The direction of the Lily flowers in each stalk differs from each other. But the first two photographs represent the common pattern. One flower in each direction or two each in opposite directions. This caught my attention. I wondered what determines the direction of the flowers when they are ready to open!
I discovered that there is genetics and epigenetics in this pattern formation!
In the dialogue on nature and nurture in childhood formation, the dialogue on epigenetics of formative influence is now getting revived !
Why children are fond of visual media from early childhood is a question I hear parents often ask!
The easy option is to blame it on the visual media to which many children are introduced to from infancy! The visual media has an entertaining effect and not an interactive effect for a child to grow in language skills, communication and social competencies and exploratory learning from the environment.
What predisposes a child to be introduced to the visual media in early childhood, when they are largely wired to regard human faces, hear human voice and language, and engage in interactive play!
It is the parents who substitute their role with the visual media to 'occupy a child' !
The parenting absence and the media presence contribute to the way behaviour and development of an infant and toddler take place. When even meal time is turned into feeding a child with his attention on the actions on the visual screen, we force rewiring the child's perceptual ability to machine language!
I write this with grief, because the above state media dependent nurturing of infants and toddlers has become a common practice in many homes!
Is it likely that from early childhood, the parental interactions with their children got reduced and passive viewing of the screen became a pattern!
If so, the parenting practice has drawn children away from an emotional bonding with parents in early childhood that they grow up with a void of not feeling sense of belonging !
I tend to think that parenting practice in early childhood contribute to the epigenetics of parenting! We determine the direction and course of childhood by what parents do or so not do!
Anna and I felt persuaded to share our thoughts on parenting practices by discussing 50 themes in the above book, which was published two yeas ago,
Now with more feed back from Parenting Forum that we have been involved with, we get a sense that parenting practices are formative and a decisive epigenetics factors in parenting !
The above book that is now ready is on enhancing play based activities of pre-school children at home. Parents can find in the book ideas and pictorial illustrations on using toys, books and home environment to engage pre-school children. It is a book calling parents to make parenting practices interactive and formative!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
