Early Experience and Later Life

1. Early Experience and Later Life The Development of Children (5th ed.) Cole, Cole & Lightfoot Chapter 7

2. Primacy of Infancy • The paths first traveled will be the most significant for later development • “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” • Plato: “And the beginning, as you know, is always the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender. That is the time when the character is being molded and easily takes any impress one may wish to stamp on it.”

3. Primacy of Infancy • Burton White: “To begin to look at a child’s educational development when he is two years of age is already much too late.” • Joseph Needham: “One of the most fundamental processes in development consists in the closing of doors, …in the progressive restriction of possible fates.”

4. Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

5. Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.

6. Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

7. Overview of the Journey • Effects of Parent-Child Separation • Vulnerability and Resilience • Recovery from Deprivation • Shaping Developmental Pathways

8. Effects of Parent-Child Separation Temporary Separation Extended Separation Isolated Children

9. Temporary Separation • Out-of-home care • By the time they are 4 years of age, nearly all children in the United States are in nonparental care on a regular basis • In fact, nearly half of all infants are regularly cared for by someone other than their mothers and fathers Percentage of children regularly receiving nonparental care

10. Temporary Separation • Out-of-home care • Poor-quality care (the case in nearly half of the day care centers) was a risk factor for later cognitive and social difficulties, especially when combined with insensitive mothering or in families with internal conflicts • Also particularly the case when 20+ hours/week of non-maternal care during first year of life

11. Temporary Separation • Repeated hospitalizationfound to be associated with subsequent behavior problems and delinquency • Although may be due to stress of ill health or from low SES conditions, rather than from separation • Separation by war situations (England WW II) • 20 years later, behavior fell within normal limits

12. Extended Separation • Orphanage (crèche) in Lebanon (little stimulation and human contact; similar results in Romania) • Although normal at 2 months, developed intellectually at only ½ of the expected rate by the end of the first year • If adopted before 2 years old: Functioning normally 2-3 years later • If adopted between ages of 2-6: Only slightly retarded • If remained institutionalized: • Females at 12-16 were so retarded that they were unable to function in society • Boys transferred to another institution at age 6 that provided more intellectual stimulation and experiences – at 10-14 were still retarded, but able to function in society

13. Extended Separation • Highest risk for those children whose separation was coupled with residence in a facility with multiple caregivers and a suboptimal range of experiences

14. Isolated Children • While studies of isolated children (e.g., Victor, the Wild Child) leave little doubt that severe isolation can profoundly disrupt normal development • They also show (e.g., twin Czech boys, discovered at age 6) that early deprivation is not necessarily devastating to later development

15. Vulnerability and Resilience Risk Factors and Resilience Child Characteristics Family Characteristics Community Characteristics

16. Risk Factors • Four key factors (Rutter, et al.) • Family discord • Parental social deviance (criminal or psychiatric) • Social disadvantage (e.g., low SES, large number of children close in age) • Poor school environment (e.g., high rates of turnover and absence among staff and pupils) • Cumulative effect • No factor alone was associated with psychiatric disorders in childhood • But if as few as two were present at the same time, the risk increased significantly

17. Average IQ scores for 13-year-olds Sameroff et al., 1993

18. Resilient Children • Had the ability to recover quickly from the adverse effects of early experience or to persevere in the face of stress with no apparent negative psychological consequences • Protective factors from • Individual characteristics… • Family characteristics… • Community characteristics…

19. Characteristics of the Child • Risk factors • In infancy and early childhood: irregularity of biological functions, negative responses to new situations and people, frequent negative mood • In middle childhood: easily distracted (i.e., short attention span), had a hard time adjusting to new circumstances

20. Characteristics of the Child • Protective factors • Secure attachments • High intelligence and self-esteem • Pride over personal accomplishments

21. Characteristics of the Family • Risk factors • Member of low-income family • Premature birth or birth trauma • Mother with low educational level • Parent with some form of psychopathology

22. Characteristics of the Family • Protective factors (Kauai study) • No more than 4 children in family • More than 2 years between older/younger siblings • Availability of alternative caregivers who provide attention • Workload of mother, even if employed outside the home, was not excessive • Family provided structure and rules during adolescence • Family was cohesive

