I am not good at writing Critical Essays. I receieved a feed back based on my first draft essay to be more critical. Please help.
During the first few months after birth, babies undergo many dramatic changes. The baby may smile, mimic your expressions or reach out to loved ones when they need comfort, attention or security. From birth until the age of two an infant tries to make sense of their environment. This essay will be centred on the sensorimotor stage of development in which it discusses the skills that Tom, a 20 month old male infant has and has not yet developed.
According to Ludington-Hoe (1983) newborns have the ability to focus on objects that are 12 inches away from them. By the age of three months, most babies seem to be easily distracted by sounds or sights they presume to be intriguing. Around eight months babies begin playing hide and seeking, and playing games that are reciprocal such as rolling a ball back and forth. Additionally babies enjoy to point at objects that interest them and focus their parents attention on items that they need.
A baby's physical development is referred to as cephalocaudal development because the baby's ability to control his head and facial movements develop first. At 20 months a child is able to run, though not perfectly and can also kick a ball. They usually play pretend activities like feeding stuffed animals and imitating adults in their lives.
Pointing is used by infants as a form of pre-linguistic communication to indicate their needs so that they can be met (Sperber, 2000). As young as 4 months babies begin to learn that the actions performed by other people are usually goal oriented. When the infant is shown a desired toy that is not reachable the infant will do nothing. However an older infant will extend its hand to the object. This hand signal is dissimilar from reaching, the hand is limp, and no finger-thumb opposition for grasping and is often followed by "gimme" noises. At the age of 7 months infants do not understand the meaning of the pointing gestures and therefore they will not respond when an adult points at an object. However the infant will stare at the pointing finger rather than the object being pointed at. As the cognitive and motor skill of the child develops, he/ she will learn to follow the direction at which the finger is pointing (Bremmer & Fogel, 2001). From the essay title it is noted that Tom retrieved the toy truck therefore acquired pointing in the form of reference because he recognises his sister's intention and complied with it. Conversely Using Speech Act Theory, human babies usually begin pointing at the age of 11 months as a gesture to request for objects that are out of their reach. Research has shown that babies have a tendency of looking at their mothers while pointing at an object and immediately after note whether they have managed to capture their mother's attention.
Sexual development, just like other physical and emotional milestones, begins in the sensorimotor stage of a baby's life. Babies develop important goals in how they feel about their bodies and also how they create attachments with other people. By the age of 20 months a child begins to develop a sense of being a male or female. At this age the infant observes the behavioural role of parents and siblings which might be incorporated in the child's gender schema (Serbin, Dubois, Colburne, Sen, Eichstedt, 2001). The baby is able to understand and recognise the differences between girls and boys and at the same time they are able to identify to which gender they belong. This sense of awareness is known as gender identity, which is a combination of environmental influences and biological factors. As a result the babies associate themselves with their specific gender behaviours also known as gender roles. These gender roles are determined by the culture the babies grow up in. At this age infants are able to recognise how men and boys behave and differentiate from how girls and women behave. For example, boys like Tom learn to play with trucks while girls learn to play with dolls (Mandleco, 2004).
Many parents complain that their babies have a tendency of touching their genitals while being changed or baby boys experiencing frequent erections. These are normal behaviours used by babies to explore their bodies and their sexuality. The pro-social environment helps in shaping the gender identity of the baby such as clothing, hair and voice. Boys know that playing with trucks is a gesture used as a stereotype against women. Boys and men tend to overestimate their capabilities while girls and women lean on the softer side and underestimate their capabilities. Tom has probably seen his father driving the car and therefore he understands that boys are meant to play with trucks. Boys and girls recognise their gender identities because of the way they are treated by the adults in their lives. This is because parents, teachers and guardians praise children based on their gender appropriate behaviours and activities. Identifying with the males and females in their lives influences the gender based role behaviour of babies. The babies tend to pick up the characteristics of the males and females around them and incorporate the traits into their own personalities (Rogoff, 2003).
Pretend play in infants starts at around the age of 13 months. However Piaget (1962) argued that pretend play is said to originate during the second year of life. At this age babies begin to impersonate what those around them are doing. Babies love to imitate what a person do by pretending, especially pretending to feed stuffed animals, pretending to drink from a cup that is empty or pretending to cook like their mothers. Toddlers are given toys so that they can assist in washing; cooking and cleaning just like their parents. Pretend playing helps infants learn about their social roles and rules. It is also used as a practice to assist in developing language skills. In pretend play children perform action plans, assume roles and transform objects around them in order to express their feelings and ideas to the society. Play is an important aspect of learning and emotional development of children. Through pretend playing children are able to develop strong personalities, identify their potential and achieve success. Pretend playing is a major tool that assists the babies to establish relationship social skills as well as developing values and ethics. Pretend play can either be performed in solitude or as a group activity. Pretend play is significant in the sense that it enables babies to process emotions and important events that occur in their lives. It enables the babies to practice social skills, develop language skills and learn important values and ethics. Pretend play is viewed as a developmental milestone in the baby's ability to acquire a theory of mind. This refers to the child's ability to reason and interpret the actions of those around them (Rapacholi & Slaughter 2003).
Furthermore pretend play assists in developing communication skills because as they engage in the play whether with their parents, dolls, imaginary friends or on their own, they always engaged in a conversation. As a result, when children begin reading to their imaginary friends and dolls, they are motivated to learn how to read and write. Pretend play is important in mental development because it assists in problem solving. This process of trying to find solutions for obstacles encountered in their play assists in developing the analytical skills of the child. As a result, it helps in establishing creativity, logical reasoning and resourcefulness. During pretend play children can act as whoever they wish to be, so they are able to have a basic view of what it is like to be a policeman or a doctor. Moreover throughout pretend play, babies realise that they can become whoever they want to be and this boosts their self-confidence.
Tom has not developed the awareness sense because he did not understand his sister's emotions since he is still in the pretend world. Subsequently at the tender age of 20 months infants are not aware of their actions and cannot be held responsible for the consequences because most of their actions are imitations of what the adults around them are doing. However as children grow they develop their awareness at the age of two years (Anderson, 2001).
In conclusion as noted Tom is an average developing male infant. He has developed the cognitive and motor skills quite well preferably in role playing and joint attention. Tom has developed a pre-linguistic skill when he retrieves an object that Mary was pointing at. Through pretend play infants are able to practice social skills, develop language skills and learn important values and ethics. Through gender schema he has incorporated stereotype into his persona with the choice of toys. However Tom does not really know to which gender he belongs nevertheless researchers state that children recognise self around 2 ˝ years old.
Good morning!
When we write critical essays, we are judging or evaluating a specific work or idea. Your essay is more of an introductory or explanatory essay; you are explaining to your readers each facet of the stages of sensorimotor development. If you need to write a critical essay on this topic, it may be more appropriate for you to pick a work by a prominent doctor in this field and write your paper. You could use the same topic as sensorimotor development and evaluate a method which is used as a standard for recognizing normal or abnormal development. You could apply a theory of development towards this baby, Tom, and explain why he is or is not developing according to that specific theory, and then evaluate whether or not this specific theory is an appropriate benchmark for this specific case. These types of analysis are what your instructors are looking for when they assign a critical review; your stance on an idea or piece of literature.
For examples of critical essays, you can conduct a search online using a keyword such as 'critical essays' in conjunction with a keyword from your subject area, such as 'sensorimotor development'.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Gloria
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