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Post by healthy11 on Sept 19, 2012 15:46:35 GMT -5
"Before a baby can talk, he or she relies on non-verbal cues, especially facial expressions, to communicate. Babies also mirror those cues, and in so doing, discover the emotions the cues are attached to. In a recent study published in the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology researchers from the University of Wisconsin scientists evaluated over 100 kids and found that that six and seven-year-old boys who had heavily used pacifiers were worse at mimicking emotions expressed by faces on a video. They also interviewed more than 600 college students and discovered that college-age men whose parents reported they had relied on pacifiers scored lower on tests measuring empathy and the ability to evaluate the moods of others. For girls and young women, the researchers found there was no difference in emotional maturity based on pacifier use." They aren't sure why. (I wonder if the same effects would be seen in boys who sucked their thumbs?) shine.yahoo.com/parenting/pacifiers-may-stunt-boys-8217-emotional-development-163700328.html |
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Post by sleepy on Sept 19, 2012 19:00:05 GMT -5
Maybe they had it backward. Those boys that needed the pacifier were already struggling with these skills whereas those that weren't struggling with it abandoned their pacifiers earlier and easier. Yes, I wonder about the thumb too.
Chicken meet egg.
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Post by healthy11 on Sept 19, 2012 20:17:53 GMT -5
Well stated, sleepy! The ultrasound they took of my son in utero 4 months prior to his birth clearly showed him sucking his thumb. After his birth, he was definitely more content when he had something in his mouth (food, fingers, or a pacifier) but he left them out enough to become quite proficient at vocalizations (crying, etc.!) and he actually didn't use the pacifier much after he started talking. Who knows what the researchers considered "heavy pacifier use?"
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Post by dwolen on Sept 19, 2012 21:39:31 GMT -5
I have a funny story about thumb sucking and my dd, but since I introduced her to this web site, I am not at liberty to share it!
I do think that the thumb in the mouth really helped to modulate a lot of strong emotions.
Among hunters/gatherers, babies suckle for a few minutes at a time, several times an hour all day and night. Thumbs and pacifiers may help make up the sucking time lost through 6=10 times a day feedings that we in modern societies do.
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Post by eoffg on Sept 20, 2012 6:17:10 GMT -5
Though the key point, is 'Babies also mirror those cues, ...'.
Where mirror actually refers to development of 'mirror neurons' in the brain.
Which are fundamental to empathy.
When you see someone smile or frown, this causes a 'mirror response' in the brain.
So that if you scan a persons brain as they observe someone smiling?
The scan will show all of the muscles involved with smiling, are activated.
Yet a smile might not appear on their face.
In the same way that if you observe someone hit their thumb a hammer?
The brain will mirror this, and will react as if it was our own thumb being hit.
Where what we refer to as 'reading facial expressions', is actually a mirror response.
So that we feel the other persons facial expression.
Though the problem with the pacifier, is that the oro-facial muscles are already active in sucking on it.
Where we can't suck and mirror a smile or any other facial expression, at the same time.
So that it suppresses the development of the mirror response.
Where the real issue, is with 'excessive' use of a pacifier, when around people.
Though it was also notable that: " Previous research suggested that people who paralyze their facial muscles with injections of Botulinum toxin as a cosmetic procedure not only express less facial emotion after treatment, but they also feel less emotion."
Which would prevent this mirror response.
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Post by beth on Sept 20, 2012 7:14:26 GMT -5
Interesting.
I have three kids--girl, boy, boy. All three used pacifiers. All stopped before three.
With the third kid, I was determined not to use one. I had had enough of the searches for the pacifier ect.
The problem was he wanted to suck all the time. He was nursing constantly and then throwing up because he didn't need the food.
So I gave up and used a pacifier.
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Post by kewpie on Sept 20, 2012 7:56:16 GMT -5
My kids used pacifiers because I thought it would be easier to take away than a thumb. I have seen 5 and 6 year olds still sucking their thumb and that was the last thing I wanted for my kids.
I like Sleepy's analogy.
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Post by healthy11 on Sept 20, 2012 7:56:39 GMT -5
eoffg, I'm still wondering why boys are impacted much more than girls...Could it be that males tend to be more visual or kinesthetic learners, whereas females tend to be more auditory learners, and maybe can "hear" the emotions connected to a person's voice, as well?
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Post by eoffg on Sept 20, 2012 8:46:28 GMT -5
Healthy, I'm rather inclined to the position that the female brain has a stronger innate mirror neuron development, that enables greater empathy.
While this mirror response has been identified with what we 'see' others do.
It is very likely that this mirror response also occurs, with the emotion that we hear in another persons voice?
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