Ever wonder why kids hang on to their teddy bears, binkies, blankies, etc. for so long? Have you ever wondered why they don't understand a story you've told them? Because kids are touchy-feely! Children do not actually understand abstract ideas until around age 8. They will be able to pay lip service to something abstract earlier, but most don't actually understand the concept until around 8. Neither do the Aborigines in Australia (see their story below).
Abstract is not just for art. Abstract means that something is a concept, an idea, something we thought of, something we believe in or know to be a fact, but is not something that can be seen. The results may be seeable, but not the fact itself. Children won't understand this abstractness about a concept until they've learned to correlate an "idea" as a concept.
Think about it. My favorite abstracts are God, wind, and charm. You can't see them. But they're there, nonetheless. You see the results of God's love and power by looking at a sunset, a new calf, or into your child's eyes. But you can't SEE God. You can feel the wind, see it's gentle or destructive powers, but you can't SEE wind. And you can see the results of someone being charmed into falling for a scam, but you can't actually see the snake oil oozing out of the con-artist's pores (though you might feel that you can!).
Same with kids. They can listen to a Bible story, repeat what you say, and regurgitate it back to you, but they don't sincerely understand the concept of being a child of God until they are 8, 10, or even 12.
We start teaching children to write at 4, 5, or 6 and they learn then to draw the connections between the written words and the spoken words. They learn to write by mimicing what you've written down on paper. But it's hard to get a child to write a whole sentence in the first grade. It takes practice on the child's part and patience on the teacher's/parents' part. After weeks and months of practice, the concept of connecting all those written words together into an understandable string of words called a "sentence" actually gels in the child's mind. The same is true for trying to teach children in the lower grades how to write paragraphs and essays.
A paragraph is a more or less structured concept that adults have created that strings several of those "nebulous" sentences together into a collective thought. Still a concept, an abstract. A yound child, who has enough trouble trying to understand what the purpose of a sentence is, will have even more trouble understanding the purpose of a paragraph. Because it's an abstract concept.
Draw the connection between those sentences and something CONCRETE that the child can see and touch and feel and you finally have an abstract CONCEPT that the child can see, and therefore understand. In steps the Hand.
I'm not writing this to get you to buy my products found at The Five Finger Paragraph. I am on a mission to try to explain to parents, teachers, and the community in general why it is so hard for children to try and learn certain abstract concepts. We, as parents and teachers, have come up with ad infinitum different ways/formulae/rubrics to get children to write paragraphs and essays. Most of those rubrics don't work with younger children because they are TOO HARD to learn. They are concepts, abstract and nebulous, that a child can mimic, but won't truly understand until they are old enough to understand abstracts. Children (even high school students) need something simple, something easy to remember, something visual that they can touch and feel, that they can use as a tactile reminder of what that concept is all about. The words "paragraph" and "essay" are abstract concepts. The Five Finger Paragraph turns those abstract concepts into something concrete that a child can understand, usually better and faster and more permenantly, than other concepts.
Numbers are a concept. Numerals, on the other hand (5, 8, 43) are the concrete version that we can see and we use. Numerals to explain, on paper, the idea of adding and subtracting numbers. "Numeracy" is what Math is called in the UK and Australia. I have a friend who is a "Curriculum Consultant" for students in the outback of Australia. 2000 square kilometers of Western Australia is her domain to provide guidance to students and parents and teachers. Ryanin (pronounced "Ree-ann-inn") travels by bush copter, chartered plane and 4WD daily to homeschooled families (their students are usually the ones "above tract," not to my surprise!) and small schools with 2 teachers and up to 30 students. Her largest school has 850 students. Ryanin says that getting aboriginal children (and their parents) to understand the need for and to become accomplished at reading and writing are the two hardest things she does. Literacy and numeracy are hard concepts, until she brings out the books and numerals. She has latched onto The Five Finger Paragraph recently and hopes that the program will help her "get through" to the children (1)what a paragraph/essay is and (2)why it's not the "bear" that we all think it is. The aboriginal people have such a wealth of stories and traditions to tell and to pass on to the rest of us that it has become essential, as their numbers dwindle due to the encroachment of civilization, that they learn to read and write so they can pass on their heritage.
Take every opportunity to reinforce visual concepts with your children. Talk about an upcoming movie, go see it together, and then repeat lines from the movie. While in the grocery store, explain how that loaf of bread is made and baked, then watch a documentary on baking on TV. Take every opportunity to reinforce something visual with a spoken explanation. These actions will help a child begin to learn to correlate concrete actions or images with abstract ideas. Touch it then talk about it!!
» left by Johnnie W. Lewis from Marietta, GA USA (70 days 23 hours ago.)
I rank wind as a concept/idea/belief because it is invisible to the naked eye. You cannot SEE wind or touch wind, although you can FEEL its gentle or destructive presence and the effects of wind. It is intangible. The same is true of Truth or Love. They are CONCEPTS of which you can feel the results of implementation or application, but you cannot SEE the concept itself. They are intangible.
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