4 ms·
I think that children don't really learn faster then an adult. It's just that step from nothing to 1 or 1 to 2 seems much larger then the step from 100 to 101.
by rowanG077 4y ago
I think that children don't really learn faster then an adult. It's just that step from nothing to 1 or 1 to 2 seems much larger then the step from 100 to 101. The prior is what children do. The latter what most adults do.
A friend of mine is a private piano teacher. And he observed that most adults pick up Piano much faster then children. There is probably a bias since an adult going to learn the piano is intrinsically motivated while the children might be forced by their parents.
- Retric 4y agoAdults learning piano have far more piano adjacent skills they can leverage which makes it hard to directly compare them. Even children have quite a few skills that mean they aren’t going from 1 to 2, so much as 30 to 31. It’s the same reason people can pickup a 5th instrument so much faster than their first.
- nottorp 4y ago> There is probably a bias since an adult going to learn the piano is intrinsically motivated while the children might be forced by their parents. Goes for about everything. Sports too. Noticed it with martial arts classes. If you take kids, prepare for the unmotivated that are there because their parents send them.
- ryanklee 4y agoIf you have ever witnessed a child learn to speak, I don't know how you could maintain such a thing. The rate of change is incredible. Even aside from that, which might be argued to be a biological oddity and explained by early development factors, take any active 8 year old and, yes, if you take any one domain, you might say that the rate of learning is in the same ballpark as an adult, but if you account for all domains within with that child is actively engaged, the total volume is again incredible and likely only comparable to the rate of learning of a gifted adult.
- rowanG077 4y agoI admit that language acquisition in early childhood(<5) is something adults cannot replicate. But afterwards children aren't any better at taken up new languages. I wouldn't say the total number of domains a child is actively engaged in is that high. I would be very surprised an adult could reasonably replicate that under similar conditions (no work, little to no chores, every day can be spend on only learning).
- ryanklee 4y agoMy children (8, 4) have daily chores, responsibilities, time for free play, time for screen time, and yet they manage to learn musical instruments, read books multiple hours a day, their vocabularies, linguistic creativity, and personalities grow in ways not seen in the vast majority of adults I know, and they manage to learn about scientific principles, grammar, math, music, geography, art, culture, engineering at crazy rates, social dynamics, etc. My kids are smart, but they are not so smart that they are marginal outliers. Kids manage to learn in 1 year the amount any demographically comparable adult learns in 10.
- rowanG077 4y agoI would be very surprised if the total time your children are tied up doing chores, responsibilities, free-time etc is even a fraction of the time an adult that has a full-time job and has to manage their household is. The average adult dedicates approximately 0 time to growing as a person. So it's expected that the vast majority of adults don't grow in ways that you see in your children. My point is that I expect under similar situations adults can grow as much as children.