http://311ymillan993.weebly.com's blog Post from 04/26/2017 Infant Social Development In The Family is very informative. I really enjoyed the post because of her similar point of view we share. I also, thought that the blog post itself was very creative and very organized. Her thoughts on the social development of infants in the family was similar to mine because we both agree that gender differences begin at birth and parents are socially influenced to follow the assumed gender norms assigned by society. I agree to what she states on this blog post. Furthermore, the simplicity of her blog post made it look very well organized. The two pictures sh included of the girl playing with pink girl toys and the young boy playing with blocks an a toy truck exemplifies her thoughts of gender differences with play. Overall, I vey much enjoyed http://311ymillan993.weebly.com blog post in Infant social development.
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Gender influences the ways in which others see and relate to the infant. In society we still unfortunately hold some stereotypes that are not necessarily accurate. For example, that males are naturally more athletic, and stronger than females. Although there is some evidence that male infants are more active than female infants and that female infants show more distress or fear to novelty than male infants, it is not the case for everyone. The gender stereotypes held over male and female counterparts affect the child's social development in many ways. Especially, how they experience infancy in all. From how they play, who they play with, how they dress, what that they play with, and the list can goes on. Also, parents are the biggest influence in an infant's life because they are the first and the ones who decide how to raise their children. Even the way the parents view them will be different, " Boys are described as "big" and "strong" and are bounced and handled more physically than girls who are described as "pretty" and "sweet" and are handled more gently" ( Bornstein, Arterberry, and Lamb, 2002)." Parents are encouraged by media and society to purchase certain types of toys for their child depending on their gender. Most parents set their child's gender by their natural sex genitals. It is a norm that parents treat their children different by gender. Most parents fall into the tendency of gender-typing for example, how they dress the children. Boys where the blues, reds, greens, and more "masculine" colors while girls where "feminine" colors like pinks, yellows, white, more lighter shades of colors. This already initiates gender differences between infants. Another example of how infants experience social development differently is, the toys they play with. Boys are than likely advertised with balls, cars, and blocks while girls are given a limited options like dolls and pretend "mommy" toys. This then extends how differently infants can experience social interactions differently by gender.
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Infants are not only growing physically during the early years of life, but also cognitively. Through every day interactions and through their environment they are creating new connections and pathways between nerve cells both within their brains, and between their brains and bodies. An infant’s physical growth and change is easily noticed and measured in precise terms such as in inches and pounds, but cognitive development and change is more complex to determine. Therefore, much about what experts know about mental and cognitive development is based on the careful observation of developmental theorists and their theories, such as Piaget's cognitive development theory, Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory or Bronfenbrenner's ecological model also helps explain infant mental growth to some extent to how parents and environment shape an infant’s cognition. Although there are many theories that can explain how parents impact cognitive growth I am focusing on Vygotsky’s theory. A parent and an infant interacting allows babies to use their five senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing) and muscles develop, they grow from helpless infants into little explorers who begin to imitate the actions they see. Parents are the first teachers in a child’s life. They are the ones that start the learning in a child. A mother interacts with a child almost all day while she feeds, sleeps, plays, and bathes her their infant. Infants are watching every move, emotion, and behavior of their caregiver. Vygotsky would call this Zone of Proximal Development. Because most cognitive learning often happens in the context of play and exchanges with others, it is likely that developmental changes in infants’ learning strategies are shaped by those social interactions. Thus, adopting an approached used in a some previous studies, we also will examine how parents structure interactions with infants, as they teach the infants about categories of objects through toys. This aspect of the project allows us to identify how infants’ everyday experiences with the people around them shapes their strategies for learning. When interacting with the child a parent should scaffold, meaning they show demonstrate the task in a manner that makes the child feel competent. The parent should guide the child to learning. An activity a parent can set up for learning is playing find the hidden toy. Let your baby watch you put a large toy beneath a blanket. When you ask her to find it, she/he will notice that the blanket isn't flat and remember that you put the toy under the blanket. She/he will pull the blanket off to find the toy. Next, you can hide the toy in front of her, but cover it up with one of two blankets that are next to each other. Finally, use the two blankets but hide the toy without her watching you and see if she can figure out where it is hidden. Try it with your infant and home and help expand their cognition development through every interaction. |
2/15/2017
Jasmine Escobar