Are you are putting your kids under more stress during lockdown by ignoring the picture superiority effect in your home school instructions to them.

Hi, Jim here, and I just actually, argh, it's backed home schooling. And it's not just the kids who have got stress, it's the parents who have got stressed because we have to understand all the rules and the regulations shared to us by teachers. I'm going to talk to you today about how that could be done better. And it's not just teachers who are sharing information, especially now we're entering another lockdown, it's companies, it's politicians, we're sharing information. And yet we're all falling into wheels law trap. here is law says that what can e misunderstood, will be isunderstood. And it's kind of simple way that we can help to lleviate some of this isunderstanding. We talk about hat today in the context of the nformation that my 11 year old aughter has been sent, and for s to interpret and to follow, o that she can get through the ext six weeks of lockdown. Now, e as law, which I've talked bout on the speak PR program efore, talks about how there re a number of filters between he person that sends nformation, and the person that eceives the information. And we lways law says that only some 0% of what is intended will inally be understood because here are a number of filters. nd the numbers, for example, nclude language, ability, age, ulture, health, cultural isposition, understanding of a articular topic, for example. nd each one of these different actors will degrade the message n the mind of the recipient. We aw this, especially in the arlier pronouncements here in he UK by Boris Johnson talking bout certain kinds of standards n an English language way, from very upper class attitude. And hose were not necessarily going o be listened to and understood y people, most of whom don't ome from his background. Now, oday, I'm thinking about the mportance of format, in terms f wheels law, because the nformation that we share is mpacted by the format in the nformation as much as the ontent itself. Now, I'm hinking of this because we've ecently received instructions or our 11 year old daughter oday on how she's going to arry on during lockdown using icrosoft Teams. And it'd be air to say that the children eed help. But the adults as arents need help. And I think hat probably the teachers may eed some help as well. So this sn't a criticism of anybody. t's an observation with a view o making some constructive deas of what could be done ifferently. If we look here, at he information that we've been ent, the content has been sent o discuss, for example, guided ome learning protocol. And now t's all one long bullet pointed ocument. Actually, there are 12 entences with five sub bullet oints. Now, next, we have no mages, no reference to what ight have been before or fterwards, we're being told, or example, that this is all or the children to read. And et, it says that the children ave to read this. But if the hildren were to read it, rankly, I can't imagine them aking head nor tail of it. Now t says, for example, or in apital, underline that all asks set by your teachers on irefly, the software platform, hich is not Microsoft Teams, ut is another management ocument, workflow place that ids have to learn about. All hese tasks are to be completed. ut it doesn't necessarily state here those tasks may be. Or if hose tasks will be separated rom the workbooks and the ourse timeline, which the hildren are spending with their eachers online. So in other ords, with one simple nstruction, which is to omplete all the tasks that are et on another location, which s an unspecified directory, on a very large platform, they've fallen into Windows a law already because they're talking about information, which is going to be shared. Because the person is giving instructions in a vague way. You'll do all information But with a specific kind of command. So it's creating a tension between the command, which is specific, and the ability to deliver it, which is not specific. So it's already creating some degree of tension and stress, we know we've got to complete everything. But we don't necessarily know exactly where it all is. Now, we also have been told that he's our 11 year old has that all work will be monitored, and teachers will be collating results throughout the term in order to assess their overall progress, and learning. And then later on, it says that all work completed throughout the term should be stuck into your spring theme book in the usual way, which is not on Firefly, this is offline, so that it can be reviewed. So we still have testing of that offline work as well. But at the end, so the teachers are saying that the children are going to be reviewed, both at the time of the work they're doing, but also, they're going to be tested at the end. The question is, which one is most important? Are they both equally important, and which one is most important for us to focus on? Another tip here has been about keeping the documents on Microsoft Teams. So the children are being told that they need to complete all the documentation required, it's only number three after turning up on time, which is their number one thing that they need to do. And the other, of course, is that they need to be prepared. So as a child, they've already been given a great deal of instruction. But it's all really listed out in a way that appeals to the teachers, in terms of here are the rules that we want you to follow. Now, anyone that's got children knows that following the rules, when they get to about the age of 11, becomes the last thing on their mind, and anyone trying to put in discipline at home, during the second bout of homeschooling knows that tries to be might, our main goal is to look after the child's mental health, because frankly, the learning for us right now is second to their sanity. So what I have talked about earlier on in earlier podcasts as part of this big PR program, which is Storify personalized engagement amplify is the picture superiority effect. And what's amazing to me is that none of the instructions to the 11 year old children, and I imagine for younger and older, has any pictures in it. Now the picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon which pictures and images are really much more likely to be remembered the words. So it's been demonstrated the human memory is very receptive to symbols, and