Ece 502 session 3

Editor's Notes

• #5: Professionals sometimes define healthy social-emotional development in young children as early childhood mental health. Healthy social-emotional development includes the ability to:Form and sustain positive relationships Experience, manage, and express emotions Explore and engage with the environment Children with well-developed social-emotional skills are also more able to: Express their ideas and feelings Display empathy towards others Manage their feelings of frustration and disappointment more easily Feel self-confident More easily make and develop friendships Succeed in school Social-emotional development provides the foundation for how we feel about ourselves and how we experience others. This foundation begins the day we are born and continues to develop throughout our lifespan. The greatest influence on a child’s social-emotional development is the quality of the relationships that he develops with his primary caregivershttp://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/social--emotional/what-is-social-emotional.html
• #6: Adapted from information found at www.zerotothree.org
• #8: Stages of AttachmentRudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life (This is known as a longitudinal study). The children were all studied in their own home and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment. The babies were visited monthly for approximately one year, their interactions with their carers were observed, and carers were interviewed. Evidence for the development of an attachment was that the baby showed separation anxiety after a carer left.They discovered that baby's attachments develop in the following sequence:Up to 3 months of age - Indiscriminate attachments. The newborn is predisposed to attach to any human. Most babies respond equally to any caregiver.After 4 months - Preference for certain people. Infants they learn to distinguish primary and secondary caregivers but accept care from anyone;After 7 months - Special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection. It shows fear of strangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special person (separation anxiety). Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than others, but nevertheless they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed an attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age.After 9 months - Multiple attachments. The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments.The results of the study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent most time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.Many of the babies had several attachments by 10 months old, including attachments to mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings and neighbors. The mother was the main attachment figure for about half of the children at 18 months old and the father for most of the others. The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her.http://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html
• #9: Plan an environment that encourages play for infants or toddlers2 small groups
• #11: Environmental factors linked to individual differences in children's prosociality include parental modeling of helping behavior and use of inductive discipline (e.g., explaining to children the consequences of their behavior) as opposed to power-assertive discipline (e.g., punishment) (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). Beyond parental influence, siblings, peers, and schools also may affect prosociality. For example, as Wentzel, McNamara, and Caldwell point out, children's prosociality may be influenced by close friends. Furthermore, the better the affective quality of the friendship, the more influential friends are to each other's prosociality.
• #12: Studies have documented one-year-olds’ abilities to comfort others in distress, participate in household tasks, and help adults by bringing or pointing to out-of-reach objects http://www.pitt.edu/~toddlers/ESDL/Svetlova,etal_ToddlersProsocialBehavior.CDInPress09.pdf
• #19: Empathy is the ability to imagine how someone else is feeling in a particular situation and respond with care. This is a very complex skill to develop. Being able to empathize with another person means that a child:Understands that he is a separate individual, his own person;Understands that others can have different thoughts and feelings than he has; Recognizes the common feelings that most people experience—happiness, surprise, anger, disappointment, sadness, etc.;Is able to look at a particular situation (such as watching a peer saying good-bye to a parent at child care) and imagine how he—and therefore his friend—might feel in this moment; andCan imagine what response might be appropriate or comforting in that particular situation—such as offering his friend a favorite toy or teddy bear to comfort her.
