Young children are distracted by too many classroom decorations

Credit:  Liz on flickr

We are all familiar with the variety of posters and displays in our children's classrooms, but research shows these displays can distract young children.  Children in classrooms with a lot of posters and displays paid less attention and learned less than in sparse classrooms.

"Young children spend a lot of time — usually the whole day — in the same classroom, and we have shown that a classroom's visual environment can affect how much children learn," said Anna Fisher, lead author of this study.

The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon Univeristy, put 24 kindergarten students in two different classroom environments.  The children were taught six new lessons - three in a heavily decorated classroom and three in a classroom with just a few posters and displays.  Although the children learned in both environments, the amount of learning was higher in the sparse classroom.



"We do not suggest by any means that this is the answer to all educational problems. Furthermore, additional research is needed to know what effect the classroom visual environment has on children's attention and learning in real classrooms," Fisher said "Therefore, I would suggest that instead of removing all decorations, teachers should consider whether some of their visual displays may be distracting to young children."

The study,"Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning in Young Children (When Too Much of a Good Thing May Be Bad)" is published in the journal Psychological Science.

©Mary M Conneely T/A Advocacy in Action