Interest is a big door to stimulate child development. Through things that are of interest, children can do something for a long time. Various learning processes can be done by using interest as the entry point. The quality of learning can also be extraordinary because children enjoy their activities.
The most common examples are those related to children’s interest in the arts such as dancing and singing. Children who like computers can stay in front of the computer for a long time. With the right stimulation, these children can soar in their computer skills from a young age.
Between Interest & Talent
Interest is about being interested in something, talent is about expertise and ability to produce output. Talent is also the capacity to learn broadly and quickly about something.
Ideally we find a child’s talent, but this is harder to obtain. What is easier is to recognize a child’s interest from everyday things that interest him, that make his eyes sparkle, or that make him persist in doing it for a long time.
The Role of Parents in Developing Interests & Talents
The main role of parents in the process of developing children’s interests and talents is to explain, facilitate, and appreciate. Simply put, the main role of parents is to provide a fertile environment and ground for the growth of children’s interests & talents.
Exposing the world to diversity
Because the child’s reach is still short, the parent’s job is to expose the child to various types of experiences. The goal is to broaden the child’s horizons and open the doors of his interests so that they are not limited to things in his home. Traveling to various cities is one type of activity that can be used to stimulate and expose children to various things in the world, not limited to subjects as taught in school.
When explaining, we never know what will be interesting and will make an impression on children. So, our job is to explain and explain.
Facilitating Children’s Interests
If a child has shown interest in something, the role of parents is to facilitate it. This interest can be seen from the following signs:
often talked about/done
children enjoy the process
When facilitating, the biggest challenge for parents is to find a meeting point between the child’s interests and the parents’ resource capabilities. In the limited conditions of parents, this is where the need for creativity to find ways, alternatives, and substitutions.
Appreciating Children’s Activities
Something that is pursued and done by a child should be appreciated. If the results are not good in the eyes of the parents, at least parents can give appreciation for the initiative, hard work, ideas, creativity, or attention given by the child. Parents should not immediately criticize, belittle, or kill the child’s initiative.
Appreciation is like fertilizer that enriches the soil. It is useful, but it also needs to be maintained so that it is not excessive because anything excessive will have a bad impact.
The important thing to note in the appreciation process is that the goal is to provide comfort to the child for the initiative and things done. Children are encouraged to be independent and practice making their own decisions. Mistakes occur in appreciation if the appreciation causes the child to become dependent on parental approval and praise.
What can parents do?
Apart from exposing children to various things and activities, what can be done with things that have become children’s interests.
There are at least 4 things that parents can do:
Changing consumption to production
Children’s interests are usually related to consumption activities, for example watching, playing, reading, and the like. These activities can be changed into production activities, for example: telling stories, singing, presenting, writing, making something.
Discussing
Activities that parents can do to change consumption activities into production are by asking questions to children to bring out the information into knowledge. Ask children to answer your questions about what they are engaged in, ask children to tell, write, or do presentations of things they know. The process can be as simple as a 3-minute spontaneous conversation, it can be complex in the form of a presentation that must be prepared in advance.
Enriching with other activities
Something that a child is interested in can also be enriched by connecting it to other learning activities. For example, a child’s interest in robots is used as a means of learning robot mathematics, reading about robots (literacy), how robots work (science), and so on. You also expose your child to experts through direct meetings, expert works, or videos/films that discuss themes that your child likes.
What if the child’s interests change?
Well, this is a question that parents often ask. Especially if the child’s interests are related to resources such as funds & time that must be allocated specifically by the parents.
The first thing to know is that changes in children’s interests are normal and natural. Most children experience them. As children grow older, the variations usually narrow down. If parents observe their child’s development, they will usually see a common thread in these changes.
Secondly, children are generally adaptive. They are good at adjusting to the conditions around them. The task of parents is not to spoil or limit their children, but to communicate it to their children. This process is also part of education about empathy for children.
Third changes in children’s interests can be a doorway to learning about negotiation. Parents and children learn to make agreements together. The agreement can be when to change, what are the conditions for changing, what are the consequences of changing. This process will strengthen the child and teach the child about consequences and resilience.
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