentration (patience, direct link to complexity of work)

  • Conflict resolution (talking it out, use tools like “talking stick,” practice good listening)

  • Co-ordination (gross and fine motor, control of motion and movement, balance)

  • Desire (interest, impetus must come from within the child, thirst for knowledge)

  • Drawing (refinement of detail and increasing complexity indicate progress)

  • Imagination (creative writing, solo- and small group-play)

  • Imaginative play (role-playing, scripting for each other, invention, adaptability)

  • Initiative (independence, choice, decision)

  • Intuition (trusting instincts, developing a conscience, knowing yourself)

  • Listening to stories (read to them, increase exposure to cultural depth and diversity)

  • Matching (1:1, number to quantity, or letter to sound, like to like)

  • Memory (accumulation of knowledge, facility of recall, interconnection)

  • Music (rhythm, tempo, melody, harmony, instrumentation, composition)

  • Natural world (nautilus, crystals, branching, honeycomb)

  • Observation (attention to detail, nuance, alterations, all the little things)

  • Phonetic alphabet sounds (oral component to spelling)

  • Pincer grip (to hold a pencil with strength, comfort and greater control)

  • Scanning (left-to-right for English)

  • Scribbling (essential prep for writing)

  • Sentence structure (verbal usage, using I statements, vocabulary enrichment)

  • Sequencing (calendar, story, size, colour shading)

  • Storytelling (self-expression, sentence structure, character/plot/setting)

  • Teach by example (model passion for learning, children sense the truth of your emotion)

  • Tracing shapes of letters/numbers (sandpaper boards, cornmeal)

    What to do at home:

  • Care of home environment

  • I Spy (colour, sound, shape)

  • Puzzles (geometry, completion, concentration)

  • Rhyming games

Some children are gifted in language or math, art or music; some learn sooner than others, some children amble down the path while others run full speed ahead. Your child probably doesn’t have the same schedule as you, and it’s hers that really counts when it comes to learning and selfexpression. Please give your child the credit she deserves for having acquired the skills she has. Without them she’ll never make it to the next level. If she’s pushed to reach an imaginary goal before she’s ready she may feel as though she’s trying to catch up for the rest of her academic career.

Give them space and time to acclimatize. We raise and teach our children in a literary culture, so we have become used to undervaluing the skills prized by an oral culture. Keen sensory awareness and observational skills, a depth of perception and a refined memory all feed our understanding of the world, the creatures we share it with, and ourselves. The stories of our lives unfold in our minds and our imaginations, and few of us will ever record them.

The stories children tell are just as valuable, if not more so, as the ones they may write down. At WMCC we actively encourage storytelling, not only as a means of self-expression but to introduce children to giving a story purpose and form.