Subcommittee hears new method
Child training skills simplified
Rabbit ears, red toads and white tunnels are descriptions used to help pre-school children learn to tie shoe lacecs.
This is part of an experimental program developed by the University of Kansas Center for Research in Early Childhood Education which was designed to simplify and sequence developmental tasks.
Two KU staff members will appear today before the Congressional subcommittee on education in Washington to present
the program and a film, which was developed to instruct potential teachers.
Margaret L. Cooper, assistant professor of human development and head teacher of the Edna A. Hill Child Development Preschool Laboratories, said the research program demonstrated the application of reinforcement and stimulus control, and could make a skill traditionally considered complex, simple, even for very young children.
Mrs. Roland Hurst, secretary
in the biology department and the mother of five children, will also testify before the subcommittee. Her 4-year-old daughter, Traci, could tie her shoes after only two months at the preschool.
"I was more than amazed to see Traci tie the practice shoe not only once, but twice in succession. I thought of all the frustrating moments that both my husband and I had spent trying to teach the other four children to tie their shoelaces at about the ages of five, six and even seven," she said.
Photo by T. L. Simmons
A stiff upper (and bottom) lip
In order to teach a complex skill, Miss Cooper said, she first defined what the child was to do and then pretested to see what he could do.
"If the child cannot tie his shoe, then it is my job to examine shoe tying and determine the steps involved. I simplify the
skill by breaking it down into small steps. I sequence the steps, one after the other, until the final step is the terminal step," she said.
Each child is supervised on an individual basis. Miss Cooper said each child begins on a practice board with 34-inch laces, half red and half white, with special marks to show where to make the bow and where the laces should extend. The child is rewarded at each successful stage, she said, with tokens that can later be traded for back-up reinforcers.
As the child progresses, she said, the laces are changed to white, unmarked 21-inch laces. Miss Cooper said shoe tying was mastered after the steps were simplified, the specific responses were isolated and correct responses were consistently reinforced.
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