Week Five Post Two

While reading the chapter, what stuck out most to me was the concept of Montessori schools. I have never even heard of such a thing. A Montessori school offers early childhood education based on the philosophy of Maria Montessori, which emphasizes careful work and tasks that each young child can do. It is a child-centered school that began hundreds of years ago by Maria Montessori, who opened these nursery schools for poor children in Rome. Montessori believed that children needed structured, individualized projects to give them a sense of accomplishment. In her schools teachers gave tasks that dovetailed each child’s cognitive eagerness by learning from activities. A study of 5 year-olds in Milwaukee who were chosen by lottery to attend Montessori programs found that they were better at pre-reading and early math tasks as well as developing a theory of mind, than their peers on other schools. I think the idea of Montessori schools is great. Young children have the opportunity to engage in learning and still feel proud of them selves. They don’t have to sit still and listen to a teacher instruct them, instead they learn hands on by outlining letters, and looking at books.  They are also encouraged to feel proud of them selves that encourage them to succeed. My parents sent me to catholic school to obtain a better education I would in public school, but it was not a hands on experience that made me feel proud of myself.  I still had to sit and be instructed by teachers, rather than structured projects. I would honestly think about looking in to a Montessori type of schools for my own children.

Week 5 post 2

As a social work major reading about the Head Start program for low-income families was really interesting to me. I think it's really important to help those less fortunate, especially as children. I remember learning about a cycle that comes with the culture and class you live in, but personally I believe that anyone could break out of that cycle as long as they have help. How are you supposed to be encourage to do great things and be successful when those around you aren't able to support that themselves? It says that in the first year of using the Head Start program they were able to help nearly 1 million children. With the third-wave of the Head Start program research found that they those who were former Head Start students were more likely to graduate from high school and have jobs rather than those who don't receive a preschool education. Within the last years, some of the program has changed. For example now it has longer hours and stricter limits on income levels that would determine whether the child will be eligible to join the program. That kind of upsets me that now they have stricter limits, because I think that any one who is asking for help should receive it. If someone is willing to take that extra step to get ahead I don't understand why we would hold anyone back from that. Even though I don't really agree with that, I still think this is a great program. I hope this continues for as long as possible because I would love to see everyone find there extreme potential without being help back due to their economic standing.

Week 5 Post 2

In Chapter 9, we learned about Lev Vygotsky and his theories on cognitive development in children.  He emphasizes the sociocultural aspects of a child's cognitive development.  A child's intellectual growth is stimulated by older and more skilled members of society.  Children learn from their mentors because they present challenges, offer assistance and motivate the child.  When I look back on when I was a toddler, I can relate to the theories of Vygotsky.  I had an older sister who I looked up to and learned by following her example.  I remember playing games outside in our yard.  If I ever struggled with something, she helped me or taught me some new game.  A lot of the theories in this chapter made me think back to my childhood and relate my childhood experiences to different theories that now make sense to me. 

Week 5, Post 2

Children learn to advance their cognition and informal scaffolding by  through, talking, listening, reading, and writing (Berger, p. 243). Social mediation is social interaction that broadens a child's understanding. According to Vygotsky and empirical research words allow children to count with one-to-one correspondence, remember accurately, and verbalize standard experiences. Scaffolding is the process of children copying parents or caregivers. Over imitation is the result of a child copying actions of irrelevance. 

