Cultural Differences in Caring for Infants

The major assumptions of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development are that infants are active agents in constructing knowledge and that the interaction of experience and biology leads to growth and development. The cultural-contextual view agrees with these assumptions but adds two more: (1) other people make active contributions to infant development, and (2) cultural practices, which reflect the dominant beliefs and values of a culture, shape infant interaction with others and, ultimately, shape cognitive development. Variations in sleeping and feeding behaviors reflect the role of infants in a culture. Beliefs about babies in different cultures determine how they are treated, who interacts with them, and, consequently, how babies experience their world.

 

Choose a culture other than your own, and fill in the chart with details contrasting how the 2 cultures care for infants.  Use at least 2 resources, cited using APA style, to support your assertions about the different culture’s ways of caring for infants.

 

 

My own culture (give it a name):A different culture:

 

 

 Sleeping

 

 

 

 

 Feeding

 

 

 

 

 Who are primary caretakers

 

 

 

 

 Games and toys

 

 

 

 

 Role of father

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possible points

Student points

You fully completed the chart

30

 

Your chart clearly showed an understanding of cultural differences in attitudes towards raising infants

50

 

You supported your work with at least 2 references, cited in APA formatting

10

 

Your work was free of spelling and grammar errors

10

 

 

100

 

 

 

 

 I am African American culture, baptist