Repetition

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” — Zig Ziglar, renowned motivational speaker, and author

You must have noticed that your child repeats the action or activity they like. They want the same lunch every day and watch the same movie or read the same book, or listen to the same rhymes.

The science behind it!

While we as adults may quickly get bored and tired of an activity, it is vital that we recognize the importance of repetition to our child’s development and learning. Think back to when you learned to ride a bike, drive a car, or play a new sport. First, you needed to learn the essential skills. Then it was all about practice and more practice until you increased your confidence, improved your speed, and became skilled.

A baby is born with a brain ready to learn. Their brain cells reach out and make neural connections with each new experience stimulated by their environment. The connections are called synapses. As these synapses are stimulated over and over, these connections become “hardwired”.

In adults, these synapses help them recall previous experiences built on repetitive practice, for example, driving, riding a cycle, or doing basic math. But in children, these connections are only beginning to form, hence repetition is a necessary building block that allows them to strengthen the connections in the brain that help them learn.

As your child’s brain develops in the first five years, they will need to use and re-use connections between ideas to build strong foundations for lifelong learning. People often say that practice makes perfect. Research certainly supports this, especially in children. In fact, studies have shown that repetition can be critically important for learning in general.

Repetition may also come from routine or the environment. Knowing what to expect, and having things happen in an ordered way, helps children to understand what to expect and feel at ease. Practice not only improves performance over time it also reduces the amount of mental energy required to carry out a task.

Everyday routines and chores, even cleaning up, provide great learning opportunities for your child can be fitted into a busy schedule. While completing chores around the home, discuss what you are doing and why to help your child understand how things work and learn new words.

While grocery shopping, encourage your child to read out any words they can see in the aisle or on packets and discuss the different types of food displayed. You can ask your child to select the tins or packets from the shelf that you want to try and spot the words.

Good Good Piggy offers to engage your child in repetitive learning from an early age when their brain is still like a sponge. It offers a wide range of life-skill activities and aims to make them a permanent part of their life as necessary skills needed for a better life.