How Children Learn?

Babies and Learning


Children are enquisitive and eager to learn but they do have short attention spans so learning has o be fun and engaging.  Psychologists first believed that a baby’s mind was a blank canvas on which experiences could be imprinted on.

A number of different methodologies arose which challenge this theory.

3 Examples:

• Non nutritive sucking - Babies may suck their thumb, fingers, pacifier, or other inanimate objects such as a blanket or toy

• Habituation - Babies learn to stop responding to a stimulus which is no longer biologically relevant

• Visual Expectation - Babies can use their expectations about the world to rapidly shape their developing brains

learning through the senses 

Baby's explore most things through the 5 senses; taste, touch, sight, smell and sound. This is the easiest way for a baby to explore and gain knowledge of an object because it allows them closer access to the object. 

3 recognised approaches to improving a child's learning:

• Building on pre-existing knowledge: Taking the familiar in order to explain the unfamiliar. 
• Transferring Knowledge: Applying the learned information to a real life situation 
• Memory Strategies: Repetition or rhyme Summarising or Grouping

Learning Types:

• Auditory Learning - through sound
• Visual Learning  - through sight
• Kinaesthetic Learning - through doing

It is best when teaching to use a variety of these learning types to ensure you reach out every child.

What type of learner am i? 

I think i am primarily a Kinaesthetic learner because through past experiences i have always learnt best when doing; i always say the best way to learn is to do. Wether it be sport, music or lectures, i find information is best retained when i am physically doing an activity related to what we are learning. I also think i am a visual learner as i like to look at diagrams etc. before hand and then go into doing an activity, just so i have visual data in my head of what we are doing. 

I find it difficult to learn in quiet environments as i then tend to lack concentration. I like to learn in busy and interactive settings as i feel it engages my attention more. 

How Children Learn?

Babies and Learning

Psychologists first believed that a baby’s mind was a blank canvas on which experiences could be imprinted on.

A number of different methodologies arose which challenge this theory.

3 Examples:

• Non nutritive sucking - Babies may suck their thumb, fingers, pacifier, or other inanimate objects such as a blanket or toy

• Habituation - Babies learn to stop responding to a stimulus which is no longer biologically relevant

• Visual Expectation - Babies can use their expectations about the world to rapidly shape their developing brains

learning through the senses 

Baby's explore most things through the 5 senses; taste, touch, sight, smell and sound. This is the easiest way for a baby to explore and gain knowledge of an object because it allows them closer access to the object. 

3 recognised approaches to improving a child's learning:

• Building on pre-existing knowledge: Taking the familiar in order to explain the unfamiliar. 
• Transferring Knowledge: Applying the learned information to a real life situation 
• Memory Strategies: Repetition or rhyme Summarising or Grouping

Learning Types:

• Auditory Learning - through sound
• Visual Learning  - through sight
• Kinaesthetic Learning - through doing

What type of learner am i? 

I think i am primarily a Kinaesthetic learner because through past experiences i have always learnt best when doing; i always say the best way to learn is to do. Wether it be sport, music or lectures, i find information is best retained when i am physically doing an activity related to what we are learning. I also think i am a visual learner as i like to look at diagrams etc. before hand and then go into doing an activity, just so i have visual data in my head of what we are doing. 

I find it difficult to learn in quiet environments as i then tend to lack concentration. I like to learn in busy and interactive settings as i feel it engages my attention more. 

Photo's i took at the National Archives, London

^Queen Elizabeth 1

^William Shakespeare's will

These were two of the pictures i took of two of the artefacts we seen at the National Archives.  

National Archives Trip

For our main assessed brief we will be creating an E-Book for the National Archives, London. The book is about significant people in British history and will be used by teachers all across the country to teach their class about these three significant people.

To start we were given a list of 10 people who the TNA (The National Archives) thought to be the most significant people in British history. Our job is to pick three of these ten and then create an activity  book which will engage children aged 5-7 yrs.

I found the trip very rewarding and helpful as it allowed me the opportunity to speak with the clients in person ad get their wants/needs and what they don't want put into this E-Book. It was important for me to meet with the clients at TNA because i felt a bit in the dark to start with and i wasn't a 100% confident with the brief. All that lack of confidence has gone now which i am glad to say and i now feel fully confident to deliver an engaging and exciting book for TNA.

After some research and debate the 3 significant people i am choosing are as follows:

 1 - William Shakespeare
 2 - Captain. William Cook
 3 - Elizabeth 1 of England

I have chosen these three people as they are all roughly similar times in history and i want to showcase how diverse they were and how different their lives were.

 Captain James Cook

 Queen Elizabeth 1

William Shakespeare

Art Style's

Information books – 9-11 yr olds  

From ages 9 – 11 yrs old I think children want to be taken a bit more seriously and therefore like reading books which look more 'adult like'. Still plenty of images and bold fonts but there will be more text for the child to read. The layout will be more sophisticated with the colour pallet having a much bigger range. A series of books which suit this are the Doodling Kindersley books. These books were the highlight of my childhood and where i learnt most stuff from. these books make the child feel older and more like their older siblings/parents or teachers as they are reading something which looks and feels like a real book. 

Another type of book children of this age will like, are fierce looking books – animal books about dangerous species etc. From tv shows such as steve Irwin and deadly 60. This 'fear factor' gets children excited as most the species they read or hear about from these books are very exotic and might not have come across them before.

Picture book 3-6 yr olds

Picture books for 3-6 yr olds will vary quite a bit as a lot changes in the three years from 3 to 6. Saying this though there will be some characteristics which will carry on. These characteristics will include a lot of images and little text. These books tend to be very illustrative to try and engage the child and keep them interested. The colours will be bright but shading and texture will start to be introduced unlike the toddlers books where it is all block colours. texture i feel is a massive part to picture books as it adds depth to the page, which helps create a secret atmosphere in which the child is a part of.

A book which best suits these years is the Gruffalo. The Gruffalo is a book which every child will remember and it's not because of the story which makes us remember, it's the illustrations and just how intriguing and interesting they are. You get sucked into an imaginary world, full of all these odd but amazing looking things. 

Toddlers first objects books

Toddlers first object books will be very simple and bright. The colours will be block colours so the images are easily distinguished. The font will be big, bold and the kearning will be quite big to make it easy as possible for the toddler to see. The art style is quite generic for toddler picture books as you are limited to what you can do and how much detail you can put into the books as you don't want to overload the toddler and cause sensory confusion. You want the toddler to be as infused as possible, keeping him/her engaged throughout the whole book and using bright colours is a great way to do this.