I Know This Child Is Smart

Teachable Moments

As I have done research on education and young children, I’ve come across the term ‘teachable moments’ quite often. A teachable moment is simply taking advantage of a situation in order to expand upon a subject and tie in what a child has just seen, done, or heard into a broader discussion about anything and everything. For example, one day my son and I were driving home when we saw a turtle crossing the street. My son went ballistic when he saw it and I decided to stop. We pulled over in a parking lot and I helped the turtle get over in the grass (it was a nice quiet street so I wasn’t dodging cars to do this!). Quite obviously, the turtle was heading for the pond next to the parking lot. Ewan and I watched the turtle slowly make it’s way to the pond.

After awhile we headed home and spent the day talking about turtles, reading stories about turtles, coloring pictures about turtles, and finding out where they live, what they eat, and so on. When children are young it’s easy to tie just about anything in to what they traditionally teach in the preschool—shapes, colors, vocabulary, and concepts. When we continued to talk about turtles that day and the rest of the week, we talked about their shape, color, labeled body parts, and talked about the environment they live in. In a way, it’s connecting everything we do or see into the context of a much larger world. Educators do this all the time and parents do it without even thinking about it as a ‘teachable moment’.

A lot of the time, parents go through the ‘why’ phase with their toddlers and preschoolers as a natural part of development. Everything is why, why, why. Your child asks for chocolate milk, your response is ‘no’, and their rebuttal is ‘why’? These typically developing children demand the teachable moment all the time. When your child has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, he or she may not go through this phase at all because they are nonverbal, wouldn’t really think to ask that question, appears disinterested in what you do or the world around them, or might be asking but not getting the right question out. Rather than skipping over that phase because of all of the above, why not initiate all that yourself.

If you experience something that is new to the child, something they’ve never seen or done, don’t just assume that there’s nothing to explain because they’re nonverbal or appear disinterested, talk about it anyway. Label what you’re seeing, talk about the process that’s happening, and generally tie it into something you’re child does know about. You may feel like you’re talking to yourself but you’d be surprised by what is actually sinking in. If your child is not making eye contact and you feel they are not paying attention, remember that these children use their peripheral vision (looking out of the corner of your eye) more often than not. So while he or she isn’t looking directly at you, they are able to access that peripheral vision much better than most.

Make connections. This world is all about connecting things and my children and I basically play seven degrees to Kevin Bacon with just about anything and everything. Of course, things are going to get more complex as your child gets older and learns more difficult concepts but the process of connecting never ends as we continue to build upon these basic foundations. We now live in an age of easily accessible information so if you don’t know what the heck turtles eat or how they live, the internet can provide you with a wealth of easily accessible information. Maybe you don’t have a turtle book, but you can easily find enough information on the Internet to make you own or you could be lucky enough to find a printable book online. Coloring books or pages are very accessible online and usually are free. Check out our learning activities section for links to online printables, books, and other interesting websites.

Teachable moments happen all the time and in all kinds of places. At home, at the store, in the bathroom (you can see where that one’s going), in the car, at the park, just about anywhere. One of the most important points I think we need to understand about young children is that they behave as ‘little scientists’. No, I don’t mean they want to get the microscope set out and dissect frogs. What I mean is that they approach life by acting like professionally trained scientists by comparing, counting, classifying, observing and measuring—the very foundations of science. Children usually do this by instinct alone. What you’ve probably learned about the child on the spectrum is that a lot of instincts just aren’t there. Children on the Autism spectrum need to have these ‘instincts’ broken down into small steps and explicitly taught. Speech, social skills, self-preservation skills, and fine or gross motor skills are all broken down into small steps and taught through therapy or instruction. The rest of life is no different for these young children.

Take the child who stims by watching the water run down out of the faucet. He or she can get lost in that for hours on end. Throughout this website, I refer to ‘your world’ and ‘their world’ and how it’s not only necessary for you to bring them into yours but you’re gonna have to visit theirs as well. It’s a two way street. Get down and play in the water too, sometimes just to do it and sometimes to bring in that teachable moment. Get some cups and transfer the water back and forth between the little cups and the big cups, slosh it around in circles, label everything, and talk about what water feels like, the temperature, where it comes from, make up songs about water, you name it. Find a way to connect whatever the situation is.

August.9.2006. - this child is smart