week 5 post

In chapter 9 Piaget and Vygotsky stressed a couple of things such as egocentric and illogical aspects of thoughts during the play years. Egocentric children contemplate the world through their eyes and not others. Piaget thought that egocentrism limits understanding as young children only focus on one thing only. Vygostsky emphasized the social and cultural aspects of children’s cognition. He believed that children are guided as apprentices. Others around them are their mentors, within their zones of proximal development. Which leads to the use of scaffolding that helps children master various skills and concepts. Scaffolding is temporary support that is tailored to learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process or to help them in their development zone. A perfect example of this teaching children to look both ways when crossing the street while holding their hand. Scaffolding is used everywhere such as teach children how to explore. Language develops rapidly during early childhood which is a sensitive period but it is not a critical one for learning language. Vocabulary use increase rapidly the average child at age 2 knows about 500 words. Children learn vocabulary rapidly by what is known as fast-mapping. Fast- mapping is the speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning. Early childhood education is very important for children development. There are many different types of programs that children can participate in, one is child-centered programs; which focus and stress children’s development and growth. They emphasize children’s need to follow their own interest instead of the adults around them interest. After doing the discussion post I was amazed on how different the U.S. views on early child education is different than other countries. In other countries assistance are given to parents to help pay for their child’s education. When a child becomes sixteen and stays in school he or she is eligible for allowance that will help pay for their education; here in the U.S. parents and students struggle to pay for good education.

 

week 4 post 2

It is known that infants seeks social bonds, where they develop people around them. Synchrony is known as a coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant. Parents and infants are known to average an hour a day in face-to-face interaction. Through synchrony infants learn to read others emotions and to develop skills of social interaction, such as taking turns and paying attention. Even though infants imitate adults it usually start with adults imitating infants. Also, synchrony evolves into attachment, which is another connection which is a long lasting emotional bond between people. There are different types of attachment, one is insecure avoidant, which is a pattern of attachment in which an infant avoids connection with caregiver, and the infant does not seem to care about the caregiver presences or return.

week 4 post 1

In emotional development during the first two years, infants progress from reactive pain and pleasure to intricate patterns of social awareness. Infant emotions changes as they grow; at birth infants cry or feel content. At six weeks old infant then develop smiling and laughing which is known as social smile. As they continue to grow more emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness eventually develops. Also, theories of infant psychosocial development plays key roles in infant development. For instance Freud believed that in the first year of life infant goes through a stage known as Oral and Anal stages. Infant use their mouth for satisfaction. The anal stage is during the second year of development; where infants enjoy bowel movements and they learn how to control them while being pleased.  Also, proximal parenting and distal parenting are compared. Proximal parenting are parents that are physically interacting with babies. Distal parenting are the opposite of Proximal parenting due to the fact that parents of distal parent are distant from children; they do not communicate with babies through touch instead by talking to them face-to- face. Cognitive theory also highlights children concept, or working model of the world.

Week Five post 2

Not only is a child or infant going to learn things from adults they are going to begin putting them into practice. One important thing that a child will learn is language and communicating with others around them. Pointed out from the text book is when a child may be learning to apply grammar and other skills to share what they have learned recently they may incorporate another word from another language. As I pointed out in another blog post that my parents are deaf; well I have found myself when talking to another individual I might start signing something or saying something to a deaf person without realizing that I am incorporating two languages into one. One thing stated in the text that I found really interesting is when a child is around the age of three they are learning to incorporate grammar in doing so there genes play an effect on how talkative or quiet they are in the beginning. The situation would make sense because sometimes we may find some children who would be really talkative and talk to anyone and then on the other hand there may be children who are quiet that are shy. For children who have the chance to learn two languages or being bilingual I think that it is great not only will it enhance an understanding but could contribute to learning. One term that is interesting is balanced bilingual meaning a person is fluent in two languages but not favoring one language over the other.  

Week 5

     Well, after far to much confusion and mistakes on my part, I've discovered the blogs, all be it five weeks to late. So, here goes nothing.

