Suzanne Zeedyk Profile picture
Sep 5, 2020 15 tweets 10 min read Read on X
A THREAD of #Gratitude to greet the day! As many of you know, I start every day with such a post. Today’s moment is ths vivid expression of awe & wonder frm ths precious child. (Thank you for yr post, Mum Lisa.) Her expression shows us somethng fundamental abt human emotionality.
2. Don’t miss how, at .01, the pitch & volume of her voice rises with excitement about t waterfall. So does her hand & arm. Both rise. Her body is ^coordinated* in its emotional experience of t world. That is key to her expression of her emotions & our ability to perceive them.
3. That vocal-bodily coordination is what infant psychologist Colwyn Trevarthen calls “Communicative Musicality”, in his groundbreaking 2009 book. It explores the “intrinsic musical nature of human interaction.” amazon.co.uk/Communicative-…
4. The little girl’s emotional experience of t moment, of t waterfall, is not just internal. It is expressed in t coordinated movement of her body, permitting others to SHARE in her emotional experience of the world. The sharing is part of the magic of human interaction.
5. We do this sharing intuitively all the time. Just look at Mum Lisa’s post! She 1) comments on the joy of seeing her child’s face, 2) shows the viewer what the awe is about (the amazing waterfall), 3) posts about her joy in sharing the moment w/ her daughter.
6. And the very very best bit is that children demand such sharing of us!! Look at .13 of the film. She looks straight at Mum. “Are you seeing this???” She looks be sure her mum is SHARING this amazing event! She unconsciously & instinctively drives & craves the sharing.
7. Too often our culture treats babies as passive recipients of the world. They aren’t. They are active, engaged participants. Human beings are communicative beings from birth. We seek companionship for life to feel vital. That is t point of t theory of Communicative Musicality.
8. Here is t way t book’s summary puts it: “speaking & moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of human communication, even the most refined, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts.” amazon.co.uk/Communicative-…
9. In short, all human interactn is a form of jazz. It is spontaneous, in t moment, coordinated, simultaneously created &expressd. It is deeply profound &yet ordinary. That is ALL captured in ths 15-sec clip!! That’s why 285K ppl have liked it! They intuitively perceive ths stuff
10. Please can I repeat what I just said? I didn’t say human interaction is “like” jazz. I said it “is” jazz. That is t point of Communicative Musicality. What we think of as formal “music” grows frm t musicality of our own bodies — of our coordinated, shared experience of LIFE.
11. This insight is profound. Human beings are born connected. To feel alive & vital, we need connection. Til we die. Yep, this video is joyous. But it isn’t only that. It is also profound. This child Simone, w/ her mum & dad’s help, teaches us all about the profundity of life.
12/end. So let me end my thread with that - wishing you all a weekend in which you experience a bit of awe & wonder - and hoping you can find someone, even a stranger on the street, to share the moment with. We humans were born to connect. Happy Saturday. #Grateful
Welcome to Twitter @ChiltonPearce . I think you will like this, grounded as you are in the magical child. 😊 Thanks for following me. #Grateful

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More from @suzannezeedyk

Jul 28
Yesterday I talked about the links between childhood fear/distress and the appeal in adulthood of authoritarians like Trump. Some respondents thought this was a silly idea. I'm far from the only one talking about this, tho. So I thought I would keep talking about it. THREAD Image
2. Here are researchers Milburn & Conrad talking about their recent studies. Quote: 'We talk at length about childhood punishment and its effects on the development of authoritarianism along with its negative impact on the political system."
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/authoritariani…
Image
3. Here's more:
- "Our research points to a distortion of adult political attitudes as an addition to the list of negative outcomes from spanking."
- "The effects of childhood punishmnt on authoritarianism remained significant after controlling for parents' political ideology." Image
Read 13 tweets
Jul 27
I hear many people asking: "WHY do people support Trump? WHY are so many Americans willing to support his extreme positions (like the collapse of democracy)?" That willingness begins with childhood experiences. Let me remind us what happens in many American childhoods. A THREAD
2. Corporal punishment. It is still legal in state schools in 17 of America's 50 states. It is actively practiced in 12 of them, mostly in the South. Approximately 100,000 children & young people (mostly African American boys) are subjected to paddling every year, by this: Image
3. What about private schools in America? Corporal punishment remains legal in private institutions in 46 states. Only New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland & New York have banned it for all children. Lots of Christian parents send their children to private schools. @no2hitting Image
Read 11 tweets
May 9
"What is it that we still don't get?"
This is t title of an insightful article writtn by Cliffe & Solvason in 2022 an academc journal called 'Power & Education' @PowerandEd . That quote is frm me.
This is a THREAD highlightng the important qstns they ask.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.11…
Image
2. "In t opening speech for @TIGERSEYAcad 2017, Zeedyk asks 'what is that we still don't get?' Her point is that EY educators are often still not gettng the importnce of relatnshps, at policy or practice level."
Yep. I still think this. Well done @TIGERS_UK for opening up debate. Image
@TIGERSEYAcad @TIGERS_UK 3. "The dilemma Zeedyk alluded to emerges clearly when human development is closely scrutinised....Relatnshps are key to a child's learning, developmnt & resilience - inside & outside EY provision."
Delighted to see the theorists cited: @grahammusic1, @MoralLandscapes, Trevarthen Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 25, 2023
A #BabyThread about the sophistication of baby teasing.
This latest post from @DanWuori has been getting lots of shares & many of you have tagged me. I thought I would highlight some of the nuances so noone misses its fabulous complexity. THREAD.
2. So what can we see? Well, first, there aren't just 2 of them in on this joke, but 3! I am guessing that Daddy is filming the interaction, because there are two points when the baby looks directly at the camera as he says 'Dada'. With that look, he pulls Daddy into the joke.
3. Second, this is an example of what developmental psychologst Vasu Reddy calls 'infant clowning'. These are "acts which infants repeat deliberately in order to re-elicit laughter from others". He's learned something of emotionally managing his mama.😀
https://t.co/6gB4L1QBWKcairn.info/revue-enfance1…
Read 10 tweets
May 28, 2023
How the new challenges faced by women footballers help us in thinking about responses to increased “school violence”. An analogy I didn’t have time to draw on today in my intvw w/ @Fionasstalker on @BBCRadioScot . THREAD. Image
2. A piece in this weekend's @guardian describes the increased hamstring injuries faced by top female footballers. Playing more often in elite matches places new demands on them. "Coaching methods are failing to keep up." The article explains how coaching has to adapt & change. Image
3. The @guardian article explains clearly how hamstrings work. We get a helpful schematic drawing & a Quick Guide. "Injuries tend to occur during sudden movements. Footballers are at high risk." So we've linked t biology (physiology) of hamstrings to real life (football). Grand! Image
Read 13 tweets
May 27, 2023
The “Behaviour Crisis” in schools is not going away. The pandemic has affected developmnt even of babies. We must stop searching for who to blame: kids, govt, parents, teachers, etc. We must understand human development (ie trauma). Let me explain. THREAD bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
2. This 2022 study found a "striking decline" in t verbal, non-verbal & cognitive performance of babies born during the pandemic. These core capacities will affect all areas of developmnt as babies age. (I have talked about this study to many audiences.) medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
3. This 2021 report showed that yng childrn's language develpmnt had been affected. I hear abt delayed language everywhere. Strugglng to express yrself results in frustration, which leads to behaviour that adults often punish & then relational conflict. bbc.co.uk/news/education…
Read 21 tweets

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