Fathers Nurture Exploratory Behaviour

Toddler

oi-Staff

By Super

Friday, October 7, 2011, 12:15

The stage of infant is the time when a child learns the most. His character, his personality and his attitude everything develops from that time. Once made, it never changes. The best way to make a child learn is to allow him to explore.

A new study has proved that fathers give toddlers more breathing space and that allows them to actively explore their environments.

Daniel Paquette, claim that ''activation theory'' is just as important as the ''attachment theory.''

The latter says that children usually connect with their primary caregiver since they fulfill their emotional needs and guarantee their survival.

"In attachment theory, a child seeks comfort from a parent when he or she is insecure. This theory underestimates the importance of exploratory behavior in children," says Dr. Paquette.

The conclusion was reached by an experiment done on kids aged 12 to 18 months (accompanied by a parent) were placed in three different risky situations: social risk (a strange adult entered his or her environment), physical risk (toys were placed at the top of a stairway), and a forbidden activity (parents were forbidden to climb the stairs after the child succeeded the first time).

"We found fathers are more inclined than mothers to activate exploratory behavior by being less protective. The less the parent is protective, the more activated is the exploratory behavior in the child. Children who were optimally stimulated, meaning they were exploratory yet respective of the rules, were 71 percent boys. Meanwhile, 70 percent of children who were risk averse were girls." reports Dr. Paquette.

The parent's behavior was measured by the distance they kept from their child. The ideal distance was one hand. This distance was maintained by fathers and not mothers.

The doctor feels his theory is better adapted to evaluate the role of the father while factoring in the temperament of the child and the level of protective baby,behaviour,children,parenting tips, both of which trigger the activation relationship.

Paquette is convinced that mothers and fathers intervene differently in the education of a child and these complementarity benefit a child. Fathers provide something different to the child who will benefit greatly from this singular contribution.