In addition, she witnesses her daughters grow up with Barbie influence. Smiley believes that Barbie dolls can be role models for young girls, and she also thinks girls like Barbie because with the doll they can discover new things, girls define their femininity, and it is their liking during childhood. Jane Smiley states that young girls like Barbie dolls because they can try on a no-holds-bared (376). Smiley’s daughters are in the childhood stage when they are often curious to try something. Smiley says, “Both of them learned how to put makeup before kindergarten” (376).
Peggy Orenstein proved this in her essay, "Learning Silence: Scenes from the Class Struggle," in which she did field research in junior high schools interviewing and observing the interaction of teachers to their students. I think the reason teachers unknowingly give more attention to a particular gender is because of the way that the teachers were brought up to think. The roles of each gender have already been laid out and embedded in the minds of the teachers from their own teachers and parents while growing up. I think that teachers have many preconceived notions of the gender relations of their students. The teachers unknowing pass the ideas that they learned as a child onto their students, who also do not realize that it is being done to them.
The two important ways that we learn gender role behaviours is through operant conditioning and modelling. Children may be punished for gender inappropriate behaviours in order to shape their attitudes, for example, a boy being teased for playing with dolls. This behaviour would be negatively reinforced as a society may believe it doesn’t run accordingly to their gender role. Positive reinforcement would be given in forms of rewards such as praise to encourage children to exhibit gender appropriate behaviors, for example, a girl being praised for baking and wearing dresses. Modelling, also known as social learning is where a child engages in gender role behaviour through observation of same-sex models, internalizing and imitating their behaviours and attitudes.
Task 2 – 2.3 As I work in a SEN PMLD class I work with ages 3 to 10 years of ages, so we have to adapt the NC to our class and our children depending on their abilities. Our class has been labelled Nursery and Early years as the children in our class are at that stage with all the development skills, and would not be fair to put them in a higher class due to their age if they aren’t developed fully to go in a higher class. For example, we have a student that is at her mental ability to understand what she should at her age intellectually but does not have the physical and communicational skills to response like most other children her age (she is 6 years old). However as she cannot communicate with us through speech, we would adapt the lesson
Outline social factors that may influence gender roles. (8 marks) Bandura’s social learning theory suggests gender roles are learnt through observation of ‘social agents’ such as parents, peers and teachers as well as the media. This theory is based on the principles of operant conditioning with children being rewarded for behaving in their own gender and being punished for behaving inappropriately. An example of this is if a young boy is playing with dolls, he may be told off and explained to that it is wrong, likewise, a girl playing with cars and guns will told of or shouted at in the same way. Social agents model the appropriate gender specific behaviours; children observe these behaviours and learn the consequences for behaving inappropriately through vicarious reinforcement.
A 2009 study found that 31 per cent of “girl” toys are all about appearance, involving plastic makeup and dresses. Meanwhile, toys targeted to boys encourage invention, exploration, competition, problem solving. These are all skills associated with highly desirable employees and leaders. I think that parents have to avoid walking exclusively down the Barbie aisle at stores, and instead provide your child with games and toys that encourage scientific discovery,
Bussey came to this conclusion when he found that children imitate same sex models but do not imitate same sex models that are gender inappropriate. Gender roles are also affected by social influences like parents. Parents sometimes have strong opinions on the divides between genders which results in different reinforcements for different behaviours. For example, a mother may react negatively to their daughter playing with masculine toys but positively to their son playing with the same toys. Parental influence has strengths, for example there is a wealth of scientific evidence supporting it.
A way in which the family teaches a child certain norms is through manipulation and canalisation (according to Oakley) as particular toys and sayings are enforced on the child depending on their sex. For example, a girl will be given a doll or a play kitchen which introduces traditional feminine ways of life, the housewife and mother. Whereas, boys will be given a football or toolkit which helps to form hegemonic (traditional) masculinity traits. In addition, boys are encouraged to be tough and told not to cry whereas girls are encouraged to be more emotional. Certain behaviours can be controlled through rewards and sanctions e.g.
The sounds of rattles and other objects delighted little Kayla, and her parents bought her some percussive toys to play with too. Kayla learned how to mimic sounds early in her development and was speaking words and small sentences by the time she was two. She progressed well through the object permanence phase of development and also through Piaget’s preoperational thinking stage as well, during which Kayla talked about “me” a lot, developed a rich creative storyline related to her dolls, and creatively manipulated ideas to suit her unique vision of the world. Kayla also progressed smoothly through Erikson’s first three psychosocial stages of development, from infancy through early childhood to preschool. A deep sense of trust of her parents was engendered during infancy, as both her parents were there to feed and take care of her.
They are also encouraged to speak with staff at the schools they attend, so that they may be provided the most productive environment possible. Patients generally have trouble in social situations, and will do much better if they have the proper stimulation at home from an early age (Nielsen, 1998). If parents submerse their children in group interactions at a young age, it will aid in diminishing the problems they have in social situations. Parents are also encouraged to place these girls in pre-school rather then waiting for kindergarten. Girls with delayed speech development should see a speech therapist (Nielsen, 1998).