At one time educators were concerned that young children starting school had not had enough stimulation from their home environments to prepare them for the challenge of attending school.
Parents everywhere heeded the call and it has been rare to find a crib without at least one mobile drooping over the headboard. Our problem today is the opposite to what it once was. Our children are getting too much stimulation. We need to do something about it.
Learning for children is a two step process. The first step is taking in information, which we call data collection. In the textbooks, this is called assimilation. The second step is taking that information and doing something with it, remembering that which is important, developing ideas about it and playing with those ideas in our heads. This is called accommodation.
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The formula is simple. If assimilation is too great and exceeds the ability of the child to accommodate it, she is overstimulated. Children who are not able to deal with all of the information that is given to them are not learning.
The signals for overstimulation are straightforward. The child either gives up and withdraws from active participation of any sort, or she bursts forward with unrestrained energy. She can be agitated, uncontrolled and running off in several directions at once. This is a youngster who is confused and likely frustrated.
Overstimulation has a lot to do with the environment in which the child is functioning, and reducing the amount of activity found in that setting will help the child settle down. Life is just a little more enjoyable when the TV is turned off, the stereo turned down, the cell phone put on hold and the computer ignored.
Some homes have a quiet time every evening. Everything electronic is prohibited for an hour and the children are encouraged to read or study and maybe even try their homework assigned earlier in the day by an ever idealistic classroom teacher. Quiet times are regular and structured antidotes to overstimulation.
No child has ever been overstimulated when she is out playing in the yard, in the natural environment. Something about the fresh air and clear and open skies is settling. Despite the protests that come with the children as they jam zippers on a winter parka when we are trying to get them outdoors on winter days, a few moments wandering about the yard makes more pleasant children.
They are then more likely to be receptive to whatever learning tasks are there to challenge them.
And if it works for children, my bet is that it works for adults, too.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor, living and working in west-central Saskatchewan who has taught social work for two universities. Mail correspondence in care of Western Producer, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or e-mail jandrews@producer.com
