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Infant Potential
by Tammy Vaughn, Director of Early
Childhood, Children's Hunger Alliance
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Originally published in the March, 2005 Columbus Parent Magazine.
Reprinted by permission.
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DAYTON - In some local schools, young teens are given the opportunity to spend a weekend
immersed in parenthood.
Students are assigned infant mannequins programmed to simulate a newborn and sent home to ride
out the weekend with their new family. The mannequin's activity and the teen's responses are both monitored, and
at the end of the project, students receive a grade. I interviewed one of the participating students and was impressed
by the impact it made on her - and she was only halfway through her weekend project.
She and I had a delightful conversation as she shared her experience and anecdotes from friends
also involved in the project. During the interview, the cooing mannequin infant interrupted only a few times. One
feeding, a diaper change and a little colic needed tending to while we talked. My interviewee took this new responsibility
very seriously and clearly felt the pressure of motherhood as a result of this activity. I was amazed by how comparable
the simulation was to real parenting.
As our conversation continued, she described the capabilities of the infant mannequin., and I began
to thin about the potential of real infants. This young lady was convinced that this infant mannequin could do
everything that a living infant could. She was right - in the context of the desired outcome of this project. Outside
of that, she has much to learn about infant potential, as do many adults.
As I thought about this, I remembered some previous research I had done. I remembered slides of
an infant sitting in the middle of a large sheet of paper. She was adorned with only a diaper and a paintbrush.
The infant held the brush, dipped it into jars of paint and made stroke marks on the paper. Those
slides held a powerful message: It's never too soon to engage children in processes that enhance their physical
and cognitive growth.
Research shows children are ready to learn from birth. Most parents know that the most rapid growth
period in a child's brain occurs between 0 and 3 years of age. Do you know that infants are also able to read from
birth? Infants use symbols to read the world around them.
If you hold your arms out toward your infant, she knows you're going to pick her up. When the phone
rings, she may know that she will lose your attention. An infant soon your attention. An infant soon learns to
distinguish the phone from the microwave by a process called auditory discrimination. Auditory discrimination is
an important skill that leads to language development and reading skills.
The best thing parents can do for their children, and even their infants, is to overestimate what
they are capable of and provide challenging learning opportunities.
If the idea of your infant playing with paint is a little too scary, know that it's okay to fill
the paint jars with water. Focus on the process and what the activity lends to learning but not on the product
created.
In terms of development, infants are not any different from toddlers or preschoolers. They learn
and grow by doing. They develop skills from painting, being read to and pouring water from one container into the
other.
With infants, though, it takes a little more time and a little more supervision.
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BOOKSHELF
Read these suggested "touch and feel" books with your infant:
- The Touch Me Book, by Witte, Pat & Eve.
- Spot's Touch and Feel Day, by Eric Hill.
Books for Parents:
- Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes, by Vygotsky, L.S. (1978).
- Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five, by Leach, P. (1992).
- The Emergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy, by Bates, E. (1979).
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