Page 443 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links
P. 443
Phased Development & Osmosis
“If real development is to take place, the people have to be involved.”
My impression must be wrong for here are organisations with some of the most educated.
Intelligent people who can call on a wide range of professional skills. It must me something
in me that is lacking. So I need help.
***** ***** *****
Development in Identifiable Stages
The Development of a baby's eyesight
As with many fathers the birth of my first child, my son, drove me to equip myself with a
better understanding of what I as a father needed to be thinking of, how I should best
approach fatherhood.
The best thing I ever did was to buy the "Book of Child Care" by Hugh Jolly, a
consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In its early chapters I got to understand the
stages of development of a baby's eyesight. Moving from first having 'black & white' vision,
with little colour and with fuzzy vision and a limited visual distance, gradually moving to
colour and those stages when the baby registers specific features such as faces.
And so it was that we as parents made changes to our son's environment. At first, on
the side of the carry-cot that was designed to also be the main body of the pram, opposite
to where his head would lie, we stuck a simple black and white line drawing for our son to
focus on whenever awake. And making changes as he developed. And when we reached
the period when he was intently watching faces we placed an unbreakable mirror in the
same place. Our logic being that regularly focusing on the same face would be helpful for
his development.
And reading further in Dr Jolly's book I became attuned to the need to not over-provide
our son with toys but to focus on understanding how his developmental needs were
changing and to provide specific toys for different stages. Not swamping our son with toys
was to be one way of helping our son to get the most from having to spend more time with
a well-chosen toy.
All parents go through this sort of enlightenment.. Which is why I can't understand
why reading all the literature I have has left me with the overall impression that the World
Bank, IMF, DfiD/FCDO and possibly other major aid donors don't have a sophisticated
approach to applying development of underdeveloped African countries.
