Research that benefits children and families

I love reading articles from Childcare Exchange and the May/June 2011 issue had an article by Deb Curtis (one of my favorite article writers) entitled "Seeing children do more with less".  It was an article that spoke about children playing with toys and the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary view on how children play.  In America, parents spend thousands of dollars each year on children's toys (especially at Christmas) but the Pickler Institute has documented 75 way that babies use their hands for play.  American parents and early childhood programs think that children have to have toys in their hands to play with or educational toys to manipulate but in the article, Deb Curtis gives two scenerios of children playing with boxes - a fourteen-month-old and a five-year old found more enjoyment out of boxes than a $20 toy. 

This brought to my mind when my son was three and at Christmas I bought him a Hot Wheel race set with the loops and long roads.  I set it up and he played with it for about 5 minutes and then took the race cars and went and played with them with his old race cars in an old Easter egg bucket.  He enjoyed that old bucket better than the race car set.  I tell toddler teachers that young children enjoy big boxes better than anything else in the room.  This past week they got a box from the kitchen and made a car out of it and the children had the best time with it.  It did not cost a lot of money to make them happy.

With the Pickler Institute research, they found that children learn by using their hands, a teacher just have to understand the importance of providing activities that children can manipulate on their own and usually it is the less instead of the more.  I hope my colleagues will enjoy the article also.

Reference:
Curtis, D. (2011). Seeing children do more with less. Exchange, 33(3). pp84-87.

The Pickler Institute. www.pickler.org

My Personal Research Journey

The research topic that I have chosen is "The Social and Emotional Connections of Infants in Relationship with Adults".  I chose this because everything begins in infancy and the social connections that infants have with adults and the emotional attachments that they have with adults reflect how they will respond to others in life and it sets the course of their character.  This intrigues me because as I work with infant teachers, I find that they struggle with infants who constantly cry and the teachers resolution is "they are spoiled and want too much attention".  I want to find out if infants can get spoiled.  Most articles that I have read states that they do not but I want to be able to provide teachers with concrete evidence or at least tangible evidence that they will accept and respect.

If any of my colleagues have any literature or books or websites that will be helpful on this subject please share with me.  Also, give me your opinion or tell me about your experience with your own infant.  I look forward to our dialogue.