For young children, doing anything requires interest. Especially when children start getting acquainted with a new language, the interest in learning becomes even more important.
Why is it necessary to maintain learning interest in young children?
“Short attention span” is a common situation for many children. Their innate curiosity makes them look at everything with keen interest the first time they encounter it. However, this same curiosity can easily draw them to new things, causing their interest to wane in subsequent encounters. In learning, creating and maintaining interest for children is crucial, because for them, “the easiest thing is the one that brings the most joy, while the hardest thing is the one with the least interest.” No matter what learning method is applied, maintaining a child’s interest is always a prerequisite and the master key to unlocking every door to the treasure of knowledge.
Creating a Good Learning Environment for Children
A good learning environment is defined as a quiet place without distractions that can disrupt learning activities and cause a loss of concentration. Children can only focus for a certain short period. Parents should create a separate study area for children at home. In this study area, parents should absolutely avoid placing toys around.
Although children are small, their brains will gradually associate this area with learning activities. The learning space should also be free from TVs, and TV noise should not affect the child while studying. Other family members should avoid making noise that could disrupt the child’s concentration and learning flow. Even parents holding and using phones can cause the child to lose focus.
Tip: If possible, parents can create a study corner in a separate room for the child. In this study area, there should only be a desk, a chair for the child, a chair for parents to study with the child, the child’s favorite books, or parenting books. If it is the child’s room, parents can store the toys in a closed box out of the child’s sight during study time.
If parents can only create a separate study area within the common living space, they should ensure that this study corner has no toys around or objects that make sounds that distract the child. During study time, parents should turn off the TV, limit conversations, avoid phone calls, and refrain from browsing social media to prevent distractions.
Changing Study Methods to Keep Children Engaged
Depending on the child’s age and cognitive ability, parents should choose suitable courses.
Parents can try:
- Letting the child learn at a faster or slower pace, or using an automatic mode to view content without the need for touch interaction.
- Changing the display method, such as showing words first or images first.
- Altering the interaction method: swipe left, swipe up, swipe down…
- If the child is not interested in a section, parents can boldly turn it off and let the child try again later.
Tip: Parents should enable the restriction feature to allow only one lesson per session. This helps the child absorb the maximum amount of knowledge, gives the brain time to “soak up the knowledge” and regenerate nerve cells, and increases the child’s eagerness and “thirst” for knowledge, making them more excited for future lessons.
Avoid “Reviewing Old Lessons”
Learning English for young children should be like a game that excites them when they win, rather than a task or duty they must complete. Checking their learning results can make learning stressful, removing the fun and comfort that are crucial to their learning success. Parents should always trust their child, give them time to experience, learn, develop naturally, and make learning an enjoyable activity during their development process.
Tip: At the end of each lesson, the Monkey Junior super app has cleverly designed a game segment to help children review their lessons. Parents should remember that this is a reward for the child; if the child does not like it, it can be turned off. This is not a mandatory part.
Start with Joy – Stop with Excitement
As analyzed above, for young children, the easiest things are the most exciting. Therefore, you should only start teaching them when they are happy and ready. At that moment, children will switch to “curiosity mode,” eager to dive into learning new knowledge. Everything becomes easy for them because they are ready.
What about stopping when they are still excited? Parents need to stop the lesson when the child is still enthusiastic. This “secret trick” will leave the child wanting to learn more and looking forward to the next session. This is one way to prevent boredom and boost the child’s desire to explore new things to many new levels.
Tip: Parents should not use the Monkey Junior super app to calm a crying child. If this is done, the child will associate learning with negative emotions and actions, leading to similar behaviors in future learning sessions. Parents should also avoid making the child study 3-4 lessons at once. Initially, the child may be very excited, but if “fed” too much, the child will quickly lose interest in learning.