Hello, I am really appreciating this discussion and the awareness of others--especially young children as it is really more essential in my opinion--as we strive for synchronicity and attunement. These are so fundamental to our building relationships that can support development, growth, and learning.
I have one other element that I would like to toss into the mix. This is based on my opportunities to observe and interact with teachers and children in other countries. I believe there is a third leg to these processes. I propose that we consider expectations, both personal and cultural, as part of this outreaching and understanding of those we interact with. However, I am cautious to realize that expectation divorced from both other elements becomes disfunctional. In the reverse, I believe that all the interactional elements need to be present and functioning for best possible outcomes and relationships. I would love to hear how this idea settles in your thinking.
Cary
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[Cary [Larson-McKay, PhD]
[Past President, California AEYC]
[Consultant, Wonder Strength]
[Morro Bay] [CA]
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2018 10:18 AM
From: Jack Wright
Subject: SYNCHRONICITY AND ATTUNEMENT
Synchronicity and attunement are two similar words currently being used in child development research. Synchronicity has been used to described being in touch with a person's readiness to add to their knowledge, and attunement describes being in touch with a person's, especially an infant's, immediate needs. Not being in touch with an infant's needs including readiness to learn has been called invasive by one research team.
Researchers found that synchronistic mothers of infants had developed the regulation of emotion and impulsivity in their child by the age of three when mothers with behaviors called invasive had not. The regulation of emotion and impulsivity is crucial for the successful development of social skills. That means early childhood educators must pay attention to this information.
For example, consider teaching a child to wait in a line to go somewhere. The first issues needs to be questioning if they are ready to do this. We can assume they are not ready if they are pushing others or getting out of line, or otherwise resistant to the task. Brain science has taught us that what the child hasn't learned is the problem, not that he is being obstinate.
The next question is what is the child ready to learn that will led to knowing how to stand in line? For me, the answer to the question is delayed gratification. In terms of a famous experiment, the child needs to have more pleasure emotions of anticipation of the second marshmallow if she can wait ten minutes than the pleasure emotions she has for eating the marshmallow right away. There are terrible consequences in adulthood for children who don't learn this task.
The example can go many ways at this point, but a simple and convenient one is to make standing in line a brief experience that is easily successful and rewarded when accomplished. This may mean that short lines, even with just two or three children, might be used for practice. If this approach discovers what the child is read to learn, we have been synchronistic and attuned. When we succeed at this task, we have been significantly helpful with the progress of a child's life.
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Jack Wright
Success With Children
St Ignatius MT
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