     I've often said that if there was one thing I could change about myself, it would be that I would love to know more languages. I don't know that I even mean 100% lingual acuity in a specific foreign tongue, but more the ability to get by in multiple languages. That is to say, to posses a broad based knowledge of enough varied languages to travel around the world and get by. I think, in today's world especially, multilingualism is something that can really help expand someones horizons. As a child, I idolized Indiana Jones, although not for the reasons that other kids idolized action heroes. It wasn't his suave masculinity or adventurous swashbuckling that drew me in, but, oddly enough, the worldliness and academia of the character that drew me in. Here was someone who could travel almost anywhere on earth and not only blend in but seemingly belong. He never knew a language fluently, but he taught himself enough vocabulary of enough differing languages to get across what he needed to. This to me was always very exciting, it felt like a way to live a different life through connecting with different people. It has been said, I believe by T.E. Lawrence, that when traveling, learning the language of a people opens a window to their world, and is the only true way tp experience a culture. In my experience, nothing could be more true.
    I feel that in our schools today foreign languages are introduced at far to late a point, and with far to much ambivalence. By the time foreign language enters a student's radar, they are far to preoccupied with teenage development, and are told that they must learn to enter college, but after that the knowledge slips away. I think that the first step in making our future generations more worldly is introducing foreign language studies at a younger age. As stated in our book, "maturation and myelination added to extensive social interaction make  age 2 to 6 [...] a sensitive period for language learning" (240). Every year past that age bracket that we wait, it becomes more difficult for us to learn  language.

Week 5

For the discussion on Friday, I decided to compare the Philippines to the United States. I found out that the Filipino school year runs from June to March starting at first grade which begins at age 6-7 years old. They run a 6+4+4 school system in their formal education, private schools can run things differently, though. So at age 6-7, each student starts elementary education for six years; each year, as long as the student can meet criteria, they can move up to the next grade. After those six years, the students begin high school education for 4 years and then a bachelors degree is usually achieved in the next 4 years.

I also found out that math and sciences are taught in English and humanities and social sciences are taught in Filipino. In part two of the discussion, I compared this to bilingual curriculum in America. In the school district that I grew up in, we had what was called Spanish Immersion. This meant that, beginning in first grade, children were taught all subjects in Spanish. This was an option for parents to place their children in the program, but my parents chose to decline. I am friends with some people who did continue the Spanish Immersion program through middle school and they are totally fluent in the language.

To follow up on the benefits of this program, I researched the benefits of bilingual studies for children. An article I read said that children who learn in two languages are cognitively more developed and are positively correlated with higher test scores.

If I had the option, I would have loved to be placed in the program, as I feel it would have greatly benefited me in my future career field.

Week 5 Post 2

When I was in 7^th grade I was put into three different language classes thirty days each. We were put into German, French, and Spanish and then from there we picked what language we wanted to take next year. Then each year I only took half a semester or so of the language, hardly retaining anything from the year before except maybe hi and bye, etc. I chose German and now the only sentence I remember memorizing and learning is “Ich kann nor meine gummi schue nicht finden Voetz di poetzi!” Which means help I have lost my rubber shoes and cannot find them, call the police! Cleary a very useful sentence to know in everyday life. The  chapter talks about how younger children learn language faster and retain it better than older teens and adult. I think that we should start to teach different languages at a younger age. Maybe not kindergarten when English is still being formed. But maybe  a simple lesson on colors in Spanish or something like that, that can help get them a little  head start. In many countries kids are at the very least bilingual many knowing up to five languages. I feel like language learning is less emphasized in America. Seeing it as a hobby or past time America is very behind in language development.  I think this is because we just figure everyone knows and learns American so we do not really feel the need to learn another language or anything. I really wish I had an opportunity to learn a language and develop it better and was provided classes that would help me do these things. I definitely think America should change around the curriculum and add learning languages and cultures at a younger age a priority.

Week 5 Post 1

This week's discussion post talked about issues with preschool education around the world.  For my discussion, I researched Italy to compare their preschool system with the United States.  When looking at the type of education in preschools in Italy versus the United States, they have similarities and differences.  I like the Italian preschool education because it seems more free and fun but still learning.  The United States follow more standards and have less freedom.  The Italians follow a curriculum called Reggio Emilia.  This curriculum believes in interactive and creative play.  Instead of following a strict curriculum, Italians have long term projects in which children work at their own pace and the work is more creative rather than being set worksheets like in the United States.  I wish I remembered how my preschool ran to compare my preschool experience with the preschool curriculum of Italy.  From what I have learned about the Italian preschool system, I would've liked attending those schools.

