The family. Importance and influence on the child's learning
There is so much to take advantage of within the family. There are several factors that intervene in the child's learning, since it implies an integral formation cognitive, affective, social, based on the aims of education. We know that the adequate stimulation in certain periods has its fruits; The brain is a precise and extraordinary machine, The fundamental thing so that adequate stimulation can be given in young children is that it occurs in an affective-positive climate: the child must be awake, relaxed, without hunger.
For many years it has been considered that families are the only ones responsible for satisfying the biological, affective and valuation training needs of their children, while the school has been the institution destined to satisfy their intellectual and academic needs. However, from multiple studies, it is established that the formative capacities of the family and the school can not be dissociated, the role of both being central for the integral development of the students. The purpose of this file is to review from a wide body of research those factors of families that have been observed to have an impact on academic performance.
The child's learning capacity does not depend only on the inheritance and the environment; also of the stage of maturation in which stimulation occurs. Then, the family constitutes a key agent to strengthen and impregnate relevant learning in the child.
The family must look for the best mechanisms to accompany the beautiful evolutionary learning process of the child from birth to its incorporation and advancement in school. The interests of the child are open to the extent of their development and growth.
It is very important that the family maintain a permanent contact with the educators to coordinate the educational development and avoid the dissociation, the objective that the parents should pursue is to educate and train the children to be successful. This requires constantly enlisting them so that everything they face has satisfactory results. The key to success lies in taking the preventive measures indicated to guarantee intellectual and emotional health (which is much needed today in our reality).
Research in relation to student learning outcomes distinguishes three broad categories of family variables that powerfully affect children's school succe.
1) Attitude and behaviors of parents against learning.
2) Resources related to learning and family climate.
3) Parenting styles, Favoring the knowledge and development of these variables within the family could be a very relevant strategy to improve learning
• Level of commitment and participation: that parents know, are interested in what their children live, do and learn in school is a key element in their education. In general, the most active forms of participation produce greater school success than those that are more passive. Research supports this, since the evidence accumulated over more than forty years indicates that family involvement is one of the most important factors in the school success of children in the educational context of the home is one of the variables that has more relation to learning. This includes the participation of parents in the school, and the knowledge and opinion they have of this and their teachers. The fact that families are involved in their children's homework, asking about the work they do in different subjects, showing interest in their school progress and that they talk about the value of a good education, allows children and young people They perceive that their families believe that school work, and school in general, is important, that it is worth talking about and striving to learn more. All this results in better school performance and a positive attitude of students towards other important ways in which parents are involved is a relatively high frequency of participation in school-related activities, teacher knowledge and good attendance at meetings. consider that this factor presents important differences by social stratum, since in vulnerable sectors many times the long working hours make it difficult for families to get involved in the education and training of their children.
• Level of expectations: Various studies show that one of the best predictors of school success and social adjustment of children, are the expectations that parents have about academic achievement and satisfaction with the education of their children in school with this, the powerful relationship between parents' aspirations for the education they want for their children has been documented - and the success of students, that parents consider that education will give their children better opportunities in life and possibilities to emerge, and believe that if they propose, their children can complete high school and pursue higher education, whether technical or university, is key to the children and youth themselves desire and strive to learn more and obtain better academic performance. This is understood from the fact that expectations are translated into concrete behaviors, since high aspirations lead parents to promote school attendance, and at home, to meet the support demanded by the school specifically in the mathematical area, it has been studied that the parents' perception of their children's abilities in this subject is highly related to the results they have now, it is fundamental that the expectations of parents are high, but realistic, that is, goals must be encouraged and performances appropriate to the age, maturity and capacity of the children, otherwise it can generate great pressure and frustration in them.
• Level of active and manifest assessment of abilities: It is essential that parents trust their children's abilities and believe that they are capable of learning and have good academic results. When the family explicitly values the efforts and achievements of their children, recognizes their special talents and makes them feel that they are capable, children develop a positive perception about their own abilities, developing in them a greater interest in learning and attending school , it is not about inventing achievements, but being attentive to what children do well and looking at those areas in which they are progressing, it has been seen that it is not the failures themselves that frighten the child and make him feel incapable at the moment of face new challenges, but it is the judgment and evaluation that the adult makes of that experience, what produces a belief centered on defeat this point is especially relevant, since research has shown that the feeling of "being able" to do something is as powerful in children's school performance as the overall effect of cognitive abilities.
• Availability of spaces for study: one way to help children to study and do homework two very important aspects to obtain good academic results is to provide an adequate space in the house for it, without too much noise, far from television, with Good light and no elements that can distract your attention.
• Availability of materials for learning: access to educational materials is of great relevance for learning, since they allow for the exercise of diverse skills, offer a wide range of topics that children can learn and also make this process more entertaining. This is how the families that make this type of resources available to their children collaborate enormously in their learning. A very important material are books, which can be from school texts to novels and stories that are of interest to children. Having a certain number of books in the home is consistently related to school performance and achievement, when it is also relevant the use of books, frequency, context and the way they use, and not only their number what helps promote interest in reading and then obtain positive academic results. Likewise, magazines are good material and can cover different topics, such as science, art, sports. Even recreational magazines, such as comic books, are very useful. The important thing is that they are topics of interest to the children, since that will motivate them to read. The newspaper is also a good resource, since children and young people can exercise reading while being informed of what is happening in their country and in the world. It also suggests reading as an educational practice that favors learning processes. On the other hand, in today's world, Internet access is increasingly important for the learning process of children, since through this medium they search for information about jobs and tasks. The Internet offers an infinite variety of topics, and when students use it properly, they learn to search and select information. When families do not have the possibility to offer this type of material to their children, they can be recommended to borrow from the school library books, magazines, newspapers or other interesting materials that can be used to continue learning at home.
