Ideas / Modeling
An idea from Sui Learning
Modeling
They copy what you do and ignore what you say. Master your own culture first.
In plain words
Children learn far more from watching than from being told. Budget the way you teach budgeting. Speak the way you teach speaking. Keep trying at something hard where they can see you do it. Let your children catch you doing the thing you want from them, because the lecture will be forgotten and the example will not. Every great teacher is a great student.
The research behind it
- Children who watched an adult act aggressively toward a doll copied both the actions and the words. Albert Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila Ross, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 63, no. 3 (1961).
- Fifteen-month-olds who watched an adult struggle and keep trying made more attempts at a hard task of their own. Julia Leonard, Yuna Lee, and Laura Schulz, Science 357 (2017).
Questions this answers
- How do children learn habits from their parents?
- How do I teach my child good habits?
- Why doesn't my child listen to what I say?
In the book
In Sui Learning: First Principles; The Parent as Teacher.
Read the full answers
How do I reduce my child's screen time without a fight?
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Cite this idea. Trenton Rich, "Modeling," in Homeschooling to Create High Achievers in All Areas of Life: Sui Learning (2022), suilearn.ing/idea-modeling.html. Free to quote, copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. The book itself is under normal copyright.