Lesson objectives: 1. To gain an overview of child development 2. To explain why caregiver-infant interactions are important in early relationships 3. To evaluate caregiver-infant interaction theories and research Child development
What is child development? Take a couple of minutes to think about the following: In what way is a baby different from an adult? In what way is a young child (2-4) different? How does an older child (4-10) differ? How does a teenager differ from an adult?
What questions might we ask when studying child development Thinking of these differences between children and adults, what might you want to research? Take 5 minutes to think of some ideas with your partner and then explain them to the group.
How do we research child development? There are two main ways of carrying out research studies in child development: Cross sectional: describes a study where there are two or more groups of different individuals, allowing data to be collected relatively quickly Longitudinal: describes a study that takes place over an extended time period; The same individuals are seen at different ages.
Early relationships In this topic we are going to look at why early relationships are important and what the long term effect is of missing out on these. What does a baby need from its first relationships?
Early relationships – caregiver/infant interaction Watch the video and think about what is happening.
Caregiver-infant interaction Immediate physical contact Imitation Interactional synchrony (turn taking in ‘converstations’) Modified language or ‘motherese’
Melzoff & Moore Look at page 2 of your textbook and read the study. What does this study tell us about interactional synchrony? What criticisms would you make of the study in terms of: Methodology Ethics How well it supports the theory
An example of ‘motherese’ Watch this example. What is the mother doing?
Evaluation of caregiver-infant interaction Read the evaluation on page 3 To what extent might caregiver-infant interaction be said to be a learned response? What effect does culture have on caregiver-infant interaction?