Emotional well-being and social competence provide a strong foundation for emerging cognitive abilities, and together they are the bricks and mortar of brain architecture.
Harvard University Center on the Developing Child
What is background knowledge?
Background knowledge relates to the background information you need in order to understand a situation or a problem. Teachers often discuss prior knowledge, schema, or background experience students have to connect to new information presented in their classrooms. The pickle with background knowledge is that all students come into the classroom with different knowledge and experience. The goal as kids grow is making new information stick. Knowledge sticks when we connect to it. When something is known well enough to stick we can really consider that as knowledge – the kind of knowledge that empowers.
Why is it important to build background knowledge?
Imagine being asked to subtract 25 from 100. Many students learn how to write out subtraction problems and could get to the answer quickly. Imagine the same math question, but instead it’s a word problem. You have a dollar and you buy a piece of candy for a quarter – how much money do you have left? A child in England, with different experience of the names of coins, might not know that a quarter in American currency is 25 cents. They would struggle to calculate the answer without support because they don’t have enough background knowledge.
This mismatch in the information used to teach students and their own experience is constantly being negotiated by teachers in much more complex scenarios. It’s hard work to review all class work materials and consider each student. Then teachers attempt to design an introduction to each lesson that builds the background information students may not have.
One strategy teachers use is front-loading lessons. They can provide lots of related information to review as much background information as possible. Teachers also assess prior knowledge by having students fill out graphics or answer pop quizzes. Activating background knowledge can be as simple as asking students in an unstructured discussion about their experience. But the “stickiness” of new information is tied to how much students already knew about the topic before.
Neurobiology and Subconscious Knowledge
It’s almost a catch-22. In order to build background knowledge you have to already have knowledge that you can connect the new information to. It’s almost a catch-22, almost. But there’s plenty of connections happening in our brain that we can tap into when we know how.
Early learners already have knowledge – lots of it. There’s so much subconscious activity in our brains. Background knowledge relating to school topics may be woefully diverse, but it’s rare that a six year old doesn’t recognize the feeling of a parent’s hand wrapped around their own as they cross the street together. Few children forget the rhythm of their mother brushing their hair. Infants recognize their fathers’ voices closely after birth.
The connections a child develops with a parent is the foundation for all their development – they build all other knowledge on that background.
The most interesting, most foundational experience in a young child’s mind and brain is their relationship to their parent or caregiver. Research is regularly affirming this. Parents influence the outcomes their children experience in diverse ways. The connections a child develops with a parent is the foundation for all their development – they build all other knowledge on that background.
Our Tool for Beginning Now
Read Together Books are a tool. Build background knowledge by capitalizing on the connection a child has to their primary caregiver! We’ve made this tool for kids to explore new areas of knowledge with the person most influential to their developing brain. There is a range of complex ideas and vocabulary intentionally woven into the books. Parents naturally scaffold their reading with young learners to suit their individual child. Scaffolding is simply walking the learner through manageable parts of information and collaborating with them in making their first connections to a new topic.
Last week, when beginning a connect-the-dot image with my oldest son, I hummed the tune of one of his favorite counting songs. Together we embarked on an enjoyable experience talking about the picture that emerged. I supported his practice counting using a memory I know he enjoyed. With one of my younger children I began a new tracing practice by choosing new information matching the letter that starts his name. It is the most important letter to him right now. If we’re learning about a new animal I explain its similarities to a favorite animal from the zoo. I know little things that matter to my kids. I know things that are meaningful to them and I can make bridges to new information.
All parents and main caregivers are especially equipped to introduce new knowledge. We have so much shared experience with our little ones, and they are very invested in what we say.
Empower Your Kids and Read Together
Every time we interact face to face with our kids our behaviors and brains can synchronize with theirs in a phenomenon psychologists and neuroscientists call interpersonal synchronizations. Physical movement when synchronized had been linked to social connectedness over and over long before science backed it up. Picture people dancing to the same rhythm together. Think of the feeling of swaying with a baby to calm them down. Feeling connected comes naturally. And when learning something new feeling connected is necessary.
Don’t underestimate the powerful way you influence a child’s brain by sitting with them with your heads both leaning over the same pages.
More research is tracking the way our neurons respond in synchronized ways when we have meaningful interactions. Don’t underestimate the powerful way you influence a child’s brain by sitting with them with your heads both leaning over the same pages. The next time you find yourself making eye contact sitting with a young learner know that just by making a connection with them you are building a foundation that will serve them well. No matter what kind of resilience life demands of them in the future.