Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – Child learning is a complex and dynamic process that forms the foundation of a person’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Understanding the mechanisms behind how children learn can help parents, educators, and caregivers create an environment that fosters growth, curiosity, and a lifelong love for learning.
If you are a parent or teacher feeling exasperated because the children in your life can not seem to focus when you are trying to teach them, a new study may ease your burden. According to psychologists at the University of Toronto (U of T), there is no need to worry.
A recent study from the psychology department in the Faculty of Arts & Science reveals that children learn just as effectively whether they’re actively paying attention or not. In contrast, adults are more likely to filter out information they’re not focused on.
The research, published in the journal Psychological Science, sheds light on how children process information differently.
Amy Finn, the study’s senior author and associate professor in the department of psychology, who heads the Learning and Neural Development lab pointed out that there is no need to be upset with the little boy doing jumping jacks while you are reading a story. She further indicated that the child is probably still absorbing and learning, even if it doesn’t appear that way.
The research team, which included U of T alumni Marlie Tandoc, Bharat Nadendla, and Theresa Pham, conducted a study to examine how much children and adults could learn about drawings of familiar objects through two distinct experiments.
In the first experiment, participants were instructed to focus on the drawings, while in the second, they were asked to ignore the drawings and complete an unrelated task. After each experiment, participants were tested on how quickly they could recognize fragments of the drawings they had seen.
The results showed that children learned about the drawings equally well in both scenarios. In contrast, adults learned more effectively when explicitly told to focus on the drawings. This suggests that children’s learning was not hindered even when their attention wasn’t directed toward the tested information.
The study also highlighted that children’s selective attention—the ability to concentrate on a specific task while filtering out distractions—develops gradually and doesn’t fully mature until early adulthood.
Previous findings suggest that, unlike adults, children’s brains process information they are told to focus on similarly to information they are not explicitly directed to notice. This characteristic likely explains why children excel at absorbing languages spoken around them.
“As adults, we really filter what we’re learning through our goals and task demands, whereas kids are absorbing everything regardless of that – seemingly without even trying,” explained Tandoc, who is the former lab manager of the Learning and Neural Development lab and a PhD candidate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers of the study stated that while the idea of reverting to a child-like way of learning may seem enticing, selective attention offers significant advantages. Studies show that adults learn more effectively when given specific instructions about which information is most important, as attentional guidance enhances their ability to absorb material.
These findings could have a meaningful impact on how parents, educators, and curriculum designers approach learning for both children and adults. For children, the results highlight the value of play and hands-on, immersive learning experiences. For adults, establishing clear objectives or tasks at the start of a lesson or workshop is crucial to improving learning outcomes.
“For me, when I’m hanging out with my five-year-old, I’m less worried now than I was otherwise about whether or not he is learning something if it doesn’t seem like he is paying attention,” said Finn.