• Family participation in recreational and cultural activities: with this type of activities children expand their vision of the world and the environment that surrounds them, as well as being a good opportunity for interaction for family members. On the other hand, they constitute a wide scope of "extracurricular" learning for children, which benefit their general development and indirectly their school learning. Some possible activities are going to sporting events, amusement parks, theater, cinema, museums, exhibitions, circus, walks to know the city and other places. Generally, recreational and cultural activities, such as bingos, plays are also offered in the schools. Attending these activities is extremely important both because of the aforementioned, and because you participate in the world of the school. On the other hand, in the same home you can perform recreational activities such as reading stories to children, commenting on news items that appear in magazines or newspapers, encouraging them to sing, write lyrics. These activities have a positive impact on the development of their literacy skills, as well as on the bond established between parents and children.
• Parental or family models: Most human behavior is learned by observing the behaviors that other people perform, that is, by observing models. It has been recognized that modeling is one of the most powerful means of transmitting patterns of thought, behavior, values and attitudes. This is why the people of the family or close to it exert an enormous influence on the attitude that children assume towards learning, school and the evaluation of education in a broad sense. Hence the importance for the academic success of children having grandparents, uncles, parents, siblings, cousins, who value learning, study, self-discipline, who manifest the importance of working hard to achieve the proposed goals or who simply perform daily activities related to learning, such as reading the newspaper, books, magazines.
Families with positive family climates and appropriate parenting styles generate in children general confidence and a positive sense of self, positive orientation to school goals, general interest about preparation for the future and positive adjustment to school. Within the areas that make up the family climate and parenting styles, the following stand out as a relevant influence for the school performance of children and young people:
• Link quality and relationships: the quality of relationships with parents is truly predictive of a large number of attitudes and behaviors related to self-regulated learning, such as setting achievable goals, monitoring and maintaining progress toward these goals. The quality of the link is related to the degree of closeness and affective relationship between parents and children and how much they are loved and accepted. Families that have a positive effect on the performance and school adjustment of their children, tend to favor contact between them and their interactions are affectionate, open, empathetic and trusting. In other words, the ability to express affection, unconditional acceptance is a very good predictor of socio-emotional and academic development in children. Along the same lines, it has also been investigated that the absence of conflict and intrafamily violence, contributes to generate emotionally adequate environments for learning, which in turn creates in children emotional states that facilitate the use of the opportunities presented by their ambient.
• Discipline style: It has been seen as a relevant influence on school performance, both academic and social, the style of discipline, established rules and routines within the family. A relevant factor in this sense is that the family uses a rather democratic style of discipline, where there is an adequate use of power, the autonomy of the children is recognized and respected, the reasons for the norms established are explained to the children. and negotiation between all is allowed as a way of making decisions together. It has been seen that severe and authoritarian parenting styles are associated with poor socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes. On the other hand, it is important that there is agreement and consistency between the parents regarding the rules established by the family, which must be clear, but without repressive measures. Some daily examples of rules and routines with positive influence are: more supervision and increase of time devoted to tasks, restriction of television, attendance of children to school, being firm about bedtime, between others.
• Communication style and conflict resolution: A fluent communication style, with good verbal interaction between parents and children, also acts positively in the social adjustment of children to the school context and their academic performance. In families with good communication parents listen actively, giving them a signal that what they say is important and valued, which in turn allows the child to feel valuable. On the other hand, when there is a fluent communication, children learn to express themselves and listen, which is very important when interacting with people in the environment, since the way in which children learn to communicate in the family will determine how they communicate with other people. On the other hand, the best way for parents to know what happens to their children and the needs they have (both emotional and related to learning), is through good communication that allows them to collect their demands and address them adequately.
• Socio-affective training: Research has shown again and again the great influence that socio-affective training has on the academic and social success of children in school. It should begin considering that emotions have a direct influence on learning processes. Even, it is argued that the intellectual structure of the child is linked to his affectivity; from which it follows that everything he learns or stops learning is necessarily colored by his emotions, and will prompt him to act in a certain way. One of the pillars of socio-emotional formation is the development in children of a good self-esteem, that is, having a good opinion of themselves. This is fundamental because self-esteem is one of the elements with the greatest impact on people's lives and has a great impact on students' school performance. Having a good personal image, self-confidence and being aware of the skills you have depends on the attitude and way of relating of parents with their children. For all this, it is essential to generate a warm emotional climate, participative, comprehensive and focused on the positive, where the contribution of the child is recognized.
Few are the seconds in which something new is taught to the child, for example, the intonation of the voice with gestures must be meaningful and during which dad or mom must express rejoicing for what the child has done, giving him an affective response with kisses and Hugs in a way that associates your learning with a pleasant affective feeling. A proverb says: "A roof opens another roof".