When it comes to school (in person, remote, or homeschooling), parents know a lot about their children. They can often describe, in detail, the strengths and challenges of their children’s academics, and they know plenty about their child’s personality, interests, and other unique features. That makes parents a valuable partner in their child’s education!
Parents also have a strong sense of responsibility to help their children engage with their learning and become independent and self-aware. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, may not happen easily for many students, but the benefits of supporting metacognition in children are many. Students who understand their own strengths and challenges:
- have more self-confidence because they don’t overgeneralize difficulties
- know why they use specific strategies
- can better monitor their own performance and behaviors.
How can parents promote metacognition at home? Here are a few easy ways a parent can support the development of metacognition in their child.
Point out what you notice
In the beginning, lead the way by pointing out the things you are noticing about your child’s learning. Try to address the positive as much as possible and make sure your feedback is detailed and concrete. Whether you are monitoring homeschooling or homework, you may, for example, notice that your child has good sentence or paragraph structure or may need to work a bit more on using transitions. Specific feedback can help your child determine strengths and challenges and avoid making global statements like “I can’t write.”
Ask questions
The simple act of asking questions can move your child toward a more metacognitive mindset. Ask your child, “What are you doing correctly on this math problem?” and “Where are you getting stuck?” When your child makes a less-than-great decision, ask “Why did you make that choice?” and “What could you do better next time?” Asking questions encourages students to reflect and explore their reasoning.
Help your child verbalize and document
Give your child a language to talk about metacognition. Teach what “metacognition” is and how to word strengths and challenges, how to talk about thinking, and how to explain why things are done or said by your child. Have your child create a “self” poster or write an autobiography, a great activity for homeschooling or any child really. Create opportunities to explore metacognition, make their thinking visible, and document your child’s thinking in words or pictures when possible.
Promote reflection
At the end of an academic or household task, ask your child to reflect on how it went: “What did you do well? How could you improve? What strategies did you use? What strategies could you use next time?” Following a social interaction, have your child look at the event critically. Was your child being a good friend? Reflection is the path to a growth mindset, defusing negative emotions, and instilling that kind of atmosphere in your home can benefit everyone in the family—at home and in other settings outside of the home.
Encourage positive self-talk
One important aspect of metacognition is acknowledging challenges with a focus on strengths. This translates to the type of self-talk our children use, encouraging them to be realistic but compassionate with themselves. Help your child to understand that thinking positively makes things easier. Encourage your child to say “I can” and to notice when negative self-talk comes around. Ask your child to reframe negative statements into positive ones so that the power of self-aware thinking can be used effectively.
You can support executive function development by making metacognition part of your home environment. Role model your own discovery of your strengths and challenges, why you do and say what you do, and your choice and use of strategies. Infuse the language of metacognition in your daily academic and household tasks. Become a more self-aware and reflective family, and then reap the benefits!
Empowering parents to support the development of executive function at home can support students in school and at home. If you want to learn more about building bridges between home and school, join us for “The Home-School Connection: Essential for Learning Executive Function Strategies” on August 3rd!
- Mindy Scirri, Ph.D., SMARTS Trainer and Consultant
SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum: smarts-ef.org
Research Institute for Learning and Development: researchild.org
The Institute for Learning and Development: ildlex.org
