Last week, I wrote about how a human’s perception of time develops..well, developmentally, ‘over time’ (pun intended)!
I wrote about a tool called a Time-Timer, which helps all of us be more aware of the passage of time in a more concrete way as the ‘red disc’ slowly fades away until time runs out and hopefully the task(s) are completed ‘in the nick of time’ (again, pun intended). Hope some readers went out and purchased some Time-Timers.
This week, let’s think about a term called ‘delayed gratification’. What does it have to do with language and literacy you ask? Well…a lot.
And also, let’s think about ways in which we reference the concept of ‘time’ (see my above puns intended). Our children learn from everyone around them, especially their parents and caregivers. As Michelle Obama states, “with every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.”
WHAT IS DELAYED GRATIFICATION? AND WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE CONCEPT OF ‘TIME’?
According to verywellmind, delayed gratification involves the ability to wait to get what you want. In fact, developing delayed gratification has much to do with the notions of long-term life success, well-being, and the development of values.
You may be familiar with Walter Mischel’s famous “Marshmallow Test” conducted in the 1970s. Mischel gave children two choices:
1 – children were given the opportunity to eat ONE marshmallow in the moment
OR
2 – children were given the opportunity to eat TWO marshmallows if they waited for a prescribed brief period of time
The results? Mischel discovered that the children who had the capacity to ‘wait’, or delay gratification, and chose to eat two marshmallows performed better academically than the children who were unable to resist the urge to eat the single marshmallow instantly. Additionally, the children who were able to delay gratification exhibited fewer behavioral problems and even had higher standardized test scores years later. Moreover, it was found that children who lived in or attended school in ‘unreliable environments’ typically chose the immediate single treat as opposed to waiting for greater rewards. If a ‘promised reward’ seemed unlikely, did these kids make a rational decision to take the treat offered right at the moment? Likely so. Makes me think….what about those kids?? And how does it affect their academic performance? I believe we are all reaching the same conclusion here.
More interesting followup research indicates that most children are able to exhibit some form of delayed gratification by the age of five, coincidentally, the time when many children begin formal education. This makes me think of school type tasks involving delayed gratification such as waiting in line for one’s ‘turn’, raising one’s hand, waiting for lunchtime or the bus, waiting for a teacher or crossing guard to allow them to cross the street or drive, completing classwork (or work at home) before engaging in a more preferred task such as gym, playing outside, listening to a story, having a snack, etc.
All of these tasks involve children’s development of time perception, and the more we discuss time perception using concrete language and examples..and the more we follow through with what we say as parents and/or teachers, the better off our children will be. Your words and actions do count–each and every time! That would include their use of the time they have, their ability to delay gratification in order to attain a goal, and ultimately, their academic performance, which then translates into increased well-being, life success, and even values.
WHAT ABOUT ‘BEING TIMED’ OR THIS IS A ‘TIMED TEST’? WHAT DO KIDS THINK? HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THEIR PERFORMANCE?
I don’t think children really understand this concept very well, except that they have to work fast. Many, many children have reported to me that “they feel rushed at school” on a regular basis. No wonder some children feel tired by the end of the school day, or experience some level of anxiety. How would you feel if you are rushed around all day five days a week (or do you already feel rushed?). Nevertheless, school is a place where children are sometimes asked to complete tasks in a ‘timed fashion’.
Some children sacrifice accuracy for speed.
That is, they work as fast as they can, but do not attend to detail as well as they should and commit many errors, whether it be in reading, written language, or math, or even in another subject areas.
In reading, these kids commit all kinds of errors including:
–omitting words — predominantly ‘function words’, but often times unknown ‘content words’
–skipping word endings
–losing their places
–skipping entire lines of text
–omitting markers of speech seen in text…in other words, not pausing after commas, stopping after periods, or raising their voice tones after questions
–and the biggest error of them all: reading so quickly that they derive little meaning from the text they have just read
In written language, these kids commit all kinds of errors including:
–spelling
–writing illegibly
–omitting punctuation and capitalization
–the lack of planning, which often makes their written language disorganized
–inability to finish a written language assignment/story/essay in the prescribed time frame
–the lack of time to proofread and edit
In math, these kids commit all kinds of errors including:
–making careless numerical errors
–writing illegibly
–not ‘showing’ his/her work to the extent requested
–not going back to check work for errors
–not truly reading ‘word problems’ before working on the solutions
Some children sacrifice speed for accuracy.
Wait a minute, didn’t I just say the reverse? Yes, both are true.
In reading, these kids commit all types of errors including:
–not completing the reading task
–reading so slowly that they lose the meaning of what they have already read
–achieving low scores in terms of reading fluency
In written language, these kids commit all types of errors including:
–not completing the written language task
–writing so slowly (I call this ‘drawing the letters’ rather than ‘writing the letters’ they lose their trains of thought)
–looking up each word they cannot spell, which again may interfere with the thought process
In math these kids commit all kinds of errors including:
–not completing the math task
–writing so slowly (I call this ‘drawing the numbers’ rather than ‘writing the numbers’ they lose their trains of thought)
–losing track of the question(s) being asked when solving word problems
It also becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy some children develop when they are allotted ‘as much time as they need’ to finish tests and assignments. Many years ago, I had a student, Tyler, who was given what I deemed as “never ending time limits” to complete assignments and tests while in middle school and even into high school. Since he was a private tutorial student, I had no idea this was occurring for quite some time.
Once I became aware of this course of events, I encouraged him to limit the time he took on tests to 1.5 the time allotted to the other students since 1.5 is what is typically allotted in all elementary, secondary, and post-secondary environments.
Let me also add that many children who sacrifice speed for accuracy are often thought to have attention issues—sometimes this is the case, but certainly not always. Alternatively, some children do not spend as much time as they should completing tasks.
We are not doing our children/young adults any favors by allowing them to work on homework “all night” as elementary age students, work on tests without any time limits, or have unlimited “extensions” on projects. Face it, what type of work environments allow these behaviors?
THINK GOLDILOCKS! DEVELOP A ‘JUST RIGHT’ SENSE OF TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN/STUDENTS
“Encourage your children/students to work at a pace that is ‘just right’.”
—Lori Josephson
This is beginning to sound just a little like Goldilocks and The Three Bears to me. We want children to work at a pace that is “just right”. They remain ‘on task’, spend enough time on the task, and allocate enough time to ‘check their work’. This is especially true for tasks that are untimed–we also want children to understand the passage of time and how to allocate the appropriate amount of time when engaged in tasks.
My suggestions:
1 – Talk with your kids about ‘time’—and how to perceive it, how it passes, how to measure it–maybe use a Time-Timer? Would that be helpful?
2 – Try the Marshmallow Experiment with your kids and see how it turns out! Talk about the concept of delayed gratification.
3 – Pay attention to your children’s/students’ work style based upon what I wrote above. If you see an issue, talk with your child about speed versus accuracy and the importance of achieving the ‘right balance’.
Let me know if you have other suggestions I haven’t thought about. I’m always open to suggestions.
PART 3: More talk about the language of ‘time’. This turned out to be a pretty BIG topic. Stay tuned and have a good week.