Audiovisual stimulation from "Baby Einstein" type DVDs has become a popular way for mothers to occupy infants as they drive or take care of other responsibilities, and currently, computer game-based toys are also gaining popularity with mothers of very young children. Books such as How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence (Doman, 1984) have been around for years, and encourage parent to begin teaching their infants math, English, and other languages immediately after birth (Akiba, 2009)
For example, activities involving books should not be restricted to the age when a child can learn to read on their own; on the contrary, Frosch (2001) discovered a positive correlation between caretaker-child "storybook time" and improved cognitive development, even in infants and toddlers aged 12 to 24 months. Finally, environmental factors involving socioeconomic status (SES) can have a profound effect on children's cognitive development from infancy on (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002)
(2008), "few areas of development are as important to early intervention as play (5)." Play is the "natural way" to simultaneously stimulate intellect involved in language, symbolism, general cognition, sensorimotor skills, self-realization, and emotion (Cameron & al, 2008; Leppo & al, 2000; Fletcher & Sabo, 2006)
In addition, play-time allows individual children to learn at their own pace and build upon their current knowledge and development level, whereas trying to force a child to be "smarter" is likely a waste of time (Akiba, 2009; Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2002). In support of Piaget's theories on the stages of cognitive development, children will engage in "practice play" when appropriate (sensorimotor period), and "symbolic play" when they are operating at that level (preoperational) (Casby, 2003)
Keeping a child interested and engaged while learning is critical for any caretaker, and with all the hype lately surrounding Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in older children, some scholars have taken an interest in studying the ways attentiveness develops in children and toddlers. In one article, recent advances in the study of visual attentiveness in infants was summarized and found to be dependent on four factors: alertness, spatial orienting, attention to object features, and endogenous attention (Colombo, 2001)
Adult-child interactions may be more likely to involve humor since adults have a fully-developed sense of humor; however, children of the same age may gain more from exchanging humor since they are operating at roughly the same level. This is one reason why play needs to take place between children as peers, and between children and adults (Dodici & al, 2003)
is based on 150 years of accumulated doctrine about the positive values of child play from Rousseau to Piaget'" (Smith, 1995). In addition, research suggests that children are naturally drawn to activities that promote their overall development, so leaving them to their own devices is not always a bad idea ( (Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2002)
Of course, factors such as play and quality of play, father involvement, and SES are all engaged in a complex interplay with other variables such as available nutrition when it comes to cognitive development in infancy and early childhood (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). All in all, the recent focus on, and surge in popularity of, "intensive parenting" has left many caregivers exhausted and feeling inept (Quirke, 2006)
mother is also proving to be critical. The importance of father-child interactions in addition to mother-child interactions should not be ignored (Roggman & al, 2004)
" Play is the "natural way" to simultaneously stimulate intellect involved in language, symbolism, general cognition, sensorimotor skills, self-realization, and emotion (Cameron & al, 2008; Leppo & al, 2000; Fletcher & Sabo, 2006). Gottfried (1984) viewed play as "a complex, multidimensional sequence of behaviors that changes considerably in process and morphology, particularly during infancy and the early childhood years" (Smith, 1995)
EXPOSURE TO OVERLY SEXUALIZED MEDIA CONTENT The work of Debbie Naigle (2005) entitled: "Literature Review of Media Messages to Adolescent Females" relates that the role played by media is a dominant one in the influence of the perceptions of females of the world and in their defining their "sense of self." (Naigle, 2005) The period of adolescence is a time in which severe psychological and emotional stresses are known to occur and as well, this is a time when gender identities and values surrounding self-worth and sexual attitudes are seriously focused upon by the adolescent
Male Child Cognitive Development The objective of this work is to describe, compare and contrast the negative effects of media containing violence, including news, movies, cartoons and internet on the male child between the age of six to puberty and how that impacts their cognitive development, thinking, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN The work of Gentile and Sesma (2003) entitled: "Developmental Approaches to Understanding Media Effects on Individuals" (2003) states that "in order to more fully understand media effects on children, it is first necessary to dispel some myths regarding media influences." Stated as seven myths about media effects are the following: Media effects are simple and direct; The effects of media violence are severe; Media effects are obvious; Violent media affect everyone in the same way; Causality means 'necessary and sufficient'; Causality means immediacy; and 7) Effects must be big for them to be important; and (Gentile and Sesma, 2003) Gentile and Sesma (2003) additionally state: "The effects that violent (or other) media may have on children and youth may be very different depending on the age of the child in question
This hyper-masculinity comes to be associated with violent behavior." (Nevins, 2004) Additionally, "Female characters in video games are not as prevalent as male characters
(1995) in a randomly assigned group of African-American adolescents in an experiment in which young African-American men were found, after exposure to violent rap music videos, to have "increased endorsement of violent behavior in response to a hypothetical conflict situation." (Anderson, et al
Piaget's theory is also thought of as one underestimating the role of private verbal communication and societal interaction. Despite these sound criticisms, the positive impact of Piaget's theory cannot be denied (Seta, Seta, Paulus & Andrews 2001)
It puts forward the idea that development in humans is a function of an interaction with their upbringing, surroundings and individual understanding and experiences. Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner are the two great theorists who constructed cognitive theories (William)
The primary circular reactions progress among months one to four after birth. These responses initially are started by chance (Cook-Cottone, C, 2004)
These stages, and their estimated ages of incidence, were: the sensory-motor period (0-2 years), the time of pre-operations (2-7 years), the point of concrete operations (7-11 years) and the period of formal operations (11-12 years on). Piaget documented that the achievement of each innovative process of thinking would not essentially be synchronous throughout all the various fields of consideration (Goswami, U
Other develop mentalists had tested his theory and discovered that thing permanency is learned previous to when Piaget had requested. Along with this, they also were able to infer from their experimental data that different types of object permanence became learned at different times (Hinde, E
The secondary circular reactions progress when they are four months of age and the stage goes until the child is at least one-year-old. These activities are reliant on the happenings of the child's environment (Maxwell, J