"We knew that children learn well with their moms or with a peer, but we did not know if that was because they were getting feedback and help. In this study, we just had the children's mothers listen, without providing any assistance. We've found that by simply listening, a mother helps her child learn.

The basic idea is that it is really effective to try to get kids to explain things themselves instead of just telling them the answer. Explaining their reasoning, to a parent or perhaps to other people they know, will help them understand the problem and apply what they have learned to other situations.

We saw that this simple act of listening by mom made a difference in the quality of the child's explanations and how well they could solve more difficult problems later on.

This is one of the first studies to examine whether or not explanation is useful in helping children under 8 apply what they've learned to a modification of a task. We found that even 4-year-olds can use explanation to help them learn and to apply what they've learned to other tasks."