This curious and interesting test was developed by Dr. Marshmallow, a very simple test that we knew thanks to the philosopher, teacher, teacher and writer José Antonio Marina.
The test, according to José Antonio Marina, can better predict the academic future of many children than some intelligence tests, the test is done with 5-year-olds and involves taking them to a room where they are sitting in front of a basket. candy with the following recommendation? You can eat the candy while I’m away, but if you don’t eat them before I get back, when I get back you can eat them all and I’ll give you a present?
- This simple gesture is a good way to measure discipline.
- The reward of effort.
- Constancy.
- Patience.
- Etc.
- The test accurately confirmed expectations.
- As demonstrated by children who took the candy test and were followed in their school behavior for 16 years.
Children who ate the candy without waiting for the adult to return performed worse in school or dropped out of school earlier than those who, at age 5, expected the adult to return to eat the candy.
Learning to be responsible and disciplined helps us gradually learn to be more autonomous, to have more emotional stability and therefore greater maturity.
How can we contribute to the development of our children’s discipline?
1. Start establishing discipline from birth. Stop it and feed it at the same time, for example. It is also very important to talk to them a lot since they were born; gives them a lot of security.
2. Set the rules of the house. Children need to know from an early age that there are rules to follow; It is very important that you learn to recognize that in life there are always limits, does that not mean that there are no special days like birthdays, Christmas, grandparents weekends ?, where we can break the rules a little.
3. You must give them responsibilities based on their age. Collect toys, help clean the table, clean the house?
4. Positive reinforcements. You always have to encourage a child with positive and never-negative phrases: “I know you’re good at it and you’ll do very well,” for example.
5. Establish good communication with your child. Let him feel like he can count on you, that you love him, that he’s telling you how much he’s doing this or that. It’s also good that you negotiate with your child, don’t think you can do whatever you want. you want to, but don’t feel like living in a permanent dictatorship. It increases your self-esteem and will motivate you to keep doing things right, make decisions according to others and with responsibility.
6. Explain why. If you explain that brushing your teeth is so that you don’t have cavities or that putting your seat belt in the car is to avoid accidents, you’ll understand the situation better and understand that life has a why and you won’t. Why do I say ?.
7. Help them with the example. There is no better teaching than an example. Do what you preach and your speech will be much better received.
We wanted to pay tribute, with this article, to José Antonio Marina, one of the biggest thinking minds on the Spanish scene.