Appraising Child's Skills

Appraising Child's Skill

Now a days one of the biggest problems faced by parents in nuclear families is rising a child. Parents are really preplexed about the future of their children. The biggest question before them always see to be : "how will my child succeed’’? .  The answer is : there is no quick-fix solution.  But most of them seem to be obssessed with the idea of dumping the younger minds with tonnes of information  from a very early age.  Most of them think that equipping the child with all the known information might keep in good stead and thus would help him in long run. This idea needs to be totally revamped and should altogether be abandoned. Just making them as walking encyclopeadias would be counter productive. Due to this irrational thinking, most of the kids are forced to endure ruthless schooling.

I guess it is the time to change, reinvent the our education system which is onerous and robbing the kid of their beautiful childhood. Lets take a look at the subject from a scientific angle. Each individual is endowed with two kinds of skills-cognitive and non-cognitive skills. It is very important in this context to realise that each child is endowed with unique skill set.

Cognitive skills  refers to ' cognition'  and mainly refers to things like memory, ability to learn new information, speech, understanding of written material. These are mostly  brain-based/mental skills. Brain is capable of learning all these skills from a very younger age. With age these skills diminish. But, cognitive abilities can be improved at any age. These are the skills which can be objectively assessed and all our kids undergo different tests in schools. These are the tests we totally really on to count on the intelligence of the child. These skills can be enhanced by rote learning.  This is just the academic intelligence and we often believe that individuals who excel in these cognitive skills are brainy and smart. A good grade in these skills naturally ensures a good graduation percentage. But this alone is not enough for a successful career.

Non-cognitive skills on the other hand, are inter-personal skills and cann’t be objectively measure. Persistance, self-control, curiosity, consientiousness, grit and self-confidence- termed as soft skills or meta-cognitive learning skills.  Not mind –based skills.  Emotional maturity, verbal and non-verbal communication, empathy are all traits of this skill set.  Special curriculum, in schools are not yet developed improve these skills. Parents are the people who can impart them. Sometimes they are innate, sometimes family intervention, help in improving these skills. Can be developed through deliberate learning, practice or experience. Better non-cognitive skills can help in improving cognitive skills but unfortunately, vice-versa is not true. Non-cognitive skills-sets of behaviour, skills, attitudes and strategies  are crucial to academic performance.

Since the system of education and organisations are entirely dedicated to the cognitive hypothesis. This is taken as standard measure for testing the intelligence of the child. Strong parent-child interactions in the early stages helps child’s mind and body to cope up with the future stress. Real problem is parenting, we find most of them are not parenting. During adoloscent stage it becomes very important to teach certain skills in person. There is no computer assisted learning program to teach some qualities like grit, perseverance, patience. Ultimately the character of a person is the one which helps him to succeed in life.  Character of the person includes both the skill sets. Truly leadership, which is key to the success is determined by skills like- self-awareness, high emotional intelligence quotient, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Traditionally, success is  associated qualities like determination, intelligence, vision, toughness  but they are insufficient.

Other things which play a crucial role include- goal-setting, time management and self-regulated learning. Social and emotional develoment of children is very important for over all development of a child. Efforts should me made to inculcate a positive attitude/ positive environment in learning places. Increasing emphasis on development of cognitive skills at a very early age may not be helpful on a long run. Tools for developing the emotional intelligence of the child may be a path for greater student success.

 Studies show  that children who are subjected to traumatic , stressful, disadvantaged  environment during early childhood are not likely to succeed. As these intimidating circumstances  have a profound  effect on skill development.

 

A detailed analysis shows that  good parenting alone can ensure success in children's life. A good parent-child interaction is crucial for development of child's personality. Instead of hankering for admitting in expensive schools and forcing  them go through hours of study parents should spend their valuable time with their children to safeguard child's future.

 

 

 

 

 

@ Copy right reserved