Nutureshock--could self-control be taught

The notion of being able to sustain one's own interest is considered a core building blocks in Tools.Parent usually thinks of urging their children to pay attention, to be obedient to a teacher. They recognize that a child can't learn unless she has the ability to avoid distractions. Tools emphasizes the flip-side--kids won't be distracted because they're so consumed in the activities they've chosen. By acting the roles they've adopted in their play plans, the kids are thoroughly in the moment.

tools suggest a different benefit entirely--that during playtime, children learn basic developmental building blocks necessary for later academic success, and in fact they develop these building blocks better while playing than while in traditional class.

Take, for example, symbolic thought. almost everything a classroom demans a child learn requires grasping the connection between reality and symbolic, abstract representation: letters of the alphabet are symbols for sounds and speech, the map on the wall is a symbol of the world. the calendar is a symbol to measure the passage of time.words on paper,such as the word TREE, looks nothing at all like an actual tree.

Young children learn abstract thinking through play, where a desk and some chairs become a fire engine. More importantly, when play has interacting components, as in Tools, the child's brain learns how one symbol combines with multiple other symbols, akin to high-order abstract thinking. A child masters the intellectual process of holding multiple thoughts in his head and stacking them together.

Consider high-order thinking like self-reflection, an internal dilogue within one's own mind, where opposing alternatives are weighed and carefully considered. This thought-conversation is the opposite of impulsive reaction, where reactions are made without forethought. All adults can think through ideas in their heads, to differing abilities. Tools is designed to encourage early development of this Socratic consciousneess, so that kids don't just react impulsively in class, and they can willfully avoid distraction. Tools does this by encouraging that voice in the head, private speech, by first teaching kids to do it out loud- they talk themselves through their activities.

The upshot of Tools is kids who are not merely behaved, but self-organized and self-directed.

Executive funtion--planning, predicting, controlling impulses, persisting through trouble, and orchestrating thoughts to fulfill a goal. though these are very adult attributes, executive function begins in preschool, and preschooler's executive function can be measured with simple computerized tests.

Every parent has observed a young child nd wondered, with some frustration, when he'll be able to sit still, to sustain an activity for a sold half-hour?. At times it seems that a child's cognitive ability, which might be very high, is at war with his distractability. Being able to concentrat, a skill might be just as valuable as math ability, or reading ability, or even raw intelligence.

Being disciplined is more important than being smart. Being both is not just a little better--it's exponentially better. Self-control or self-discpline is malleable.

Due to multitude of empirical evidence, there is now consensus on the effectiveness of self-regulated learning on academic achievement, as well as on learning motivation.