A University of Washington study on early child development found that children, even those as young as 18 months old, can learn from their parents behavior.
Researchers at UW studied the reaction of nearly 100 toddlers, 18 months old, in response to someone playing with a toy while either being emotionally or non-emotionally addressed by a second adult. The researchers wanted to determine if the actions of the toddler could be influenced by the emotional expression of adults.
They found that indeed, toddlers will learn and model behavior based on the emotions, actions, and reactions of adults around them.
After observing an adult playing with a particular toy, each of the toddlers interests were sparked. But if a second adult entered the situation and addressed the first adult in a heated or emotional manner, the child was more apprehensive about playing with the toy when left alone. And once the child began to play with the toy, if the emoting adult entered the room again, the child quickly put it down.
Where as if the second adult was non-emotional, the child was more quick to play with the toy when left alone and did not show similar behavior when the emoter re-entered the room.
Infants facial expressions were also studied and the researchers found that they may not respond to anger or angry expression but they are gathering information about the emotional expression, perhaps to later influence their own behavior.
The study was published in the March issue of Child Development and gives more insight to the early personality development in children and how interpersonal communication and skills are influenced at a very early age.
The authors conclude that parents need to be aware of their actions with older siblings because the younger children may be picking up more than they bargain for.
Posted by Dr. Christina Gutierrez on April 5, 2007 04:19 PM
