What Monkeys Tell Us About Love

When a baby is born it is essentially unattached emotionally despite the physical dependency that is all encompassing. The attachment begins as the baby's needs are provided for (warmth and food) in a nurturing environment. Early studies by Harlow on monkeys demonstrated the need for the nurturance beyond physical needs. He put baby monkeys in cages. Each had both a wire monkey-mother that dispensed milk and a cloth monkey-mother that did not. Both were on a heated pad. The babies were fed by the wire monkey, were free to roam around the cage and choose where to be. They spent increasing amount of time with cloth mother although she provided no milk. In another experiment, some baby monkeys were put in cages with only wire monkey who dispensed food and were heated, while others were put in cages with cloth mothers who dispensed the same food and were also heated. The babies in the cage with the cloth mothers thrived; those with the wire mother did poorly.
Ample evidence also exists for children raised in orphanages that provide only physical care without affection. These children are under-developed in every measurement and some do not survive. This is called failure-to-thrive and represents the critical importance of love and nurturance.
Of course, attachment is so much more than simply thriving physically. It is building a bond with a person that assists the child in its ability to build bonds in the future. For more on attachment, Dr. Bruce Perry has a website that describes how babies grow with attachment and how teachers can develop attachment with their students that aid in learning. For information on attachment go to: http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/attachment.htm
For a subscription service that facilitates family members to form attachment with a baby in a distant location, see www.toyconnex.com.

Dr. Suni Petersen: Teaching a young child about his body

Dr. Suni Petersen: Teaching a young child about his body

Teaching a young child about his body

Who isn't fascinated by the body?
One kindergarten teacher in Raymore, MO introduced her students to the brain. She told each to take a really large page of a newspaper and crinkle it up into a ball. Each tiny pair of hands made these big paper balls and giggled as they squeezed them tight. Then the teacher told them that was about the size of their brains. The children were then instructed to open up the paper and try to smooth it out. Of course, that is not possible as the lines from the folds remain. The teacher told her students that is how big their brains were and everything they put into their brains is like the folds - it cannot escape. So if they have big brains and nothing ever escapes, think how smart they will become!
Another way to help a young child understand how the muscles move is for the child to trace an outline of themselves on paper or in chalk on a driveway. The child then uses string or yarn to trace how many nerves might be needed for the brain to make the body work.
Yet another way to teach the basic parts of a child's anatomy is take washable markers and draw the different parts on the child... this is where your lungs (draw 2 lungs in pink on the child's chest) and here is your heart (have him put his fist to his chest to obtain the right size and use the red marker to show it). Continue to draw the parts of the body the child is ready to learn. The lesson is also fun because you are bound to hit some tickle spots along the way

Toys That Call a Child Back To Play

Recently there is a spate of toys on the market that call the child back to play. Are they educational or not? Do they advance development and learning or not?
Here is how they operate: When a baby moves on to the next activity, after a few seconds the toy gives a verbal command, "Please play with me."
There are two ways of looking at this.
1. It is positive, i.e. the toy may increase the child's attention to it and engage the child more fully in understanding some aspect of the toy.
2. It is negative. the voice is a marketing tool so that it looks like the toy is the child's favorite.
What mothers think about this feature in toys for babies?

Attachment is Essential for Relationship Development - but it doesn't always have to happen in usual ways.

One of the earliest emotional lessons a baby learns is attachment. With consistent, warm, nurturance, a baby develops secure attachment that allows him/her to have satisfying relationships through out life. Of course, the parental relationship has the most influence on the developing attachment in babies, but a healthy attachment with others can also fill in the gaps when there is a lack of parental attachment to the child. For example, a teacher, a grandparent, and neighbor can create a relationship that is extraordinarily meaningful to a child who does not have the chance to develop this at home.

Check out this website for good information on attachment:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/attachment.htm

I have learned throughout my career, that we are all "planting seeds" and never really know which will grow and at what time in a person's life.

Toys are Tools!

Toys are Tools!
Dr. Suni Petersen

The use of tools distinguishes humans from most other species. The reason tools are so important is that they extend the abilities to do tasks. For example, to get something that is beyond our grasp, we typically grab the closest object that will extend our reach. Have you ever thought about how and when this skill is developed?
Toys are tools! And toys are developmentally appropriate educate best. If you place a cookie out of reach on the high chair tray and a spoon within reach, a 10-month old will try to get the cookie with her hand and push the spoon away. But give that baby two more months and she will pick up the spoon to help herself reach the cookie.
Now thinking of the task of grasping the cookie, it takes the dexterity to bring the spoon and the cookie together (educating the child in skill development), the knowledge to determine that the cookie is out of reach (educating the child in spatial relationships), and the association between the spoon and the cookie (educating the child in cognitive development).
Success requires two things: Practice and providing the right toy at the right time. A parent hardly has time to do the spoon and cookie routine to give the child the practice she needs to succeed in this developmental step. But the concept is that a tool actually adds another step for the child to consider - hand (1) to cookie (2) changes when a tool is used to hand (1), spoon (2), to cookie (3). A tool adds an additional step.
Toys that allow the child to do a task over and over and over provide the necessary practice. Put and take toys help to prepare for this skill but only function as the hand (1) dropping the object into a box and getting the object out again (2). This put and take routine prepares a child for the next stage. One such toy that offers this preparatory educational experience is the “Shape Sorter.” To develop the child’s use of tools requires a toy with another step. For example, “Animal Cottage” (www.toyconnex.com) is an example of a toy that develops the use of tools. The child inserts keys to open a door in order to get to the animals inside. However, if this toy is given to a child at 10 months old, she will not be able to get to the toys herself and will become frustrated. In that stage of development, the keys are seen as interfering or another task entirely. By the time she is able to associate the keys with the reward inside (2 months later), the toy has already frustrated the child and she is less likely to use it. If a child is given such a toy at 10 months, it is considered a “pairing toy,” one that can only be played with an older sibling or adult. Such pairing may facilitate quicker development of the skill but not by much because the baby is too young to cognitively make the full association that will hold her interest when she is ready.
Different toys make educational sense at different ages!