How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

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From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

This article examines how people learn by actively observing and “listening-in” on ongoing activities as they participate in shared endeavors. Keen observation and listening-in are especially valued and used in some cultural communities in which children are part of mature community activities. This intent participation also occurs in some settings (such as early language learning in the family) in communities that routinely segregate children from the full range of adult activities. However, in the past century some industrial societies have relied on a specialized form of instruction that seems to accompany segregation of children from adult settings, in which adults “transmit” information to children. We contrast these two traditions of organizing learning in terms of their participation structure, the roles of more- and less-experienced people, distinctions in motivation and purpose, sources of learning (observation in ongoing activity versus lessons), forms of communication, and the role of assessment.

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Firsthand Learning Through Intent Participation

The aim of this article is to propose a theorization of the father-child relationship based on our current understanding of attachment, interactions between fathers and their young children, and human-specific adaptations. The comparison of mother-child and father-child interactions suggests that fathers play a particularly important role in the development of children’s openness to the world. Men seem to have a tendency to excite, surprise, and momentarily destabilize children; they also tend to encourage children to take risks, while at the same time ensuring the latter’s safety and security, thus permitting children to learn to be braver in unfamiliar situations, as well as to stand up for themselves. But this dynamic can only be effective in the context of an emotional bond between father and child; this relationship is termed the father-child activation relationship, in contrast to the mother-child attachment relationship aimed at calming and comforting children in times of stress. The activation relationship is developed primarily through physical play. It is postulated, in particular, that father-child rough-and-tumble play encourages obedience and the development of competition skills in children.

Theorizing the Father-Child Relationship: Mechanisms and Developmental Outcomes

To investigate the nature of the young infant's social competence, the effect of depressed maternal expression during face-to-face interaction was examined using an experimental analogue of maternal depression. Subjects were 12 female and 12 male infants, ages 96-110 days, and their mothers. 2 counter-balanced experimental treatments consisted of 3 min of normal maternal interaction and 3 min of stimulated depressed interaction. A control treatment consisted of 2 3-min epochs of normal maternal interaction. Interactions were videotaped and infant behavior described on a 5-sec time base that maintained order of occurrence. Infants in the depressed condition structured their behavior differently and were more negative than infants in the normal condition. Infants in the depressed condition produced higher proportions of protest, wary, and brief positive. Infants in the depressed condition cycled among protest, wary, and look away. Infants in the normal condition cycled among monitor, brief positive, and play. In addition, differences in negativity were likely to continue briefly after mothers switched from depressed to normal interaction. The data indicate that infants have a specific, appropriate, negative reaction to simulated depression in their mothers. These results question formulations based on alternate hypotheses and suggest that the infant has communicative intent in its interactions.

Three-month-old infants' reaction to simulated maternal depression.

Findings from research on parent-child and adult mate relationships suggest that there are different paths of development in Japan and the United States. In Japan, the path is one of symbiotic harmony, as seen in the emphasis on union in infancy, others' expectations in childhood, the stability of relationships with parents and peers in adolescence, and assurance about the mate relationship in adulthood. In the United States, the path is one of generative tension, as seen in the tug between separation and reunion in infancy, the emphasis on personal preferences in childhood, the transfer of closeness from parents to peers in adolescence, and the emphasis on trust-a faith and hope in new relationships-in adulthood. The notion that there are different paths of development challenges Western investigators' presumption that certain processes-separation-individuation, use of the relational partner as a secure base for exploration, and conflict between partners-are central in all relationships. The notion of different paths also challenges the assumption of many cross-cultural investigators that relationships in the United States are less valued or weaker than those in Japan; this article highlights cultural differences in the meaning and dynamics, as opposed to the importance and strength, of relationships. The model suggests a need to investigate the processes underlying, and the adaptive consequences of, these two alternative paths.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jweisz/files/2000b.pdf

The Development of Close Relationships in Japan and the United States: Paths of Symbiotic Harmony and Generative Tension

Foreword List of tables and figures Preface Part I. African Infancy: Frameworks For Understanding: 1. The comparative study of child care 2. Infant care in subsaharan Africa Part II. Parenthood Among The Gusii of Kenya: 3. Gusii culture: A person-centered perspective 4. Gusii fertility, marriage, and family 5. Pregnancy and birth: Part III. Infant Care and Development in a Gusii Community: 6. Infant care: Cultural norms and interpersonal environment 7. Survival and health: The priorities of parents 8. Communication and social learning during infancy 9. Variations in infant interaction: Illustrative cases: Part IV. Interpretations: 10. Early child development in an African context: Comparative lessons Appendices References.

Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa

DIXON, SUZANNE D.; LEVINE, R. A.; RICHMAN, AMY; and BRAZELTON, T. BERRY. Mother-Child Interaction around a Teaching Task: An African-American Comparison. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 1252-1264. 36 American and African mothers and their children in 3 age cohorts from 6 to 36 months of age were asked to interact around age-appropriate teaching tasks. The interactional behaviors were videotaped and scored in 1-sec epochs. Major behavioral differences between cultural groups and tasks were demonstrated. These differences included an increased frequency of repeated instructions, hand pulling, and lesser use of verbalization by the African mothers. They tended to use repeated focusing and modeling of the task in its entirety, and used little reinforcement for their infants' efforts except simple confirmation of success. The American mothers used much praise, encouragement, and reflective speech in their efforts to shape the child's activity. The African infants tended to be persistent in their efforts, used social interactions with their mothers often, and showed no resistance to hand tugging or pulling. The American children demonstrated more diverse play activities with the toys, shorter attention spans with some tasks, and frustration with tugging or restraining activities. Both cultural groups demonstrated contingent, reciprocal, and affectively positive interactions. These differences and similarities were explored within the context of culture-specific values, expectations for children, and the goals for and assumptions of the teaching process. The teaching situation was shown to be invaluable as a window into the universal and culture-specific aspects of mother-child interaction.

