Chapter 6

As the second oldest in a family of ten children, I have watched 8 siblings grow up. 5 of these I remember from the day of their birth. How infants develop, learn about their environment and themselves, and how to interact with other people, especially learning to talk is fascinating.

Though Piaget’s observations helped people to realize that babies are active learners, I’m glad that researchers have continued to study child development, and have demonstrated that babies are smarter at even younger ages than Piaget found. The rate of development in the first two years of life is astounding. I am especially interested in research that shows how adults can help and not hinder a baby’s cognitive, emotional and social development – such as talking to babies improving their speech and vocabulary. 

I also find it interesting how different cultures influence child development, beginning in infancy, in ways that help the child, and eventually adult, to fit well into their cultural group. I have observed this locally with the Amish. Children at a young age are taught to control their emotions, in ways that I believe contribute to life-long emotional suppression. Emotional expression is not a valued trait among the Amish, and an emotionally open person would tend to be culturally ostracized. Considering that perhaps it is in the child’s best interest.

I also found the section on memory interesting and the difference in development of implicit and explicit memory. I think it is a dreadful mistake to assume that simply because a very young child will not be able to recount an experience later, that the experience does not have the potential for lasting impact. Even though we all have childhood amnesia – I can’t recall or recount any memories before age 4 - I believe our bodies have an innate memory. At the very least, learning, is based on what was learned or experienced the moment, hour, day, week before. So experiences both negative and positive will influence the development that comes after it.