See What Children Know
A responsive adult not only helps an infant grasp a desired object, but also entices her to obtain an object just beyond a comfortable reach. A child’s development depends on both the support and the challenge offered by a parent or teacher. Watch how this calm and responsive adult shakes the rattle to elicit the infant’s orientation to the object, but also smiles intermittently to let the infant know that this is a shared experience. The game is not simply about grasping the noise-making object. The triangle of infant, adult, and object makes this encounter one of framing the game as safe and fun, achieving a voluntary grasp of a rather large object, and bonding with the familiar face of the adult. The adult knows that she can elicit an automatic grasping reflex by placing the object directly in the palm of the infant’s hand. But on this day the adult decides to raise the child’s curiosity in the object by shaking it and through her smiles inviting the child to reach, contact, and close her fingers around the object as a pre-mediated, voluntary act. The adult makes several adjustments in her strategy when playing this game with a second infant.
When you play the video (click here) you also will see time code that marks the various strategies that the adult uses and the resultant actions from the infant. You may see other strategies or have comments about the overall thrust of these encounters.
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Notes from the Field
Many of you may know about CLASP, a clearing house of information about public policy and national data on education and family support. Here is a direct link to their latest set of resources and publications on Early Childhood Education. Click here Please let us know in our blog if you would like to discuss the current initiatives in progress.
