Do you sometimes wonder what kind of parents successful people have? How much have they contributed to the success of their children?
We all want our kids to grow up happy, confident and successful. But how we help them achieve this depends on how much we understand how they learn and grow.
What You Do Becomes Who You Are
For the first seven years of our lives, we form pathways from the neurons we were born with.
Through exposure and repetition, these pathways develop and become stronger, enabling us to do things more effectively. For instance, toddlers stumble and fall as they learn to walk. But over time, they become more agile until they can finally run.
What happens to the things we don’t often do or aren’t exposed to? We become less skilful in those areas.
It’s the brain’s way of keeping itself efficient; it prunes away pathways we don’t often use. That’s why adults find it harder to learn a new skill compared to a child. We call this “use it or lose it.”
If we don’t regularly play or practice golf for example, don’t expect you can just pick-up a club and beat Tiger Woods in the game—your pathway for that skill isn’t as strong as his.
Help Your Kids Develop Healthy Routines And Habits Early
Early exposure and repetition will give them ample time to develop and strengthen important skills until it becomes second nature to them.
This is why it’s important to expose our kids to healthy, useful and meaningful activities while they are still young.