[Xmca-l] Re: The ideal head

[Martin John Packer]

I think this thread grew out of a question about the bio-social-behavioral shifts in Mike's textbook. I think Mike was right to emphasize that each point of transition is a punctuation in a dynamic system that involves not only the child but other people (caregivers, teachers, peers....), and that biological changes play a part not only at the end of infancy and the start of adolescence but at the other transitions too. As a species we create niches in which our children can live and grow, and an adequate understanding of psychological development has to study the niche, not the individual.

Martin
 
On Aug 10, 2014, at 8:20 PM, Helen Grimmett <helen.grimmett@monash.edu> wrote:

> I've always understood Vygotsky's crises as being related to a change in
> social positioning:
> 
> 1: Baby starts to walk and talk which radically alters her social
> positioning with others (particularly with immediate family/caregivers)
> 3: Begins pre-school - exposed to new adults and peers, expected to
> participate in group activities
> 6/7: Begins school - new expectations on child to take up position as
> 'learner'
> 12: Adolescence - physical changes bring about changes in interests, social
> relationships etc
> 
> I've got no idea how well-founded this understanding is, but it's the only
> way I have been able to make sense of why we criticise Piaget's ages/stages
> model and accept Vygotsky's. It also means though that we have to be
> flexible about the ages given, i.e. in Australia children start school at
> 5, so the 6/7 crisis would appear earlier.
> 
> My 2 bobs worth
> Helen
> 
> 
> Dr Helen Grimmett
> Lecturer, Student Adviser,
> Faculty of Education,
> Room G64F, Building 902
> Monash University, Berwick campus
> Phone: 9904 7171
> 
> *New Book: *
> The Practice of Teachers' Professional Development: A Cultural-Historical
> Approach
> <https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/professional-learning-1/the-practice-of-teachers-professional-development/>
> Helen Grimmett (2014) Sense Publishers
> 
> 
> 
> <http://monash.edu.au/education/news/50-years/?utm_source=staff-email&utm_medium=email-signature&utm_campaign=50th>
> 
> 
> On 31 July 2014 05:13, Katherine Wester Neal <wester@uga.edu> wrote:
> 
>> I agree that a monumental crisis takes place between the age of 2 and 3. I
>> wouldn't call it the "terrible twos," but I think it results from the
>> "language explosion" that often occurs at that age. A child learns that all
>> these sounds s/he has been hearing can be used meaningfully as a tool for
>> exerting control on the world around him/her and faces a crisis in how to
>> use them.
>> 
>> I think the crisis around 6 years old comes from the understanding that
>> what one does in the world has consequences. That change, as I understand
>> it, is the basis for laws that place the age of culpability around 5-6 in
>> the U.S. (In many U.S. states, children under this age can't be charged
>> with a crime because they don't have the capability to understand that
>> they've done something wrong.) Perhaps there are other suggestions? And
>> what typifies the crisis at 1? How is it biological?
>> 
>> Katie
>> 
>> Katie Wester-Neal
>> University of Georgia
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> on behalf of peter jones <h2cmng@yahoo.co.uk>
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 2:20 PM
>> To: Culture ActivityeXtended Mind
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The ideal head
>> 
>> The one at 2-2.5 is easy - "terrible twos"? :-)
>> Is this just a myth though?
>> 
>> More seriously, there do appear to developmental milestones however:
>> Use of and ambivalence in Yes / No?
>> Regards,
>> Peter (father of three)
>> -------------------------------
>> Peter Jones
>> Lancashire, UK
>> Blogging at "Welcome to the QUAD"
>> http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
>> h2cm: help 2C more - help 2 listen - help 2 care
>> http://twitter.com/h2cm
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------
>> On Wed, 30/7/14, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The ideal head
>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Date: Wednesday, 30 July, 2014, 18:30
>> 
>> Martin,
>> Vygotsky's Problem of Age is a difficult
>> essay. I wonder if you could say a
>> bit more
>> about the crisis at 6 (7,8?) years and the one at 12 years?
>> The
>> others are fairly self explanatory but
>> those two are a bit more
>> complicated. Among
>> other things, it isn't clear what is different about
>> the
>> crisis at 2.5 and the crisis at 6.
>> -greg
>> 
>> 
>> On
>> Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 6:44 AM, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co
>>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Though in other texts he wrote of
>> adolescence as such a time of crisis
>>> 
>> that the whole stage should be considered a transition. In
>> the lectures on
>>> child development
>> Vygotsky describes the following crises:
>>> 
>>> Birth: the child is
>> differentiated physically
>>> 1 year: the
>> child is differentiated biologically
>>> 
>> 2.5 years: the child is differentiated psychologically
>>> 6 years: inside & outside of self are
>> differentiated
>>> 12 years: actual &
>> possible selves are differentiated
>>> 
>>> Martin
>>> 
>>> On Jul 28, 2014, at 6:36 PM, Andy Blunden
>> <ablunden@mira.net>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>> Francis, most of the crises which Vygotsky mentions in
>>>> http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1934/problem-age.htm
>>>> are associated with childhood before
>> school. (It is an unfinished work).
>>> 
>>> Andy
>>>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>> 
>>> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> FRANCIS J. SULLIVAN wrote:
>>>>> ...
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> In any case, I wonder
>> if Vygotsky considered whether schooling itself
>>> might
>>>>> be
>> responsible, at least partly, for the child's apparent
>> alienation
>>> from
>>> 
>>>> schooling at these moments.
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> Francis J. Sullivan,
>> Ph.D.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Gregory A.
>> Thompson, Ph.D.
>> Assistant Professor
>> Department of Anthropology
>> 883
>> Spencer W. Kimball Tower
>> Brigham Young
>> University
>> Provo, UT 84602
>> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>> 
>> 
>>