Sixth Form Psychology students get a taste of parenting

 

On Monday 3^rd November our AS level Psychology students were visited by two young families, one baby boy aged just 6 weeks with both his Parents and a 3 year old boy with his Mother.   The reason behind the visit was for the students to understand the different types of attachment between a baby or young child and the parent or caregiver, particularly the behaviour in the mother and also to observe the interactions between parent and child and the importance of this in early development.

 

Each year, St Wilfrid’s invite young families in to be observed in this way.  The students prepared questions beforehand and then spent the hour observing the child playing or the baby being fed and asking lots of questions about the behaviour and interactions between parent and child.  In this way they were also able to try out their newly acquired research method skill of controlled observations.

 

Ann Connolly, Head of Psychology, comments, “Many students do not get the opportunity to interact with children and these sessions bring the theory alive.  Parents give an insight into what it is like to have a small child and how important the bonds that we all develop are.”