Make your bed, clean your room, take out the garbage, cut the grass and help around the house. All of these common demands from parents on their children may carry some added benefits in terms of academic scores and improved learning abilities in school which carry over to adulthood.
There seems to be better academic performance and problem solving skills tied to children who do regular daily chores at home. This is according to new research from La Trobe University, led by PhD candidate Ms. Deanna Tepper. The recent study was published in Australian Occupational Therapy and found that children who had regular household chores were associated with better planning, self-regulation and remembering instructions.
Ms. Tepper points out that regular chores that included gardening and cooking were extremely beneficial to children. She went on to say that parents using age and ability appropriate activities for their children demonstrated improved executive functioning.
This was the first study of its kind which looked into children’s executive functioning and cognition development levels as it was associated with regular chores. Other previous type studies involving children and chores, delved into any changes with regards to social behaviors and life satisfaction.
This study took the parents and guardians of 207 children aged 5-13 years of age. Had them fill out a questionnaire as to the number of daily chores their child did and their executive function ability.
Executive function ability has to do with shifting from task to task, inhibitions, how they monitor and manipulate temporary information as well as planning and working memory skills.
Researches found that working memory and inhibition was effected by children engaged in self-care and family-care chores like, making themselves a meal or cooking a meal for someone else.
Research also showed that these type skills start to show up in early childhood and continue to develop into adolescent and continue into early adult years.
An emphasis on early engagement of executive function skills relate to better education ability, physical health and higher financial status through adulthood.
Me Tepper states, “Research indicates it may be possible to improve executive functions by developing individualized learning activities and routines. Impairments or delays in executive functioning development can lead to difficulties in the ability to self-regulate, plan, and problem solve as adults, having implications later in life on reading performance and mathematical ability, as well as predicting overall academic achievement in later childhood.”
She went on to say, “ We hypothesized that children who engaged in more household chores would have better inhibition and working memory. Our findings likely reflect that most chores require individuals to self-regulate, maintain attention, plan, and switch between tasks, thereby supporting the development of executive functioning.”
I find the information from this study to really be a statement in support for parents and children alike. Parents really are at the forefront of educating their children while they’re still at home. The job of a parent to find creative ways that involve your child more at home, knowing that there can be actual long-term benefits isn’t an easy or simple thing to do. It requires knowing your child and his/her abilities and matching a particular task that suits a specific need for a life lesson to be learned. The lesson should be individually tailored to that child. Making it fun can also be a challenge.
For children, there are so many ways to grow and learn from their immediate surroundings. Especially at a time in their lives when everything is still new. Take advantage while you can and realize that ways of growing from learning new life skills don’t always come from reading or writing a paper while at school.
Creating a loving and structured home life that takes into account a child’s perspective, needs to be centered around the goal of ensuring better academic performance and development of lifelong skills that will give them the best chance of success in their future.
– A Balance Brain is a Better Brain-