Life span development and learning children and young people essay

Examiner: Mark OliverDue date: 28 January 2013Nicole AmbroseStudent # 0061043698Word Count: 1360In this article ” Time is best gift for kids at Christmas, says experts” writer, Beck Vass introduces reasons for adults to spend time with children. Vass advises parents to not buy expensive toys but to simply spend time with family. Children do not remember the presents they received when they were eight years old but they will remember they time they spent with their family on holiday. Children need a supportive environment; they need time with parents to build a relationship and trust. Time together as a family will be beneficial for all members of the family. Beck suggests that the use of electronic entertainment is not necessary in child’s development and children’s imagination is a big part of learning and should be encouraged. Vass advises parents to spend more time with their children as it is better for their development rather than buying them expensive toys at Christmas. Vass interviewed registered clinical psychologist, Megan Fowler, who suggests adults put a lot of pressure on themselves to provide certain things however keeping it simple is the best way. Fowler recommends that parents can spend time with children without toys and suggests that it is the quality of time which is required. This article writes ” kids don’t tend to remember the present they got when they were 8, but they might remember the holiday they had with the family at the beach or the time they went camping”. Famed psychoanalytic theorist Sigmund Freud focussed on children’s development being greatly formed by early experiences in the family (Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Freud focussed on the nature side of the nature-nurture argument in his theories, however Freud viewed early experiences in an individual’s life as a large contributor to their personality. Inspired by Freud’s theories, Erik Erikson the neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theorist believed that the caregiver’s general responsiveness was critical to later development. If caregivers neglect, reject, or respond inconsistently to infants, infants will mistrust others (Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Children need a supportive environment, they need time with parents to build a relationship and trust. This will shape their personality and characteristics into the adult they will become with good relationships and strong trust. In the use of brain imaging technology, Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), which explores how brain function relates to behaviour, only about one in 25 brains is perfectly normal. An abnormal brain could be caused by a number of factors including physical and emotional neglect can cause or contribute to brain abnormalities, including ADHD (Jacobelli & Watson, 2008). Vass encourages parents to give children the physical and emotional support they require. This is to ensure their development is not affected in a negative way by not having the physically and emotionally supportive environment children require. Vass suggests that time with family will be beneficial for all members of the family. Kathryn Geldard & David Geldard write in Counselling Children about family boundaries and how they are generally transmitted from generation to generation. They describe disengaged families as unsociable with little communication whereas enmeshed families live in a more community lifestyle with family and friends being frequently involved in their lives. This allows children to learn how to share better, how to compromise and to build trust. (Geldard & Geldard, 2002). This would also encourage the child to depend on more than just their parents alone. This is healthy for the child as they will develop a reliance on others than just their parents alone. This will encourage children as they grow up to make friends, socialise well in large groups and this would be beneficial for when they are older in working life. Spending time with family increases your communication skills to each other, because you know each other, this is creating your relationship. It is important to create this relationship and know each family member in order to have a well communicating family, this is especially important when the child is younger in order to have the relationship already built for when they are going through challenging teenage years. In this article Toyworld buyer Repeka Haurua advised family games and outdoor toys could not be substituted by electronics. Children of today are being exposed to many electronic devices such as television, internet and games. Electronic entertainment has no benefit for children under the age of two and for older pre-schoolers; it has been proven that educational television can possibly do more harm than good. For example, children who watched Dora the Explorer or Blue’s Clues at age two and a half had better language skills than those who watched Teletubbies who had worse language skills than average (Aamodt & Wang, 2011). Beck suggests that the use of electronic entertainment is not necessary in child’s development, banning electronic entertainment altogether could be damaging as you are putting children at the risk of a social disadvantage such as bullying from peers but also lack of experience with computers which could lead to professional difficulties later on. Enforcing time limits on electronic entertainment could be a strategy which may work for families however when the children are on ” down time” this is a good time for parental interaction. Haurua is correct in thinking that family games and outdoor toys cannot be substituted however these are important for children during their schooling years to assist their skills in information technology develop. Parents need to use their discretion when it comes to computers. Computers are here to stay however they should not consume all of children’s time. A child should use no more than thirty minutes a day whilst at home, this is enough to equip the child with computing skills without over-exposing him to the cyber world (Dr Nithy, 2010). Haurua mentioned that a child cannot sit in a corner with no friends, with their iPad. Haurua is accurate with this statement that if a child was given this opportunity over and over they could become accustomed to sitting in the corner by themselves and this would deplete their social skill set as well as disjoint them from their peers however, if their peers also had iPads and the child did not, this situation could produce the same negative results so it depends on the child position at the time. If Haurua is only talking to relation to time at home this is correct in suggesting that it is no benefit for children. Haurua states that five year olds will always want lego and the latest comic books and trading cards this is most likely because they have seen other children at pre-school with these items. Some of the gifts ideas in the article are described as open-ended and imaginative items such as paints, pens and paper, dress-ups for imaginary play, board games and balloons. Playing with imagination enhancing items such as these helps children’s personality, morals and values develop and also assist them to learn. This is the same in the classroom; children learn when they see the information, hear the information, understand the information and finally imagine, visualise and feel the information (Dr Nithy, 2010). Children’s imagination is a big part of learning and should be encouraged. This article concludes reasons for adults to spend time with their children and advertises it as a cheaper alternative to buying expense electronic entertainment devices. The article suggests that it is more beneficial to all members of the family, not just the children. It becomes clear when contributing factors such as Freud and Erikson’s theories suggest that is contributes positive stimulation which aids the development of children’s social skills. These skills will benefit children later in their life in social scenes within the workforce. It proposes that cheap toys are an alternative and more beneficial than expensive items, but this depends on the situation in which the child is put in. Children should have access to some information technology to increase their computing skills which will benefit them later in life as it will become second nature. This article encourages parents to spend quality time with their children to allow their social skills to strengthen and permit them to be ready for social challenges they may be faced with in their future.

