Often, as a chess coach, I have been asked at what age parents can expect their kids to be really able to absorb
chess education. Those of you who have coached, or taught really anything to kids, know the answer is extremely
variable as to the adaptation level and maturity of the individual student. For most kids this age I think is about 6-7, although for a few older. BUT, there are those remarkable youngsters who can focus and perform as young as
4. Others in the chess teaching field have told me they have or have had students as young as 3.
Last week, I started working with an older child, age 10. I could not help but to notice the activity of his younger
3 year old brother, who has not yet developed cognitive speech skills. The little guy was playing some sort of learning game in which the announcer would say Cat- C A T. The tot would reply in perfect annunciation. I was intrigued.
Yesterday, the tot became very interested in the chesskid.com account his brother was solving problems on. The
incredible graphics of this site had the 3 year old fascinated. He sat totally transfixed, focused, for the entirety of
the puzzles solving session, plus one video. I have never seen a three year old so focused, that is who was awake.
My query is this: How much of what the tot was watching is he really learning?? Without developed speech skills this is, of course, hard to measure. I have heard reading experts state that reading stories to babies enhances their cognitive abilities, and I wonder–could the same be true with a more complex study such as chess??
Children learn through emulation, repetition, and experimenting with elements in their environment. I have watched small children, age 2 to 3.5 years of age use ipads and other electronic devices to search and find what they want to see and hear. They cannot spell or type, and yet they can find videos on youtube. They figure out how to swipe screens to find the program they are looking for. They watch what adults do and can see how passwords are not just number patterns but also movements that can be replicated. One little tyke I know can Skype, use his mother’s phone to play her games, and find videos of his favorite monster trucks It is not a great leap to see them grasp chess patterns that are put before them.
The thing to note is how much goes into long term memory, which is only just developing. This is where repetition comes in as they play with the words and patterns over and over again until they begin to understand how they can be used. Have watched children repeat words and sentences to practice enunciation. They hear everything and can parrot it back, but when they start using the words in the proper context then they have successfully translated the patterns into something that becomes a tool. Same should be true for chess. That is why it is important for kids to play hundreds of games so that they can see patterns emerge. Will they remember it all? Not at first, but over time the beginning steps become stronger and more grooved, automatic. The more they like they game, the more they will work at it. “Work” is the wrong word as all of their attempts are in the form of play. When children play, they lose the sense of time and can focus for hours on the task in front of them. I have watched children play intensely all day and half way through the evening when they are happy and interested in what they are doing. Wears me out watching them be creative.
I am kind of from the “Old School” as I kind of subscribe to the Cognitive Theories of one, Jean Piaget, who theorized peak cognitive thinking typically
occurs between the ages of 6 - 9, and that pattern recognition would soon follow. One also has to keep in mind the limited attention spans of really young kids, and one of my former students who was 7 at the time, could barely sit through an hour of a lesson. This former student also enjoyed playing soccer, so I basically catered the lesson to her interest in soccer, and this introduction to her first interest naturally lengthened the attention span. As we say, every child is different, and of course teaching techniques vary as well.
We may have to rethink the Piaget model of development. It was developed in a relatively simpler era without computers, CGI, smart phones, hi-def TV, and electronic learning devices which have changed attention spans and speed of learning. I find my education psychology textbooks on theories of children’s learning to be quaint relics.