1,721,116 research outputs found
The emotional and embodied nature of human understanding : sharing narratives of meaning
Full text linkThis chapter explores the emotional and embodied nature of children’s learning to discover biological principles of social awareness, affective contact, and shared sense-making useful for school learning. The origins of learning are evident in purposeful movements of the body before birth. Simple self-generated actions learn to anticipate their sensory effects. In their action they generate a small ‘story’ that progresses through time, giving meaningful satisfaction on their successful completion. During child development, simple actions become organised into complex projects requiring greater appreciation of their consequences, expanding in capacity and reach. They are mediated first by brainstem conscious control made with vital feelings, which builds the foundations for a more abstract, cortically mediated cognitive intelligence in later life. By tracing development of meaning-making from simple projects of the infant to complex shared projects in early childhood, we can better appreciate the embodied narrative form of human understanding in healthy affective contact, how it may be disrupted in children with clinical disorders or educational difficulties, and how it responds in joyful projects to teachers’ support for learning
Defining the child's curriculum, and its role in the life of the community
Full text linkWe invited experts in early child development, education, and care to clarify issues of universal importance for the well-being of human worlds. They include teachers who appreciate that every child is born for a life of learning and needs to develop this in a community of joyful friendships to share its culture of arts and techniques. We address the difficulties of children and their families struggling to live in social depri- vation or poverty when the administration and politics of an ambitious government are principally concerned with how industry makes wealth for a minority. Evidence we present demonstrates that leadership to address and support the creative abilities of all children and their families in their years before school is essential. Such lead- ership recognizes the importance of these abilities for the development of healthy, cooperative, and self-confident citizens who can secure the health of the community and benefit its economic productivity in a rich and peaceful world
The spirit of the child inspires learning in the community : how can we balance this promise with the politics and practice of education?
Full text linkOur contributors offer inspiring stories—from a psychology of early childhood and teaching experience that appreciates the spiritual values that young children affirm in shared enjoyment of life. We confirm that every child has motives of an affection- ate learner, seeking companions for an active and imaginative life. Each boy and girl, with their individual characters and interests, wants to take part in the ‘common sense’ world of a community with its treasured moral and artistic values, sharing joy in the discovery of a natural and meaningful world. They do not just need to be taught how to use material possessions, and how to obey social and cultural rules. We seek principles for early education and care to support responsive teachers in the years before formal school begins. Scotland’s kindergarten tradition and its contem- porary policies for transition to school offer a distinguished history of curriculum reformation, following the spirit of the child
Acoustic analysis of intentional vocalizations by autistic and non-autistic monozygotic twins
No full textThis study focuses on early development communication to help determine autism at an earlier stage. Infant cries have frequently been studied and analysed as a reliable and interesting form of early communication (Corwin, Lester, and Golub, 1996).This study examine the cries of a young infant who is later diagnosed with autism. Her cries will be compared with those of her identical twin sister who does not later get diagnosed with autism. Trevarthen and Daniel (2005) have used home video tapes to analyse dynamic and timing elements the monozygotic twins, one of which later developed autism while the other developed normally. Their research found differences in the children’s movement and interactions. In particular, the twin developing autism exhibited a lack of purposeful movement suggesting a core deficit in prospective control. Further studies have concluded that there are differences in the vocal movements of children with autism.
A novel acoustic analysis designed by the University of Edinburgh’s Perception in Action laboratory was used to examine the cries of the twins. The analysis is based on the General Tau Theory of movement which claims that all movements are perceptually and intrinsically guided by an internal Tau guide. Successful movement is based on the simultaneous closing of motion gaps. If unsuccessful their prospective control is weak. It is suggested that autistic sufferers may not possess this internal intrinsic guide and it may explain their motor difficulties.
The Tau coupling percentages (%), pitch (T), amplitude (A) and timbre (K) of the twins’ cries was examined to determine any differences between the two. Many significant differences within these variables were found between the twins. This study sets the foundations for further, more in depth research in this area. The focus of the study was a small sample and very focused but it simply aims to highlight a possible route into further studying the area of autism at an early age in order to detect signs of autism earlier
Investigation of the Connection between Parent Voice and Infant Movement.
