Parents of toddlers are familiar with role repetition plays in the lives of
their young children. Many parents will usually read with excitement a story
requested for the second or third time in a row. But after dozens upon dozens of
readings of The Brave Little Tailor or Jack and the Beanstalk, parental
enthusiasm can begin to wane.
The appeal of wanting something again and again is no surprise. We repeat that
which we enjoy. For smaller children, repetition brings with it the security of
predictability. Says Karin Borland of the Winnipeg Public Library, “Children
delight in repetition because whatever the activity is, it becomes part of their
memory and they learn to anticipate the details of the story, film or fingerplay…When
they know what’s coming, they’re the master of that activity.”
Repetition is a key to many types and facets of learning – at almost any age!
Literacy specialist Judith Wright tells us that “a baby needs 1000 repetitions
to learn a word; by the time he’s a toddler, he might need 50 repetitions; and
when he’s in kindergarten, he may need only a few repetitions to master it…”
Indeed, to master a task – be it in sport, in music, in art or literacy, in
learning a craft – we, regardless of age, need a certain amount of repetition.
Nothing will substitute for experience and action. And if performed in a correct
way with the rapt attention of a child engrossed in a fairy tale, of these
repeated experiences will be born mastery – learning! And life, thankfully, is
learning, something for which we are never too old.
