I have long been concerned about several aspects of the early development of young children. I feel, as you know, that TV should be banned for babies, as should any form of contraption such as activity centres and bouncing or jiggling baby seats.
The other day I was discussing the development of a 9‑month-old baby with a colleague who cares for him/her in our facility. The child was in a sitting position and I asked if he/she was able to get there by himself/herself. The answer was “No”.
I’ve known for several months that he/she has been ‘sitting’. He/she is sat on a mat outside for fresh air, he/she ‘sits’ in a chair to be fed and ‘sits’ on the floor with a bumper pad around him/she or ‘lays’ in a baby seat at other times of day.
Another and very perceptive colleague who also works with the baby commented that he/she had poor muscle tone in his/her lower limbs. He/she certainly didn’t appear to be reaching in any way while I had him/her laying on his/her back outside. There was no effort on his/her part to wriggle and squirm and certainly no ability, let alone an effort, to roll onto his/her tummy.
And thus I believe we have found the missing pieces of the developmental puzzle, the very reasons I have always suspected probably account for such a big increase in so many developmental delays.
I was recalling another child who was ‘forced/encouraged’ to walk at 9–10 months by his/her mother, who frequently boasted to us, the staff, “I walked at 9 monthsâ€.
Now that this same ‘early walker’ is 2.5 years old his/her emotions and speech are very poor. He/she screams and cries at the drop of a hat when things don’t go his/her way. His/her speech has numerous identifiable words in it but there is intermittent babble. He/she doesn’t look you in the eye unless requested to do so and then only briefly; he/she doesn’t follow directions and has a very hard time sitting at a table to eat. He/she can count but doesn’t know that it could be for a reason other than that at ‘10’ it’s his/her turn to go on the swing!
He/she also is prone to febrile seizures. I find this all very interesting. Here we have a child who quite possibly missed many of the natural and requisite developmental milestones that every child needs to meet, mostly due to parental ignorance, pressure and anxiety.
However, quite probably according to his/her pediatric record he/she has ‘met or exceeded all developmental milestones’ – you know, those extremely minimal milestones which help a pediatrician tell you ‘there’s nothing wrong with your child’. In this case the child’s mother probably has no clue that there are a myriad of developmental delays visible to the naked eye, every day.
It is only by constantly being exposed to the malfeasance of so many older parents and young caregivers that I am finally realizing that my major premise of many years is true:
‘Daycare isn’t good for young children’
One of my other premises is that over educated young individuals are often ill prepared to raise someone else’s child just as highly educated parents and high-powered parents are ill suited to raising their own – they each have a very false sense of their abilities when it comes to childraising.
Thus we have so many developmental delays, diagnosed and undiagnosed.
Sad isn’t it?