Week 5 Post 2

In Chapter 9, it talked a little about the developmentalist Vygotsky (Berger, p. 240). Vygotsky believed that children’s cognitive skills developed through social learning. Children are very curious and interested in learning how and why things work. When children ask questions, they usually seek for answers from their parents. This makes me think back to my childhood when was about five years old. As a young child, I was super observant of things and because of that I grew to have a curiosity for understanding lots of different things. Till this day my parents tell that even when I was sitting in the car on our way to church, I would constantly ask them questions about the buildings, signs, and cars as we passed them. I would ask so many questions that my mom would tell me to ask my dad because she needed a break. It wasn’t until reading this chapter that I realized; my parents really were like my first teachers. In addition to parents being mentors/teachers to children, Vygotsky also mentions that children learn a lot from their playmates (Berger, p. 241). I would have to say that I absolutely agree with the idea that children learn from their playmates. Since I was the youngest of my siblings, I was constantly trying to keep up with them. The older I got the more my siblings would teach me things. I remember my brother being the person who helped me learn to ride a bike and my sister was the one who taught me how to shoot a basketball.  Because of my parents’ and siblings’ guidance and influence through social learning, I was able to learn more than I realized at a young age.

Week 5 Post 2

I found the section called "Children's Theories" to be very interesting. The idea that children naturally construct theories is called theory-theory. Humans always seek reasons, causes, and underlying principles to make sense of their experience which is one explanation for cognition in young children. Young children do not want to hear definitions of things; they want to hear explanations. This is especially relevant when the topic relates to the child himself. The book discusses one study in which mothers kept journals of the questions their children asked and the way they responded to them. The questions were usually about the underlying purpose of whatever the child observed but most parents responded to the children as if their question related to science. Experiments show that children generally want to figure out why adults act the way they do before they decide to copy their actions. If an adult intends to reach a certain goal and succeeds, the child will probably follow their example; however, if the child performs the same action as the adult and did not achieve the same results, the child is less likely to copy. Another general principle is that children develop theories before they employ their impressive ability to imitate. These concepts and theories are very interesting to me. I have never learned about the way children think and what causes them to ask the questions that they do. After reading this, I believe that I better understand children's intentions and their reasoning behind them. 

Week 5, Post 1

Preoperational intelligence was developed by Jean Piaget. This new form of cognitive functioning is no longer limited to the senses and sensorimotor skills. He stated this type of symbolic thought occurs between the ages of 2 and 6, and consists of  language and imagination. In addition, preoperational intelligence comes before logic and reasoning skills are fully developed.
Piaget discusses four limitations that prohibit logical thinking. Centration is the tendency to only associate a situation with exclusive items, not considering that other items can be added. In addition, Egocentrism, "self-centeredness" is the process of children only viewing things from their perspective (Berger, p. 238). "Focus on appearance" occurs in females when what they see if literally what they are. Static reasoning is the understanding that nothing changes. And finally, irreversibly is the failure to recognize reversing a situation can build a new situation.

Week 5 Post 1

While reading chapter 9, one section that I found to be very interesting is the section about learning two languages. It is a fact that language-minority children suffer if they do not speak the majority language well. Children who are not proficient in English tend to have lower school achievement, diminished self-esteem, inadequate employment, etc. Having fluency in another language is always an asset and children who are fluent in English generally do not have these problems in the United States. I was intrigued by the fact that some scholars believe that children need to become proficient in only one language and others believe that everyone should speak at least two languages. The "English advocates" believe that children should only speak English and that children who are taught two languages might become confused. It could lead to the children being semilingual and not bilingual. Neuroscience has found that young bilingual children site both languages in the same areas of the brain yet manage to keep them separate. On the other hand, the brains of those who learn a second language in adulthood usually show different activation sites for each language. In addition, pronunciation is hard to master after childhood but mispronunciation during childhood does not impair fluency in a language because young children are more receptive than expressive which means that they hear better than they talk. I really enjoyed learning about the idea of learning about two languages as a child. It is a topic that I have never learned about in depth but it is something that I am now very interested in.  

