We all know how literally children take our words. Not until\nthe age of 6 or 7 at the earliest do children begin to grasp nuances of\nteasing, levity, or criticism. A fine example of this literal thinking occurred\none morning as I was driving my six year old to school. I was listening to the\nmarket report and the financial guru said, \u201cThe dollar jumped against the\nGerman mark yesterday.\u201d My six year old asked just how could a dollar jump? She\nhad listened carefully and interpreted literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This observation is important in your teaching of children\nunder the age of ten. They are mostly still literal thinkers. This is why\nteasing, sarcasm, and ridicule are so dangerous with young children. They\nassume the literal interpretation of your words. Teachers and parents may tease\nor ridicule a child over actions that are embarrassing to them without\nrealizing that the problem is theirs, not the child\u2019s. Don\u2019t damage a child\u2019s\nself-esteem over your hang-ups. Dobson and many other fine Christian counselors\ntell us that a child\u2019s self esteem must be firmly in place before he starts\nschool, or failure may easily set in when he thinks he is not capable or like\nother children because he has heard so much ridicule about his poor habits (or\nones that his parents don\u2019t like) and not enough about his good ones. It\u2019s\nreally about literal thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider how many jokes your younger children don\u2019t get or\nthe fact that they don\u2019t start telling jokes themselves until they are older.\nWhy? Because they don\u2019t get them! Of course, the precocious child will be ahead\nof the curve, but frequently, he will have to tell his jokes to older people,\nnot to his peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teachers (and that includes the ultimate teachers, parents)\nmust take into account the thinking level of their students. So does that mean\nthat one can\u2019t laugh and have fun with young children? Of course not. The\nliteral fun of humorous pictures or examples (see my column on potato heads of\nOctober, 2005) is what young children find enjoyable. They listen intently to\nskits, illustrated lessons, or puppet ministries because the words are acted\nout literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The point here is to measure your words carefully. Young\nchildren are literal. What about the teenager? They are much more capable of\nunderstanding levity and nuance, but they are also at one of the most\nvulnerable stages in their lives and may need more encouragement than you \nrealize. This is why it is important to begin lessons with a positive or\nencouraging statement. Even if your lesson is about the consequences of bad\nchoices or wrong associations, a good teacher will start with the positive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7908","eutychus-article","type-eutychus-article","status-publish","hentry","category-eutychus"],"yoast_head":"\n