Dr Angharad Rudkin
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Transcript of Dr Angharad Rudkin
Children are brought up in multiple systems
Children are at the centre of many influences (Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory).
They absorb these influences and express them through their words and behaviour.
To understand a child we need to understand the systems around them, and how these change over time.
3-5 year olds Language develops rapidly.
Thinking is still concrete. Find it hard to think of two emotions at the same time.
Most children pass a theory of mind tests by 5.
Children begin to regulate themselves more.
After 2 ½ years, fathers initiate play periods more than mothers. Mother’s play is more didactic and verbal. Fathers tend to engage more in rough and tumble, non-intellectual play.
3-5 year olds Fathers are also more likely to spend time playing
together with toys – valuable for early language and social development.
The more complex fathers’ toy play interactions were with their child the better their children’s cognitive, language, and emotional developmental outcomes.
Differences between mother and father play is not observed in certain cultures e.g. Sweden or Israeli kibbutz. More egalitarian gender roles?
Getting the most out of 3-5 year olds Children more likely to play with new toys when
playing with a same-sex playmate. But, play more gender typed when playing with same-sex playmate.
Can still only concentrate for short periods of time, and need to move a lot.
Give them a clear structure and clear boundaries.
Middle childhood (6-11 year olds) Children start to ‘reason’ around the age of 6 (which is
why schooling around the world tends to start 5-7 years old)
Erikson’s stage of “industry v inferiority” – if don’t master skills at this stage can feel hopeless leading to low self-esteem.
During this age, children move from being defined by their family and their role in it, to being defined according to what they do and their skills e.g. I go to Rainbows, I play football, I’m in the top set.
Middle childhood Most 6 year olds will think they are good at everything
(ranking themselves as best in their class, top musician etc.), and have unrealistic expectations e.g. they are confident they can solve a puzzle even if they’ve just failed to do a similar one.
By the age of 10, children are more realistic. This more realistic expectation of success and ability can be accompanied by a lowering in self-esteem and sometimes a decrease in motivation.
Play in middle childhood Make believe play reduces from age of 5 as children are
making greater efforts to adapt to reality rather than distort reality.
Play more to do with refining skills and promoting acceptance e.g. skate boarding, computer games.
Passion for collecting e.g. stickers, Barbies, cards. Trading then teaches children negotiation skills and concepts of fairness. Status from getting a full set.
How to get the most out of 6-11 year olds Mix ages – scaffolding effect.
Single sex groups may do better than mixed sex groups.
Give measured praise. e.g praising with “beautiful drawing” instead of “incredibly beautiful drawing”.
How to get the most out of 6-11 year olds Having something to fiddle with can help them
concentrate.
Timetable short bursts of work interspersed with legitimate physical activity.
Use games, races, quizzes and activities.
Rewards (stickers, points) for team and individual work.
Adolescence Important cognitive changes including thinking
hypothetically, about abstract notions, across a number of dimensions over longer time frames.
Facilitates idealism in adolescence.
Adolescents are preoccupied with who they are and how they relate to others. Regularly act according to an invisible audience.
While they become more aware of what others are thinking, they still believe others think and feel as they do.
Due to frontal lobe developments, can be irrational. Decisions based on emotional rather than logical processes.
Adolescence – the role of peers & parents There is a natural distancing between adolescents and
parents. This may be evolutionary – it facilitates independence and autonomy.
Peer pressure can be very powerful. Conformity to peers peaks around 12-14 years of age
Intense desire to fit in, but also a need to be unique.
Adolescence – the role of peers & parents Typically, early adolescents agree with their parents
around moral, political, educational and/or religious views. At this stage, peers have more influence on appearance (hair, clothing), music and activities.
After this, adolescents can take very different standpoints from their parents around values.
Getting the most out of adolescents Adolescents need intimacy in their relationships in a
way that younger children don’t. This intimacy allows the adolescent to communicate more. So, use small intimate groups?
Check with adolescents how their views relate to others – who has the same and different views. This will indicate who is the strongest influence for that adolescent at that point.
Adolescents are very self-conscious. Give them time to get comfortable-shared task to start?
When do children learn to lie? Lying demonstrates cognitive skills such as theory of
mind and executive functioning.
Lying starts between 2-3 years of age. Most 2 year olds can’t lie, most 3 year olds can. But can’t keep the lie going during follow-up questions.
Around 7– 8 years of age, children conceal their lies by consistent responses at follow-up. But they give the game away with exaggerated positive expressions .
Lying get more sophisticated with age.
Detecting lies Widely thought we avert our gaze when we lie. Not
strictly true. We can learn to keep our gaze and we can look away due to cognitive overload.
Also widely thought that liars fidget more. But, liars fidget less with their hands and illustrate their story with fewer gestures than truth tellers.
Adults can detect deceit in older children and other adults about 50% of the time.
Detecting lies We’re not that good at detecting lies because we focus
on the wrong things – the non-verbals. We need to focus more on verbal cues. Liars tend to use more negative statements than truth tellers , their stories are rated as less plausible and less immediate.
Adults have a bias towards rating boys as lie tellers and girls as truth tellers.
May reflect a developmental lag in boys in their ability to disguise their lies relative to girls.
Detecting lies Older children are better than adults at detecting lies
in other children. Possibly because they pay attention to non-verbals as well as facial expressions, while adults tend to focus on facial expressions only.
This is especially true when children are with same age peers. So, use children to tell you if another child is lying!
What helps us to pick up on lies? The more experience with children they have, the
better adults are at picking up lies in children.
Seeing the same children under different interview conditions can help detection accuracy.
Asking follow-up questions. Children’s control of their verbal expressive behaviours lags behind their nonverbal control, so will give the game away with what they say.
Why do children tell the truth? Because they’ve promised to. Asking children to
promise to tell the truth can reduce their tendency to lie.
Politeness. In adults, the need to be polite and not hurt someone overrides the need to be truthful. This is encouraged in children.
Prosocial lying increases between 7-11 year olds (in experimental setting). Younger children lie in order to avoid being told off (by the gift giver for example), whereas older children explicitly say they’re lying in order to be polite and not hurt someone’s feelings.
Helping children to tell the truth Ask them to promise that they will tell the truth.
Let them know that you want them to tell the truth, that it will make you more happy if they told the truth than if they tried to be polite.
Ask the child what they think you want them to do –be polite, or be honest?
Tell them a story about a child who was honest, even though this meant that they were critical about something, and how this made someone happy.
Conclusions How children think will be a combination of their age
and the systems they are growing up in.
Do not assume that children are experiencing life the way you did. Be curious.
Development isn’t complete until mid-20s.
To get the most out of children, genuinely listen to them, respect them and enter their world rather than fit them into yours.