References Cited

Aamodt, S., & Wang, S. (2011). Welcome to your child’s brain. New York: Bloomsbury USA. Dr Nithy, T. (2010). Your child your genius. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions. Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education. Geldard, K., & Geldard, D. (2002). Counselling Children. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Jacobelli, F., & Watson, L. A. (2008). ADD/ADHD Drug Free. New York: Amacom. Meggitt, C. (2012). Understand child development. London: Hodder Education. Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2009). Life-Span Human Development, (7th ed.). Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth, Cenage Learning. Sources AnnotatedAamodt, S., & Wang, S. (2011). Welcome to your child’s brain. New York: Bloomsbury USA. 1. Sandra Aamodt, PH. D, received her Ph. D. in neuroscience from the University of Rochester and her undergraduate degree in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. She is the former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, which is the leading scientific journal in brain research. Sandra’s writing in science has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, El Mundo and the London Times. Sam Wang, PH. D., attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with honours at the age of 19. He went on and gained a Ph. D. in neuroscience at the Stanford University. He is now an associate professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. He has published well over fifty articles on the brain. Aamodt and Wang’s first book, Welcome To Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How To Drive, was a best-seller. It achieved 2009 Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Their second book (this book), Welcome To Your Child’s Brain: How The Mind Develops From Conception To College, will be translated into 16 languages. Aamodt and Wang have successfully presented real data in a way which the reader can understand and put into practise. They discuss every day experiences and how it can affect child development. Dr Nithy, T. (2010). Your child your genius. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions. 2. Dr Theva Nithy is a lecturer with the School of Educational Studies at University Sains Malaysia. Dr Nithy is a Malaysian neuroscientist and education specialist, who focusses on memory and learning systems. Dr Nithy is currently involved in building a Collective Intelligence engine that will harness the power of Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Knowledge Management and Federated Searches, among others, to make sense of data and present it as knowledge. Dr Nithy could have given more real-life examples in the book which would aid parents in understanding child development better. Because the book had spelling mistakes it took away the credibility of the research. Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education. 3. Bernadette Duffy is currently Head of the Thomas Coram Early Childhood Centre. Duffy has worked in a variety of early years settings and was originally trained as an early years teacher. Bernadette is Vice-Chair of the British Association for Early Childhood Education. Duffy was made and OBE in 2005. Duffy’s book Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years was published in 2006 and has contributed to a range of publications. She is co-editor with Dame Gillian Pugh of Contemporary Issues in the Early Years published by Sage. Bernadette is a speaker on a wide range of Early Years’ issues in Australia and internationally. Bernadette has done some good research on the history of imagination for this book. I found it to be slightly alternative however this can be expected when reading about imagination. This book is different to other books about child development as it focusses on what not to do rather than what to do. Geldard, K., & Geldard, D. (2002). Counselling Children. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 4. Dr Kathryn Geldard, PH. D., is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Kathryn has worked as a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Counselling at Queensland University of Technology. Kathryn was a Family Therapist before working as a lecturer. She also worked as a psychotherapist at the Child and Youth Mental Health Service in Queensland. Kathryn researched Adolescent Peer Counselling to obtain her PhD. She agined her Masters Degree in Counselling, and is a registered Occupational Therapist. Kathryn has trained in the United States and in Australia to work with children psychotherapeutically. David Geldard, BSc, DipPsych, MASA, worked for many years as a Counselling Psychologist. David used different counselling approaches for working with children, adults, and families. In particular David’s interest was in training counsellors to work with children and adolescents who were emotionally and behaviourally disturbed. Jacobelli, F., & Watson, L. A. (2008). ADD/ADHD Drug Free. New York: Amacom. 5. Frank Jacobelli, MSW, LCSW. Frank has been a therapist since 1988, working alongside his wife Lynn Ann Watson, with adults, kids and families. Frank has treated both children and adults in a variety of clinical settings including inpatient psychiatric, private practice, and community mental health. Since 1994, Jacobelli has served as a Clinical Coordinator for Enki Health and Research Systems, Inc. in Northern California. Lynn Ann Watson has been an early-learning education director, multiple-subject teacher, special educator, special-education administrator, and resource specialist. This pair have put years of their own personal experience into this book. They give examples on real-life experiences which makes it easy for the reader to relate with. Meggitt, C. (2012). Understand child development. London: Hodder Education. 6. Carolyn Meggitt studied sociology and psychology at university followed by a career in nursing. After ten years as a nurse as well as being a practicing midwife, Carolyn began teaching. Carolyn has been writing books on child health and development for many years. Carolyn has a passion for helping equip childcare workers with the knowledge and understanding required to look after children. Carolyn has good points in this book in relation to child’s development as she focusses on exploring the works of theorists such as Piaget, Freud, Erikson and Bowlby. This book gives you a practical understanding of the subject and illustrations to back up key points.