Avoiding the superbaby syndrome - pressuring children to learn

Pediatrics for Parents, March, 1992 by Michael K. Meyerhoff

One-year-old Rebecca lives with her affluent, college-educated parents in a large, neatly-kept house in the suburbs. Her nursery is stocked with all the latest educational toys, and she spends much of her time in a well-equipped playpen that is placed in front of the television so she can be exposed to "Sesame Street." Her parents each set aside 45 minutes a day for "learning sessions," during which they teach Rebecca to recognize her numbers, letters, and objects in pictures. They have her enrolled in a professionally-run playgroup three mornings a week; and in a few months, they will send her to a high -tech academy where she will receive extensive instruction in reading, writing, math, science, music, and art.

At first glance, it might appear that Rebecca is getting all the advantages, and that her parents are helping her to achieve the best possible start in life. However, my 20 years of research on early learning have convinced me that while Rebecca's mother and father are well-motivated, they have been badly misguided, and they actually are preventing their daughter from developing into a bright, well-adjusted, preschool child.

Like most mothers and fathers, Rebecca's parents want their child to be happy and to make the most of her potential. Unfortunately, by being too structured, trying too hard, and focusing too closely on the contents of her achievements, they are misconstruing or obscuring what early education is all about. Whether it's basic capacities such as reciting the alphabet, counting to one hundred, and categorizing shapes and colors, or amazing precocities such as playing the piano, producing poetry, or operating a personal computer, paying inordinate attention to specific skills often means ignoring --or at least interfering with -- what is really essential.

During the first years of life, children are learning all the time. and they are learning to do a lot of different things which may or may not include any or all of the aforementioned activities. But above all else, they are learning how to learn -- and much of that they are learning on their own. As they indulge their innate inclinations to explore, investigate, and experiment, they are developing general skills that will enable them to more or less effectively absorb from and adapt to the ever-changing environment around them for the rest of their lives. As far as I'm concerned, infants and toddlers who have been encouraged to develop these fundamental abilities fully and freely will be far better off than those whose initial educational experiences have been directed into relatively restricted channels -- no matter how well-intentioned their instructors, and no matter how impressive their early academic or artistic accomplishments.

I do not deny that there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that if you use a variety of elaborate and expensive procedures, and if you expend enough time and energy, you can teach an infant or toddler to do just about anything. I've seen graduates of intensive intelligence institutes who could recite Shakespeare and reconstruct sophisticated mathematical models well before their third birthdays and graduates of special music schools who could play Vivaldi pieces quite proficiently on tiny violins while still in diapers.

However, I have never seen a stitch of evidence to suggest that programs designed to produce such precocities provide any lasting educational advantages. Furthermore, while serious, systematic, scientific instruction of this sort may produce immediately impressive results, I am certain that it can be quite counterproductive in the long run.

The fact of the matter is that the finest preschool students -- those with whom teachers can work most efficiently and who continue to perform superbly and show constant improvement with each passing year -- are characterized not by their accomplishments of the past, but rather by how prepared they are to cope with whatever is in store for them in the future. Moreover, they also possess interpersonal skills which enhance and balance their intellectual abilities, thereby preventing them from becoming "lonely geniuses" -- social cripples with high test scores and few friends. And finally, it is clear that the learning process is self-sustained for such children -- they regard educational endeavors as exciting and enjoyable challenges instead of dreadful chores to be completed solely in order to obtain adult approval.

Therefore. I urge mothers and fathers who are following the kind of policies and practices pursued by Rebecca's parents to consider switching to some of the more productive and less stressful strategies.

Allow your child to develop a true understanding of basic concepts instead of training him to perform a meaningless repertoire of tricks. Impressive performances do not necessarily reflect equally impressive brainpower-- Roy Rogers taught Trigger to count. but I wouldn't let that horse balance my checkbook. With extraordinary techniques. you can teach your baby to do almost anything. but he probably won't get the chance to accrue all the mental accompaniments that permit him to comprehend and appreciate the processes involved in many cases.