23. Characteristics of the Community • Risk factors • Low SES communities • Inner-city neighborhoods • Protective factors • Small towns or rural areas • Strong social support networks provided by kin, neighbors, and social service agencies • Schools with attentive personnel and good academic programs

24. Recovery from Deprivation Transactional Analysis Harlow’s Monkeys Recovery from Isolation

25. Transactional Analysis • Models of development that trace the interaction between child’s and environmental characteristics over time • However, if usual chain of consequences can be broken and favorable transactions established (e.g., supportive spouse), normal behavior is likely to follow

26. Harlow’s Monkeys • Totally isolated for only the first 3 months were not permanently affected by the experience • Totally isolated for the first 6 months recovered only partially (e.g., incapable of normal sexual behavior) • Isolated for only the second 6 months recovered quite quickly • Total isolation for entire first yearresulted in full-fledged social misfits who showed no desire for social play or interchange, and behaved abusively toward their infants

27. Recovery from Isolation Effects • A critical period? • Punishing monkeys for inappropriate behavior was ineffective • Introducing them to new environment slowly was also ineffective • Pairing with a younger monkey (2-3 months) resulted in all 1-year isolates becoming well adjusted • Human implications • Czech twins (who recovered quite normally) were first placed in a special environment with younger children • Socially isolated children in 1-on-1 situations with a child 1-1½ years younger nearly doubled in rate of peer interactions

28. Shaping Developmental Pathways Optimal Conditions Primacy Revisited Limited Predictability

29. Optimal Conditions:The Irreducible Needs of Children • Ongoing nurturing relationships • Physical protection, safety, and regulation • Experiences tailored to individual differences • Developmentally appropriate experiences • Limit setting, structure, and expectations • Stable, supportive communities and cultural continuity

30. Kirkegaard’s Supportive Mothers • “A” Mothers (Sensitive & Supportive)[White & Watts] • Enjoyed being with their infants (although spent less than 10% of their time actually caring for them) • Took pleasure in providing them with intellectually stimulating experiences; available to answer questions • Placed more importance on their children’s exploration and learning than on the appearance of their homes (organized in such a way as to be safe and interesting) • Allowed children to take minor risks, but also set reasonable limits for them • Encouraged and supported their children with actions that fostered personal independence • Infants: When in preschool were judged to be more competent on a battery of tests and observations

31. “As the twig is bent…” • Even children who make remarkable recoveries show some residual signs of past deprivation • Three modifying factors • Changes in the environment (e.g., good school or community-based social-support network) • Bio-social-behavioral shifts (i.e., early problems do not inevitably lead to later developmental problems) • Increased capabilities change the ways in which children experience their environments • Examples: Attachment & Cognitive Growth

32. Case: Attachment • Children who had been assessed as securely attached in infancy • More socially skilled • Formed more friendships • Displayed more self-confidence • Were less dependent • More open in expressing their feelings • Formed closer relationships with peers • Early interactions seem to provide an internal working model for subsequent relationships

33. Case: Cognitive Development • For many years researchers believed that differences in infant intellectual ability did not predict later achievement • Problem: Early studies did not tapinto same processes at both testings (sensorimotor sphere vs. conceptual sphere) • Finding: Significant modest (not strong) correlation between memory performance of children when they were babies and when they were 11 years old

34. Recognizing limited predictability • Only moderate correlations • Child development is simultaneously continuous and discontinuous • Unpredictability is an opportunity for choice

35. Scenarios

36. Scenario 1 Think of a time in your life when two pathways lay before you and consider what might have happened if you had taken a different path. • What makes it possible to imagine the alternative? • What makes it hard to imagine?

37. Scenario 2 Imagine that you are the director of an orphanage. In view of what you have learned so far, what are some of the practices you would promote to provide the best possible development for the children in your institution?

38. Scenario 3 Imagine that you are the director of a community program to improve the early experiences of children living in a poor community. What sorts of programs would you try to promote? Give a research-based rationale for your suggestions.