Are you sure that your three-year-old reciting poetry and solving equations is a source of pride and not a hidden threat to his future?
While parents compete to boost their children's early achievements, research shows that forced learning before school can lead to emotional burnout, loss of motivation, and even mental disorders.
Children who are taught to read and count at 3–4 years of age are three times more likely to experience anxiety and fear by adolescence.
It turns out that a brain overloaded with information loses the ability to adapt to real life challenges.
Let's take the example of a girl who, by the age of five, spoke two languages fluently and solved problems for the third grade. It would seem like an ideal start. But already in the first grade, she began to have panic attacks: she was afraid to answer the teacher's questions, cried because of the slightest mistakes.
Psychologists who worked with the child linked this to the fact that she was deprived of the right to a "normal" childhood. Instead of games and spontaneous exploration of the world, she lived in a regime of constant activities, where every failure was perceived as a catastrophe.
Trying to teach a child something that he is not physiologically ready for disrupts the natural stages of development.
For example, abstract thinking is formed only by the age of 7-8. Attempts to explain complex mathematical concepts to a three-year-old result in him mechanically memorizing the information, but not understanding its meaning.
It's like building a house without a foundation: it seems like the walls are already standing, but the first storm will destroy them.
Parents who are preoccupied with early development often fail to notice the warning signs. A child who knows the multiplication table at age 4 may completely lose interest in learning by age 10.
He gets used to the fact that knowledge comes easily and does not know how to overcome difficulties. When the tasks become more difficult and the demands higher, he simply refuses to try.
“Why try if I won’t succeed anyway?” is the main attitude of such children.
What to do if you have already plunged your child into the race for early success? The first step is to reduce the load. Replace some of the activities with free play, creativity, walks. Let him be bored - it is in such moments that independence and creativity are born.
Remember: childhood is not a project with deadlines, but a time when the ability to enjoy life is laid.
Author: Elena Shimanovskaya