Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests
Now there is a scientific evidence, that concentrating on positive feedback with our little ones works better then pointing out their mistakes!
Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback ('Well done!'), whereas negative feedback ('Got it wrong this time') scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently.
Learning from our own mistakes is a difficult process. Even for adults. The radically new study compares three age groups: children 8-9, 11-12 and adults 18-25. Previously the studies were comparing kids against the adults, never separating children into different age groups. Apparently, negative feedback doesn't even activate cognitive areas of the brain for the younger kids, necessary to trigger the learning process. On the other hand, positive feedback, has a very strong effect on smaller kids' brains:
In children aged 8 to 9, the areas of the brain involved in cognitive control show strong activation following positive feedback.
Read more and review the images at ScienceDaily:Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests
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I'm having a little bit of a
I'm having a little bit of a hard time believing these "findings". Even the tiniest infants learn from mistakes - they learn not to bite their tongue because it hurts, not to crawl off of the bed because the tumble to the floor will be unpleasant, not to touch fire because they will get burned... Virtually everything that little kids learn, they learn through trial and error. And trial and error means getting a lot of wrong answers until you figure out the right answer, which is entirely "learning from one's mistakes".
A two-year-old figuring out a puzzle is learning from his mistakes. A four-year-old trying to figure out how to tie his shoe is learning from his mistakes. A ten-month-old figuring out how to get a spoon from the plate to his mouth is learning from his mistakes. A three-month-old trying to grab at a rattle is learning from his mistakes. Virtually all of learning, all of life, is learning from our mistakes, and no one does better at this than tiny kids.
When we try something and it's unpleasant, we avoid it in the future - when we find something that's pleasurable, we go back to it. And certainly, if animals can be trained by learning from their mistakes, than certainly human children can surpass the same!
I agree that children do
I agree that children do learn from mistakes - I believe that after 2-3 months the infants start developing "cause-effect" memory, so even a tiny child who touches hot kettle, will be more careful not to do it in the future. Or the "little Albert" experiment - the hideous experiment conducted in the beginning of the century, where every time the baby was touching a snake, a loud and scary bang would happen behind him. On the third time poor child was starting to cry every time he saw a snake. So, kids do learn from negative experiences.
However, I think this study indicates that when it comes to our feedback, it is the positive feedback that is getting to kids the best. Negative feedback is destructive for kids self-esteem, self-confidence... and, as the study indicates, doesn't teach them much about their mistakes. It is the positive feedback that is helping them to progress the best.
In How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish, the authors actually give an example where one mom was using praise to improve her daughter's unsightly handwriting: when her initial attempts to criticize the homework didn't bring any positive results, she started pointing out the letters (and later words) that looked better then others. Having positive examples of her own attempts, her daughter was inspired to try harder and actually improved dramatically.
So I do think that it is more helpful to concentrate on the positive and let the child strive towards his best, then on the negative hoping that he "will learn from his mistakes".
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