3 Ways Your Child’s Emotions Impact Learning

colleen — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:00:16 +0000

As we understand that the brain is plastic and can change, research has also proven to us that the approach used and methods involved must elicit positive feedback from the child to engage the act of learning.

In other words, if the child is not actively excited and engaged with the learning, very little to nothing may be sticking. If your child is just sitting at their desk in school with their head propped on their hands, no chemicals are being released to capture and store the new learning.

The same goes for brain training and remediation. If your child is not "having fun" to a degree and basically dreads the sessions, then not too much will come from the work. If this is the case with your child, you need to let your trainer(s) know about this immediately. Where ever you are getting brain training and/or remediation, the organization should be well versed in this research and be able to quickly turn the situation into a win/win with successful results.

We have been learning that the prefrontal cortex is key to affect, memory and learning. Research is now proving that a child's emotional state and their ability to self-regulate is extremely important to the success of learning. The following are three reasons how your child's emotions impact learning.

1. Research is now able to track how negative emotions or an anxious child can easily reduce their cognitive and memory ability. We most likely see this playing out as "I'm not interested" in what you are doing or saying but I'll follow along to avoid getting in trouble.

2. The chemical cortisol is released when a child is anxious and too much of this chemical, too often, is now showing that it can literally damage the connections in the brain. fMRI studies have captured before / after brain pictures showing the impact of anxiety and negative emotions on learning and structure of the brain.

3. Our same systems from the stone age (literally) kick in and stay "ON" when your child is upset or bullied. However, without having your child learn emotional regulation strategies to manually shut these systems off, they release the cortisol and begin to cause havoc. If your child is able to manually shut off the emotions and "adjust" accordingly, all will be fine.

So what do you do? As I pointed out in the beginning, excitement is a good thing when your child is engaged and "motivated" to progress. Excitement in the negative sense of anxiety is not a great thing and must be regulated by your child to enable progression in learning and avoid memory issues.

As most of you know, Maurice Sendak's beloved book Where the Wild Things Are is out in theatres 10/16/09. You can see an adapted version of the book on Youtube.com.

In this book, the young boy uses childlike imagination to confront real anxieties and fears. The boy "tames" the wild things and befriends them eventually choosing to leave them in his imagination on their little island. So what's the message here?

Instead of just teaching your child to "ignore it" or "let it go", perhaps it is time, depending on your child's age, to begin helping your child confront the anxiety. What is the root cause of the anxiety? Your child ask these questions and write answers out in a journal. For example, Why am I so worried about the test? Why am I worried if I do not pass? Why am I worried if I have to ask for help? Your child will begin to learn how to regulate the anxiety by questioning and confronting the "logic" behind the false fears.

When we work with your child and anxiety shows itself, we begin to ask similar questions, using different types of strategies to help your child regulate the emotion. Your child recognizes the emotional state and understands how to calm themselves. This is one important piece that helps to eliminate the homework meltdowns.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Remember, at Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids, we work with your child to assess, observe and measure any weaknesses that may be sabotaging your child's ability to progress academically. Then, we transform the weaknesses into strengths helping your child bridge the gap to independent learner.

When you compare the value that ELS4KIDS provides you and your family through specialized, research-based approaches delivered using 1-1 vs 3-1 at a typical learning/tutoring center that may have your child attending for years, why not consider our Student Transformation System and save some of your hard earned money, time and energy?

Brain training provides a personalized, individualized, fun way to ultimately lay the foundation for your child's future. Once brain training is done, you can still work with a tutor if you choose and at least know you have a start and end date for their services.

Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » emotions

3 Ways Your Child’s Emotions Impact Learning

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