To learn How to motivate a child to study and read Is essential for their formation and future; Acquire the habit, get better grades, and have healthier habits that will help you build a successful life.
Motivation is a very relevant aspect in all areas of life and in terms of the education of children, both in the field of upbringing and in education, is especially important.
Motivation guides our actions, the actions of the child and is an essential element in what refers to what the person is doing and towards which objectives is oriented.
15 Tips to Motivate a Child
1. Do not label
Children create their self-concept through the impressions that people around them have on them.
The labels, in this case, will act as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a child we put the label of?? bad??,?? disordered?,?? And we end up treating him in that way, the child will behave as such, responding to an expectation we have generated about him.
Self-concept arises from a process of valuing the information we receive from our experience and from the opinion around us. It is important that it fit the reality and that it is positive, because it will help that it develops with a strong and healthy self-esteem.
Why do expectations matter? Rosenthal and Jacobson explained the Pygmalion Effect When they concluded that the student's personal achievement was better when the teacher anticipated expectations of success.
It is important that you keep in mind that your expectations in the child will influence their behavior.
2. Show him that you trust him and provide him with security and support
It is important that the child perceive that you have placed your trust in him. It is important that you know what your strengths and limitations are, but find out that it is within your power to change and improve.
Trust gives the child certainty that he has the ability to carry it out. Be available and accessible to him, ready to talk about any topic that interests you.
Help her see that she is capable of doing many things, that she can define her goals and access her goals with effort.
You have to be available to review what concerns you and to offer suggestions, but do not do things for him. If you have difficulties, help him find a way to solve them, but do not do it for him.
3. Encourage positive self-esteem
The self-esteem Is very related to motivation, since if the child believes himself capable of achieving goals and also his / her self-concept is positive, he will be able to face the obstacles and challenges presented to him and his motivation towards the difficulties will be proactive.
Talk to him in a language that encourages him to encourage him to continue. Acknowledge your effort and progress and use descriptive words, not focusing so much on the outcome.
For example, do not values ?? your good grades?? And praise more for all the work you have done during the course and everything you have tried and improved.
The words of encouragement lead you to evaluate yourself in a positive way, to feel capable and encourage you by making you motivate much more.
4. Take into account emotional intelligence
The Emotional intelligence Is becoming more and more important. But motivation, specifically self-motivation, is a major component of emotional intelligence.
Motivation has an affective component and the ability to regulate our emotions is strongly linked to motivation.
Self-motivation is the key to being able to start a task and be persistent to do it.
When we achieve that the child develops its self-motivation we will be helping to develop the impulse that takes to him to reach the goals that he desires.
You will be able to stay persistent and control your mood to achieve what you want.
Intrapersonal intelligence, proposed by Gardner in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences Includes self-motivation as one of the basic characteristics of self-management.
5. Awaken your curiosity
Curiosity is the first step to learning. Children are curious by nature and are interested in things by observing and asking.
Sometimes it can be tiring and we see this innate curiosity as something negative because we spend the time giving explanations to the children.
But it is important to see this childlike attitude as a source of learning and rather than nullify it, we must nourish it.
Curiosity gives you the interest to learn and the child will reach meaningful learning because he will be interested in what he learns.
With curiosity the child develops his observation, asks questions, investigates, contrasts hypotheses and leads him to try new things.
6. Your learning has to have significant value for him
For many authors learning can not develop without motivation.
When we say that learning has to be meaningful to the child, we are referring to it having to be based on its own frame of reference. The one who learns is the child.
It is also important that you acquire the quality of knowing your strengths and knowing that we all make mistakes and that these are offered as an opportunity to learn new things.
7. Generates sense of control
When we speak of a sense of control we refer to the fact that the child has to locate himself as the causal agent of events that happen to him in life by attributing the things he gets.
It is important to attribute success to variables that it controls (effort, constancy) instead of depending on inconsistent variables such as luck or fate.
The child must have the feeling that he mediates in the things that happen to him, since if he does not have the perception that he controls his life, he will do nothing to learn or improve.
The words of encouragement, as we have already said, should focus on causes that provide internal control.
8. Promotes accountability
A motivated child is much more likely to be responsible, because he is accustomed to do the tasks for himself and will not wait to have an external referent to tell him what to do at any moment.
One way to help you be responsible is to allow you, as much as possible, frequent choices.
Try to see situations from the eyes of your child and offer alternatives to different issues so you can choose what interests you most.
Show him the importance of being a responsible person, help him be responsible, give him the means to do it, and offer him activities, within his development, to put it into practice.
9. Propose activities and challenges appropriate to their capacity and moment of development
If the child feels capable, their attitude toward life and school learning is much more likely to be much more positive and proactive.
That is why it is important that the activities that you propose and that you encourage are prepared and adapted to their capacities and their evolutionary momentum.
It is necessary for the activities to be a challenge for him, but if we do not adapt them to the child, he may feel frustrated.
In addition, each child is different and we must respect and value their tastes and preferences.
10. Propose goals with a moderate degree of difficulty
A very easy task can get you bored and one too difficult can make you feel overcome and give up.
