Know the research, Know your beliefs, Value all people from infancy

Review and Reflection on "The Scientist in the Crib" by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl

In a child development class in college I was assigned a book called “The Scientist in the Crib” and like most college students I never really read the book, mostly just skimmed the parts I needed. Last year I was at a conference and the presenters recommended the book to a coworker of mine. I thought I have that book, I should read it. So I pulled out this book from the stack of possibly useful things I saved from college and began reading. I would highly recommend this book to any teachers or parents that want to better understand and value infants and toddlers.

The book outlines current research about young children and articulates it in a way that is easy and fun to learn. Furthermore the wording and content book can help parents and teachers articulate their philosophy and beliefs about children in a new way. I have taken a few quotes from the book that inspired me and I will explain why these stories and this research are important to young children and their caregivers.

The book examines empirical data that shows children in a new clearer light. The research has shown, “Children won’t take in what you tell them until it makes sense to them.” p169 basically when a infant or a child sees or is told something that doesn’t make sense to them they do not learn it, they do not retain the information, and they will not repeat it. The brain has a specialized ability to learn a vast amount of information but this is telling us that if that information doesn’t make sense the children will not learn it. For teachers, parents, and other caregivers this means that we must stop ‘teaching’ arbitrary information. Children learn through understanding and meaning. As we work with our children we have to teach to a level they can understand or the brain will not take in the information.

Another important section discusses a study of brains in rats. The study found that rats in a poor environment had 14% smaller brains then rats in typical or experience rich environments. This is actually good news for teachers and families. Basically to create more learning we need to give children access to typical experience rich environments. Children don’t need anything special to learn they just need an environment to explore. However on the other side if children’s environment is poor they will like the rats not have many experience and create fewer connections in their brains. In the final chapter of the book the authors make many statements that support my personal beliefs about children and learning. “Babies are already as smart as they can be, they know what they need to know, and they are very effective and selective in getting the kinds of information they need. They are designed to learn about the real world that surrounds them, and they learn by playing with things in that world, most of all by playing with the people who love them.” p201. Throughout the book research shows that infants and toddlers’ brains are designed to learn and very well designed to learn mostly from other people but also from exploring their world.

I was surprised and saddened to read that a great deal of research showed parents didn’t believe very young children could experience emotion. This is false, “Babies’ minds are at least as rich, as abstract, as complex, as powerful as ours. Babies think, reason, learn, and know as well as act and feel.” p208 Research shows babies can do these things, we can only help them if we don’t see them as innately deficient and rather as powerful learners.

I am a strong proponent of children’s rights and I think that this final quote from the book was one of the most inspiring. If educators and parents would adopt this way of thinking the next generation of children would learn and grow to be more magnificent than anyone could imagine. “…The new research shows that babies and young children are fully human beings in their own right. We may not have much control over how children turn out, but we do have enormous power over their lives as children, and those lives are as valuable and important as adult lives. Children aren’t just valuable because they will turn into grown-ups but because they are thinking feeling individual people themselves.” p208 And I will repeat, “Those lives are as valuable and important as adult lives, not just because they will turn into grown-ups but because they ARE thinking feeling individual people themselves.” Children are people, infants are people, they’re lives are not valued by the grown-ups they will someday become but by their individuality their ability to learn, experience the world, and grow and to help us as adults do the same. We can best help children learn and grow by taking this mindset, valuing them as individuals with rights, thoughts, feelings, and ideas in every moment, at every stage, throughout their childhood and adult lives.