Week Five post 1

From this weeks reading something that stuck out to me was intervention programs for children. Intervention programs are ways to narrow the learning gap for children who may have a harder time learning things. According to the department of education’s website early intervention “Supports services and resources for children that enhance daily opportunities for learning provided in settings where a child would be if he/she did not have a developmental delay and disability, provides families' independence and competencies, and respects families' strengths, values and diversity” (Early Intervention). The process of early intervention is a really good way to allow children to not only receive a beginning education before kindergarten but to gain a better understanding of basic learning skills. One program that receives support from the state is head start which serves children who have set goal to be met and get a head start on education. Since head start and other early intervention programs have been created to assist in ways for parents to seek help for there child by allowing them to gain support for maybe a learning disability or developmental delays. Programs created for child like this is an excellent resource for parents to use so there child can gain equal opportunities and learn new things. As stated in the text from the program head start something that has changed since it was first started is the amount of time and effort put forth to help children with literacy; since more and more child know a different language other than English. Since more effort is being put forth for literacy children may gain a stronger sense of reading and interaction skills by being a part of head start.  

Early Intervention.  http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/early_intervention/8710

Week 5

Throughout my whole life I have been very interested in learning other languages. I grew up around the Amish so I have learnt a lot from them. When their children are young they tend to only speak one language around them. They usually start with only speaking English to their kids. Once they are old enough they introduce them to the Pennsylvania Dutch. It is much easier to learn Dutch after mastering English. I believe that a child that is bilingual is an all around smarter person. My high school was very into the whole foreign exchange program. We had kids from all over the world come every year. They came from places like China, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, Sweden, and so many other places. These kids started taking English classes at the age of 7. They always seemed a lot more educated being able to know and be able to speak another language fluently. This is also makes it a lot easier for them to come to America and do a semester or a year in high school. It is much harder for Americans that only know one language to go over seas to study abroad. For me I did not start learning foreign language until eighth grade. It came easy for me seeing as I took German classes. I was exposed to the Amish ways as a young child and there is only small differences. A lot of kids in my class struggled a lot though. Learning a language just gets harder and harder as we get older. I believe that here in the United States, they need to start making foreign language in elementary school mandatory. As said in the book "scientist once thought that early childhood was a critical period for language learning-- the only time when a first language could be mastered and the best time for learning a second or third language " (Berger, p.247). Making foreign language classes a part of every schools curriculum I believe will help better educate our young children and get us back in the ranking for one of the smartest nations in the world.

Week 5 post 1

After reading chapter 9 I learned that cognition develops from age 2 to 6. Piaget recognized that between ages 2 and 6 the cognitive development is called preoperational intelligence, which includes language and imagination and logic, though operational thinking is not possible yet. I found very interesting the experiment they talked about in the book. The experiment involved two glasses with the same amount of liquid in it but they were two different shapes. I remember watching this experiment in last weeks video and I found it very interesting watching the children of different ages trying to figure it out.

Week 5 Post 1

It wasn’t until I read Chapter 9 that I realized the importance of teaching young children two languages.  Despite the debate about whether or not children should only know the language native to their country, I believe that it is very beneficial to learn two languages. Unfortunately, when I was child my parents never introduced me to any other language besides English. This might have been one of the many reasons why I struggled with the Spanish classes I took in high school. In earlier chapters, we read and discussed how learning begins at a young age. Learning two languages at a young age is just the same. It is much easier for a two to six year to learn two languages than trying to learn another language during the teenage years. I think it’s fascinating that neuroscience found that young children who are bilingual store both languages in the same area of their brains and can still manage to separate them from each other. This separation allows them not to get confused between the languages when they are talking to someone in just one of the languages. However, people who learn another language later on in life often struggle to keep the two languages separate. On occasion they may have to translate out loud and speak slower to make sure they are getting the right information (Berger, p. 250). Overall I agree that children and people should have to be able to speak the same language of the country they live in. Yet, I believe that it is very important for children to be able to learn and understand other languages. By learning two or more languages at a young age, children are improving their cognitive skills and will they will also better their futures since they will be able to communicate with wide variety people. Even though my parents never taught me another language, I definitely want my future children to learn more than one language.

