Current Event
Recently Art Kramer conducted research devoted to the connection between the child’s brain and physical development. With the help of Laura Chaddock and Charles Hillman, he examined the hippocampus of 49 kids and the effectiveness of the way they used oxygen. The researchers found out that children who are in a good physical state have more than 10% bigger hippocampal volume than those who are not fit. They underlined that the body’s condition is also connected with the intellectual facilities, and fit kids have better memory and learn faster (Children’s brain development is linked to physical fitness, 2010).
The follow-up study should investigate the best ways to enhance children’s physical activity, which of them influence brain development more and can be successfully utilized to overcome adverse experience, environmental and genetic factors.
Based on this research, we may say that parents and educators should pay more attention to the kids’ physical condition. For the children to be fit and intelligent they are to:
- Teach the children how to breathe adequately (it is important to explain that right breathing techniques make activities easier to manage);
- Teach them to start a day with morning exercises (the blood will be oxygenated, kids will have a good mood and will not be sleepy);
- Participate in the activities the kids prefer and lead by example (children need to feel support to maintain activities for a long time);
- Encourage involvement (the benefits should be explained, such as new friends, fun, praise, and respect, etc.);
- Provide an opportunity to spend more time playing active games (a child should not be put in a framework of home and class area);
- Focus on fun but not a necessity (children need to be fit and participate in sports to develop, but they are more likely to accept different activities because they are entertaining but not useful).
Original Work
Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk conducted research based on the apparatus used to examine depth perception in various species of animals to evaluate children’s depth perception. It turned out that the infants’ depth perception is not innate, but it usually develops at the creeping stage, which allows them not to fall and get hurt.
The researchers simulated the cliff with the help of glass, aboard, and a sheet of material. 36 children 6-14-month-old participated in the study with their mothers. The infants were put on the centerboard. Their mothers called them from the cliff and the shallow side successively. It turned out that the majority of children refused to move to the cliff. They depended on their vision and believed that they had no opportunity to reach the mother.
Some touched the glass and realized that there was a solid surface, which allowed them to crawl. Of course, some children failed to perceive depth. Still, some of them realized that they were under the floor and went back to the board. Similar studies conducted with different animals showed that they also start to perceive depth being little; they are believed to have innate perception.
The researchers’ contribution to Developmental Psychology is undeniable as they proved that “the survival of a species requires that its members develop discrimination of depth by the time they take up independent locomotion, whether at one day (the chick and the goat), three to four weeks (the rat and the cat) or six to 10 months (the human infant)” (Gibson & Walk, 1960, p. 2). The fact that the ability to percept depth and avoid hurting does not depend on the previous adverse experience of falling coincides with evolutionary theory. The research showed the way children are developing their senses and how they depend on them, which proves its relation to developmental psychology (Coon, 2005).
References
Children’s brain development is linked to physical fitness, research finds. (2010). Web.
Coon, D. (2005). Psychology: A Modular approach to mind and behavior. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Gibson, E., & Walk, R. (1960). The “visual cliff”. Web.