I read a report recently about a “famous” study performed in the late ’60s. The report was the conclusion based on an experiment with young children ages 3-5. The researchers would go into the room where the children were (one child at a time) and while placing 5 M&M’s in a plate, tell the children they CANNOT eat the M&M’s until they come back in the room. The reward given to the children who waited twelve minutes was 4 more M&M’s.
I cannot remember exactly how many children they performed this experiment with but I do recall them saying while most of the children could not wait, there were quite a few who did! The study’s purpose was to see what it was the children employed as techniques to help them not eat the forbidden treat.
The conclusion? Distraction. The children who could wait had been taught either by their parents or a caregiver the technique of distraction. I believe it said most of the children who could wait had been from larger families and therefore may have learned this as a result of having to wait on their siblings for various activities. I’m imagining using the bathroom being number one and possibly getting the food passed around being another.
I can truthfully say I would need much more than the promise of 4 M&M’s to keep me from eating the treats in front of me. If they performed this experiment during a certain time of the month, the researcher would be doing well to leave the bag of M&M’s and make no sudden moves before leaving me alone in the room with my chocolate.
I wanted to share this “report” with you for two reasons. My first reason being that I was shocked any living creature could actually resist the chocolatey goodness of M&M’s. The second being that distraction may be a tool we can give our children to use when they need it. I think I would encourage my child to negotiate for more M&M’s but if he could learn how to self-discipline himself in such a way, this could be a good thing. Right?