Week 5 Post 1

Theory-Theory is the idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing theories to explain whatever they see and hear. When I volunteered at a music day camp for children they were constantly asking me questions. Sometimes they were uncomfortable or rude and I just thought it was the kids being mean or not disciplined. However it’s their way of learning. Questions were asked such as ‘why is the sky blue’ and ‘how does that car work?’ Other questions such as ‘what’s on that kids face?’ (a pimple) or Why is that lady so big?’ were brought up as well. The children were seeking reasons and causes for why these things were happening or looked the way they do. Often people say “Stop doing that the kid will copy what you are doing.” However this is not the case. A child does watch an adult to see what they’re doing and how they’re acting however they think about why the adult is doing these things before they copy the action. For example when a person trips over a toy or something the child will see that this is an accident and not copy the person doing this. I feel when around children you always have to tiptoe and think about everything you say and do because they will copy your actions of your words for example one time an adult at some place said the word “shit” around me and then I continued to repeat this word to my parents, obviously receiving punishment for saying a word like that. Children look up to the adults in their lives and around them and will copy their actions and remember what you teach them.

Week Five Post One

It’s explained in the chapter that theory of mind is a person’s theory of what other people might be thinking. In order to have a theory of mind, children must realize that other people are not necessarily thinking the same thoughts as they themselves are.  Many developmentalists wonder what strengthens theory of mind around the age of 4. During brain maturation context is a huge factor. Language, siblings, and culture all cause an effect. It is proven that no matter what age, children with a greater verbal fluency are more likely to demonstrate theory of mind. This is usually because of experience, especially conversations between the mother and child that involve thoughts and wishes. Therefore it is greatly encouraged to talk to your children as much as possible during their infant days. The more you expose them to communication the better they will understand it. As siblings argue, agree, compete, and cooperate, and as older siblings try to fool them, it dawns on 3-year olds that not everyone thinks as they do. By age 5 children tend to know how to gain parental sympathy to protect themselves against their older siblings, therefore their theory of mind is well established. Growing up with two older siblings I can definitely say I can relate. My brother is about ten years older than me and my sister is seven years older than me so I was an infant, as they were becoming teenagers. My brother and sister would pick on me the normal amount and since I was the youngest I had my mother wrapped around my finger which resulted in my siblings getting in trouble over myself. Culture also affects brain maturation. A study was done to compare theory of mind among young children in pre-schools in Canada, India, Peru, Samoa and Thailand. The study found that the Canadian 5-year-olds were slightly more advanced and the Samoan 5-year-olds were slightly slower in their understanding of theory of mind. Researchers concluded that brain maturation was critical for theory of mind and that language and social interaction and culture were also influential. No two environments are exactly the same, every country has their own ways of doing things which results in numerous learning techniques.

Week 4 post 2

The effects of Infant daycare

I've learned the benefits and pitfalls of young preschool education. This type of child care benefits children's cognition and varying studies show that infant care is positive mostly. Since infancy is very important time for cognitive, social and attachment development, caretakers are important as well. Non-maternal yields aggressive children. Toddlers need to interact with each other, to learn from each other. Evidence of a Canadian study showed male children under the care of non-maternal care, such as relatives, displayed more assertive, aggressive and emotional problems (p. 201). On the other hand, lower socioeconomic male children were better off with non-maternal care (p. 201). So research was inconclusive.  

Child attention But the studies stress working mothers are able to still spend much time with their infants as much as the non-working, individual. So infant daycare has no significant conclusions that it's negative on the infant or not. Much of the evidence is dependent off of infant sex, temperment, family income (affects choice of care), and education. 

