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what is the most important thing in
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cello development this is something we
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should really care about because we all
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want to improve the well-being in the
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lives of kids so what are the most
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important things in child development
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I'd like you to help me to get started
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so think of a child really do it like
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bring up a child in your mind's eye
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close your eyes think of that child you
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got it
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now if you could do something the most
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important thing to influence the life of
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that child what would you do when I've
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asked this question the Western
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audiences there's a whole litany of
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important things provide attachment
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security good nutrition provide it with
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good playmates stimulation lots of
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stimulation
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perhaps a religious or spiritual pathway
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which will be important to the child
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provide a trust fund so that the child
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will have resources as it grows older
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some of the parents in the audience I
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mention other things like it's the
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toilet training just get me through the
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toilet training or get my kid to sleep
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or they bring the homework sheets home
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and then they get lost so there are a
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lot of things that we think of as
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important things in child development
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all all those things are important and
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of course there's no one thing that
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would be the only important thing none
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of these in my view are the most
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important thing the most important thing
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you could do would be to decide or think
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about where in the world is that child
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growing up all the things that we think
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of about the child depend on the context
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in which the child and its family are
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living what family what neighborhood
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what community what nation state will
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that child's life pathways be determined
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in most of the things we think of
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nutrition having a trust fund that
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religious pathway is there one religious
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pathway are there many what is that
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religious pathway entail all of these
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things depend on the child in some
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particular
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context most of us when we do this and
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many of you probably brought up in your
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mind a child sort of floating in space
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now for analytic or research reasons it
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might be useful to think of a childhood
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is an autonomous person but that child
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does not exist the only children that
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exists are children in the world who
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really live there and the importance of
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keeping the context in mind needs to be
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brought out more strongly in how we
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think about kids and how we try to
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improve their well-being I first saw
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this one as a young anthropologist I
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went to Kenya I was studying the effects
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of urban migration on children there
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I've subsequently done many research
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projects to try to improve the lives of
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kids or at least understand that in
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different places around the world and in
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the US and when you go to other parts of
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the world or you know people from there
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you see the power of contextual and
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cultural differences on children's lives
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by learning about the rest of the world
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will understand better how to take care
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of kids here and everywhere the way when
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we think about kids is autonomous
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individuals it's a way of thinking that
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we learn and it's no accident that we've
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learned that for one thing we live in a
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weird society weird is an ironic but
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useful Afrin ism acronym for Western
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educated industrialized rich and
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democratic societies now about 12% of
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the world live in such a society and
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most of the research that we hear about
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and the experts that we hear about in
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the context we're in come from other
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weird societies so we have learned to
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bracket the context out and just think
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about the child as an individual in a
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weird Society research is in the same
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way mostly from weird societies in
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psychology for example over 90% of the
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research studies are done in weird
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societies with samples from those parts
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of the world
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if you're an undergraduate in a college
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or university in the West like some of
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you here you are four thousand times
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more likely to be in a research study
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than a randomly selected person from the
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rest of the world what if we take
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account of the other 88% because by
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doing that we'll see the importance of
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context much more clearly fortunately
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there's a wonderful rasayan TIFF ik
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research literature to help us do that
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they're also increasingly people that we
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know who have grown up and lived in
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those societies and we can go and visit
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them to see the importance of this now
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even where societies are diverse in
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context and the rest of the world way
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more so and so you can't possibly see or
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understand all of the differences but
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I'm going to mention a few that I have
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seen myself and that offer an important
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and useful contrast to weird societies
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one is the importance of social
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responsibility and collaborative
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learning and social intelligence that
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you see in so many cultures and so many
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children around the world
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unfortunately the parent of one of the
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children you see in that slide from a
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rural school in Kenya has died and after
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lunch all of the children are going to
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take those sticks of wood which each of
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them have brought a few to school that
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morning they're going to put the wood on
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their heads they're going to walk to the
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child's home pay their condolences and
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bring the wood which is needed to
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prepare for the funeral
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that's coming in the next few days it's
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phenomenal the amount of Prentice Shipp
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adult child contextual learning that you
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see around the world
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another is multiple care taking of
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children kids are raised by a lot of
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different people care is socially
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distributed children are very securely
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attached but they're attached to a
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social setting a family and other
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members that help take care of them
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they're likely to be part of a community
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of care unfortunately large numbers of
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children in the world live in very harsh
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environments with oppression and
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uncertainty and deep poverty and
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inequality
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and toxic environments and chaotic
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family situations that often result
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girls lives are likely to diverge from
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boys as boys and girls get older say
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after early childhood so the way girls
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lives play out very in way boys lives
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very but they're likely to be more
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divergent than differentiated than we
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find it here the institutions that
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children are living in and will grow
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into are different
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marriage may be collectively a group
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arranged inheritance may only go to boys
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or may go to older children or that
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trust fund may not be available if
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you're a younger born child compared to
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an older children are more likely to
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grow up in large extended families when
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are in single mother households that are
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very isolated and where there's a very
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harsh environment facing many children
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so bring up the child again let's do it
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again think of the child again where is
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the child living what is the world in
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which the child is living in and perhaps
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the most important thing what kind of
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child or person is desirable and
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considered morally important in that
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community that is one of the most
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important things about child development
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well-being is the ability of a child to
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actively participate in the activities
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that that society thinks is important
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and desirable so to help children around
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the world when we think about this topic
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bring up in your mind the context the
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whole world around the child and will do
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much better at improving the lives of
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children everywhere thanks very much
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you
