Just in Time

We are more likely to succeed when we learn something we’re ready to learn. Success here means our brains have encoded the information, stored it, and linked it to related learning. The learning becomes authentic (sorry, buzzword there) if we use it to enact change in ourselves.

As parents, you’ve seen ‘just in time’ learning. Your child doesn’t walk until they are ready. A newborn isn’t set up to walk. Their bodies aren’t ready; their brains won’t handle the skill of walking.

Could you apply the same logic to talking? Babies progress from crying to burbling to speaking words to sentences. They do it ‘just in time’ when they’re ready. You don’t rush them into it. You encourage their efforts.

Children learn to feed themselves using fingers and later with utensils. Their efforts are always just in time. We don’t put a knife in the hands of a child who is not ready to use it wisely.

How do we parents determine when children are ready to learn? Consciously, we don’t. Unconsciously, we monitor our children’s development. We constantly provide feedback loops to their learning.

We nurture, prod, and guide. And guess what? Just in time, learning occurs. Our five-year-olds cut their food and not their fingers.