Happy Thanksgiving

Out of town for the holiday. Will be back next week. Some music to listen to during the weekend or anytime during this holiday season. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bd0Uvvvi_M

Self-Efficacy and Children Who Struggle Socially

For children who struggle socially, parents and other adults can remind children of common interests and experiences that will help children learn how to relate to others. For example, when my child was eight we moved from one state to another and she was really scared because she thought no one would like her. To help with her fears I told her everyone would feel the same way she did and a new way to find new friends would be to talk about common interests and experiences. I told her to ask the other students questions like, " What is your favorite subject?" or "Do you like to draw?" These questions are common ground questions that break the ice and gave her and the other student's common things to talk about that lead into personal questions that helped her find friendships in her new school. It developed her self-efficacy as she learned that asking common ground questions like these helped break the ice and helped her not feel as scared as she felt and she realized it was a scary thing she could do that helped her find friends. It helped her find a way to find friends that worked and then when she entered Jr High and that school was a mixture of three Elementary schools it gave her the self-efficacy to use the same approach to continue to find new friends in each class and she knew she could do it because she had done it before and it worked so she knew it would work again. She came home telling me stories of how different students in her class like the same things she did and asking eventually if she could have that friend over. It developed her self-efficacy in a social setting that helped her become more confident in her social skills and helped develop them as well.

Two Parts of the Effects of Self-Efficacy on Behavior and Learning

The effects self-efficacy has on behavior and learning can be broken down into two parts. The first part is self-efficacy for learning. Self-efficacy for learning is the idea that if a person puts their mind and energy into something they can learn it.

I developed this type of self-efficacy in my child by encouraging her to try different and new things and supporting her in her efforts. For example, when she was in high school she continued with her art classes but I also encouraged her to take American sign language as her foreign language. She did take ASL andshe decided to be active in that club at school. Some of the activities the club did was going to the school for the deaf and practicing their sign language with the students there. This developed her self -efficacy in not only learning sign language but being able to actually use it in a real setting. By putting effort into learning sign language and putting her mind into learning it she knows enough to be able to communicate on some level with deaf people and understand what they say in return.

The second part self-efficacy has on behavior and learning is self-efficacy for performance and achievement. Self-efficacy for performance and achievement is that a person already knows how to do an activity and therefore the child should be optimistic about learning how to do the activity. For example, my daughter had a natural ability to dance so when she was pre-school age I put her in dance lessons. However, just because she had the natural talent didn't make it something she was interested in. She liked dancing and had fun doing it but once it became something to learn, for her it took the fun out of it.

This is why it's important children be realistic about being able to accomplish a task and choose activities that are developmentally appropriate and that they choose them. If a parent decides a child take dance lessons because of their natural talent but it's not something the child enjoys and self -efficacy won't be developed. It will become a chore and the child may act out and behavior become challenging because the child isn't choosing the activities that will build their self-efficacy.

Four Ways Sel-efficacy Affects Behavior and Learning

There are ways self-efficacy affects behavior and learning. The first one is choice of activities. Children will choose tasks and activities they believe they can do  and avoid those they believe they won't be good at. I developed my child's self-efficacy through choice of activity by allowing her to decide what she wanted to do. For example in the 5th grade she had to choose between choir and band. I let her decide which one she participated in. The same in high school. I let her choose what clubs to be a part of.

The second way self-efficacy affects behavior and learning is through goals. When children have high self-efficacy in a certain area they will set high goals. For example, my daughter knew she was good at art so she set high goals for her art and achieved them. Most specifically she met the goal of taking AP art and when she got back the art she submitted for the class she ended up getting more credit than she thought she would which raised her self-efficacy.

The third way self-efficacy affects behavior and learning is effort and persistence. When children work on a task they have self-efficacy in they apply more effort and are more likely to persist when they encounter obstacles. For example, when my child was young she took piano lessons. She never really liked taking piano lessons and wouldn't practice or put effort into it. When I took her out of piano lessons and had her focus on art she put the effort into learning techniques of art and was persistent in finding ways to improve her art abilities and types of art she likes and is best at.

The last way self-efficacy affects behavior and learning is in achievement. When children have a realistic sense of their abilities they develop self-efficacy in the area they know they are good at. Even if they try something they aren't very good at it develops their self-efficacy and self-esteem as they realize they've learned something about themselves.

By allowing my child to pick activities she knew she was good at, helping her set and achieve obtainable goals, supporting her in her efforts and achievements I helped my child build a healthy self-efficacy in an environment she felt safe to build it in. I'm confident you can too.