Kids Talk : Please, don't eat the marshmallow

By MAREN SCHMIDT

Posted: October 5, 2009 at 6:49 a.m.

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BENTONVILLE — In the 1960s, Walter Mischel conducted the now famous "marshmallow study" at the Bing Nursery School at Stanford Univer sity. A researcher would let a 4-year-old choose a treat from a tray and tell the child that he or she could eat the treat right away or wait until the researcher returned and have two.

About one-third of the 4-year-olds could wait until the researcher returned 15 minutes later. Most of the children could wait for minutes before popping treat into their mouth.

The study has shown a high correlation between those children who could wait and better school outcomes, including scoring more than 200 points higher than the children who ate their marshmallow in less than 30 seconds.

The ability to choose be havior, in this case choosing to wait for the second marshmallow to appear, is called self-regulation or self-control.

Self-regulation for children and adults demands a variety of skills. The child must trust the adults in situation. I would guess that the children who could wait for the marshmallow also had adults in their lives who kept their word and whom the children trusted.

Self-regulation requires that you feel safe. If you think that someone is going to come in and take your marshmallow while you wait, it makes sense to pop it into your mouth right away.

Self-regulation needs imagination and an ability to redirect focus. The child with self-control has to imagine something that is not there - in thiscase, the second marshmallow - and be able to think ahead. Children who resisted eating their marshmallow were able to redirect their attention on something other than the marshmallow. Researchers found that children who were taught to imagine that the marshmallow was a picture and visualize a frame around the marshmallow were able to resist temptation longer than they had previously.

Fifteen minutes of selfregulation at age 4 also involves experience and practice starting from a young age. A friend related watching her 15-monthold niece self-regulate at a family get-together. All the adults' cell phones were on the coffee table, along with one of her niece's toys. My friend watched her niece walk over to the table and start to reach for a cell phone. But as she extended her arm, the niece stopped and a pensive look swept over the toddler's face.

Instead, she picked up her toy and sat down to play. At 15 months, self-regulation was already at work.

Living in an environmentthat promotes trust and safety helps the child's development of self-control. Having positive experiences based on respect helps the child's development of predicting a sequence of events.

Self-regulation is a foundational skill for success in all of life - physical wellness, emotional stability, positive social interaction and intellectual growth.

Being able to control their thoughts and behavior gives our children a vital key for a life well lived.

Help create a place for our children to safely live with adult trust and respect so they can imagine and redirect focus to wait and enjoy the second marshmallow for all their lives.

Next week: Eat, drink, breathe, think.

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Kids Talk deals with childhood-development issues. Maren Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Master of Education degree from Loyola College in Maryland. She has more than 25 years' experience working with children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is the author of "Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents." Contact her at maren@kidstalknews.

com or visit www.Maren-Schmidt.com.

News, Pages 3 on 10/05/2009

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