This is Ally, the author of our final entry on chapter 2, with her grandmother when she was little. "The violin is not real," she explained, "but I used to make it make noises. My sisters tell me I used to play it like a guitar."
Here, Ally is with her little brother. She said, "The cat's name is Pee Wee (from Pee Wee Herman). My sisters told me that Pee Wee ran away because I used to dress him up and act like he was my baby doll."
Clearly, Ally had some fun play experiences as a child, and you'll see that she shared some of those in her entry. I hope she doesn't mind how I titled the entry -- I loved the point she makes about mom's womb, so thought it was fitting! Happy reading.
Chapter two of Einstein Never Used Flash Cards is an amazing chapter filled with tons of information of which new parents and early childhood care providers should be aware. This chapter is entitled Brainchild: How Babies are Wired to Learn. At the beginning of this chapter we are introduced to new parents that are trying to be the best parents possible. These parents, like many others, have learned from friends and media that there are ways to give your child an extra advantage in life; they have decided to get the video Baby Genius: Mozart and Friends. When they were having their second child, they learned that playing music to their unborn child would make them smarter and increase the physical and emotional bonds between parent and child. Parents are almost willing to do or pay anything to give their children the best possible life. But is listening to the new hype the way to go?
The authors of this book explain that there has been a connection between music and childhood intelligence. But it is not explicitly from playing “classical music”; it is from stimulating the synapses connections in the brain of the young child. This Mozart effect or idea was started on the University of Wisconsin’s Oshkosh campus. A researcher named Francis Rauscher was looking at the effect of classical music and “spatial reasoning tasks.” The research showed that after listening to classical music the students’ performance on tasks was better. The news of this study got out to the media and the media came up with the concept of music helping increase children’s brain development. The media and developers of toys are willing to tell parents anything to get them to buy their products. Everyday new parents are bombarded with new products that will help their baby’s brain develop faster and better. The idea is that parents are supposed to be the “sculptors” of their children’s young minds, but is that really the case?
Some scientist and toy developers believe that it is important to have children take advantage of the extra synapse connections that they can form. They believe that the more connections and things that young children learn, the smarter they will be. But many, including me, believe that the brain needs to be “pruned” so that we can make way to learn new concepts and extend on previously learned concepts. Research has discovered that the Fragile X Syndrome, which causes mental retardation, is related to the lack of pruning of these synapses. This is why it is important not to over stimulate a child. Neonatal nurses first thought that stimulating the mind in the neonatal ward would help the child go on to live a more successful life. But later research showed that these children that were over exposed to special lighting and sounds had ADD problems as well as other attention problems.
When children are placed in natural environments where they can see, hear, smell and touch, they are going to learn just fine. In the womb of your mother’s tummy there is no disco ball spinning, and there is no music box playing Mozart. In the womb there is only relaxation and the distant sound of people talking or making noise. Children are developing in the womb without any outside force showing them what to listen to or learn.
It is not true that the first three years of childhood are the most important; all of childhood is important. There is no magical age by which children need to learn. It is true that at a young age, children learn they can trust and not trust certain people. Children learn about the world, relationships and language through listening and seeing others during childhood. The book gives an example of a little girl named Genie who was a prisoner in her own bedroom. Genie’s parents kept her in a small room from the time she was 20 months old. The little girl was tied to a potty chair in her room and only had physical contact when she was fed. When the child was found at the age of 13, she was undersized, very brittle, and under nourished.
After years and years of trying to teach Genie language skills, she was still at the language stage of a four year old. This goes to prove that children can always learn new things, but it is important to give them a natural environment in which to learn. This also proves that if children are not provided the right tools to learn and grow, they will become socially, physically, and mentally disadvantaged as they get older. But these tools are not DVD’s or Leapfrogs; children need plenty of love, conversation, and things to explore so that their brains can develop. You cannot open a child’s head and pour in the information you want them to learn. They might be able to recite a few words from memorization, but will they be able to tell you what the sentence means?
As we have learned today it is not always better to overload a child with information. Do adults like being overloaded with work? Do they like being bombarded with too much information to process? Why would people think it is ok to over work a child? Parents! Please stop listening to the media and other myths and please start listening to yourself. You know what is best for your child; do what feels right.
When I was a child I remember not having money to buy new toys, so we made our toys. I played outdoors with my siblings and cousins; we played house, we imagined that we were kings and queens ruling the land, and we made our own carnivals in our backyard. This is why I agree that it is so important to take children outside and let them explore, take family trips to the beach or to your own backyard, don’t have your children just memorize things, teach them the context of what they are learning, and most important of all…. do not go out and buy the latest toy that is supposed to increase children’s brain function. You can give the child toilet paper rolls, old clean rags, cardboard, and empty water bottles and just watch what the children can make or imagine.
I know when I have a child I am not going to listen to the media and what the newest child books say, but of course I want to do the best thing for my child. What is best for my child is not always what others claim. What is best for my child and your child is what you think is best. Let your child play, explore, and make mistakes. Childhood theorists Vygotsky, Erickson, and Piaget all agree that play, friends, and security are the most important thing in a child’s life so make sure to give them those.
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