The World As They See it....

Children are the most fascinating beings ! Recently my kutti cousins (mom's side,non identical twins, about two and half years old) visited my home..Lil mischievous rascals :) They raided the kitchen for spoons,the telephone and my room for pens stuff ,the computer..what not! Had a great time with them..

I was observing and admiring them - the way they look at us & the world.. Man,you should see the impact of media - they cant read or write..Still yet to know what words mean but you show them a hoarding -they can associate the music that comes with that particular ad (that even we may fail to notice).Great spacial and temporal memory.I guess its one of the most beautiful phase of childhood, where the child starts expressing its views ,starts asking questions in an earnest attempt to learn.The senses at its best! The instincts -the very root is quite explicit in them....

Well i can go on bragging about the kids :P ;) --but thats not what i intend to do here . What i observed was even at such young age ,the character & personality starts getting pronounced and its different for them both ,thought they are brought up in the same conditions (or "almost" same ) Though it maybe to young to predict - I found one was more much adamant than the other and stuff like that. So,I was wondering if some aspects of personality are hereditary ,what role does our genes play in it or the extent to which it does ...I did my lil bit of research .

Its a question of Nature Vs Nurture ,as it is referred to .The nature refers to the innate qualities -- genetic ,hereditary properties & nurture refers to the environment we are subjected to..These two are intertwined with each other, starting from the moment we were that single cell fusion product..It is very difficult for ppl to study the influence of genes or environment ,as it is difficult to separate one from other..The researchers create experimental conditions with twins (identical ,non identical ) and other cases like adopted children.

Genes contribute to rather than solely dictate our synaptic connectivity! Children have innate potential to learn ,to seek stimulation & to arrange experience into increasing order of complexity.It is the basis ,the potential or the risk they are bestowed with.... Environment plays a key role in establishing , strengthening and selecting the synaptic connections. Human brain is unfinished at birth ,the environment affects the unfolding of genetic programs ..The expression of genes & the phenotype ( expression-which genes are "on" and which are "off" ,phenotype--any observable trait ) depends on other genes (ie our genetic combination or genotype) and environment.Wow,such great plasticity!!And there is this new study of heritable change in genome other then the DNA sequence ,called the epigenome !! I am getting overly excited at this point :P Okay...So......

Whatever it is,the care-giver (primarily the parents ,siblings & probably even the kindergarten teacher)play such a major role in development of childs personality...Well,I know very little about parenting and all that...but it pains me when i see adults showing their anger , frustration to the kids & when they ignore or get irritated by the questions they ask...

Nurture them! :) is all I can say..

P.S- I am sorry for such a longgg post ,I am not sure if this sustained your interest .If you are more interested in this check out the book -Brain,attachment,personality :an introduction to neuroaffective development by Susan Hart (chk it out in google books ) ..I found it very good.