Did you ever get in trouble for doodling on your school work when you were a kid? I certainly did! The funny thing is that no matter how many times I was reprimanded I couldn’t give it up. And today, I doodle just as much.
According to Wikipedia the definition of doodling is this:
“A doodle is an unfocused or unconcious drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes.”
If I am at meeting or required to do any form of auditory learning, my compulsion to doodle is irresistible. My childhood impressed upon me that doodling was bad but recently I discovered otherwise:
According to a study published in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling can aid a person’s memory by expending just enough energy to keep one from daydreaming, which demands a lot of the brain’s processing power, as well as from not paying attention. Thus, it acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking too little and helps focus on the current situation. The study was done by Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, who reported that doodlers in her experiment recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group made of non-doodlers. (Thanks again Wikipedia!)
In light of those statistics I say > DOODLE ON!!!
~Micheline
This hit a nerve with me because it’s so true – my son who has adhd does much better in school when the teacher allows him to doodle – especially during long lectures. Teachers are always surprised to find out how much of the lecture he absorbed while doodling. However, if he doesn’t doodle most likely would not even absorb half that much!
I am totally the same! So are both my kids! I think Teachers NEED to know!