Adults recognize and nurture a child’s intrinsic nature when they:
Accept and value each child’s unique pattern of development and nurture the child in harmony with this pattern.
References:
Abstract 1:
Shwe, H.I. & Markman, E. M. (1997). Young children's appreciation of the mental impact of their communicative signals. Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 630-636.
Premise: Young children, 30 months old, recognize that their non-verbal signals can affect the mental states of others.
Research Question: Do prelinguistic children's communicative acts serve to get a point across or do they merely represent persistent attempts to achieve a material goal?
Background: An adult is aware that his verbal communication with another can serve to influence that person's mental state. Prelinguistic children, in performing certain behavioral acts, communicate a desire for, and are able to achieve, certain material goals. It is also believed that these children understand that their signals are influencing the mental state of others.
Subjects: 11 boys and 11 girls between the ages of 30 months, 2 days, and 31 months, 7 days.
Study Design: An experimenter presents each child with a pair of objects. The child chooses one of the objects and receives his choice depending on conditions controlled by the experimenter. In one condition, the experimenter conveys an understanding of the child's request, in another condition a misunderstanding of the request is conveyed. Conclusions are drawn based upon the child's attempts to get his point across.
Findings: This study indicates that the 30-month old child understands his ability to impact his listener's mental state. The young child also is aware of the mental component of his interactions as he treats his listener as more than a manipulative object. It is also apparent that the child cares whether or not he is understood. The study aides in the clarification of what the 30-month-old understands of the mental world.
Research reviewed by Sandra Treggett, RN, while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing, in Richmond, VA.
Abstract 2:
Doherty-Sneddon, G. & Kent, G. (1996). Visual signals and the communication abilities of children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37(8), 924-954.
Premise: Younger children communicate a significant amount of information using a non-verbal format of communication such as gestures. This less complex form of communication aides in speech production and also eases processing and interpretation demands for both speaker and listener.
Research Question: Are children's communication abilities affected by their access to visual signals?
Subjects: 70 children, ages three to eleven: 20 six-year-old and 24 eleven-year-old primary school children, 26 three- to four-year-old pre-school children.
Study Design: A mixed design was used in three separate experiments. In experiment one and two, the role that visual signals play in child-child task-oriented interactions was investigated. In experiment three, the visual signals between adult and child interactions were investigated for similar effects. In experiment one, a within-subject factor of visibility and content and a between subject factor of age was used. In the first experiment the subjects were 6- to 11-years old. In experiment two, a within-subject design was used with a pair as the unit of analysis to investigate whether the same face to face benefit found in experiment one would be found with younger children when using a task more appropriate to a younger age. In experiment three, a between-subject design was used in an applied communicative situation of an adult interviewing a child both face-to-face and audio only.
Findings: Young children transmit largely in non-verbal formats. They process video information and audio information, when accompanied by video information. They do not do well with audio alone (no face-to-face communication).
Research reviewed by Sandra Treggett, RN, while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing, in Richmond, VA.
Abstract 3:
Messinger, D.S. & Fogel, A. (1998). Give and take: the development of conventional infant gestures. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 44(4), 566.
Premise: It is important to understand how infants communicate with their caregivers.
Research Question: How are infants' gestures embedded in communication with mothers and does the frequency of gesturing change with age. What are the types of gestures, which correspond to certain types of communicative behaviors and do these associations change with age?
Subjects: Eleven adult mothers and their infants between the ages of 9 and 15 months.
Study Design: Mother and infant dyads were observed in a laboratory playroom. Mothers were instructed to play and talk to their infant as they would at home. All interactions were videotaped and all communicative functions were coded for future analysis.
Findings: Infants' use of gestures and communicative signals such as gazing, smiling, and vocalizing are used to influence their partners to perform a task with an object. The period between 9 and 15 months reveals an increase in the infants' communicative actions to influence their partner as well as an increase in their ability to comprehend conventional gestures.
Research reviewed by Sandra Treggett, RN, while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing, in Richmond, VA.
Abstract 4:
Morrow, J.D., & Camp, B.W. (1996). Mastery motivation and temperament of 7-month-old infants. Pediatric Nursing, 22(3), 211343.
Premise: Infant mastery motivation, temperament, and cognition measures, influence optimal infant development and promote healthy social interactions within the environment.
Research Question: Do relationships involving infant mastery motivation, temperament and cognition measures used in clinical, ambulatory, daycare, or preschool settings promote infant development.
Background: Providing parents, healthcare team members, daycare personnel, and teachers with a broad knowledge base involving activities to promote mastery motivation, which include learning or manipulation of the environment lay the foundation for a child9 s self efficacy in interactions with their world.
Subjects: 26 healthy, fullterm infants, age 7-months obtained at a well baby clinic.
Study Design: Descriptive tools used include the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence, the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire, and the revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire.
Findings: Infants with high mastery motivation and free play were rated as less difficult and more cooperative, which in turn were less irritable and more active. Parents who did not interrupt to provide assistance to the child while performing a successful task on his/her own, sharing in the feelings of self-efficacy and accomplishment, did promote and increase in selfmastery motivation. In turn, those parents who did provide aid to the child during tasks and used discouraging remarks brought about feelings of inadequacy and therefore resulted in a decreased mastery motivation. Autonomy support in accomplishing tasks enables persistence in the infant. Parents should be taught to let their infant or child initiate activities on their own rather than the parent always initiating or directing the activities. These same principles involving mastery motivation should also be used by the nurse at the bedside when interacting with an infant or older child in selfcare teaching activities. Kinesthetic stimulation was also found to be important in relation to mastery motivation and later cognitive development. Parents may need to be reminded of the need for an infant to be consoled and rocked in order for optimal development to be obtained. Mastery motivation and temperament are clearly related and mastery motivation activities may provide additional assessment information important in interventional planning for children. This will also assist parents with a broader knowledgebase to help guide and recognize problems that do not enhance or promote optimal development.
Research reviewed by Robin Johnston, RN, while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing, in Richmond, VA.