Blog

Learning Kindness like a Language

A 2018 article from TESSA International School written by Tori Galatro discusses the countless reasons children can pick up languages more readily than adults. These reasons are numerous, but at 1decision we ask; how can we ensure empathy, kindness and compassion are absorbed in a similar way?

To summarise the article, the main advantages children have in language learning are environmental and cognitive. If children become immersed into multilingual environments with fewer inhibitions in terms of being allowed to make mistakes, learning becomes second nature. It is this pure desire to communicate that drives the learning, to quote Galatro directly.

Babies and young children also form neural connections at a rapid pace, which means new information is picked up and cemented more readily. With this in mind, we can help children pick up other traits – kindness, sharing, controlling anger, dealing with emotions, and so much more. RainbowSmart is on hand to give children this foundation.

These advancements in child psychology and a greater knowledge on how children’s brains are wired to retain information tell us that starting early is paramount to positive child development. It may seem that there are a lot of areas to cover, but the journey is a marathon rather than a sprint. Furthermore, at present RainbowSmart has 40 stories available to download and watch or listen to at the click of a button.

Stories cover a wide array of topics and can always be revisited at any time if you feel that your child could use a refresher on a certain topic. Our Rainbow Drop characters find themselves in situations that children may well find themselves in at some point, and their responses can help shape your children’s responses to these scenarios.

But with all these stories, where should you begin? Ultimately, that depends on where you feel is best for your child. You can always refer to our mapping document too, which contains a summary for each of the 40 stories on the app. If you scroll further down the document, you can also view a summary of the mindfulness videos and flashcards available. If you’d rather not make use of the app, you can always check out our recently launched RainbowSmart website.

The journey toward positive child development is a lifelong one that we have all been through ourselves. It can be tough to pinpoint what may or may not have worked for us personally, but we are blessed to live in such an age of advancement in terms of child psychology. Listening to the science is undoubtedly our best hope.