Peewee Persuasions

For parents and teachers who come to grief when they try to persuade children to do their bidding, science last week had cheering news. Data was gathered by research at University of Michigan on how to talk to moppets and make it stick.

Dr. Marguerite Wilker Johnson, a supervisor of the University's laboratory elementary school, tried out the relative effectiveness of cajolery, flattery, commands, threats and scolding on 40 matched pairs of children aged 2 1/2 to 8 1/2. One youngster of a pair received specific instructions, the other general ones; one simple instructions, the other verbose; etc. All told, some 26 kinds of persuasion were tried. Highlights of Dr. Johnson's report:*

> An adult should use specific words. For example, twice as many children wound a swimming toy correctly when a teacher said "Wind it backwards" as when she said "Wind it this way."

> Simple instructions are more persuasive. When a teacher, pointing to glass toys, said "Put them away in the red box," 34 of 37 moppets did so. But when she said: "We have to be very careful of these glass animals. We wrap them up in tissue paper. We put them away in a red box. ... It would be too bad to break them. . . . You put them away," only seven children responded correctly.

> Pleasant words are more effective. When children refused to dress a doll, the teacher got much better results by saying "Please do" than by scolding: "I don't understand why you refuse. . . . You shouldn't refuse to dress the doll." Exception: to the pleasant approach one peewee responded: "Nuts!"

> A positive request is better than a negative one: Children were almost twice as careful when a teacher said "Keep the clay on the board" as when she said, "Try not to get it all over everything." > Encouragement is more effective than disapproval. When a teacher said "You can do it," children were more persistent and successful than when she asked "Is it too hard for you?" When she said "You can do it" in a sarcastic tone, they were discouraged.

> Words that originally produce results have a lasting effect. Children specifically instructed to wind a toy "backward," for example, were more likely to do it correctly without instructions a week later. To this rule there was, however, a significant exception. Although a simple command had a more potent immediate effect than a verbose explanation, the effect of the explanation was more lasting. Thus the children who were confused by a teacher's discourse on the glass animals the first time, a week later were more likely to play with the animals and put them away voluntarily.

*VERBAL INFLUENCES ON CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR--University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Mich. ($1.50).

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