Suppose you were asked to give a presentation to a group of ...

[Engineer]

Suppose you were asked to give a presentation to a group of parents-to-be who are participating in a prepared-childbirth class. Your topic is effective parenting, or, put another way, how to raise an energetic, friendly, cooperative, independent, self-reliant child.. Based on the material presented on various styles of parenting and child behavior outcomes, what points would you stress to these parents-to-be?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

We would expect that Vygotsky would ____ peer-tutoring, by which children teach one another.
 
  a. strongly approve of
  b. believe that the mentally retarded would benefit from
  c. be indifferent about
  d. strongly disapprove of

[nixon_s]

Answer to Question 1

Research by Baumrind and others suggests that two factors in parenting are particularly important: responsiveness and style of discipline. So, the first point would be for parents to (a) be warm, responsive, and encouraging in their interactions with their child. Love alone is not enough, however, to achieve the outcomes that most of us want for our children. Children need discipline and guidance. Research indicates that the style of control or discipline associated with positive developmental outcomes includes (b) having rules/guidelines/expectations for behavior that are consistently and firmly enforced (with power and reason), (c) giving explanations to the child for the restrictions that are imposed, (d) listening to the child's point of view (but not necessarily acting on it), (e) giving the child considerable freedom and autonomy within specified limits to explore, make mistakes, and try out newly emerging skills. Parenting tends to be ineffective and promote negative rather than positive outcomes when it is overly permissive (permissive parenting makes inadequate demands for increasingly mature, responsible behavior, and permits impulsive or aggressive behavior) or when it is overly authoritarian (authoritarian parenting provides no rationales for rules and relies on harsh, power-oriented discipline).

Answer to Question 2

A