Transcript
0:00 Before I had the skills of conscious discipline, I would say to my children in the classroom, "Clean up the toys. It's time to clean up." Most of the time, they would stand and look at me like this, like a deer in headlights, right? Because I hadn't shown them what it was that I wanted it to look like. Young children do not have the executive skills to be able to know what that's going to look like unless I show it to them. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to model it so they can create a visual image of that and have a mental model of what that looks like so that they'll be able to do it later and they will use that and pull on that later in life. One of the ways we I would do this with young children is I I would say let's practice. So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to pretend to play with the blocks. And so it's time to play. And so they would all just kind of build with their blocks.
0:56 And then I would say, "When you hear me say stop, you're going to stop playing. You're going to pick up the blocks and you're going to put them in the bag." That's cleaning. So we're going to practice playing, stopping, and cleaning. Are you ready? And then I give this the cue. So we practice playing, then I'll say stop. Pick up the toys and put them in the bag. And while I'm teaching this with kids, I'm going to model it, too.
Summary
- Young children lack the executive skills to understand tasks without guidance.
- Modeling desired behaviors helps children visualize and internalize expectations.
- Practicing tasks, such as cleaning up, reinforces learning through repetition.
- The speaker uses cues like "stop" to signal transitions from play to cleanup.
- Engaging children in practice sessions fosters their ability to follow instructions.
- Demonstrating actions alongside verbal instructions enhances comprehension.
- This approach builds foundational skills that children can apply later in life.