Fortunately for parents, babies are amazing students. They’re so good at learning, they do it even when we don’t know we are teaching them. Babies learn by watching, hearing, feeling and tasting the world around them. In a way, your home is your baby’s first classroom. Every waking hour, you can bet your child is learning something.
How do they do it?
Babies are the world's best copycats.
Babies learn a lot by watching what you do and then trying it
themselves. For example, babies love to copy
your facial expressions. When you smile, babies try to smile
too. If you stick your tongue out at a newborn, the baby will stick
out his tongue in return. Researchers have found that babies as young
as 42 minutes old will copy an adult who sticks out his tongue. (Meltzoff
& Moore, 1977, 1983)
As they get older, babies get even better at copying what they see
people do. Before they can talk, babies may hold toy telephones to
their ears just like mom or dad. If your 12-month-old child sees you
brush your hair, don’t be surprised when your child later grabs the
brush and brushes his own hair. In fact, researchers have found that
12-month-old children can remember and copy some actions they see up
to four weeks later, even if they haven’t had a chance to practice
them in the meantime. (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999)
You're not your baby's only teacher.
Every person your baby watches might be teaching her something.
Babies can watch and learn to imitate anybody they see. This includes
family members, babysitters, neighbors, and even strangers. We try to
make good decisions about who we invite into our homes—our child’s first
classroom. Yet most of us invite strangers into our homes every day. We
watch these strangers when we turn on our televisions. So does your
baby.
Most American children watch a lot of television. On average, children
under six watch two hours a day. Babysitters and caregivers often use
television and videos as an activity to occupy the child and the
television frequently remains turned on during other home activities,
such as mealtimes.
Do children learn from watching television? And if so, what are they
are learning?
Do young children imitate what they see on television?
Meltzoff (1988) set up an experiment to see if babies would imitate what
they saw on a television monitor. Meltzoff tested 120 children, ages 14
months and 24 months. Half of the babies (60) watched a 20-second video
of a stranger on television playing with a new toy. The toy was made of
two cubes attached by a small tube, so that it looked like a small
dumbbell. On the video, the person pulled the toy apart in a special way
three times, showing the babies an action to copy. The other half (60)
was split into two groups: One group did not see any video, and the
other group watched a stranger on television playing with the toy
without taking it apart. The researcher investigated three questions:
1. Would the babies who saw the person on the video imitate
the behavior and play with the toy in the same way?
2. Would the 14 month-old babies imitate the behavior
even if they didn't see the toy for 24 hours?
3. What would the other babies, who didn't watch anyone
take the toy apart, do with the toy?
Here's what happened.
With the 24-month-old babies who saw the video, 18 out of 20
(90%) took apart the toy just like the person on television. Of those
who didn’t see the person play with the toy, only four out of 20 (20%)
took apart the toy on their own. This is a clear indication that
two-year-olds can learn from watching someone on television.
With the 14-month-old babies who saw the video, 13 out of 20
(65%) took apart the toy. Of those who didn’t see how to play with the
toy, only six out of 20 (30%) took the toy apart on their own. Although
these findings aren’t as strong as with the 24-month-old children, they
are statistically significant and suggest that very young children can
learn by watching television.
One group of 14-month-old babies did not see the toy again for 24
hours. Even with this delay, eight out of 20 (40%) remembered and
imitated what they saw the adult do with the toy. Only two out of 20
(10%) took the toy apart on their own.
This research shows that infants as young as 14 months old will copy
some of what they see on television, even when that person is a
stranger, and children two years old are even more likely to copy what
they see on television.
What are babies learning from television?
In the research presented above, in just 20 seconds of
watching TV, babies as young as 14 months old learned how to do
something new. Think of what they might see in one hour of TV.
This doesn't mean that young children will copy everything they see on
TV. Other research shows that if the activity is too complicated, babies
will not imitate it. But with more actions or small parts of complicated
ones, babies can—and will—try to imitate what they see on TV.
Additionally, as children get older, they get better and better at
imitating what they see. (Barr & Hayne, 1999)
Helpful Parenting Tips
Our children are watching and learning from us in everything we do -
from everyday actions to special occasions. They watch how we talk, how
we eat, how we react to situations, and how we relate to others.
Our children are watching and learning from us every day. They watch how we talk, how we eat, how we react to situations and how we relate to others.
Treat your home as your child’s first classroom, and the people inside your home as your child’s first teachers. Babies are active learners from the start!
Remember that babies watch and copy the things we do. It’s never too early to provide positive examples.
Think about what television brings into your home. What does your child see, and what might your child copy later?
Enjoy the amazing learning abilities your child possesses. Babies
and young children are incredible copycats, learning by
watching you!
References:
Barr, R., & Hayne, H. (1999). Developmental changes in imitation
from television during infancy. Child Development, 70(5),
1067-1081.
Klein, P. J., & Meltzoff, A. N. (1999). Long-term memory,
forgetting, and deferred imitation in 12-month-old infants.
Developmental Science, 2(1), 102-113.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1988). Imitation of televised models by
infants. Child Development, 59, 1221-1229.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and
manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75-78.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1983). Newborn infants imitate
adult facial gestures. Child Development, 54, 702-709.
Rideout, V., & Hamel, E. (2006). The media family: Electronic
media in the lives of infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their
parents. Menlo Park, California: Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation.
