Conversations about Child Development

This week I was having a conversation in the hallway at work with some co-workers about infant care.  One of our colleagues just recently adopted a new baby that is now 7 weeks old.  She was sucking her pacifier and it dropped to the ground.  We all stopped our conversation and one of my colleagues asked for the pacifier to go wash it off.  I reminded me of the film "Babies" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB36k0hGxDM I have included the link if you want to learn more about the movie.  For my fellow doctoral friends we recently watched this movie in class.  In the file "Babies" one of the infants is giving a piece of meat on a stick to suck on like a pacifier and another is having tummy time on the ground pecking on the ground eating dirt.  In the United States we are so cautious about safety that it makes me wonder if children are able to build up their immune system.  I shared the information from the film with my co-workers and they were appalled.  I remember thinking the first time I saw the film the same thing, but watching again recently with a new lens as a scholar of child development it is not as appalling because that is developmentally appropriate and best practices in those cultures.  Additionally, they were showing the home life of children from various countries and not the care in a child care facility.

I found myself explaining to my colleagues why this it was important for those children to experience their environment in the way that they did and I truly felt like an early childhood scholar.  It is still early in this doctoral journey, but I am beginning to see the transformation in myself and my thinking about how children learn and develop.  Not that my beliefs about how children learn has changed dramatically, but I am seeing how important it is to have a much more broad view of the world.  I am surprised that my transformation has began so early in the process.  

I recently received my comprehensive membership book from National Association for the Education of Young Children titled The Early Years Matter:  Education, Care and the Well-Being of Children, Birth to 8 by Marilou Hyson and Heather Biggar Tomlinson and just reading the first couple of chapters fit in nicely with this idea that we must humanize child development by thinking about the family and the environment when we consider what is best for children.  Here is a link to take a look at the book:  http://www.naeyc.org/store/The-Early-Years-Matter

Children develop in the context of family and society I have read this numerous times, but the true meaning of it is becoming more real to me each and every day.  How has children develop in the context of family and society changed for you during this journey?  How does culture impact development?  How do our beliefs about how children develop impact our interactions with babies?  The journey continues....