|
| Positive Reinforcement Learning |
 During the process of learning the learner must be feeling good, and this does not only mean that she must not be confused, hungry, tired, frightened, depressed, bored, etc. We all carry around feelings of being criticized or humiliated, invalidation or embarrassed. Nine out of every ten experiences in any young person’s life leaves her with some amount of these feelings, as delicate as they may appear or as much as the young person attempts to hide it or not be aware of it. From very early in life humans are not permitted to completely release these feelings - crying is interrupted from babyhood, raging to release anger is absolutely not tolerated and labeled as rudeness or bad behavior, shaking to release fear or tittering to release embarrassment are considered stupid. These are how our bodies naturally deal with and release emotions.
As parents and care-givers you could support your children through school by:
1. Listening to your children with full attention. Set aside particular time to do nothing else but listen with pleasure. Don’t interrupt . Don’t be judgmental verbally or otherwise. Don’t hurt their feelings. Embolden your child to express his feelings – of embarrassment, anger, hurt, fear, boredom. It is particularly useful to have time to listen to your child at the end of every school day.
2. Playing games. Young people release plenty of their emotions through playing. Active games that embolden positive physical contact and loud noises are best, e.g. pillow-fighting.
 3. Role-playing. Watch them “play teacher”. They use this as a safe way to act out their disappointment that is blocking their mental well-being.
4. Setting aims with them and helping them to monitor their progress. Help them to establish a realistic study schedule.
5. Offering as many various learning experiences as possible - outings, informative television viewing, appropriate movies, trips, conversations with resource people.
6. Rewarding them for improvement and performance not just for achievement. Don’t show disappointment when the child does not seem to live up to your expectations.
7. Love them “in spite of” and “just because”.
|
|
