Friday, February 23, 2018

School Age Children and Motivation

When children become school aged motivation becomes a more self-centered activity and is more individually tailored. Achievement motivation in a school aged child is more related to actually achieving a task. School aged children's motivation may only be seen in one aspect of their life such as achieving their baseball goals but not performing well at school.

Parenting practices influence achievement motivation. If a parent's expectations are unreasonable (too high or low) it affects children's motivation. For example, if a parent expects a child to do the dishes by themselves at age five without an older sibling  or parent helping them, this is an unreasonable expectation. It will affect a child's motivation because it will cause them to think they can't do anything much less right. Low motivation can be caused by expectations that are too easy or too high. Both cause a child to take a why try attitude. Parents whose expectations are developmentally appropriate tend to have high motivation to accomplish a task. Children who show high achievement usually come from homes that include developmentally appropriate timing of achieving expectations. They also come from homes where parents have high confidence in their children's abilities, a supportive family environment and high motivated role models. School aged children who have high expectations of themselves tend to stay with a task longer and end up performing better on tasks than children who have low expectations.

Children who are school aged link self-efficacy to the choice of tasks, effort and persistence and achievement in their choice of task. Children's interpretation of their abilities tends to predict their achievement rather than their interpretation of what others believe their abilities are. School aged children's conceptions about their capabilities are based on whether the ability is considered stable over time. School aged children with high self-efficacy set and embrace challenging goals, use appropriate strategies to achieve them, try hard, persist with difficult tasks and seek help when necessary.Children with low self-efficacy tend to be frustrated and depressed which makes the idea of success more intangible. When a child has low self-efficacy parents, siblings, friends, teachers etc need to help.

These are some of the ways and reasons it is important to encourage children, build a healthy self-esteem and be supportive of and to children.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

People Who Influence Preschoolers Attitudes

Attitudes in preschool children are influenced by family, friends, mas media and the community they live in as well as the preschool they're enrolled in. A child's age, cognitive development and social experiences affect the development of a child's attitudes and beliefs. Messages from these influences in a preschoolers life play an essential role in the development of a child.

Family can influence attitude development in a child through modeling appropriate or inappropriate behavior. A child learns to perform behavior simply by watching someone else perform the same behavior, therefore they model the behaviors and attitudes they see in their everyday lives. This comes from interactions they have, conversations they hear among parents, siblings and extended family. For example, if a child is taught to define different as wrong they will not accept anyone who is different from them because they've been different is wrong. If a child has been taught different just means different and that people make different choices and those choices are neither right nor wrong, the child will grow up to accept people, opinions and beliefs and not look down on them because they're different than they are. How children are socialized affects  future attitudes and plays a role in shaping children's futures. For example if a child is taught they can't be friends with someone because they're not a member of their religion, the child will start to see others who aren't of their religion as bad people and this will affect their future attitudes of people who aren't members of their religion. It shapes a child's future because their circle of friends may be limited and a prejudice has been taught.

Friends are a big influence in children's attitudes and beliefs. For most children, preschool is their first experience with school. While at preschool they're exposed to what other children say and believe. They begin to put weight on what their friends say and the things they like and dislike. Children compare the acceptability of beliefs to those of their friends and begin to  compare and contrast similarities and differences of those in their circle of friendship and those out of it.

Children who have contact with people from other generations benefit from these interactions. When visiting grandparents or aunts and uncles it impacts a child's attitude toward other adults. Children who spend time with people from other generations and have direct exposure to older adults have a more positive attitude toward other adults. Activities and time spent with older adults can be seen as boring by children. When they spend time with grandparents or other adults from other generations they see that grandparents and other adults have things in common with them as a child. Children learn adults from other generations like to play some of the same games or like to read some of the same authors they do and it's a great way for children to learn about history.

Parents who promote accepting attitudes and beliefs have children who are more likely to adopt the same attitudes and beliefs. As a result children become more tolerant of  differences and learn to celebrate diversity.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Three Developmental Phases of Attitudes About Cultural Groups

The ways children learn and develop  will affect how they process the messages they receive from their families, friends and community. Therefore, the people in a child's microsystem play a role in shaping their attitudes and beliefs. Piaget's second stage of development is the pre-operational stage which begins around two and continues until age seven. During the pre-operational stage children begin to develop their own  attitudes and beliefs about the world around them. The influences of their attitudes and beliefs are family, friends, mass media and school. All of these groups play a role in the development of a child's attitudes and beliefs.

Attitudes about cultural groups develops in three phases. The first phase is from age two and a half to three years old. This is when children become aware of cultural differences. Phase two starts around age four and this is when children begin to notice the ways they're similar to others and have specific cultural related words and concepts. For example, this is when children notice that they may be white but someone in their preschool class is a different color. This is when children start to use words such as black, white, Christian or Catholic to explain the difference in color or skin or religion.

Phase three begins around age seven when children begin to have attitudes toward various cultural groups. For example, a child may play with a child who is black but not Indian or may play with children who are white but not mixed. The development of attitudes is influenced by a child's age, cognitive development and social experiences. The last stage is important in discussing attitudes and belief development because it's during the middle school years that this phase occurs. During the third stage children become familiar with the various ways people within their family interact with others in the community and begin to notice things like discrimination, violence, and prejudice.