This essay focuses on relationships between the trucks. How might these kinds of conversations shape the way children attend to their worlds
describes the truck in terms of its characteristics. In contrast, an East Asian mother playing with her child and the same truck might say, “Here comes Daddy truck. He’s saying hello to older brother truck. Daddy truck loves older brother truck. They’re going to the beach together for a picnic.” Such communication highlights relationships between the trucks. How might these kinds of conversations shape the way children attend to their worlds?
of research, which we’ll return to in Chapter 9, is that Westerners tend to perceive the world in a more analytic fashion, seeing objects as discrete and separate, whereas East Asians are more likely to perceive the world in holistic terms, stressing the relations between objects (e.g., Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001). It is plausible that the cultural differences in the noun bias reflect this difference in thinking about the world. Much research suggests that mothers’ interactions with children do vary across
conversations above. North American mothers are more likely to call attention to objects than are East Asian mothers (Bornstein et al., 1992; Senzaki, Masuda, Takada, & Okada, 2014), and these differences are identifiable even among very young infants. Parents from all cultures will talk about children’s toys with them; however, Western mothers tend to talk more about the toys, whereas East Asian mothers more often use those toys as part of a social routine (Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, & Cyphers, 1992). East Asian mothers more effectively communicate actions than North American mothers, whereas North American mothers more effectively communicate objects than East Asian mothers (Lavin, Hall, & Waxman, 2006; Lavin, Hall, & Leung, 2006).
of infants and toddlers vary in systematic ways. Western children are directed to attend to objects, whereas East Asian children are directed toward the relations among objects. Difficult Developmental Transitions Development does not always proceed. This linearly across the lifespan, with each month passed being associated with an equivalent amount. This of increased knowledge and maturity. Rather, there can be a number of key periods where children go through growing pains as they begin to transition to a new level of maturity. Two of these periods, which have received much attention, are “the terrible twos” and “adolescence.” The Terrible Twos When my son reached 2 years of age, I learned to add some strict routines to my life. I used to not pay much attention, for example, to whether I pushed the elevator button as we left our apartment or I let someone else do it.