It is also true that a motivated child is more likely to choose more complicated tasks, but also because he will be more persevering when obstacles and difficulties arise and will remain constant until he solves it.
11. Appreciate your effort
Motivated children are, too, because someone has valued their effort.
Parents and educators of children have a very important role in influencing the motivation that the child will face, for example, at school or other activities.
As parents and educators we can create environments that promote effort and dedication.
It is also important that values your effort and not your results, since it is important that you have a sense of control. People control our effort, but not the results we have.
12. Let him play
When children play, they are often so engrossed in it that we often say that they do not realize the passing of time or that they are so deep that they do not listen to us.
This state we call it in"flow"psychology. This concept was described by Csikzentmihaly , And he describes some characteristics in the flow state that are observed in the game.
It is a pleasure experience, where we are focused, involved or control our skills, for example. The child, who plays in a natural way, experiences all these characteristics.
13. Your goals have to be realistic and specific
To encourage motivation in the child you must set goals that are able to understand, have to be realistic and likely to reach them.
The goals have to be operative and must have an adjusted degree of difficulty. Your role as an educator is to help your child set realistic and realistic goals and constantly evaluate the progress he is making.
When the goals are realistic, they are understood by the person who pursues them, their level of difficulty is adjusted to their capacity and level of development, are moderately novel and chosen by the subject itself, enhance the motivation of the subject.
In addition, it is more likely that Reach goals Which we write on paper. You can help your child write a list with those goals that he wants to achieve and put them in a visible place.
Goals must also be specific. For example, say I want to do better in school?? Is a very nonspecific goal. We have to rename and operative them. What does it mean that I do better? (Can be approve math, do homework every day??).
14. Communicate with him and be interested in what he likes
It is important that you converse openly, conversationally and honestly with your child. Get interests and help you discover the areas you like and excel in, where you feel comfortable.
Children grow and change, their interests and skills can also. You should be prepared to help you review and adjust your child's expectations and wishes.
15. Offer new activities and many experiences you enjoy
It is important to try to offer the child a wide variety of experiences, as this encourages their learning and can acquire different skills, Attitudes And capabilities.
It is important that you allow yourself to make experiences that appeal to you because when you are attracted to your task, it brings more energy and requires less effort.
The child can also experience the flow state and develop their motivation through creative activities such as painting, modeling, role-playing, or role-playing.
What is motivation?
Motivation could be understood as the way to dispose one's mood to proceed in a certain way.
They are that set of reasons why people behave in a certain way. When a behavior is motivated it is sustained and directed towards a goal.
In learning the motivation is the child's disposition in a positive way to carry out a learning and to continue in it in an autonomous and independent way.
Closely related to motivation we will find many terms that help us broaden the concept's vision. For example interest, curiosity, impulse or motive.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
We can distinguish two types of motivation that can guide a child's behavior: extrinsic motivation and Intrinsic motivation .
Extrinsic motivation occurs when behavior is driven by the characteristics of external stimuli.
It occurs in those activities in which the motives that drive behavior are extraneous to it, are determined by external contingencies (positive or negative reinforcements external to the subject and the activity itself).
For example, when the child performs a behavior to obtain our approval or wants to pass a test to receive the gift that you have promised.
Intrinsic motivation, on the contrary, arises when the subject persists in a behavior without an external stimulus that is justifying it.
In intrinsic motivation there is no external contingency and the incentive that moves it is the activity itself, the realization of the conduct itself.
For example, when the child plays or does an activity to overcome himself.
This means that intrinsic motivation arises from internal sources while extrinsic arises from environmental incentives.
The Importance of Motivation
Motivation is important because it is one of the things that explains human behavior.
Motivation determines the fact that a person initiates an activity by reaching a goal and persists in achieving it.
Also, it is very relevant when we are talking about learning. Motivation includes the relationship with expectations, that is, the fact that children are able to carry out tasks.
It is related to value, relating it to the goals they have and the interest in what they do. And finally also with the affective component. When an emotion occurs, there is a predisposition to act.
The person is motivated when he relies on his abilities, believes himself to be effective, takes responsibility and values what he does.
Motivated children do better in school and in life, not because they think they have to be the best, but simply because they give their best.
References
- Boylan, G. The importance of motivation in the learning process. University of Las Palmas.
- Carril, I. (2000). The projects: motivation and capacity building. World Lecto-writing Congress.
- Chóliz (2004). Psychology of motivation: the motivational process. Valencia's university.
- Howe, M. (2000). How motivation affects learning. Oxford U Press.
- Mateo Soriano, M. Motivation, basic pillar of all kinds of effort. Zaragoza's University.
- Naranjo Pereira, M. L. (2009). Motivation: theoretical perspectives and some considerations of their importance in the educational field. Journal of Education, 33 (2), 153-170.
- Pedrosa, F. R. (2011). Motivation and learning. Innovation and educational experiences.
- Sigrid, L. (2000). How to overcome school difficulties. Medici.
- The Parent Institute (2005). 7 proven ways to motivate children to perform better in school.