Psychology: It's good for the mind.

Recently I've been doing some reading for class that has been very interesting to me. Our current topic of discussion is Developmental Psychology, which I didn't realized I'd find so interesting. As the big sister of a 17 month old, and with there being another sibling on the way this September, AS WELL AS two cousins to be born a mere 3 weeks later (Auntie apparently had to catch up to mom by having twins), I find young development theories interesting. I enjoy reading about the different ideas and theories psychologists and doctors have about raising infants. I thought I'd share two ideas I found really interesting.

• An experiment was done with mothers in their last trimester. These mothers read certain passages of Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat" (a good choice I might add.) every day to their unborn baby. After the child was born the mother was then asked to read the passages from "The Cat in the Hat" as well as passages from other stories. Observations of the newborns showed that the infants recognized the passages they had heard while in the womb. Psychologists look for reactions from the newborns while different passages are read, they can detect recognization based on facial expressions and various reactions. Even newborns exhibit similar facial expressions for happiness, sadness, and other main emotions that adults do.
  
• Another thing I found interesting is the use of a mobile above a child's bed. Experiments show that children who have a mobile are more likely to begin reaching for objects sooner than children without a mobile above their crib. The experiment estimated that children with mobiles will begin reaching roughly 6 weeks earlier.

Having so many babies born around the same time (Becca was born a few weeks before my cousin Eddie) it's interesting to watch them develop. Becca, although only a few weeks older, began crawling and walking before Eddie by more than a margin of a few weeks. And Becca, who was roughly a month younger, began to crawl and hold herself up before Mrs. O'day's (my senior English teacher) little boy. I'm very curious to watch the development of my future sibling as he/she grows along side his/her two cousins. I'm also curious to see how being a twin affects the development of my cousins versus the development of my future brother or sister. I guess it's the psychologist and scientist in me wanting to experiment and discover.