PSYC 290N Week 2 Discussion - Graded An A

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Psych290 – Week 2 Discussion Main #1 Young infants need sufficient stimulation & order in their environments to maximize the early period of rapid growth. Give an example of some type of stimu... lation that can be used by caregivers to invigorate the brain's ability to respond to experiences. Infants need stimulation to increase their senses & absorb information in their environment. It’s crucial that stimulation is used so that infants can improve their motor skills, have a raised awareness of world around them, & contribute attaining language. Early studies were conducted to prove that as early as 1 month, infants can differentiate sounds like pa & da (Trehub & Rabinovich, 1972). For instance, a fetus can hear sounds in the womb & distinguish sounds such as a mother’s voice (Doorley, 2013). Additionally, by using language inquisition such as the mother using words that are similar to what the infant is experiencing, it can increase cognitive growth. For example, if a car zooms by & the infant hears it, the mother says “Did you hear that car? What does it sound like? vroom.” This gives meaning & clarity to the baby & exp&s their stimulation to the environment. D. Boyd & H. Bee. (2015). Lifespan Development 7th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education Inc. Doorley, R. (2013). Sensory Play: Early Exploration Through the Senses. Tinkerlab. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/parents/child-development/sensory- play/developing-&-cultivating-skills-through-sensory-play/sensory-play-early-exploration- through-the-senses/ Main #2 One of the areas of social & emotional development studied by developmental psychologists is the concept of infant attachment to a parent or caregiver. The process of attachment typically occurs during the 5th to the 9th month of life. Review John Bowlby & Ainsworth's attachment theory. How important is it for infants to form a good attachment to their caregivers? Pick one of the attachment theories, give an example, & explain a good or a problem that could occur with attachment For infants to form good attachments to their caregivers, attachment theory states that an infant explores & forms emotional bonds with their caregivers which later provides a base to shape future relationships. Bowlby’s attachment theory expresses that the infant’s confidence develops when the caregiver explores whether as a mother or father, they’re a safe base for exploration for affection & reliability (Boyd, 2015). In the Bowlby model, it’s crucial to know that communication among romantic partners is effective & adaptive, in infant models behavior can continue into adulthood where it is reinforced. It is vital that a bond with the caregiver is strongly recognized so that as the parents do, so will the child because caregivers are the infant’s model. Social referencing plays a role in Bowlby’s model, which informs us that infants between the ages of 12 & 16 months can respond to the facial cues their mother or father makes to see whether their facial cues are happy or concerned, to form an appropriate response (Boyd, 2015). For instance, if the infant is in an unfamiliar environment, the infant will look for cues to help guide their emotions & respond accordingly to what they see. On the opposite side of things, when there is an issue with attachment, the child will present with behavioral issues later in life. Ramch&ani, (2015) states that a father figure is crucial for the development of the infant because if they don’t engage in father-infant activities in the early months of life, the child is at risk for developing behavioral concerns like excessive aggressiveness later on in their childhood. Because of this, it is important to secure attachments to infants at an early stage to assist in the development of cognitive & social growth that later serves them in their continued growth & development into adulthood. D. Boyd & H. Bee. (2015). Lifespan Development 7th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education Inc. Day 1 #1 Contribution Discussion The sense of touch can benefit & impact infants in multiple systems of the body such as the nervous system, circulatory system, digestive system, respiratory system & endocrine system. Aside from impacts on our systems, touch stimulation can also affect physiological, behavioral, & social development. At the University of Washington, Dr. Kathryn Barnard found that infants who were held more showed greater cognitive development whose effects lasted eight years later. Coincidently, another psychologist Theodore Wacks, proved that infants who had more skin-to-skin contact with their care takers had an advantage in mental development in the first six months of life. Since the skin is the largest organ of the body, it only seems fitting how important touch can be to a child’s development. Dr. Greene A., (2016). Touch is as Important to Infant Health as Eating & Sleeping. Retrieved from: https://www.drgreene.com/touch-is-as-important-to-infant- health-as-eating-&-sleeping/ #2 Day 2 #3 Literacy can be introduced to your child daily in more ways than one. Actively reading to you child, holding small conversations, actively introducing new words & incorporating them into daily play time & having them watch informational television programs for children. Your child’s literacy successes are partly linked with what roles the parent plays to model those behaviors. While reading to your child, one should consider things such as pointing at each word on the page as they read along, ask your child to make a prediction about the story by reading the title & making sure to model fluency while reading by bring your own energy & excitement into the reading. It’s also important to ask your child questions after reading to make sure that they underst& what’s been read to them & to increase their thinking skills. It isn’t enough to just read a bedtime story most nights as a way to build up your child’s literacy & cognitive skills. Making reading & learning an active part of their day to day will help you child develop the skills they need to thrive in school & their personal life. Without the development & attention to these skills, it would make the world a much harder place to communicate in & underst& not just the people in it, but the world around us. Burton, E. (8JAN2013). Parent Involvement in Early Literacy. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-in-early-literacy-erika-burton PBS Parents. (n.d.). How to Create a Literate Home: Young Child & Kindergartner. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading- language/reading-tips/how-to-create-a-literate-home-young-child-&-kindergartner/ #4 While I’m not sure about “mastering” a skill from Maslow’s hierarchy, I do believe there is some truth in underst&ing your wants & needs from one step to the next. In the case of an infant however, the need to fulfil the 3rd of 5 steps seems to skip a few steps, where in an adult the need to fulfil the 4th step wasn’t necessarily accomplished by mastering the 2nd. The first two steps in an infant’s life are met & regulated by the caregiver & not the child, while the 3rd step is both given by the caregiver & need by the infant. It’s because of this that one can be achieved without the other. Having each step mastered & accomplished can help fulfill one’s self, but one isn’t needed to get to or fulfill the other. [Show More]

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