The importance of “play” in early childhood and the assertion made by researchers like Stuart Brown suggest that there is a profound need for this activity of bonding and interaction with family and peers to increase social development and the decrease the probability of future criminal activity. The lack of play and empathy in early childhood development may have contributed to the acts of criminal behavior that was shown in the film Juvenile Correction Facilities.
Stuart Brown in his presentation of “Play Is More Than Fun” provides examples on how he believes his research on “play” is an important factor of life for animals as well as for human beings. Brown identifies different types of play such as curiosity play, social play, baby play ruff/tumble play, ritual/spectator play and story play (Brown, 2008). His research and belief is that “play” does a lot for the brain from early childhood and through out adulthood (Brown, 2008). Evidence from interviews and background information taken from Charles Whitman, the man responsible for the Texas Tower murders, suggests that his absence of play led him to become more vulnerable to committing crimes (Brown, 2008).
I believe that Stuart Brown’s assertion that early experiences such as play and play deprivation can have a profound impact on the development of empathy and social interaction. The backgrounds of most of the youth interviewed in the film Juvenile Correction Facilities, appeared to lack the development of attachment of their parents. Consequently, female juvenile offenders have a distorted view of what a relationship is and use it as a way to control and to get the feelings of being loved from their peers inside the institution. This in part is a common manifestation for emotional neediness (Juvenile Corrections Facilities, 2005).
I think it’s very important for juveniles that are susceptible to criminal behavior and lack the empathy and support from family to seek out support from other areas that allow them selves to begin a path of independence. As shown in Juvenile Correction Facilities, the youth heavily rely on the emotional need of the parents when the parents may have been and still are absent in providing the emotional and mental support that’s needed for positive change and transition into adulthood.
Good discussion of the research findings in Brown's study and the implications for youth. I also appreciated that you drew some connections between the film and the findings Dr. Brown reports on the impact play deprivation can have on youth behavior. You've got a great start, however there are a couple of suggestions I have for improving your future posts:
ReplyDelete1) The end references are missing from your post. Please be sure to include these in each weekly post as this is an important part of proper citation format for both MLA & APA citation style. Each week, there is usually an APA formatted end reference at the bottom of each of the course materials that students can draw on for examples of how to cite end references properly. Please refer to this as well as the posts linked on the main course blog page for examples of how to do end references.
2) The pieces of the different parts of the triangle, square, circle rubric were all present in your piece, but at times, it was not clear which parts of the rubric you were addressing in your post. For future posts, I would suggest either clearly labeling each of the pieces or using transition phrases to help organize the post more clearly. Please see the posts from other students linked on the main course blog to get some ideas on ways to approach organization of the weekly posts.
Good post this week, I look forward to reading more from you!