Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

of three and six months, babies showa growing interest in the world aroundthem as they play and above all they areinterested in other people. Their eyesighthas become more coordinated, so thebaby is able to focus on people andobjects that are nearer or further awaythan the earlier short distance whichoriented them to being in focus whenlooking into the face of an adult carryingthem. Now a baby will be seen to scanthe surroundings and to use fingers andmouth to explore objects. Stern (1974)suggested that at this age babies enjoybeing drawn into play by their familiaradults and that the adults come to knowjust the right level of arousal for the baby –under-stimulation or over-stimulation willboth result in non-involvement orcurtailing of interest by the baby – soadults who are responsive adjust theiractions in response to babies’ cues.Babies’ preferred games at this stage arerepetitious and ritualised, such as ticklinga baby’s chest before putting on a cleannappy, the beginnings of intimate familyor baby-carer rituals. Winnicott (1971)believed that because the adult adjuststhe play according to the baby’s cues,this helps the baby feel to some extentin control of the interaction.As Trevarthen et al (1998: 185) suggest:‘Dyadic, emotional and dynamic patternsof communication are shown by infancyre s e a rch to fo rm the fo u n d ations ofp s yc h o l og i cal and cog n i t i ve deve l o p m e nt,social adaptation and personalityintegration.’They continue by stressing the adverseimpact of a lack of, or disruption to, the‘fundamental vitality’ of thesecommunications, adding that theexpressions and responses of a child withautism are often difficult to ‘read’ becausethey tend to be idiosyncratic orimperceptible. As Kate Wall (forthcoming)maintains, there are also implications forany child who is experiencing difficultiesin communication skills.It is in early enco u nte r s, ex p l o ring thro u g hm ove m e nt and the senses, t h at cog n i t i ved eve l o p m e nt prog re s s e s. In fact Pa po u s e k’sresearch over 30 years ago (reported inPa pousek and Pa pousek 1987) showed thatvery young babies enjoyed learning andco ntinued to engage in ex pe ri m e nts whenthe milk which had been their reward nolonger satisfied them,the activity had itsown intrinsic reward.In chapter 2 the theories of Piaget andVygotsky were outlined very briefly and inparticular the way in which Piaget’s ideashad been interpreted in ECEC practice washighlighted. In the field of ECEC they havehad a major impact and the messagestaken from their theories have largelybeen that the Piagetian model of children’sthinking involved the idea of the ‘child aslone scientist’ and stages in cognitivedevelopment. Margaret Donaldson (1978)and the Post-Piagetians (for example,Hughes, McGarrigle and others)demonstrated how Piaget’s theory hadbeen misunderstood and misapplied, andthat their revisions ensured that thecontext in which children developed their86 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S