• #20: Understanding and showing empathy is the result of many social-emotional skills that are developing in the first years of life. Some especially important milestones include:Establishing a secure, strong, loving relationship with you. Feeling accepted and understood by you helps your child learn how to accept and understand others as he grows.Beginning to use social referencing, at about 6 months old. This is when a baby will look to a parent or other loved one to gauge his or her reaction to a person or situation. For example, a 7-month-old looks carefully at her father as he greets a visitor to their home to see if this new person is good and safe. The parent’s response to the visitor influences how the baby responds. (This is why parents are encouraged to be upbeat and reassuring—not anxiously hover—when saying good-bye to children at child care. It sends the message that “this is a good place” and “you will be okay.”) Social referencing, or being sensitive to a parent’s reaction in new situations, helps the babies understand the world and the people around them. Developing a theory of mind. This is when a toddler (between 18 and 24 months old) first realizes that, just as he has his own thoughts, feelings and goals, others have their own thoughts and ideas, which may be different from his. Recognizing one’s self in a mirror. This occurs between 18 and 24 months and signals that a child has a firm understanding of himself as a separate person. www.zerotothree.org
• #21: Empathize with your child. Are you feeling scared of that dog? He is a nice dog but he is barking really loud. That can be scary. I will hold you until he walks by.Talk about others’ feelings. Kayla is feeling sad because you took her toy car. Please give Kayla back her car and then you choose another one to play with.Suggest how children can show empathy. Let’s get Jason some ice for his boo-boo.Read stories about feelings.Be a role model. When you have strong, respectful relationships and interact with others in a kind and caring way, your child learns from your example. Use “I” messages. This type of communication models the importance of self-awareness: I don’t like it when you hit me. It hurts. Validate your child’s difficult emotions. Sometimes when our child is sad, angry, or disappointed, we rush to try and fix it right away, to make the feelings go away because we want to protect him from any pain. However, these feelings are part of life and ones that children need to learn to cope with. In fact, labeling and validating difficult feelings actually helps children learn to handle them: You are really mad that I turned off the TV. I understand. You love watching your animal show. It’s okay to feel mad. When you are done being mad you can choose to help me make a yummy lunch or play in the kitchen while mommy makes our sandwiches. This type of approach also helps children learn to empathize with others who are experiencing difficult feelings. Use pretend play. Talk with older toddlers about feelings and empathy as you play. For example, you might have your child’s stuffed hippo say that he does not want to take turns with his friend, the stuffed pony. Then ask your child: How do you think pony feels? What should we tell this silly hippo? Think through the use of “I’m sorry.” We often insist that our toddlers say “I’m sorry” as a way for them to take responsibility for their actions. But many toddlers don’t fully understand what these words mean. While it may feel “right” for them to say “I’m sorry”, it doesn’t necessarily help toddlers learn empathy. A more meaningful approach can be to help children focus on the other person’s feelings: Chandra, look at Sierra—she’s very sad. She’s crying. She’s rubbing her arm where you pushed her. Let’s see if she is okay. This helps children make the connection between the action (shoving) and the reaction (a friend who is sad and crying). Be patient. Developing empathy takes time. Your child probably won’t be a perfectly empathetic being by age three. (There are some teenagers and even adults who haven’t mastered this skill completely either!) In fact, a big and very normal part of being a toddler is focusing on me, mine, and I. Remember, empathy is a complex skill and will continue to develop across your child’s life.www.zerotothree.org
• #25: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/GH6115
• #27: http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html#sthash.gNm2rq3U.dpuf
• #28: The Learning perspective argues that children imitate what they see and hear,and that children learn from punishment and reinforcement.(Shaffer,Wood,& Willoughby,2002).The main theorist associated with the learning perspective is B.F. Skinner. Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children by reinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words. (Skinner,1957,as cited in Shaffer,et.al,2002). The Nativist PerspectiveThe nativist perspective argues that humans are biologically programmed to gain knowledge.The main theorist associated with this perspective is Noam Chomsky.Chomsky proposed that all humans have a language acqusition device (LAD). The LAD contains knowledge of grammatical rules common to all languages (Shaffer,et.al,2002).The LAD also allows children to understand the rules of whatever language they are listening to.Chomsky also developed the concepts of transformational grammar, surface structure,and deep structure.Transformational grammar is grammar that transforms a sentence. Surface structures are words that are actually written. Deep structure is the underlying message or meaning of a sentence. (Matlin,2005). Interactionist Theory Interactionists argue that language development is both biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others.The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others" ( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et al.,2002,p.362).The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev Vygotsky.Interactionists focus on Vygotsky's model of collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older people can help children both cognitively and linguistically ( Shaffer,et.al,2002). http://languagedevelopment.tripod.com/id15.html
• #29: infant-directed speech, or mothereseBabblingSingle wordsTwo wordsMulti-word sentences