Children See, Children Do

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. They are watching and learning from you each and every day, whether or not you intend to teach them.

Children learn more by observing the behaviour of adults and they try to copy it. This is sometimes called “observational learning”. Wherever they are, whomever they are around, children are observing and learning.

“Parents try to teach values in conversation, but children learn more by observation. No matter what we say, kids discover what matters to us by watching what we do. Where we focus tells them what we prize. A key to being a good role model is paying attention to your attention,” says Adam Grant, organisational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.