OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri TALK CONFUSES CHILDREN. The younger they are the less they hear and understand of all the talk that goes o'n about them. A short, direct order is far easier for them...
...Wait for the right time...
...AH of us talk too much to children...
...Of course you know beforehand that you are doing what is best for the child's interest...
...Pick The Right Time Yet talking is the best means of communication we can have with a child...
...Say no more but let him set about his business...
...But one only wonders how the trained teacher comes to form the habit of talking at her classes, instead of setting them to work out their salvation with their own hands and heads...
...Fatigue brings confusion...
...going to change that decision...
...A lecture on diet at the dinner table is not helpful...
...One can only feel sorry for the mother who gives a three-year-old child long explanations as to why he should eat his cereal...
...When a child must follow directions, give those directions deliberately, clearly, briefly, while he is attending to you...
...In their anxiety to make things clear to the last and least, they drown the hearing of the most intelligent...
...Because it is so important we must learn to use it to the best advantage...
...Teachers talk far too much...
...Pick the right time...
...Then speak briefly and to the point...
...When a child is screaming in excitement, a long preachment on gentle behavior has no place to take root...
...Wait until communication between you and the child is wide open...
...Mothers and fathers, family, relatives, teachers and all others interested in children's growth, seem to think that talking will do it if it is kept up long enough...
...Then the brain orders all doors closed and that's the end of the job until those cells are rested and renewed...
...One Only Wonders Waste no time, no energy, and none of his power in argument...
...The brain cells weary very soon if they are used for listening for more than a few minutes at a time...
...Think over what is needed to be said and the best way to say it...
...You have decided he is to do this thing and no amount of talk is...
...It will do little beyond fatiguing the child and closing his mind to the matter...
...The worst of that experience is that the next time the teacher mentions the subject the memory of the fatigue rises and the child shuts down his mental machinery and turns to something else...
...A short, direct order is far easier for them to understand and has much more chance of being obeyed promptly and willingly than long explanations...
...Have him tell you what it is he is to do...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 44