Week 4 post 2

From my first post from this week I found proximal and distal parenting very interesting which impacts a child as they grow up. Ways that the child could be influenced or impacted is by level of attachment. The video we watched this past week had a lot of good information about how the child develops overtime and connecting things which leads to attachment. One example that sticks out is the study done by Steven Suomi on shy monkey’s. What he had found is that shyness is developed in the first few weeks after one is born. A way that he observed the action is when one monkey would leave the mothers side and others would not leave her side until they were older or more comfortable with the environment. With that being said and pointed out within his study it can lead to different levels of attachment that an infant has. The four levels of attachment are insecure attachment, secure, insecure-resistant/ambivalent, and disorganized. As the child grows and develops the amount of interaction with the caregiver or parent matters because of the level of attachment that would be developed. One example is when a parent/ caregiver gives lots of attention and holds the child with out letting them explore new things it could develop fear or anxiety when interacting with other children. Once the child develops a fear or anxiety disorganized or insecure-resistant/ ambivalent attachment could develop making them upset at others when the mother/ caregiver is out of sight. To prevent a child from developing fear or clinging behavior caregivers should give the child attention but also separate themselves from them so they can explore and socially interact on there own. 

I found an article that is very interesting; which talks about attachment and separation anxiety. 

http://www.parents.com/baby/development/separation-anxiety/static-cling-separation-anxiety/

Week 4, Post 2

I really enjoyed watching the Discovering Psychology video this week. While I thought that last week’s video was interesting, the topics covered in this segment sparked more interest from me. In fact, my psychology professor from last semester showed my class quite a few segments from this exact video. While it was enjoyable to be able to see Jean Piaget’s volume conservation and Renee Baillargeon’s object permanence experiments again, I was glad to see some new experiments that I had not previously learned about. Steven Suomi’s research, for example, was new information to me. As we learned, Suomi studied the behaviors of monkeys that were normal and those that were genetically modified to be shy. He observed that the shy monkeys would stay nearby their mothers, while the other monkeys would explore their surroundings. This can be compared to the findings of Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation experiment that we read about in our textbook this week. Suomi also observed that having a good support system allowed the shy monkeys to wander away from their mothers, but if the support system was taken away, the monkeys reverted back to their original ways. Scientists, researchers, and theorists can use this information to their advantage in the study of human behaviors.

Week 4, Post 1

I appreciate weekly blogs, because I see them as a good way of studying. Summarizing the chapter requires conceptual thinking rather than just memorizing the material. We have to sift through it, and summarize for ourselves, and put it in terms that we understand.
In chapter seven, they discusses how the development of social attachments and interactions with parents occur. Brain maturation supports social emotion. Children learn emotions from both the mother and father. According to Berger, when a baby is socialized with the father's emotions, they handle anger better in adolescence and teen years, compared to kids who don't have dad's interaction (p.199). The mother teaches the infant expression, and the baby imitates the mother's face, or memorizes the emotion. The mother responds to the baby by performing the still-face technique. "Mothers instinctively synchronize their responses to the motion of the baby" (Berger, 194). Seeing the response of the mother when the baby makes a reaction, the interaction is known synchrony. As the cortex matures, the development of emotions such as fear, self-awareness, and anger occur. Babies learn emotion from who they are exposed to, sequence of nuerons fire together and become closely and quickly connected to the brain (Bergler, 182). Memory is strengthened at age one, because there are more axon and dendrite connections to allow for memories to be made. The hypothalamus, which is responsible for hormone production and regulating bodily functions, grows more slowly if the infant is stressed.

Attachment was developed by a British developmentalist John Bowdly, but expanded by Mary Ainsworth. Attachment, the emotional bond between a mother and baby, through physical contact, expression and verbal reassurance, begin at age one. There are four types of responses and they include secure attachment, insecure-avoidant attachment, insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment and disorganized attachment. The infant, adult relationship carries through out  person's life, into their own platonic or romantic relationships. Proximity-seeking and contact-maintaining is a survival technique to keep kin close. The discussion post this week touched on attachment styles, and I think now, reading the section of social attachments, and I see that its fascinating that children can grow out from a secure attachment, if living conditions become stressful later in childhood. That was my interpretation of secure attachment, it's there, only if childhood continues to be promising in a stable, environment, free of stress

