How We Can Become Quick Learners Like Children (Age Is Just A Tiny Reason They Learn Quicker Than Adults).

There is a common idea that children are effortless learning machines because of their age and many people explain it's mainly due to brain plasticity.

But there are many other reasons that get overlooked. Thankfully, these can be applied by any adult to learn almost as fast as a child:

1. They do not fear making mistakes (this is probably the biggest reason - even more important than age/brain plasticity). 

Studies show if you want to slow someone’s learning down, install fear of making a mistake into them and only reward them when they are correct.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what we do with adults.

If you make a mistake at university, you fail an exam. If you make a mistake at work, you can be fired or it can reduce your chance of getting a promotion. If you make a mistake when you voice your opinion, people assume you’re an idiot. And the opposite is also true – we are rewarded only when we are correct.

Unsurprisingly, adults fear and avoid any situation where they may make a mistake. This slows their learning down.

The irony is we tell children “You learn from your mistakes”.   

Young children aren’t scared of making mistakes as it’s part of their daily lives. Being comfortable making mistakes means they learn quicker than adults.

Two months after starting to learn Arabic, my progress stopped. So naturally, I tried to make as few mistakes as possible. But I soon noticed I was doing this by taking the safe option – sticking to simple sentence structures and using words I already knew. So I decided to set a simple rule. I had to make 5 mistakes per class (but they couldn’t be intentional).

This had two positive effects. First, I started to challenge myself with harder sentences and using words I kind of knew. Second, I spent less time trying to be right so the number of sentences I was saying in each class increased massively which meant I was getting more practice in the same amount of time.

Predictably, my progress picked up very quickly.

Over the next few months, whenever my progress slowed down, it was because I started to worry about making too many mistakes. I would have then to readjust and aim to make more mistakes.

The good news is we can train ourselves to become more comfortable making mistakes.

We just have to do it regularly enough, until we become numb to the pain. The only downside is it is really painful in the short term. 

2. They do as their teacher tells them to do.

Does this sound familiar: you find an expert teacher with a proven track record in the skill you want to learn. You excitedly go to their classes but soon you start questioning their instructions and you think to yourself, “That’s not how I’d do it” and so you do it the way you think it should be done instead. You may even tell the brilliant teacher that the way they are doing it isn’t optimal or explain why your way is right.

There’s a reason you selected the best teacher you can find. Thinking you know better than them after a few lessons is stupid.

I made this mistake when I first started doing Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) and I struggled with my kicks.

My coach was a world-class coach who had trained several world champions. During the class, he would instruct us to try to “kick through the pads”. I tried this a few times but it didn’t work. So I broke down the kick and then tried to execute each piece correctly. I did this for over a month but no progress. 

So I decided to take a private lesson with my coach. He said “Kick through the pads” and I replied “But my technique is bad, can you help me fix it”. He told me to do as he said and stop overthinking it. So I did. And the kick was almost technically perfect. The cue forced my body to do what was needed such as pivoting off the planted foot and rotating the hip inwards on the kicking leg. The only real adjustment I had to make was to swing my arm a bit higher to protect me from being punched in the face.

Children don’t suffer from this problem as they don’t bring their own thoughts into training. They just follow the instruction of the teachers.

This is an easy solution, put your ego aside and submit to your teacher’s orders. Do as they say. 

3. They will stick with a skill longer than most adults.

Adults usually start a new class/skill but then jump to a new skill after a few weeks, often after hitting a plateau.

Children don’t have this luxury as they are put into classes by their parents. They don’t have the opportunity to bounce to a new shiny thing that comes along. Their parents don’t let them. They are forced to stick with a class for a while. Where they can finally master the skill.

This is hard to implement hopefully assuming your parents still don’t control your life. The best solution I’ve found is putting a large amount of money on the line. For example, committing to give my sister £1000 if I fail to train regularly for 2 months in a new skill. But I will do this after I have taken a few classes and I know it’s a skill I want to pursue.

4. They have a support team.

Have you ever watched a baby taking its first steps? Their family will continuously encourage them to try. Every time they fall, everyone cheers them at their attempt and encourages them to try again. And when the baby manages to take even a few steps, everyone celebrates.

Imagine how much we could all succeed if we had a cheering support system.

This one is harder to create than the previous 3 points, but it can be done by selecting the right people around you.

The best people for this are usually those who have already gone through the exact thing you are going through (as they have dealt with the challenges already). Let’s use me writing this newsletter as an example. It’s relatively new to me and the people who cheer me on the hardest are those who have been publishing a newsletter for a while. 

They understand the struggles and know how much it helps to have someone encourage you.

5. They are OK saying “I don’t know how to do …”.

This is connected to several of the previous points.

When a child can’t do something, they are more comfortable going to someone and admitting “I need help”. People/teachers are usually more than happy to help, we just have to be willing to ask.

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Too many people use the excuse that children naturally learn things because of their age and say “I can’t learn … because I’m too old”. Don’t let age hold you back.