Goal setting is something that many adults do in their personal and business life. But have you ever thought about how goals may be great for kids too? You can apply the benefits of goal setting to literacy outcomes, as well as life in general. Here are five reasons we believe that goals are great for kids too.
Teaches responsibility for own learning
The act of thinking about, choosing and articulating literacy goals helps children to take ownership of their learning. When children choose to take responsibility for their own learning, amazing things can happen! They develop iterative thinking, they become problem solvers, learn how to project manage and collaborate. If they have a goal in sight, then they will learn to be creative in achieving it.
Motivation and vision
Goals create children who understand and strive for the bigger picture. Instead of seeing the problem at hand whether it͛s literacy based or otherwise, they begin to develop an understanding on how overcoming this problem benefits themselves and the world at large.
This in turn increases their desire and motivation to overcome the problem and reach the goal that they have set for themselves.
Builds resilience
Having goals helps kids deal with setbacks and increases their perseverance. Instead of hitting a wall and giving up when faced with a difficult problem, children will use their skills to find a way around so that they can reach their goal.
This resilience is an important life skill and is vital for personal growth and development. It provides a basis to overcome overwhelming feelings of hopelessness. If we want kids to be able to perform better at literacy (or any other task) then resilience is a key attribute.
Encourages problem solving
Instead of just giving up when faced with a road block to their literacy skills, children who have a specific goal will use their creative abilities to solve the problem.Goals provide them with the motivation to find a way around the difficulty they are having and approach the problem from a different perspective, or be motivated to find alternative solutions.
Organisation skills
Goals, and specifically goals that have been broken down into smaller steps or smaller goals help kids to become more organised with their learning. They are more likely to understand the concept of progressive milestones which in turn helps them feel as though they are constantly achieving and are in control. Once a child experiences this sense of satisfaction, it has a snowball effect on their literacy learning.
Goal setting for kids needs to be lead by the child. All of these benefits only come from ownership of the problem, and ownership of the goal. Being told what to achieve won͛t work. Adults need to be involved in the process to gently guide and provide the framework on how to set a goal, not what the goal should be.
At Leap into Literacy we encourage children to articulate what they want to achieve, or where they would like to improve their literacy skills. If you’d like to experience the encouragement and sense of literacy achievement in your child, contact us for a free trial session at any one of our centres.
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Leap into Literacy provides small tutoring classes with a focus on reading comprehension and writing. Using techniques that allow students to become creative in the learning process, sessions are fun and achieve maximum results!
Classes are held at our centres in Drummoyne, Balmain, and North Willoughby, as well as other locations around Sydney, and are available for preschoolers and school age children in Years K-6.
If you are interested in finding out more about how Leap into Literacy can help your child, SIGN UP NOW FOR YOUR FREE TRAIL CLASS AND ASSESSMENT!