Anderson 1

Tegann Anderson

Crisp

PSY 3290

13 February 2022

Infancy

Infancy is your first stage of life in the “real world.” It starts from the moment you are

brought into the world all the way up until you turn two years old, to which you become a

toddler. As an infant you develop rapidly, you sleep quite a bit, and you are basically catered to

twenty-four seven. You start learning how to make sounds, move around, use motor skills, and

learn this new world around you. The most interesting category in infancy is development by far.

There are infants who start crawling at seven months while other infants can start crawling at

four months, and it just all depends on your environment.

When I was an infant, I was basically a perfect baby (in my mother’s words). I only cried

when I was hungry or needed to be changed, I slept through the whole night, and I was not a

picky eater. I never had stranger anxiety because I was raised by an outgoing mother who was

raising me to also be outgoing and I also had two sisters who helped me to interact with strangers

as well. I also had no health problems, everything was swell.

I started to develop very quickly. I started walking and talking at one year old and I

started reading and writing very early which brings me to the topic of development. As an infant

my mother read the same book to me every night. It was a counting book about lady bugs and

their spots and one night when I was about one and a half, I just took over when my mother was

reading to me, and I started reading the book to her. She was really shocked and when this
 Anderson 2

occurred, she decided to teach me how to use to the computer for learning games and I easily got

the hang of it and correctly started using the computer at two years old.

In class, one day we were having a miniature discussion about whether or not we believe

babies should be allowed to watch television before a certain age. On the slides, it said that

ninety percent of babies in the U.S watch television every day (Boyd & Bee). I believe that being

put in front of a screen all day will not help a child develop unless it is informative. A lot of the

new television shows are just flashy and very fast paced which does not help a child learn. In an

article, Professor Murray states, “such presentations, while designed to attract the baby’s

attention, may be over-stimulating, difficult to process and disruptive of the baby’s play…”

(Woolcock), to which I agree with. Lots of parents are very overwhelmed and they see their

children calm and quiet while watching television or tablets so that is what they give their kids

just for peace of mind. I get it, sometimes you need a breather, but you are not helping the

development of your child, instead they should be given some blocks or some sensory items to

help them learn. It has also been proven by research that infant exposure (up to twelve months)

to television has a negative association with cognition when the child becomes about four or five

years old (Aishworiya).

Parents should take more time out of their days to spend time with their children and help

them to learn efficiently. My mother never sat me in front of a screen, she always read me books

or had me play with learning toys. When she was all burnt out from taking care of three kids, my

older sisters would help me with my learning by taking over for my mother and because of these

acts I was able to start reading, writing, and using the computer all before I left the infancy stage

of my life. Maternal education will help a child’s cognitive development beyond measures.
 Anderson 3

Works Cited

Aishworiya, R., Cai, S., Chen, H.Y. et al. Television viewing and child cognition in a

longitudinal birth cohort in Singapore: the role of maternal factors. BMC Pediatr 19, 286

(2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1651-z

Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2015) Lifespan Development. Seventh Edition. New York: Pearson.

Woolcock, Nicola. “Why Watching TV Can Harm Babies’ Ability to Learn.” Times, The

(United Kingdom), June 2014, p. 21. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=nfh&AN=7EH86970994&scope=site.