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In this study, the variable of social distance between teacher and learner was explored by observing the pattern of interaction between mothers and their own preschool sons, boys from a similar background, and boys from a different ethnic and social class background. Anglo-American and Mexican-American mothers from middle and lower classes were videotaped as they taught a cognitive and a motor task to each of three children. The Parent Interaction Code was employed to analyze the teaching loop behavior. Programmatic and instructional variables were different but stable for each ethnic group across social distance; patterns of feedback and child response shifted significantly across social distance.The simple provision of random experiences is not sufficient for intellectual growth. Experiences must be structured, labeled, and the relevant cues pointed out (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1968). Even an enriched environment, complete with adult attention, is not in itself sufficient for stimulating new learning. Blank and Solomon (1968) have demonstrated that IQ increased significantly for students given special tutoring when compared to children placed in identical tutoring situations when the tutor does not initiate or extend any cognitive interchange. They summarize their report: exposure to materials, a school-like situation, and an interested adult [are] not sufficient for learning. Both mastery and enthusiasm for learning will come only when the child can be shown how to become actively involved in the learning process [p. 288].
Manyearly childhood education programs include parents in their class-
Children's idea about needles, stethescopes, and X rays can be orbed in the same manner as their ideas about number sm'ation, commation of weight, orgmjective space.
Children's Conceptions of Medical ProceduresMargaret S. Steward David S. Steward Sammy was not quite four years old when he was knocked off his tricycle by a passing car and sustained a concussion and fractured skull from the accident.When my residents and I interviewed him in the Pediatric Ward, he was a solemn little boy. His head was bandaged, face scraped, and he looked out from two black eyes. I said, "I know you are in the hospital. Why are you here?" He looked around slowly, then answered by pointing to a small, simple Band-Aid on his left arm. "Are the doctors helping you to get well?" "NO, the doctors are berry mean . . . the . . . nurse" W h a t does she do to help you get well?" He explained that she comes in at night when it is "all dark," and touches him on the wrist. H e called it his "healing spot." I asked him to show me, and he touched the back of my hand very gently. I asked if he could make me well or if he could make himself well. He said, "Oh, no," and pointed again to the Band-Aid. "My power is all broke," he explained sadly. This is a child who had experienced, in a very short time, many medical procedures. Most of them, no doubt, were new to him. Using criteria he could not articulate, he had determined that the nurses working the graveyard shift were empowered to cure him and that the procedure of taking his pulse
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