How To Motivate Your Child To Learn

Motivating a child to learn is not the same thing as forcing the child to learn. While the latter involves threat, punishment, and fear, the former has to do with the child developing interest in learning. When a child develops interest in learning, learning becomes second nature to him or her. A child that is forced and coerced to learn finds learning difficult. A child that is motivated to learn finds joy, fulfillment and interest in learning. 

Learning is one of the learned behaviours we humans pass through. We learn to use the potty, learn to use the spoon, we learn to read the alphabets and numbers and so on. Most of these activities were easily grabbed by toddlers because of interest. For example, when a child starts to walk, the child derives joy in walking that is why when the child falls, he or she gets right back up again. The trill of learning to stand and walk against sitting make the child keeps walking.

Parents should arouse learning interest in their children as a duty. While some children enjoy learning others still battle with studying or learning. Now, the following are six ways you can motivate your child to learn:

1.   Sell Reading To Your Child: The cliché, readers are leaders still holds true. The more one reads the more the interest he has in learning. As a parent, encourage your child to read from age 2. Let them read pictures books and audio books. Invest in books for your child and create a reading environment in your home. Ensure you buy twice as many books for your child than toys. Children that develop interest in reading early derives interest in learning easily compared to those who don’t.

Reading develops your child’s vocabulary and knowledge. As you buy books for your child, it is equally important to read to them and let them read to you too. As a parent, let your children see you read in your spare time. You will be surprised that when you are studying they will be motivated and want to imitate you. Personally, I have two children one age seven the other age four and I buy books for them. I realize they like cartoons so I buy story books, cartoon character books, comic character books etc. I saw that books about cartoon characters they watched on TV motivate them to read the book, so I made it a habit. A child that struggles with reading will struggle with learning, start introducing them to books.

2.   Adopt Different Learning Styles: Instead of adopting a single learning style, make it a point of duty by applying different styles. It is a known fact that using different learning styles give better result compared to sticking to one. Every child is unique in the way he or she learns, your duty as a parent is to discover your child’s learning preference and exploit it. Psychologist submitted that there are five learning styles which include: visual, auditory, verbal, physical, logical (mathematics), social and solitary learning styles. Children, therefore, vary the way they learn.

For instance, children who are visual in learning, learn best with pictures or seeing how things work. On the other hand, auditory children learn best by listening to explanations. It will be disastrous to adopt the wrong style, hence the need to discover your child learning style. For growing children, it is best to adopt a combination of the learning styles for best result.

3.   Make Learning Fun: Learning should not be restricted to the classroom alone. Learning should be fun for children to enjoy it. Children love to do fun things, they love to play, run, jump, laugh and so on. If learning is boring, some children would lose interest in it. Learning can be fun when games are applied to it – game-based learning. There are a lot of educational games out there that will cement your child’s learning skill and abilities. Game-based learning is the fastest way a child can learn. Games like Scrabble, chess, spelling games, number games, puzzles etc have a way of improving children mental development. Experts said playing computer games can increase one’s IQ.

4.   Focus On The Positive – interest and strength: Parents should discover areas of their children’s interests and focus on it. For example, logical children would find learning fun when it involves mathematical operation. In this wise, discover your child’s interest and focus on those areas. The more you focus on your child’s area of interest the better the child becomes in learning. Similarly, as you focus on your child’s interest, also focus on his strength too. As you focus on his strength, you gradually shift closer to address his weakness. If your child passed mathematics but failed English, ensure you congratulate him for the mathematics he passed before working on addressing his failure in English.

5.   Celebrate Your Child: Further to the point above, celebrating your child for success will motivate him to do more. There are series of powerful words of encouragement you can use to motivate your child e.g. you are awesome, you are amazing, you are outstanding, you are the best, you rock etc. Words like these will make the child want to learn and succeed just to hear your positive words to him.

6.   Avoid The Use Of Negative Words: Avoid name calling when your child is not doing well. Do your best to encourage him. Negative words go deep into a child’s psychic and if care is not taken would mar his future. Many of such children lose their self-esteem because of negative words used on them. Apart from negative words, comparing your children with other people’s children is even worse. Never compare your children with each other or with other children - it is a grave error. Every child is unique in his or her way.

Bottom Line

Learning is a function of a child’s willingness and attitudes towards education. One thing that should be taken away from all these is that any child can learn if motivated. Therefore, it is the duty of parents and teachers to adopt the best of strategies to encourage their children to learn. Learning is fun and must be kept so. The more a child learns, the better he gets.

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