From Dawn Till Dusk

Nico has been so so so addicted to the Alphabet and numbers lately. Yes, as parents, we are so very proud and happy that he’s been inclined to it at an early age. Our budding pre-schooler have already mastered the names of the letters when we point on them. He’s now also able to find letters in words by name. Most importantly, Nico is now able to associate some of the letters with sounds they make in words!

But on the other thought, Jun and I are also starting to get worried. We are bothered that he’s not getting the just-alright/balanced play that a 2-year old (turning 3 on 01 April 2007) should normally have. The reasons being:

1. At daytime, he’s too glued to the TV just to watch the letters and numbers as they appear in the screen.
2. If the TV is turned off, he’d be more willingly satisfied reading his Alphabet and Number activity books and posters, ignoring for almost two months now his former favorite toys—the bicycle (that by the way needs to be cleaned as it is now dusting in gray), his Tonka trucks and Dada’s precious collection of matchboxes. And our budding pre-school is yet satisfied at that…
3. When outdoors after a long-afternoon nap, Nico was such a snub. He would prefer to read carplates, street signs, gate numbers, and posters, or anything with letters and numbers, sadly disregarding the group of playful kids that he used to have fun with.
4. At sleeptime, in dreamland, he fantasizes the letters, the numbers, mumbling them…ABC…123 (sometimes I even heard him mumble the numbers backwards).
5. During our family weekend treat at the Mall, particularly at a favorite toy store, Nico would automatically head to the educational toys section. Oh, for heaven’s sake! How I wish that he’d grab a basketball or a toy robot for us to buy. But nope, we will end up again, for the nth time, buying endless varieties of Alphabet and Numbers activity toys. Hayyy, walang kamatayang ABC and 123. **sigh**

Look at all of these varieties: abacus-type, activity books, magnetics, blocks, battery-operated toys, posters, etc. Walang kamatayang ABC at 123!

With that said, isn’t it time for doting parents like us to panic? I certainly think so. We badly need a scientific, logical, and in-depth analysis / explanation of this sort of phenomenon from an expert, a developmental pedia, that is. Particularly, we wanted to know if Nico’s addiction with ABC and 123 activities are developmentally appropriate for his age. We have been trying to schedule an appointment with the doctor next week. Hopefully it will push through, if ours and the doctor’s hectic schedules would permit it.

But while that is on the wait, being a curious, worried and paranoid Mom that I am, I did some initial research work myself. As always, the BabyCenter / Parent’sCenter was the number one vital resource.

First thing I landed to was a Question & Answer: Does my child need to know the Alphabet before she goes to kindergarten? The answer is a big Yes, but, but, but, the experts said it is alright if the child haven’t mastered all 26 letters before school starts as these will be taught again. Gee, what if Nico gets bored when the Alphabet will be taught when he starts going to the school? We are not trying to push him to learn much on it, it’s just that Nico was really really inclined to it.

Another Q&A, on numbers this time: How and when should I teach my child his numbers? The answer is to teach the child as young as 12 months. The normal ability of 3-year olds are to count from 1 to 30, but Nico already figured it out from 1 to 100 and now he’s discovering 101++ and up. My sister Chette didn’t believe it at first when my Mom told her that Nico can already do the counting. But during one of our visits to my parent’s house in Morong, Chette was so amazed to see how Nico utters the numbers when she switches to different TV channels (wished I was able to document via video that instance). Much to her surprise, she asked me with all wandering, “Pano nya nalaman agad yun? Baka naman over na kayo magturo sa bata?” “Eh di nga namin tinuturuan yan eh. Basta na-figure out lang nya”, I replied. Giving a further explanation to Chette, I just said, “Madali lang naman matutunan numbers di ba? If the child knows how to count 1 to 10 already, the following double-digit numbers will be easy to follow. Papalitan mo lang yung first digit, tapos dugtungan ng 1 to 9, tapos maiiba lang pagdating sa dulo, dadagdagan ng 0”. “Pero kahit na, para sa isang 2-year old, complex na yun,” Chette said with her still puzzled with my explanation.

Then I landed on to an interesting reading: What’s your child’s learning style? First, I was required to take a 25-question quiz that scores the learning style of a child. The principle of the quiz was that “the higher your child scores in one area, the more he prefers that learning style, if he rates similarly across all three styles, that means he uses all of them equally to grasp new information, a low score in any area means a child hardly ever relies on that learning style”. And here is the result for Nico:

Your child is a strong visual learner (score: 47%). Visual learners have an easier time grasping concepts and understanding ideas when they’re able to see information. They work well with visual materials such as flash cards, videos, pictures, and charts. Visual learners are usually great at reading and games of concentration.

Your child also displays some traits of a tactile learner (score: 23%). Physical learners (also called tactile-kinesthetic learners: “tactile” for touch, “kinesthetic” for movement) are better able to understand ideas and retain information if they can “feel” what you’re trying to explain. This means that holding something in their hands or participating physically in an activity helps them grasp a concept. Children with strong tactile-kinesthetic skills are usually active and full of energy. They do well with hands-on activities, such as shaping clay into a volcano, and with games that require the use of their bodies, such as moving large block letters around to form words.

Compared to other learning styles, your child is not much of an auditory learner (score: 29%). Auditory learners are best able to make sense of information when they hear it. They are better able to comprehend concepts and ideas when you explain them. They often like listening to music and stories and can easily repeat back information they’ve heard.

The resource further explains, it’s easy to spot a visual learner, for example in a classroom: “He’s the one sitting in the reading nook leafing through a book, or the one who’s playing with a puzzle or shapes and letters. If your child is a visual learner, you’ve probably noticed that he has keen powers of observation: He watches your lips move as you speak or pays close attention to what you do when you’re demonstrating something. That’s because visual learners rely primarily on their sense of sight to take in information, understand it, and remember it. If they don’t “see” it, they’re not able to fully comprehend it.” And Nico was just exactly that!

So what’s the importance of learning the learning style of a child? According to the resource article, “Knowing how your child learns and processes information is a valuable tool you can use to help him do better in school and develop a love of learning. Education experts have identified three main types of learning: physical, visual, and auditory. When learning a new math concept, for example, a visual learner will grasp the material more quickly by watching his teacher solve a problem on the blackboard or seeing himself solve the problem with concrete materials. An auditory learner will understand the concept if he can listen to the teacher explain it and answer his questions. A physical learner (also called tactual-kinesthetic) may need to use blocks, an abacus, or other counting materials to practice the new concept,” the article said.

Hmmm, now that explains everything. I remember a PEX Mommy during one of our conversations saying her son naman is more into the physical activities which made me think that maybe, her child is a physical learner because he does counting when going up and down the stairs.

Nico on the other hand, being a visual learner, positively benefits from TV because watching helps him learn. Shall I say thanks to Kris Aquino’s Game Ka Na Ba? (for the ABC) and Deal or No Deal? (for the numbers). Perhaps. But NickJr and Disney Channel contributed much too.

In the meantime, does Nico being a visual learner, be a valid excuse for his addiction to ABC and 123? As parents, I think it is best to support Nico where he is most interested (but not too much so as not to spoil him). And I think too that it is also good if we can train Nico to improve on his auditory and physical learning skills so that everything is balanced. The two learning styles are important too.

O well, as one caveat said, “A child is a work in progress, constantly honing new skills and making developmental leaps, so expect learning style to change as the child grows”. Mommy and Daddy will be watching.