New research helps to emphasize persistence in children

Encouraging children to "help", rather than asking them to be "caregivers," can encourage persistence as they work to accomplish difficult daily tasks, according to a new psychological study.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists from the University of New York, suggests that the use of verbs to talk about actions with children, such as helping them to read, read, and paint, can contribute to building resilience. only use names to talk about identities – for example, ask them to be helpers, readers or artists.

The results are somewhat contrary to those of a 2014 study that showed that asking children to be "helpers" instead of "helping" has led them to help more.

The difference between the 2014 work and the new scholarship, both of which appear in the journal Development of the childis that she has tested what happened after the children had experienced setbacks trying to help, pointing out that the choice of language is related to the perseverance of children.

"The new research shows how subtle features of language can shape the behavior of the child in a way that has not been understood before," says Marjorie Rhodes, associate professor in the Department of Psychology. New York University and lead author of the study. "In particular, the use of verbs to talk to children about behaviors, such as" you can help ", can lead to more determination than using names to talk about identities, for example "you can be an assistant".

The other authors of the journal were Emily Foster-Hanson, a doctoral student from New York University who led the study, as well as Andrei Cimpian, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of New York. New York University and Rachel Leshin, PhD student at the University of New York.

The 2014 work, which did not include any of the researchers in the latest study, showed that asking 4-5-year-olds to "help" instead of "help" then helped them to perform the following tasks. other tasks, such as picking up pencils. fallen to the ground or helping someone to open a jammed box.

However, the findings of New York University showed that this effect occurred after the children experienced difficulties when trying to be helpful.

In a series of experiments, children, also aged 4 to 5, were asked to "help" or "help", and then had the opportunity to help the experimenter clean some toys. However, the situation was designed so that children experience difficulties while they were trying to help: for example, when children were trying to take a box to move it on a shelf, the content would be safe. is spilled on the floor because of a defective box. -A problematic result similar to that of young children in everyday life.

The experiment has continued with three other opportunities for children to help the experimenter. The results showed that children who were initially invited to "help" were more resistant after the setback than those who had been asked to "help".

After the setbacks, the children asked to "help" in difficult situations that only benefited from experiments as easy as in easy situations. On the other hand, the children asked "to be caregivers" have rarely helped in the difficult situations that benefited the experimenter – they did it only when that "s". was easy and that they also benefited from themselves.

"This research shows how to talk to children about what they can do – in this case, they can do useful things – can encourage more persistence after failures than to talk to children about the identity they can face." says Foster-Hanson.

Explore more:
Do you want a young child to "help" or "help"? The choice of words is important

More information:
Asking children to be "helpers" can turn against failures. osf.io/wxtzk/