11 Plus Exams Forum

Just come across this article http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life ... 908053.ece saying that certain 'tough love' attributes passed on by parents enable their DC to get on in life.

I like the three attributes needed to get on -
1. application - defined as the ability to concentrate and stick with tasks
2. self-regulation - whether someone can control emotions and bounce back from disappointment
3. empathy - the ability to be sensitive to other people.

Also liked the marshmallow test - if a child can avoid the temptation of eating the sweet in front of them now in order to get 2 or 3 later, then they would do well at school.
Might try it later

I'm pretty sure I've seen the marshmallow test before in relation to perception of time,with 3-4 year olds being unable to grasp the concept of receiving a greater reward if they waited and the 5s and overs understanding it.
I don't know if this implies a degree of developmental delay in those failing the test in this instance as there is no indication of the ages of the test group. Assuming they were all of an age which would normally be expected to understand the concept, I suppose it might be possible to arrive at some conclusions regarding the boundaries set by parents and their ability to instil patience in their children from an early age, a virtue which would correspond with the application and self-regulation attributes.

Any Psychologists out there able to confirm this?

MasterChief wrote:I'm pretty sure I've seen the marshmallow test before in relation to perception of time,with 3-4 year olds being unable to grasp the concept of receiving a greater reward if they waited and the 5s and overs understanding it.
I don't know if this implies a degree of developmental delay in those failing the test in this instance as there is no indication of the ages of the test group. Assuming they were all of an age which would normally be expected to understand the concept, I suppose it might be possible to arrive at some conclusions regarding the boundaries set by parents and their ability to instil patience in their children from an early age, a virtue which would correspond with the application and self-regulation attributes.

Any Psychologists out there able to confirm this?

I saw the test done on the TV programme by Prof Robert Winston - Child of Our Time - but I can't remember what the conclusions were .

The marshamallow test was devised by Professor Walter Mischel in the 60's on groups of children of various ages (from about 4 - 10 I think). He then followed them up in their late teens and found that those who had been unable to wait for the delayed reward had more behavioural problems at school and lower achievement. In contrast those who were able to resist and wait fot the delayed reward had significantly higher achievement results at school.
I remember doing some of this at college and seem to remember his work was an extension of Piaget's moral development of the child (all marble games as I recall!) I think the striking thing about the marshmallow test was that the results weren't age specific. So some children at 4 could resist and others at 9 couldn't. So it wasn't so much a developmental thing as a character trait. However my memeory is a bit vague on some of this.

I can well beleive this, DS1 could probably resist at 3, DS2 couldn't resist now at 8 ( this may have something to do with knowing that if you don't eat something straight away our crafty dof will get it!)