Children learn best by observing the behavior of adults and copying it.

Do you agree or
disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Children grow up with different characteristics as it depends on the way or environment
they are brought up. These characteristics are learned or acquired by observing and copying what
other people around them do especially their parents. Therefore, I personally agree that children
learn best by observing the behavior of adults and copying it.

First, in my opinion, children are actually involved in social learning that takes place in a
social context whereby observation and modeling are involved. This is how their social and
cognitive abilities begin to develop. This is supported by Mark Nielsen (2006) whereby children
who are engaged in social learning will be provided with a way of acquiring new skills and a
means of engaging in nonverbal social interaction. He also added that children thus attain many
of their most important social and cognitive abilities by observing and copying what others do.
Therefore, adults especially parents should be aware that learning takes place in children since
they are young and they are the closest models for the children to follow, and thus they have to
promote a good behavior and values for the children to follow.

Besides that, the reason for the children to learn best through adults is the frequency of
interaction. Young children especially babies are still unable to acquire verbal skills. However,
babies actively communicate with their caregivers by using nonverbal cues. Therefore, most of
the time, face-to-face interaction is needed as the babies will learn many new skills nonverbally
from the caregivers. The process of learning here is called imitation. This means that children
also learn best from the adults through imitation. Karl H. Schlag (2011) stated that imitation is
the act of copying the behavior of someone observed. Children are born to learn and they learn
from the closest people around them. Therefore, as the process of imitation occurs, they will be
able to develop certain behaviors when they start to copy whatever is done by adults. This is also
aligned with Schlags statement on the importance of imitation. He stated that imitation is a
simple behavior that has two basic ingredients. One need to be able to observe what others have
done and one needs to be capable of doing what they have done. This can be seen in the situation
of face-to-face interactions between children and adults.


Lastly, children at the young age also need to see concrete things to learn effectively. In
this case, they see adults as their references in order to develop behaviors. The best example
would be the education at home. Children are eager to copy what their parents do at home. This
is aligned with a research done by Barbara Turk Niskac (2013) whereby a couple has brought up
their children in a natural setting and as a result, their children has learned to do many house
chores even they are still young. This situation describes that the children learn what are good
things should be done as their responsibilities in the future. Moreover, with the presence of
rewards such as praising and other positive reinforcements given by adults, children will be
extrinsically motivated to develop good behaviors.

As a conclusion, I totally agree that children learn best by observing and imitating the
behavior of adults. Hence, as a parent and teacher, I think I should be the best model that my
children and pupils as I know that their characteristics are learned or acquired by observing and
copying what other people around them do especially their parents.

(584 words)























REFERENCES:

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the Second Year. Retrieved on January 29, 2014, from the World Wide Web:
http://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/~nielsen/actions_and_outcomes.pdf

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th
, 2014,
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http://homepage.univie.ac.at/karl.schlag/research/imitation/imitation_sociallearning.pdf

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http://www.drustvo-
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