Want a young child to 'help' or 'be a helper'? Choice of words matters

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/sfri-way042314.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Apr-2014

Contact: Hannah Klein
Society for Research in Child Development
Want a young child to 'help' or 'be a helper'? Choice of words matters

How do you get a preschooler to help with chores and other household tasks? A new study suggests that adults' word choice can make a big difference.

The study, by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Washington, and Stanford University, appears in the journal Child Development.

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Children who heard the noun wording (helper) helped significantly more than children who heard the verb wording (help). When the experimenter talked to youngsters about helping, using verb wording, the children didn't help any more than when the experimenter never brought up helping at all.

"These findings suggest that parents and teachers can encourage young children to be more helpful by using nouns like helper instead of verbs like helping when making a request of a child," says Christopher J. Bryan, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, who worked on the study. "Using the noun helper may send a signal that helping implies something positive about one's identity, which may in turn motivate children to help more."