{"id":3560,"date":"2025-12-19T14:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=3560"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:45:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:45:48","slug":"the-sponge-child-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/the-sponge-child-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sponge Child Myth: How Kids Actively Shape Their Own Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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How infants and young children come to understand the world and the role that others play in their cognitive growth is at the heart of Henrike Moll\u2019s research. (Photo: Simon Koelbl.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The Sponge Child Myth: How Kids Actively Shape Their Own Learning<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Daniel P. Smith<\/a><\/strong>\n \n December 19, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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A common understanding of human development likens young children to sponges \u2014 soaking up information, behaviors and experiences from the world around them.<\/p>\n

Henrike Moll<\/a>, director of USC Dornsife\u2019s Minds in Development Lab<\/a> (MIDLA), says that metaphor misses the mark. Children, she contends, are far from being passive receptacles \u2014 they are active participants in their own growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren know they need to learn to grow into mature beings. They know they must work to gain skills and knowledge and they know they cannot do it alone,\u201d says Moll, professor of psychology<\/a> and philosophy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At MIDLA, Moll collaborates with colleagues in philosophy, sociology and education and leads a team of motivated student researchers to explore how young children make sense of their social worlds and how others shape their cognitive development.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging the vital role adults play in promoting children\u2019s development, Moll urges a move away from the idea of \u201cone-way transmission.\u201d Children, she says, yearn to learn, and they drive their own knowledge acquisition.<\/p>\n

Her research backs this up. In recent studies, Moll and her team found toddlers consistently asked for help when facing problems they couldn\u2019t solve alone. Importantly, they weren\u2019t seeking help with simple tasks \u2014 they wanted assistance with challenges just beyond their current abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren demand knowledge by asking tons of questions and by turning to others when they hit a wall,\u201d Moll says.<\/p>\n

Her research also finds children understand much more about teaching and learning than previously assumed. By age 4 she says, they not only benefit from others\u2019 instruction, they start returning the favor, eagerly sharing what they know about dinosaurs, bugs or Lego bricks with siblings, friends, even adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that children are not simply impressionable or quick to endorse knowledge,\u201d says Moll, herself a mother of two youngsters. \u201cThey actively contribute to the circulation of knowledge in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moll is now exploring a related question: How aware are children of their own need for social learning? One of her goals is to reframe help-seeking, which she says is too often dismissed as a sign of weakness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp-seeking is a clever strategy,\u201d she says. \u201cIt reflects the self-awareness to
\nrecognize your limits and the determination to grow beyond them. That\u2019s what fuels an upward spiral of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent study funded by the Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood, Moll\u2019s team gave children especially challenging tasks and tracked whether they sought help from a familiar adult. Those who didn\u2019t were shown short videos of peers doing just that. The results were clear: After watching another child model help-seeking, the toddlers were far more likely to do the same in subsequent tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy asking questions and turning to others as resources, children don\u2019t just take ownership of their learning \u2014 they accelerate it,\u201d says Moll.<\/p>\n

Her ongoing research looks at how children recruit others as tutors and guides to support their personal and intellectual growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re driven to understand how children think and act as learners and how they chart their path toward confidence and competence,\u201d Moll says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Mentorship, Motherhood and AI\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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A former elementary school teacher, Fanxiao Wani Qiu<\/a> \u201925 joined USC\u2019s Minds in Development Lab<\/a> in 2021 while pursuing a PhD in developmental psychology<\/a> under the direction of Henrike Moll<\/a>, professor of psychology<\/a> and philosophy<\/a>. Her dissertation, which she successfully defended last May, examined how children understand the act of teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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\n USC Dornsife Magazine\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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