Does your child roll her eyes when you ask about her day at school? Keep asking anyway. Not only do we need to keep those lines of communication as open as possible, but new research from Vanderbilt University reveals that children learn the solution to a problem best when they explain it to their mom. The research was published recently in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

“We knew that children learn well with their moms or with a peer, but we did not know if that was because they were getting feedback and help,” says Bethany Rittle-Johnson, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. “In this study, we just had the children’s mothers listen, without providing any assistance. We’ve found that by simply listening, a mother helps her child learn.”

Rittle-Johnson believes the new finding can help parents better assist their children with their schoolwork, even when they are not sure of the answer themselves. (OK, let’s hear a little “whew” from all the parents who, like me, weren’t math majors in school.) Although the researchers used children and their mothers in the study, they believe the same results will hold true whether the person is the child’s father, grandparent, or other familiar person.

“Explaining their reasoning, to a parent or perhaps to other people they know, will help them understand the problem and apply what they have learned to other situations,” she says.

The researchers also found that children experience the benefit of explaining a solution at an earlier age than previously thought, says Rittle-Johnson.

“We found that even 4-year-olds can use explanation to help them learn and to apply what they’ve learned to other tasks.”

Tags: communication, listening, Rittle-Johnson

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