I am Two: Seeing things my way!
Dr Kay Mathieson
Birth
Three months
Fifteen months
Two years
Greenfield, S. Brain Story BBC
2000
‘Sensitive periods’ in early
brain development
Binocular vision
Central auditory system
Habitual ways of responding
Language learning
Emotional control
Peer social skills
High
Low
0
1
2
3
4
P.O. Svanberg Sept 2010
5
6
73
Social Learning
Peer
relationships
Attachment
Theory of mind
Negotiation
Intentions
Joint attention
Rule exceptions
Rules
Object
Permanence
Moral awareness
Desires
Dilemmas
Social
referencing
Motivations
Complex emotions,
guilt, shame,
empathy
Identity
Boundaries
Gender
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
The two year old’s job description
To work out what
everything is and what
everything does.
Emotional environment
• Mind mindedness – Elizabeth Meins
– Sensitivity recognising children’s cues, responding
promptly and appropriately
– Recognition that infants have their own desires,
thoughts and intentions
– Being treated as an individual with a mind rather than
just one who has needs which must be met
Laranjo,J.,Bernier,A.,Meins,A., (2008) Associations between maternal mind-mindedness
and infant attachment security: Investigating the mediating role of maternal
sensitivity Infant Behaviour and Development 31, 688-695
Tuning in: Interpreting what we see
• Recognising competence and confidence
• Extending competence and confidence
• Meltzoff, Kuhl, Movellan & Sejnowski (2009)
– The role of ‘social’ in learning
– Foundational mechanisms – three social skills of ‘imitation,
shared attention, and empathetic understanding’
Watching to understand
• Moving independently with increasing
confidence
• Frustrated when needing help
• Still important to crawl, roll, all fours
• Pushing, pulling
• Being strong but gentle
• Finding my edges
• Upside down and spinning
Inter-related areas of development
• Personal, social emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development
Implications?
PD - implications for personal, social emotional development
PD - implications for communication and language
CL - implications for personal, social emotional development
PSED – implications for communication and language
Perspective taking
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•
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•
Understanding our own and other’s intentions
Motivation
Experience of other’s and their responses
Talking, talking and more talking
The influence of family talk about feelings and thoughts of
others
Dunn, Brown, Slomkowski, Tesla & Youngblade 1991
Developing a sense of self
Who am I when I am with you?
• Words I am beginning to associate with me
• Words I associate with others
• My confidences and competencies
Pretend Play
•
•
•
•
•
Developing language
Building thinking, extending experience
Exploring perspective taking
Shared meaning with playmates
Negotiating changes in direction of play
Getting to two
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Prenatal development ?
Healthy, stress free pregnancy ?
Social support and close loving relationships ?
Birth ?
Vulnerable, risk and protective factors ?
First year - sleep depravation, finances, anxiety and loads of
fun!
Confidence, competence and networks of support to call on?
When do I become "two”