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The Contexts of Early Childhood

This chapter explores how parents and children mutually shape each other's development. It discusses the influence of family structures, parenting styles, and cultural goals on children's development. It also examines the impact of divorce, poverty, and different types of childcare on young children. Overall, it emphasizes the significance of positive parent-child interactions in promoting healthy development.

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The Contexts of Early Childhood

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  1. The Contexts of Early Childhood The Development of Children (5th ed.) Cole, Cole & Lightfoot Chapter 11

  2. Contexts of Development Urie Bronfenbrenner

  3. Mutual Shaping • Parents shape their children’s development • Directly: By the tasks they pose, the ways they respond to particular behaviors, the values they promote, and the patterns of behavior they model • Indirectly: By selecting many of the other contexts to which children are exposed, such as the places they visit, the means by which they entertain themselves, and the children with whom they play • Children shape their parents’ behavior • Through their interests, temperament, appearance, verbal ability and other characteristics that influence parent-child interaction

  4. Overview of the Journey • Family as a Context for Development • The Young Child in the Community • Media Linking Home and Community

  5. Family as a Context for Development Family Structures and Dynamics Parenting Styles Family Diversity Families Under Stress

  6. Family Structures Nuclear family • A family consisting of a husband, a wife, and their children Extended family • A family in which not only parents and their children but other kin—grandparents, cousins, nephews, or more distant family relations—share a household Single-parent family • A family that is headed by one parent, usually the mother

  7. Orchard Town, New England

  8. Gusii Community, Kenya

  9. Patterns of Social Behavior

  10. Parents: Three MajorOrdered Universal Goals Survival Goal • To ensure that their children survive by providing for their health and safety Economic Goal • To ensure that their children acquire the skills and resources needed to be economically productive adults Cultural Goal • To ensure that their children acquire the basic cultural values of the group

  11. Parenting Patterns (North America)

  12. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

  13. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

  14. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

  15. Immigrant Families Today, one in five children has immigrant parents Percentage of immigrants to the United States from various parts of the globe

  16. Children born to unmarried teenage mothers (USA) Following a disturbing rise during the 1970s and 1980s, the number of babies born to teenage mothers declined significantly between 1990 and 2000. (Guttmacher Institute, 2004.) Preschool childrenMore aggressiveLess self-controlledLess cognitively advanced

  17. Consequences of Divorce • Divorce rates in USA are highest in the world • 30% of children born to married couples will see their parents divorce before they reach age 18 • Children whose parents have divorced are twice as likely to • Have problems in school • Act out, becoming unruly and angry (boys) or demanding and attention-seeking (girls) • Be depressed and unhappy • Have less self-esteem • Be less socially responsible and competent • Seem to do best when divorced parents support each other in their parenting roles and are consistent in their approach to discipline

  18. Divorce-Stress-Adjustment Perspective (Amato)

  19. Impact of Poverty

  20. The Young Child in the Community Varieties of Day Care Effects of Day Care Preschool

  21. Varieties of Day Care 63% of U.S. mothers with children younger than 6 are working and use some form of supervised care

  22. Characteristics of Quality Child-Care Centers • Children in the program are enjoying themselves as they play and learn • There are small groups of children (fewer than 15) and low ratios of caregivers to children (at least one adult for every 7-9 children) • Activities organized for children are appropriate to their age levels and abilities • Equal attention and time are devoted to the whole child (i.e., cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development) • Staff meet regularly to plan and evaluate the program • Parents are welcome to observe, discuss and make suggestions about the program

  23. Developmental Effects of Day Care • Intellectual: High-quality day-care may be beneficial for low SES children • Social: More self-sufficient, independent, verbally expressive, helpful, and cooperative; also less polite, agreeable, and compliant, and more aggressive; more years in day care correlates with greater likelihood of behavior problems in kindergarten

  24. Preschool (Nursery School) • Purpose: Educational, rather than supervisory • Preparation for kindergarten (age 5): “War on poverty” (1960s), Project Head Start (federal funds for children from low-income families) • Spans ages 2½ - 6, for approx. 3 hours/day • Emphasis on exploration: sandbox, water-play table, doll corner, block area, large rug for stories and songs, cluster low tables for arts/crafts and snacks, and outdoor area (with jungle gyms, slides, swings)

  25. Effects of Head Start • Began as summer program; now operates year round and serves nearly 1 million children • Receive food, health and dental care, and intellectual stimulation • Although first reports were promising (i.e., gains in standardized test scores), differences largely disappeared during first 3 grades • Children attending model programs were less likely to require remedial special-education classes • Unfortunately, results depend on the quality of the classroom program and few Head Start classrooms can be considered of high quality

  26. Media Linking Home and Community Books Television Interactive Media

  27. Books • Emergent literacy Understanding that letter symbols convey information • Fostered by being read to – dialogic reading (adult asks questions, listens, adds information of interest, and prompts child; based on idea of “zone of proximal development”)

  28. Books • Problem with most fairy tales and myths • Are cruel, brutal, and frightening (e.g., Show White is given a poisoned apple by her step mother; Hansel and Gretel are shoved in the oven by a witch) • Are not realistic portrayals of the world • Problem with many children’s books • Ignore or misrepresent certain ethnic/racial groups, women, the working-class, and poor people

  29. Television • TV set is on 6+ hours/day in average home, and young children are in front of it for 2+ of those hours • Dorothy & Jerome Singer: “No other extraparental influence has penetrated the lives of children as television has”

  30. Television • Modeling • 14-month-olds imitate actions they see on TV • Infants imitate language they hear on TV • Young children identify with superheroes and mythical creatures they see on TV (evident in fantasy play, toys they choose, and breakfast cereals they insist on having!)

  31. Television • What is real? • Young children easily confuse appearance and reality • 2-year-olds think that a bowl of popcorn shown on TV will spill if TV set were to be turned upside down • 4-year-olds believe that Sesame Street is a real place • 5-year-olds believe that television characters can see and hear them • 7-year-olds have difficulty understanding that when a bad guy is shot on television, the actor isn’t really dead • 8-year-olds claim that actors and actresses who play married couples must be friends and they do not realize that fictional programs are rehearsed

  32. Television • Problems of Form • Young children have difficulty interpreting sequences of quick scene changes without transitions • Juxtaposition of images intended to convey the relation of one action to another may also give them difficulty • Format also makes it difficult for children to stop and ponder what is being presented Young children have difficulty reassembling these cards to create a meaningful scene.

  33. Television • Problems of Content • Media stereotypes: People who populate TV screen are not representative of the population of viewers (e.g., men presented as in control, women as submissive, passive, sensual; African Americans are portrayed more positively than European Americans, whereas Hispanic Americans are disproportionably portrayed in criminal roles, if visible at all) – absence of positive role models for certain groups

  34. Television • Problems of Content • Violence: 80% of TV programs children watch include at least one violent event (and many contain more, particularly cartoons); after children watch a violent program, they act more aggressively than children who have watched more benign programs; children come to believe that aggression and violence are acceptable ways to settle disputes

  35. Interactive Media • Positive features • Allow children to interact with the pictures and stories, controlling the movements of characters and engaging in active problem solving • Can develop better eye-motor coordination • Can develop creativity in developing stories/visuals • Negative features • May promote short attention span • May create the expectation that answers and rewards come easily • May lead to superficial understanding

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