No full textInteractional synchrony is a theory of social communication where behaviours of one or more individual become synchronised. Condon and Sander (1974) suggested that infants can syncronise their bodily movements with the prosody of adult speech. The present study hypothesised that interactional synchrony does exist between adult speech prosody and neonate movements, and that these occurrences are particularly at the instances of prosodic stress in adult speech. Movements of two male infants and two female infants aged four to thirteen weeks, while their parent interacted with them, were analysed using motion capture technology and audio-video recording. Movement events were analysed and segmented using computerised motion capture data, and vocal events were analysed using computerised speech segmentation software. No evidence was found for synchrony between infant movement and adult speech, and neither prosodic stress nor phoneme types elicited any particular demonstration of this. Therefore, neither hypotheses were supported, yet the anticipated findings could perhaps be obtained through constructing a more robust analysis design and including additional measures
An investigation into interactional synchrony in infants, using motion-capture video technology
No full textSynchrony is a construct that has been applied across the field of interpersonal relations. Condon and Sander (1974a, 1974b) first found a relationship between the movements of young infants and the prosodic patterns of adult speech. However, this result was controversial and attempts to replicate produced mixed results. Recent research on broader manifestations of synchrony in infant-parent interactions and work on human evolution of entrainment provide a background for the present study. This used motion-capture video technology and speech segmentation software to provide a more temporally precise analysis of interactional synchrony than could be obtained in earlier work. It also aimed to relate the narrow definition of synchrony with work using a broader conceptualisation. Mothers and infants were filmed interacting in a naturalistic setting. Movement velocity and acceleration, and phonetic boundaries and vocal intensity were used as the primary data, and time comparison of significant change points established. Initial results suggested an alignment of vocal and movement change points, but further analysis of the detailed time relationships between these two sets of data failed to show any significant patterns. It was concluded that interactional synchrony between infant movement and adult speech is simply an attractive illusion, and that any alignment between change points in the two spheres is simply due to the sheer number of such points, and extremely short time frames involved. These extremely short time frames are consistent with the significant results from previous studies, due to the cruder technology used. Methodological inconsistencies of previous studies are discussed, along with questions for future research
The Psychology of Prenatal Research: Is There a Future in Behavioural Observational Research?
No full textThe chapter discusses the use of behavioural profiles to evidence neurocognitive development. It argues that this is an important tool to investigate non-invasively developmental trajectories. The problem identified by Trevarthen many years ago relates to the tools that are objective and well defined so that they can be used by researchers across the world and allow comparisons of findings from different laboratories. Hence the chapter then queries the future of prenatal behavioural observational research and if it will lie in testing objective measurement systems, which could be indicative of foetal ill health specifically and child development generally
Companionship versus Care:Bringing Models of Infancy into the Study of Adverse Childhood Experiences
No full textThe twenty-first century is generating new contexts within which the importance of human companionship can be illuminated. One context is the rise of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Movement, which has gathered international enthusiasm over two decades. This chapter argues that the study of ACEs lacks a robust developmental account and that the current turn toward attachment theory, with its emphasis on care and buffering, will ultimately be insufficient. Instead, the chapter suggests that the emphasis needs to be placed on companionship, locating the origins of childhood trauma within intersubjective processes. Untangling this theoretical tension matters both for the public, whose understanding of childhood trauma has sharpened, and for infancy researchers, whose discoveries of embodied emotionality hold greater societal import than they may themselves realize. It is hoped that, in the process, the name of Colwyn Trevarthen, one of most influential scientists leading those discoveries, might gain the public esteem his legacy deserves
Conversations with a Two-Day-Old:A Response to Trevarthen (1974)
No full textDo newborns engage in dialogues? This chapter explores evidence on social engagement in human neonates and uses case-based descriptive analysis of interactions with newborns. Starting from experimental data on neonates’ responses to communication disturbances, measured by the still-face procedure, it presents a case showing a neonate proactively engaging with the experimenter to resume a broken communication. It provides descriptive analyses of two cases of neonatal imitation and looks at how the babies not only proactively engaged the experimenter, but also, several, temporally coordinated, synchronized imitative cycles emerged between the baby and the experimenter. Given the richness and the complexity of the data that emerges from these cases, the chapter suggests that case-based descriptions should accompany experimental studies to understand data from experiments on neonatal communicative behaviour
Sensory-Motor Aspects of Nervous Systems Disorders: Insights from Biosensors and smart technology in the dynamic assessment of disorders, their progression, and treatment outcomes
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
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