Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter 5: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
Chapter 6: Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood.

These chapters were both very involved and full of new information to me. These chapters seemed to put together the concepts I learned in Intro to Psychology. I enjoyed the articles in Learning Plan 5 about types of play, Vygoysky, Theories of Mind, and Baumrinds parenting styles. The different types of parenting styles defined by Baumrinds was particularly fascinating to me. I found that I was quite an inconsistent parent on most days and that my husband is usually right when it comes to parenting techniques. Overall, I found my style is most like that of an authoritative.

Something that never occurred to me was the ideas of the Theory of Mind. I guess that I never really thought about how children viewed the ways others think. I also found it interesting that the later a toddler develops this awareness of other people having different thoughts the more likely that child will be less social and become a victim of a bully. It made me wonder if that is why I was shy as a child. It would be very interesting to investigate that further.

I also found the reading about moral development very interesting. It is something I don't normally think about. I find myself now analyzing everything my six year old does to try to decode where she is in her development. I am excited to learn more about the development of my children and myself in the weeks to come.