By: Wanjohi. P. Mugambi
Worth Noting:
- One recalls the story of an experiment that is said to have been conducted by Akbar, Emperor of India. It appears there was a controversy in his court whether God spoke in Arabic or Persian. It is said that Akbar, a very practical man, was tired of the controversy and wanted to settle, once and for all, the question by a practical expeirment. He asked his minister to gather a few newborn children and see that they are brought up in a room without any contact with human beings.
- They were to be properly nourished but nobody was to speak to them. It was found that though the children grew up will they could not speak any langauge at all.
Maturation is an orderly sequence of events determined by the growth of the neuro-muscular structure. Learning, on the other hand, is acquisition of new skills etc., due to environmental stimulation. Often the question arises whether the development of the child is due to maturation, that is due to the growth of the neuro-muscular structure, or whether it is due to learning, that is due to the influence of the parents, the stimulation that is given by them, the equipment that is provided by them and the practice given to the child.
At the outset it must be realised that this is a very tricky question. No child ever grows up in a vaccum. All children grow up in the environment that is provided by the parents. It is needless to point out that the poor child in India may be brought up in a one-room mud hut whether it is in the village or in the slum in the metropolis.
On the other hand, the child born to the rich parents has a wholly different atmosphere. It may have a huge room for itself in a large house which is constructed in a huge compound. Studies reported in the next chapter show that there is a noticeable difference in the rate of growth among the rural, industrial and urban children with respect to skills like jumping, climbing, tricycling, ball throwing, etc.
It is obvious that there must be a tricycle in the house, or in the nursery school, for the child to learn tricycling. There must be a ball and there must be enough space for the child to learn throwing a ball; the parent must provide such equipment. Even more important, the parent must promote the development of the skill by stimulating the child to practice.
One recalls the story of an experiment that is said to have been conducted by Akbar, Emperor of India. It appears there was a controversy in his court whether God spoke in Arabic or Persian. It is said that Akbar, a very practical man, was tired of the controversy and wanted to settle, once and for all, the question by a practical expeirment. He asked his minister to gather a few newborn children and see that they are brought up in a room without any contact with human beings.
They were to be properly nourished but nobody was to speak to them. It was found that though the children grew up will they could not speak any langauge at all. Thus he discovered that one has to learn even one’s mother tongue. But all the attempts made to teach lanugage to an ape have yielded no results whatever since the ape does not have the vocal apparatus which the human child has. Thus language learning is due both to the neuro-muscular structure as well as to the environmental stimulation and practice.
Some studies regarding this problem have been made on rats as well as on children. For example, Hebb (1949) reported that the rats from an ordianry strain of laboratory species, reared at home as ‘pets’ performed in a significantly superior manner on a learning task as compared with the rats from the same strain which were reared in a normal laboratoiy environment. In the last few years there have been several studies to determine the effects of “enrichment” of environment and “deprivation”. When the environment is rich and stimulating during the first five years of a child’s life, his developmentproceeds in a rapid fashion. On the other hand, if the environment is poor and unstimulating there may be retardation in his growth. Studies have been made on identical twins who are born with the same heredity but who were separated early and brought up in different environments due to several reasons.
The studies have shown that when the twins were separated before they were one year old there was a difference of five IQ points and when they were separated one year or later the differences between the twins averaged about ten IQ points. These studies show how differences in environment can lead to differences in test performance though the identical twins starts with the same heredity.
Long back Gesell (1929), the fhmous child psychologist of America, reported his study on identical twins. The experimental twin T was trained to climb stairs while the control twin C was given no such training. After T had learnt to climb stairs both twins were tested on staircase climbing ability. It was found that both were able to climb. Thus, the control twin C could climb as well as the trained twin T by merely growing older and becoming more developed, though he was not given any training whatever to climb stairs. Thus training given before the child has properly developed is a sheer waste. The child could do as well by merely growing up.
Another study was made by McGraw (1949) to find the effect of bladder training. Twin I was initiated into bladder training at the age of 30 days. The bladder training of twin C was started when he was 700 days old. Yet both the twins showed the same level of control when they were 800 days old, the time at which the experiment was stopped.
These and similar other studies have shown that with respect to skills such as walking, climbing, toilet control etc., early training is no value since these skills require a certain amount of maturation. Training has a value when the child has completed the growth necessary for the performance of that skill.
These studies suggest that an age of readiness exists for the appearance of many kinds of behaviour and that before this age such a behaviour can be learned only with difficulty, if at all. This concept of readiness is used with respect to the academic skill of reading. It is obvious that reading skill is not like the walking skill or the climbing skill. It is not common to all children. Reading is a cultural acquisition. But it depends on the ability to discriminate symbols. This facility may be matrurational.
According to Gates (1973) and others the age of readiness to read is 6—5 years. However, it is true that some children learn to read by the time they are four years old. It is also true that reading readiness is facilitated by books, newspapers and magazines at home and the advertisements in the urban areas. Still, by and large, children before the age of six need not be trained specifically to read. Of course, studies are needed here to determine what proportion of children, with what results for the future development, can be trained to read before they are six years old.
Finally, attention may be drawn to the studies which report the influence of environmental factors on the growth of intelligence. Results have clearly shown that the IQ remains fairl constant after six years of age. Environmental changes after six years do not alter significantly scores on intelligence tests. Several studies report that environmental enrichment is of great significance in improving, within limits, the scores on intelligence tests among children below six years of age.
In other words, it looks as if intelligence is more plastic at the earlier age and can be improved significantly by enriching the experiences of children. Results of recent studies in India clearly show that there are significant differences in the various aspects of child development between rural children and urban children and between the children of industrial workers and those coming from middle class homes. These results clearly indicate the influence of the environmental factors.
Mt Kenya Times