The 80% Rule Example

It isn’t necessary to measure an 80% accuracy rate precisely in your informal learning games and other teaching and learning activities. But it is important to ensure your child is responding correctly most of the time so that you can genuinely praise him for his correct responses. Here is an example of adjusting the difficulty to meet your child’s ability during a learning game:
Example: A father wants to help his son learn to tell the difference between numbers through the use of an educational game. When the atmosphere is relaxed and it is play-time for the child, Dad suggests that they play the number game together. The two start playing and the child responds correctly to only half of the items. The parent immediately moves the level of difficulty back to where the child is answering about eight out of every ten problems correctly. This gives the child a feeling of accomplishment, but the level of difficulty is still challenging, as evidenced by the few incorrect responses that are made. After some time, the child begins to show disinterest. Although Dad is anxious for the child to continue, he stops the game without pressure or unpleasantness. He praises his son for success even though he would have been pleased with more progress.

Comment: This parent knows that successful learning will not continue if the child experiences failure too many times. Thus, Dad adjusted the level of difficulty so that most of his son’s attempts were successful. The child ended the game too soon to please the parent, but when gentle persuasion did not entice the child to keep playing, Dad did not pressure his son. The child increased his ability to discriminate between numbers and had fun with Dad as a result of this well-conducted activity.

What do you think?  Please let me know if you are reading this blog.