09/5/2013Why Study Child Development?-Help create societal norms for raising children, effective tactics and policies for children, understanding human nature, gain insight into typical childlike behavior to assess atypical child behavior, etc. - Raising Children : How to promote children’s management of anger and other negative emotions- expressing sympathy in response to children’s distress, children are better able to cope with the situation causing the distress. Another effective approach is helping angry children find positive alternatives to expressing anger (such as distracting them from the sources of their anger and encouraging them to do something they enjoy). The ‘Turtle Shell’ technique is also used in many daycares: When children felt themselves becoming angry they could retreat into their shells and think through the situation. - Choosing Social Policies: I.e. Are public resources better spent trying to detect and prevent potential developmental problems in young children who seem at risk for them, or is it more cost-effective to reserve the resources for treating children who have actuallydeveloped problems? How much trust should judges and juries place in preschooler’s testimony in child-abuse cases? Should preschool programs that teach academic and social skills be made available to all children for low-income families, and should such programs be followed up beyond the preschool period? -Legal proceedings: When children are shielded from leading questions, even 3-5 year olds can be reliable witnesses. They often forget details of events, but what they do say isusually accurate. IN order to obtain accurate information questions should be stated in a neutral fashion that does not presuppose the answer, questions that the child has already answered should not be repeated, and props (dolls used in sex-abuse/child-abuse cases) associated with fantasy play should not be used. - Understanding Human Nature: Better understanding human nature such as the way in which scientific research can increase understanding of human nature coming from studies of how children’s ability to overcome the effects of early maltreatment is affected by its timing, that is, the age at which the maltreatment occurs and ends..-Romanian Orphanage study: Children received no attention, socialization, nurturing, norpositive influence. To evaluate the long-term effects of their early deprivation, the physical, intellectual, and social development of about 150 of the Romanian-born children was examined at age 6 years and again at age 11 years (compared to British-bornchildren who were treated normally). The main question is to determine wheter human nature is sufficiently flexible; can these Romanian-born children overcome the extreme09/5/2013deprivation in their early lives, and will that flexibility decrease with the children’s age and the length of the deprivation:The Romanian-Born children who had been adopted before 6 months of age demonstrated levels of intellectual competence at 6 years comparable to the British-born children. R-B children adopted between 6-24 months dis somewhat less well, and those adopted at 24+months did poorly. A sense of the magnitude of the long-term effects of institutionalization is conveyed by the percentage of R-B with retardation: 2%-adopted before 6 months, 33%-adopted after 24-42 months. -Optimize conditions of development….Lecture 2 Beginning:-Discontinutity versus Continuity:There is a dynamic relationship between the two theories in Children Development -False Dichotomies (Can emphasize one or the other both points are valid in discussing different contexts-Slide 3: *Origins of Knowledge-Historical Foundations: -Plato and Aristotle believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on proper raising of children; careful upbringing was essential because children’s basic nature would otherwise lead to their becoming rebellious and unruly (boys being particularly difficult) Plato= Innate Knowledge (Children born with idea of animal concept rocks versus people). -“Now of all wild things, a boy is the most difficult to handle. Just because he more than any other has a fount of intelligence in himmm which has not yet ‘run clear’, he is the craftiest, most mischevious, and unruliest of brutes.”-Plato emphasized self-control and discipline as the most important goals of education. -Plato believed that children are born with innate knowledge (i.e. the concept of “animal” for birth onward, children can automatically conceptualize and recognize that the dogs, cats and other creatures they encounter are animals. Aristotle= All Knowledge comes from experience-“It would seem that a study of individual character is the best way of making education perfect, for then each child has a better chance of receiving the treatment that suits him.”09/5/2013-Aristotle agreed with Plato that discipline was necessary, but he was more concerned with fitting child-rearing to the needs of the individual child. -Aristotle believed that knowledge comes from experience and that the mind of an infant is like ablackboard on which nothing has yet been written. *Perspective of Child raisingP: self-control and discipline to all childrenA: tailor raising to individual childSlide 4-*Locke: A Child is a ‘blank’ slate; neither good nor bad- information from experience (agreeing with Aristotle). Need to instill discipline and then gradually increase child’s discipline. Goal of Child rearing is the Growth of Character, parents need to set a good moral example.- Locke viewed the child as a ‘tabula rasa’ whose development largely reflects the nurture provided by the child’s parents and the broader society. Most important goal is the growth of character parents need to set a good examples of honesty, stability, and gentleness. Parents need to avoid indulging children, especially early in life. -Once discipline and reason have been instilled “authority should be relaxed as fast as their age, discretion, and good behavior could allow it… The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one.” *Rousseau: Children and inherently good; spontaneous interactions are better than guided instruction, no formal education until the age of 12. -Rousseau believed that parents and society should give children maximum freedom from the beginning. Rousseau claimed that children learn primarily from their own spontaneous interactions
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