Studies of Childhood development

We all want our children to do well in school so that they will grow up to have a well established career, and hopefully take care of us when we are unable to do so.  Where do we begin?  There are so many studies out there about anything and everything you would want to know.  The question that we have to ask ourselves is what results do we listen to. While one study may tell us that those children who are physically fit have a larger hippocampus and do better on tests (Art Kramer).  Another study tells us that if our children believe that they are smart then they will be smart (Dr. Steve Bedwell).  So what do we believe?  Do we believe that if our child eats a healthy diet and gets regular exercise that they will do well academically?  Or do we teach our children to believe in themselves and from that they will succeed?  What if it is a combination of both.  Healthy life style and a healthy attitude towards your own accomplishments could make your child be a well rounded member of society.  It sounds so easy, yet I am still terrified of what happens when I am not there.  I don't think anyone can argue that the world was a different place that when they were kids.  Look at our school system!  There is so much violence in our schools today that it is not uncommon to see metal detectors and off duty police officers patrolling the school grounds. I remember being scared of being sent to the principals office and yet I work with teenagers who regularly are set and cuss them out!  What will it be like when my three year old begins school?  It all seems to boil down to parenting and what we teach our children now.  Respect for your elders has been lost somewhere down the line and I think that we need to pick that back up.  When we are respectful of others we grow as individuals and receive respect in return.  Maybe that should be part of our healthy life style.  Learning to respect again.

Children's brain development is linked to physical fitness; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100915171536.htm

How to improve your child's academic performance;  http://www.stevebedwell.com/blog/critical-thinking/educating-your-child/

Infancy

As we have read most of infant development is about learning to recognize our surroundings and manipulate them.  Learning that if we move our arm and stretch out our fingers we can manipulate objects around us.  Of coarse to be able to do that we must first have our brain tell our arm and fingers to move  and in which direction.  How do we do this?  Through trail and error.  We see an object dangling in front of us.  Our brain then sends a signal to our arm to move in a direction, and our fingers in a direction.  If this does not result in us being able to grasp the object then we go through the process again.  This information is stored in sensory register but is quickly lost.  When we finally are able to grasp the object that movement pattern is then stored in short term memory or working memory.  The more we practice this pattern of movement the more permanent it becomes and is then encoded into long term memory allowing us to pull from it when needed.

Infants cognitive ability is also developing at this time.  They are being conditioned to know if they cry someone come to aid them.  Whether it is because we are hungry, need to be changed or just wanting attention.  At the same time the infant is conditioning the caregiver to respond to their cries.  I was very conditioned to my daughters cries when she was an infant.  My husband would say that I am still conditioned to her cries.  Does that come from being a mother?  Why is it that her crying does not affect him the same way that is does me?  Does the way that we were raised affect how we raise our children?  Maybe we are conditioned throughout our childhood to respond differently to different stimulus.  For example when my daughter cries is causes me to respond.  When my husband hears her cough it causes him to respond.  Maybe it comes with knowledge.  When it comes to parenting I am not sure we will ever know everything.

Development, How do we know if we are doing it right?

A beautiful baby comes into this world and a part of a loving family.  They have all ten fingers and ten toes.  What more could new parents ask for?  Instruction booklet!  Before the baby we worry about what our plans are for the weekend or even that evening, who we can call to go with us and how early we will get back.  After the baby opens up a whole new world of worries.  Forget weekend plans unless they are made well in advance and sleep what is that?  What most of us parents want to know is am I doing this right?  We want to know that our child(ren) are developing normally and can keep up with peers their own age.  I think almost everyone has heard of Freud and Erikson even if they do not have children or have had a psychology class.  We know their names because of what they have helped us to understand about development and comparison of ourselves to the "norm".  We most commonly measure infants development by milestones.  When did they first smile, laugh, roll over, sit up, crawl, walk, etc.  When you look at the stages laid out by Freud (Psychosexual Stages) and Erikson (Psychosocial Stages) you have to take into account the cultural influences and societal norms for each group.  Where Freud concentrated on the more physical attributes of development (Oral, Anal, Phallic) Erikson concentrated more on the psychological attributes of development (how we come to think and feel emotionally about ourselves and our surroundings).  We have to remind ourselves that our children are developing through the stages and that this is part of life.  We have all drove our parents bonkers at one point or another.  What seems so simple to us is a development for our children.  Their reasoning and thought processes have to be trained.  We did not wake up one day and decide to not touch the fire because it is hot.  We either were told or, what many of us did, we touched it and discovered it was hot.  I believe that there are some experiences that our children have to learn for themselves.  When an infant is trying to grasp a toy we often let them struggle with it for a while.  That is how they train themselves to reach out and grasp it.  (I know that it is not that simple but just trying to make a point).  Our physical bodies have to be trained as well.  We walk but first we learn to manipulate our bodies by rolling over.  Many of us learn to either roll from our front to our back or back to front.  Once we have that down we then discover that if we push ourselves again that we can roll back to our starting position. 

I remember when my daughter was an infant and we were in her room.  I was rocking her and the thought struck me that I was responsible for this little girl.  I began wondering if I would be able to do this (parent) without screwing it up.  I believe that development is a continuous process.  Sure there are stages that you go through but you are constantly developing and growing.  We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others in our past.  My parents were young and raised both my sister and I the best that they knew how.  I think more than anything we look at not so much just the stages but the ultimate battle between nature and nurture.  As I said my parents raised my sister and I pretty much the same.  However we are completely different people.  I am not sure that I am ready to jump on the nature band wagon just yet though.  I think it boils down to choices that we have made have lead us to different places.  My sister was more a risk taker and I am not.  She was the one normally in trouble and I was afraid of my parents.  If we are who we are because of the choices that we make then that would mean that we would have to develop the cognitive ability to decipher between what our choices are.  We would have to work through Erikson's stages to develop cognitively and hopefully our parents would support us in that endeavor.