Those who have been reading me for a while will know I'm a Montessori fan -- both my sons went to a Montessori preschool and primary school. So I was particularly interested in a study which affirms the Montessori philosophy of "follow the child" -- which means letting the child set the pace of their learning. The study looked at change detection (a hot topic at the moment) in children 6-10 years old. They were surprised to find that, although 8 year olds are capable of adult-level attention for many aspects of attention, it is not the case for this aspect. Even 10 year olds can't reliably perceive details of a scene at adult level. I particularly liked the quote from the researcher:

"We expect children to be adult-like, because of their proficiency on computers or because they display adult-like speech, so we give them instructions and get impatient when they can't understand what we tell them the first time. Children learn through repetition, at a pace suitable to the child, not to the curriculum. Once upon a time, kids controlled their own pace; now that pace is controlled by adults."

Too true - and words all parents and teachers should heed.