Week 4 Post 2

I think it’s so interesting how psych can connect to so many subjects. This past week in my Public Relations class we were learning all about how we had to connect with the buyer of the product. With this discussion we learned about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs chart. We also learned about different theories like the social dissonance theory. Even though this doesn’t relate to the chapter we are learning about now I thought it was interesting how previous information has helped me in my other classes. Knowing this info has helped me prepare already for the test and quiz we have to take on this same information. I love that even though Psych is a Gen. Ed for me it is still helping me with my classes that I need for my major. I also wanted to discuss how as children even though we don’t remember most of our childhood, it effects us so much. The events and things that happened to us shape us so much into who we are as adults. This just shows how when you’re around a child they are always absorbing and watching what you do and imitating you. Not only do parents raise a child but teachers, babysitters, extended family, and family friends also all play a part in what a child turns into.

Week 4 Post 2

While reading Chapter 7, I took a real interest in social referencing.  I know in the chapter it talked a lot about social referencing with both the father and the mother (Berger, p.198), but I think social referencing can also occur with a babysitter. When I was younger I use to babysit my younger cousin all the time. I remember watching my little cousin, who was experimenting with walking at the time. I would watch as she stood herself up by using the front of the sofa. She then would walk along the sofa, using the front of the sofa as a rail to steady her. Finally, when she reached the end of the sofa she tried her best to continue walking on her own. She only made about a step or two until she feel on her bottom. I remember her immediately looking up at me after this had occurred. To which I just smiled and said to her “you’re alright”. I then picked her back up and encouraged her to continue walking. At the time I didn’t really realize that what I had just done was social referencing. Looking back on this experience, I now know why she looked at me right after falling; she wanted to know what her reaction should be to falling. Since I had remained calm, I think that’s why she didn’t cry. I feel like after reading this part of the chapter, I was able to make a lot of connections to some of my past experiences when I babysat. Even though I didn’t quite understand the terminology of what I was doing, I did it because I had observed it from how my aunt and uncle had interacted with my cousin.

Week Four Post Two

The second section in this chapter that caught my eye was infant day care. Roughly 15 percent of infants worldwide receive regular care from a nonrelative who is both paid and trained to provide it. In the United States only 20% of infants experience care provided by their mothers, but in Canada 70% of infants are cared for by their mothers. To me this is a drastic difference. In Canada and England, mothers have paid leave for an entire year after their child’s birth, and many choose to wait even longer before returning to work. In the United States paid leave is shorter and less certain, and about 58% of married mothers of babies younger than 12 months are in the labor force. These statistics definitely caught my eye, I have always imagined the United States to be the best place on Earth but the fact that new mothers are not allowed to watch and care for their children during their first year sits uneasy with me. The economy is in a really rough spot right now for Americans and many mothers need to work in order to provide for their children. Therefore if they are not being paid for their time off they most likely can’t afford to take the time off. The two types of nonmaternal care mothers tend to turn to are family day care and center day care. Family day care is care that occurs in the home of someone to whom the child is not related and who usually cares for several children of various ages. Center day care is care that occurs in a place especially designed for the purpose, where several paid adults care for many children. Usually the children are grouped by age, the day-care center is licensed, and providers are trained and certified in child development. Many believe that center day care is a better option because ideally the center has ample safe space, appropriate equipment, trained providers, and two adults for a group of five or fewer infants. This type of setting tends to advance cognitive and social skills for toddlers because toddlers are intrigued by other toddlers, and have a lot to learn from interaction.  I think that if mothers have to return to work in order to provide for their family they should choice to put their child in a center day care. I personally was raised with my mother as my primary caregiver and when she was unavailable a family member or close family friend cared me for. My mother was able to take off work and raise both my brother and sister until they started kindergarten. But with the seven-year age gap between my sister and I my mother had to return to work before I started school. My mother always claims I am more aggressive and defensive than my siblings and she blames it on herself for not being there at all times for me like she was with my siblings. In 2009 Jacob did a study and determined that infants with extensive nonmaternal care tend to become more aggressive later on in life.