How daycare and video games teach our children.
In looking at two different learning situations one can see the benefits of using one over the other or maybe even using the two together to help a children develop their multiple intelligences. The two learning situations that I have chosen to observe in this project are the teaching of children in a daycare and the use of video games to teach children. Both of these situations are considered two different agents of socialization. The teaching of children in a daycare is classified as the school agent and the video games teaching children are considered a form of the mass media agent. These two socialization agents fall within the childhood stage of socialization. Although the two learning situations use different agents of socialization, they both help to teach important cognitive development skills, motor skills, and the development of “how to” thinking.
According to Jean Piagets’s Theory of Cognitive Development there are four stages of cognitive Development. When it comes to children in both in daycare and children using educational video games are usually between the ages of 3 to 5 years, and in the stage where both agents of socialization focus on the preoperational stage, or the stage in which the children begin to first use language and other symbols. Through exercises in which the students practice reciting and writing letters in their names, simple number sentences and even learning letters in classmates’ and teachers’ names, help the students to recognize and identify letters and numbers. The different educational video games available for children of the same ages also use similar exercises on an interactive and animated level to help children develop their recognition of symbols associated to letters of the alphabet and numbers. The video games often are more on an independent level of teaching then the group of students in a day care, but can be used as a tool for the student to work with outside of class.
When it comes to developing motor skills daycares and preschool teachers have their young students engage in such activities that require the use of scissors, glue sticks, and crayons. This type of activity helps to develop the child’s fine motor control to help them make legible b’s and d’s in kindergarten. (Solomon, Barbara) Even the pushing around a joystick or a mouse can help in the development of these fine muscles. Building blocks are another kind of activity that daycares use to help develop the child’s spatial skills or skills we use to understand directional concepts to organize our visual space (McMains, Mary) and give them hands on math experience. Using building blocks and other 'manipulatives' such as those commonly found in preschool educational video games help the child to learn to sort and classify objects.
The “how to” of thinking generally happens as children gets better at sorting and classifying objects. In the case of a toddler trying to fit a square into a shape sorter, the child will probably start off with a trial and error approach of trying to fit the square into different holes until he finds the one it goes in. After a while the child will then start to use a more sophisticated method of comparing shape of the hole with the square. (Today’s Parent) In video games, children begin to learn the “how to” of doing things in a game as they play. Children learn with video games the “how to” of making the various pieces, characters, or anything else, move and how the objects interact with their environment. Unlike television and movies, computer and video games give the child control of what goes on in the screen. These types of “real world” learning can help children to continue the development of spatial skills as well as their ability to think a little more critically at a younger age.
By utilizing both of these agents (the daycare school and the video game mass media), within the childhood stage of socialization, one can see the positive impact they have on the teaching of important cognitive development skills, motor skills, and the “how to” of thinking. The cognitive development skills from both daycare and educational video games have a positive effect on the preoperational stage of helping children to recognize and identify letters of the alphabet and numbers. In developing motor skills, both areas help to develop the child’s fine motor control as well as help them to be able to learn how to sort and classify objects. Finally, through the development of the “how to” of thinking, the two agents work hand and hand to help the children to learn how to think more critically at a younger age as well as the further development of their spatial skills.
Resources:
McMains, Mary. “Vision and Learning – Visual Skills Page Two.” 2000-2002.
“Parties, Crafts, & Activities.” Today’s Parent. July 2000.
Prensky, Marc. “What Kids Learn from Video Games.”
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Solomon, Barbara. “What Kids Really learn in Preschool.” Parents magazine. September 2000. Meredith Corporation. 2005.
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