"BABIES"- Film Analysis

          

 This documentary is related to 4 babies who are developing in four different countries. They have different customs, to interact with different environment or stimuli. Their parents have distinctive perspectives about baby caring. Ponijao who was born in Namibia, Bayar who was born in Mongolia  and they live in natural environment. Both of them interact with soil, animals and natural sources. On the other hand, Mari who was born in Tokyo and Hattie who was born in San Francisco can access technological resources easily and their parents provide high quality caring. Actually, we can observed physical, cognitive, social emotional developments of 4 babies from infancy to toddlerhood. Moreover, moral development, temperament, aggression, gender typing and parenting styles and all of them were observed in documentary and they are essential information for explaining of four different babies’ development.

  

   Moral Development is identified by two theorists and they are: Kohlberg and Piaget. In the documentary, it could be observed just only preconventional stage from Kohlberg’s Theory. This stage include punishment-obedience and naive hedonism. Actually, moral development is the period of identifying the distinction between false and true senses but infancies are born without this ability (Smith, 2017). However, nurturing may be helpful for exploration of their moral development and it begin to turn from self to others in 12-36 months of babies. It can be said that beginning time of moral development is in during toddlerhood (Smith, 2017 ). According to Piaget, sensorimotor stage is suitable for these 4 babies because the range of age is 0-2 years old. It can be observed change in motor skills, perceptual and intellectual capacity of toddlers. This stage is parallel to Kohlberg’s preconventional stage. Infants started to be aware of movements and sensations. Babies learned about basic actions which are grasping, looking, sucking and listening. Object permanence is another motor skill for infants in this stage. They may start to use languages for their demands and they also notice to their behaviors result in things to happen in the world around them ( Piaget, 1977). In the documentary, experiences of Mari and Hattie can be seen in these stages. For instance, Hattie was performing “pincer grasp” which is related to finger motor skills when she peeled banana. Mari also demonstrated “pincer grasp” when she was trying to find place of  sticker on paper (Berk &Meyers, 2016, p. 186). All babies also were sucking and most of them didn’t have any problem with nurturing and gross motor skills was observed during their breast feeding time. They started to use language at the same time, they also  tried to stand up for walking. Ponijao had a great balance during trying to walk and she started to walk before other babies and it may be related that she developed in natural environment owing to authoritative caring with autonomy of baby.

    Each child’s temperament and self-regulation  has emerged since their birth (Berk & Meyers, 2016, p.253). Ponijao had a lot of connection with people in her community and she also has good bond with her mom. She may have a secure attachment with her mom and this situation may impact on her future relationships with her partner or friends. Another example is about temperament, Mari and Hattie went to education class but Hattie didn’t want to interact other babies so she walked away from group. Actually, Mari and Hattie can reach lots of resources and these are: toys, shelter, foods, education classes, technological tools. These seem to be advantage for their development. Both of them have similar materialistic items for high quality of development but their temperaments are different. Moreover, Ponijao and Bayar haven’t resources and they enjoy with animals and they use natural sources for entertaining. However, they can explore more things individually than Mari and Hattie. It can be said that having a material or technological resources is not necessary for child’s development.

  

   Other point is about aggression, it is one of the first reaction to frustration which is about learning skill. Moreover, before the development of verbal skills, aggressive behaviors emerge. Common responses are: grabbing, biting, hitting, pushing  and these permit them to talk in an intellectual way about their feelings and wishes (Kutner, 2016). In documentary, Bayar and Ponijao aggressive interaction with their siblings. Actually, their siblings behaved aggressively and their reaction is crying but Bayar is only boy in four babies and his reaction is more extreme than Ponijao so this may be about gender differences. Other example is about Bayar. He got upset and behaved aggressively during breast feeding and this situation indicates that having little interaction with his mom. The reason why, their attachment may be insecure. In addition, gender typing is another topic for this documentary. Ponijao and her brother were aware of their sexual organs and they tried to understand shape of them because their organs different from each other. Freud’s psychosexual stages are helpful for understand babies behaviors. Oral and Anal stages are suitable for four babies. Oral stage is about mouth orientated, such as sucking, biting, and breastfeeding and anal stage is associated with focusing on primary erogenous zone which is anus (McLeod, 2008).

   Sandra Scarr’s “Good Enough Parenting” is related to race and socioeconomic status. Children who are poor and black demonstrate less genetic influence on their IQ but they show more environmental influence. It can be said that good enough environment have a positive correlation with children’s growing. People with different genotypes are likely to evoke distinctive reactions from others and to choose different environmental places for themselves ( Shaffer, 2009). I agree with Scarr because four babies live in a different places and we didn’t see any genetic clues so we cannot say anything about distinction of their genetic structure but we saw environmental differences and these differences have  different impacts on babies. For instance, parents of Hattie and Mari are more obsessed and perfectionist about baby caring. On the other hand, Ponijao and Bayar enjoyed on soil or in dirty water and their parent is not obsessed about babies’ cleanliness. Thus, their environments have an influence on children’s development. Ponijao and Bayar can more explore natural environment, to learn more new things freely  and to more interact with animals easily than Mari and Hattie.

   In my opinion, children who grow up in natural environment have higher resilience level than others because their immune system is more advanced naturally. Mari’s bed is self-rocking and she is baby so she needs to mother care. Having a good resources is not essential for caring because they have  disadvantages on attachment between mom and infant. Stroller is another point because it prevents exploration of babies and they cannot feel freedom. Moreover, when I watched this documentary, I remembered “Tarzan” because he grow up with animals and he use natural sources for protecting himself and he is a hero of forests depending on his own power. Ponijao’s development seems like “Tarzan” so she is strongest baby  and she lives without resources but she can learn and explore owing to self -experience. Thus, authoritative parenting, secure attachment and developing in a natural environment have positive influence on baby's development.