I
taught my first Infant and Early Childhood course in the fall of 1976. As time
went on, I discovered that even into the middle of the eighth decade of the
20th century child developmentalist knew almost nothing about how intelligent
and adaptable children under the age of three were, three being the age when children
could begin to verbally respond to researchers questions. Once a few, clever researchers
discovered how to get reliable answers to questions from neonates about their
behavior, the infants' world opened up to scientific scrutiny. The findings
fascinated me.
In
1976, neonates were considered to be essentially blind and deaf, and with only
very limited senses of taste, touch, and smell—and they were helpless and
passive. By a decade later it had been learned and demonstrated that fetuses
not only could hear in uteri but could also remember what they heard,
especially their mother's voices. Neonates also had very good vision within
eighteen inches of their faces, and it was especially acute within twelve
inches, the approximate distance from the mother's nipple to her nose, the
center of her face. Neonates spend a lot of time looking at adult faces and
learning what different facial expressions mean in terms of what kind of
treatment they can expect—an unsmiling face elicited a different response from
an infant then did a smiling face. They could smell well enough to discriminate
between their mothers' breasts and milk and breasts and milk of other lactating
women even through clothing. When introduced to solid foods, infants discriminated
quickly accepting those foods they liked, rejecting those they didn't. Much of
this discrimination is based on texture more that taste—strained peaches and
strained squash may look a lot alike, but they feel different to the infant'
tongue. (This is an extremely short list of the amazing abilities of fetuses,
neonates and infants.)
The
fact that especially fascinated me was the ability and facility with which
fetuses, neonates, and infants can manipulate adult behavior—how easily they
can train their caregivers. Over the
years I had several students in the late stages of pregnancy that attested to
the control their fetuses had over their comfort. Their unborn quickly
implemented changes in their mothers' sitting and lying positions if they felt
uncomfortable in utero. Scientists also discovered what mothers had known
forever that infants have seven different cry patterns that they use
selectively to indicate what they need.
The
discovery of the ability of the very young to affect the behavior of their
caregivers has helped pediatricians and counselors to more effectively help
parents understand and adjust to their youngsters' behaviors. The very young
are not helpless blobs of humanity easily molded into their caregivers' design
as once thought, but very active and efficient partners in the teaching-learning
parent-child process of child development.
