The Developing Child

This video discusses how babies develop over time and what their abilities are. There was, of course, the nature and nurture debate- are babies born as noble savages corrupted by society, or are they blank tablets upon which nurture writes?

In 1800 something weird happened. People found a little savage boy who had grown up in the wild, and was around the age of 12. A doctor names him Victor and tried to civilize him, and at first it worked. But after 5 years nothing changed, and when he died at the age of 40, he could not speak or behave like a normal person.

This leads to the question: What are we born with and what do we learn?

Now we know babies come into the world able to perform all sorts of feats. A few minutes after birth, a newborns eyes turns in the direction of a voice. His/her hand reaches out to make contact, and the head moves to face a face. They even have likes and dislikes- they smile at the smell of bananas.

*Interesting sidenote- when babies are born they are legally blind because they don't have enough cone cells in the retinas and there aren't enough connections between neurons.

Babies can comprehend the world around them because they react to stimulus. They prefer complex shapes, can see new colors, and get tired of objects quickly.

through tests people could see that in a year, from 7 to 8, a person could understand more.

*The test with the liquids being poured.

3 things I found interesting:

1) At first babies think that when something is hidden it ceases to exist. If I understand this correctly, it could be why babies love peekaboo. When Sharon and I were at Dollar Tree and the baby was laughing like a maniac when Sharon played peekabo, maybe it is because the baby is so shocked to see the face/object reappear. It is amazing and delightful to them.

2) Situation: A model room of an actual room- same setup and same colors. Little snoopy is hidden, big snoopy is hidden. Can child find big snoopy after seeing little snoopy hidden in same spot? A 2 year old could not, but a 3 year old could. I wonder why? And it is so interesting that within 12 months we can just develop like that.

3) Monkey's can be shy. That's adorable. They cling to their moms like we cling to our moms when we are babies!