understands that symbols, and especially moving symbols. And there's a British chap called Ellen Pelvio, who has talked about a theory called Jaw coding theory. And I have talked about that at length in earlier podcasts. But basically, the jaw coding theory says that the brain processes moving video in two parts of the brain and connects them together again. So it makes coding and retrieval much faster than simple text. So I'm kind of amazed that for a school, and a very good school at that they're sending information in the format really, that the teachers would like to send it. They're giving instructions, largely about discipline, and results. And these are not really where the children's heads are at right now. They are confused. They are scared. But also we've now created a whole bunch of anxiety about all of these bullet points that they should turn up on time they should be organized, that they should know where things are on Firefly or is it on teams, and they must be on time. And they're going to be tested all the time and the end. Now, we all know that children are motivated by having fun and stress free In fact, facilitates learning not just in children but in adults as well. So here we have a case where children during this lockdown are being sent information in formats that are appealing. And I suggest easy to create for the teachers and for the school, and in formats that we understand because we may be come from a text based background. But for the children that come, especially for this digital generation come from a pictures and animated pictures generation, the instructions are possibly going to be less than 20% understood. And I think this is a course of great stress. Now, of course, it's not just children who have been given instructions, either, I was interested to watch Boris Johnson talk, he perhaps read my earlier posts about why so many people misunderstood him. And notice, for example, that his hand gestures were much different this time, he had his hands clasp firmly together, still slightly white knuckle and just burst out just a little bit at the final few minutes, where one hand, his right hand wanted to kind of reach out and be more expressive. But again, here, they are talking to the country about a lockdown. And there are no pictures, there's no video, this time they had someone doing the sign language, which obviously is a great improvement, and animated things a little bit more. But again, we're using what the person who's sending the information feels comfortable as doing sitting down talking to a camera in the way that they would like to be heard. Not necessarily thinking about all those people out there. For who though that model isn't appropriate. So for children or people of ethnic groups or different languages, this may or may not be the way they're going to receive the information and take action on it. And of course, we've seen with the lockdown that many people ignore the instructions. But even more people just didn't really understand the instructions. So I think now we've got the case, where during another lockdown, all of us that are sending messages, whether it's the teachers, the politicians, entrepreneurs, everybody needs to look at windows law and think about not just what we want to say, but the format that we're sending that information in. Let's think about the format. Is it an image? Is it an audio? Is it a piece of text? Is it an infographic, I encourage you to use some of the tools that I talked about on the speed PR program. And also that I have on our website on the technology applications directory. And also that if you follow us on our newsletter, every week, we write about these different tools that are available. ones that can enable you to for example, to have audio on your website, ones that enable you to take text, and it will create an audio script for you. So all of these things now are possible. And most of them have a free version. So if you have a message worth sharing something that's compelling enough to articulate and send to somebody else, if it's, for example, children, or if it's employees or partners or customers can I just encourage you to think about the state of mind, they're gonna be in when they receive your message, and what's going to be the best format for them to receive your message. It may not be sitting down and reading an email, they may be out or they may be like me, trying to balance homeschooling, understanding my daughter's school instructions, and trying to run my own business. So speaking about PR on the speech PR program, we talked about Storify, Personalise, Engage, Amplify and to Know, I'm encouraging you to think about the person at the other end of your message. And when you create content that is engaging. It doesn't just mean that you use content and images and graphics that you find engaging in a format that you like and find easy to use. It's about what they would find easy what they would find engaging. I think about our children at this time. That's going to be one of the main audiences that we all need to address so that we can reduce the stress levels for them and help them get through this next lockdown. So my homework is to try and take some of these bullet points in instructions and I'm going to try and make some explainer videos. That I can share with my children and with other children. In the same way that my sister Dr. Shelley James is making some explainer videos for children on the impact of light, and how they really need to try and get outside, put their head out the window just to get some natural light. So thank you so much for listening to this episode, if you'd like to talk with me about any of these matters, like to check out any of our videos. Come to me on LinkedIn, I met Jim James, easy to find he says public relations, or come to Speakpr.co if you like this podcast, please do subscribe, share it. And if you're interested in getting a weekly update, where we consolidate the best of all of the information that we find to come to eastwestpr.com and subscribe to our newsletter. So with that, I say thank you so much. And I hope that wherever you are, you are healthy, that your business is profitable, or at least sustainable. And that if you're going to be communicating, think about who you're sending it to. And good luck with making it so that it's not real homework. It's great fun for them to receive it. Thank you so much for listening