Your Child Learns Best Between 4 and 12: Here's How to Make the Most of It
Did you know that, according to recent research, the way your child learns changes significantly at 4 years old and then again at 12 years old? And if you know how to adjust the way your child is taught, the benefits will last a lifetime.
Teachers, high performance coaches, and education experts have long known that learning can be divided into two parts. Implicit learning and explicit learning.
Implicit learning is the learning of complex information in a random style, without awareness of what has been learned. Examples include:
learning a language through immersion
Learning social rules around people
Exploring the space close by
Learning to ride a bike
Learning how to swim
Explicit learning is intentional learning of information. For example, memorizing a list of word pairs would be an example of explicit learning. Some more examples would be memorizing the multiplication table with flashcards, learning the alphabet, learning grammar rules and vocabulary words, learning the steps to do a car repair or in the most extreme case learning the steps in a cardiac bypass surgery.
In their schooling, children encounter both types of learning and being proficient at both is necessary for a through education.
Until recently, it was not known at what ages implicit learning capacity peaks and it was assumed that it stays constant in youth and gradually declines with age.
However, recent academic research from the National Institutes of Health shows that this is not the case and implicit learning peaks between the ages of 4 and 12. After 12 years old, the primary learning mode for children and young adults is explicit learning.
So why is this important? What does it mean for your child? And how can this information best be used?
The biggest takeaway is that implicit learning is
-more efficient: the brain captures a lot more information,
-more powerful: critical thinking skills are developed
-more durable: something thats learned explictly is less easily forgotten.
However. Implicit learning has an expiration date of around 12 years old. At this stage implicit learning capability starts to decrease and explicit learning starts to increase.
The best example of this is learning a foreign language. A child who’s immersed in a foreign language before 12 years old will have a much better command of it than someone older than 12. The same applies to mastery of a sport, a musical instrument or chess. Any adult who is very accomplished in a specific field, most likely started their learning at a young age.
But wait you say. Didn’t Malcom Gladwell say that all that’s required for mastery is 10,000 hours of deliberate practice? This is true: however, a violin player who starts learning the instrument at 6 years old and puts in 10,000 hours of practice will most likely be much more skillful than someone who starts at 16 years old and also puts in 10,000 hours of practice.
What this means for your child is that immersive learning experiences should be prioritized before 12 years old. This includes:
-Learning a foreign language
-Learning a musical instrument
-Learning a sport
-Learning to swim
-Allowing for free exploration
-Learning how to solve problems in math by figuring out rather than memorizing
-Exposing the child to stimulus rich environments
-Exposing the child to a variety of social situations with people of different ages
-Experimenting in the kitchen
-Having free use of a workshop or a maker space
All these experiences will maximize the implicit learning window that will expire around age 12.
This also plays a big role in the selection of the schooling environment for a child. Places that encourage exploration, have a lot of sensory stimulus and just have interesting objects to interact with are the best. On the other hand, educational environments that prioritize memorization and learning through a set of steps are to be avoided for younger students.
Next you might ask, what happens after age 12? This is when explicit learning becomes more important. Some examples are:
-Learning the steps to write a good report.
-A student needs to learn the right sequence to do a geometry proof and needs to know the right actions to prepare for and do well on an exam.
-A basketball player needs to follow a practice and fitness regimen to maximize her performance.
-A scientist needs to know the steps to carry out an experiment and publish the results. All these practices require explicit learning.
So a young student needs implicit learning to grow a skill or talent and explicit learning to be able to use it to maximum effect. Implicit learning needs to be prioritized at a younger age when a child’s mind is most receptive to it and explicit learning is important after 12, so that the seeds planted earlier have fertile soil to grow in.
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