Mother–child interaction around a teaching task: An African-American comparison.

This paper extends the observations of early mother-infant face-to-face interaction to situations in which infants 1 to 6 months of age interact with fathers and strangers. Videotaped records of these laboratory interactions were scored second by second. We saw differences in the behavior of both infants and adults in these interactions. Even infants less than 2 months of age behaved distinctively with the different adults in these settings. Infants showed more positive affective displays with both parents than with strangers. The implications of these findings for the theoretical understanding of the infant's affective development as well as for public health concerns are discussed.

Early Infant Social Interaction with Parents and Strangers

SUMMARY

Assessments were made of 20 severely malnourished children under three years of age in a relatively prosperous village in East Africa. These included medical, perinatal, social economic and behavioural/developmental histories, as well as physical and developmental evaluations. The findings are presented in relation to data from a longitudinal study of child development from this same site and from large nutrition surveys of the same area. The specific historical factors and behavioural profiles found to occur with high frequency among the malnourished children are discussed. They suggest a common etiology with other disorders of attachment-child abuse, nonorganic failure to thrive, and the ‘vulnerable child’ syndrome. These commonalities are explored, and possible mechanisms in the emergence of bonding failure are considered.



RESUME

Une appreciation en profondeur de l'etat de 20 enfants de moins de trois ans, gravement sous-nutrits, provenant d'un seul village relativement prospere de l'Afrique Orientale, a ete realisee. Elle a inclus un historique des affections medicales, de la situation perinatale, des variables sociales et economiques, du developpement comportemental, ainsi qu'une evaluation de l'etat physique et du developpement. Les donnees sont confrontees avec une etude longitudinale de developpement de l'enfant provenant du meme endroit et d'une etude extensive sur l'etat nutritionnel de la meme region. Les facteurs historiques specifiques et les profiles comportementaux dont il s'est avere qu'ils etaient tres frequents parmi les enfants sous-nutrits sont discutes. Ils suggerent la realite d'une etiologie commune avec d'autres troubles de l'attachement parental: mauvais traitements a l'enfant, defauts nonorganiques de croissance, syndrome de l'enfant vulnerable. Ces points communs sont etudies et les mecanismes possibles a l'origine du defaut de fixation parentale sont presentes.



ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Es wurden genaue Untersuchungen an 20 schwer unterernahrten Kindern, die noch nicht drei Jahre alt waren, aus einer einzigen, relativ reichen Ortschaft in Ostafrika durchgefuhrt. Diese beinhalteten medizinische, perinatale, soziale, okonomische und das Verhalten betreffende Entwicklungsanamnesen, sowie eine Beurteilung der motorischen und geistigen Entwicklung. Diese Befunde werden unter Berucksichtigung der Daten einer Langzeitstudie uber die kindliche Entwicklung in derselben Gegend und umfassender Ernahrungsstudien in diesem Gebiet dargestellt. Es folgt eine Diskussion der spezifischen historischen Faktoren und der Verhaltensprofile, die mit besonderer Haufigkeit bei den unterernahrten Kindern gefunden wurden. Daraus last sich eine gemeinsame Aetiologie mit anderen Erkrankungen ableiten, die auf mangelnder Eltern-Kind-Beziehung beruhen, wie Kindesmishandlung, nicht organisch bedingte Gedeihstorung und Vulnerable Child Syndrom. Diese Gemeinsamkeiten werden untersucht und es werden mogliche Mechanismen fur das Zustandekommen von negativen Eltern-Kind-Bindungen dargestellt.



RESUMEN

Se realizo una evaluacion profunda en 20 ninos con malnutricion grave de menos de tres anos de edad, en una poblacion relativamente prospera del Africa Oriental. La invetigacion incluyo la historia medica, perinatal, social, economica y del desarrollo del comportamiento al igual que evaluaciones fisicas y del desarrollo. Se presentan los hallazgos sobre un fondo de datos a partir de un estudio longitudinal del desarrollo infantil realizado en el mismo lugar y en un amplio estudio de la nutricion realizado en la misma area. Se discuten los factores especificos de las historias y los perfiles del comportamiento que se vio que se daban con alta frecuencia en los ninos desnutridos. Se sugiere una etiologia comun con otras alteraciones de la relacion tales como el maltrato del nino, fallo en su desarrollo por causa no organica, sindrome del nino vulnerable. Se exploran estes hechos comunes y se presentan posibles mecanismos de la aparicion de fallos bruscos.

Malnutrition: A Closer Look at the Problem in an East African Village

Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) exams were performed on 24 Gusii (Kenya) newborns during their first 10 days of life. Their scores were compared to those of a low-risk white American sample. The Gusii showed unique motor tone requiring an expansion of the NBAS General Tone Scale. There were few significant differences between the Gusii and American samples. The Gusii scored better on motor maturity and had fewer tremors and startles. There were trends indicating better visual orienting and better habituation to light in the American sample, and better habituation to pinprick and more state changes but less irritability and better self-consoling by the Gusii sample. Both groups performed well and had relatively flat recovery curves. The results are discussed with regard to the influences of newborn behavior on caregiving activities and later development, and the genetic, intrauterine, and perinatal influences on newborn behavior. The need for culture-specific models of development is stated.

Suzanne Dixon

Papers

Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa

Mother–child interaction around a teaching task: An African-American comparison.

Early Infant Social Interaction with Parents and Strangers

Malnutrition: A Closer Look at the Problem in an East African Village

Specific differences in motor performance between Gusii and American newborns and a modification of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale.