by: Kyle
Coon
University
of Central Florida
Introduction:
In the 1960s,
Albert Bandura ran a series of studies in which he videotaped children
performing acts of violence to inanimate objects. This occurred after the children had been
shown a video of an adult performing similar acts of violence to a dummy/doll. The children that imitated the violent acts
did not stop at just mimicking the exact acts but rather enhanced the violence,
performing harsher and more violent.
Children selected toys that were not typically meant to be instruments
of violence and turned them into instruments of violence. In short, Bandura's studies and observations
led him to develop the Social Learning Theory of Aggression (Bandura). This later evolved and became simply Social
Learning Theory, sometimes referred to as Social Cognitive Learning Theory.
The theory has
been applied to a whole host of topics e.g.
drug use, abuse, violence, etc.
In all cases the theory points toward developing children. In this paper we are going to examine Social
Learning Theory and how it can be applied when dealing with children and
families dealing with a severe visual impairment and/or blindness.
Social Learning
Theory:
Social Learning
Theory posits that we learn from watching others (Bandura). "The major framework of social cognitive
learning theory can be found in its recognition of the reciprocity and
interaction among cognitive, behavioral, environmental and
physiological/affective influences" (Money). Essentially, the actions of people in certain
situations depend strongly upon the interaction among the various influences
with a primary focus on social cognitive factors (Money). The experiences of people guide them in the
course of making decisions, what and what not to do. Everyone has a variety of experiences from
which they learn, and in many cases these experiences are from watching and
observing the actions of others (Money).
"The different sources of influence" i.e. cognitive, behavioral, environmental and
physiological/affective influences "do not have to be of equal strength or
occur simultaneously" (Money).
In no other
group than are these influences more prevalent than in children. As children grow and develop they watch and
learn from their surroundings. Their
experiences and proximal social influence and interactions with their parents,
teachers, peers, mass media and cultural institutions mold and shape how they
view the world and in partcular how they should act in it (Money). At first, childrens behavior is
self-regulated by anticipated outcomes in the social environment (Money). In other words, children act one way and then
when they receive approval or disapproval from their social environment,
i.e. parents, teachers, peers, they act
in the way they are expected. Over time,
"as children develop, their personal standards... [and] conduct are based upon increasing
experiences, social knowledge, and cognitive development" (Money). Throughout the course of their development,
the regulation of their behavior shifts from predominantly external stimuli and
sanctions to a more "gradual substitution of internal mandates rooted in
personal standards" (Money).
Once this shift
from external stimuli to internal personal standards occurs self-efficacy plays
a major function in the development (Money).
"Self efficacy is defined as an individual's beliefs about his or
her ability to perform specific tasks" (Heng-Hsiang and Chou-Kang). Learning behaviors are influenced by both
outcome expectations and self efficacy (Heng-Hsiang and Chou-Kang). Our self-efficacy affects our thinking
patterns which can be a help or a hinderance (Money). As a general rule, "the stronger the
perceived self-efficacy the higher the goals individuals may set for themselves
and the firmer the commitment to those goals" (Money). What we think may influence the way we
predict the occurrence of events and create the means for exercising control
over events that affect ours and other persons' lives (Money). People "generate hypotheses, develop
weights, and integrate these data into complex rules, test judgments, [and]
remember what works and what does not [work]" by drawing upon their
general knowledge (Money). A person's
perceptions of their efficcacy will also influence the types of anticipatory
scenarios that they construct within their mind (Money). If he or she has a high sense of efficacy
then they will visualize more successful scenarios that provide positive guides
for future task performance (Money).
Likewise, those persons with a lower sense of self-efficacy then they
will envision less positive or negative scenarios that provide less positive
and negative guides for future task performance.
Now how does
Social Learning Theory fit in with blindness, communication and the family? In
the next section we will explore the idea that the first level of a child's
social learning and education starts at home.
This is critical, especially when introducing an element such as
blindness into the equation.
Blindness and
Social Learning Theory:
Approximately 3
percent or more of the population is classified as blind or visually impaired
(Mojab). To be considered legally blind
a "person [must have] a visual acuity of 20/200 or less or a visual field
of 20 degrees or less in the better seeing eye" (Mojab). Blindness has been portrayed on two complete
opposite ends of the spectrum. In some
parts of the world blindness is seen as a gift where the person is almost
worshipped as a saint or one who can connect with the supernatural, while in
other parts of the world blindness is seen as a curse (Tenberken). In places such as Tibet, blind people are
shunned, spit upon and are thought to be possessed by demons (Tenberken). In the United States, our culture has taught
us to feel emotions such pity or just to be awkward around persons with
physical or mental disabilities.
Typically pity is a feeling that suggests the person without the
disability has a feeling of higher social status than the person with the
disability (Mojab). Awkwardness usually
just means that the person has a lack of knowledge and just is ignorant and
does not know how to act or what to say (Mojab). But while the sighted world may feel awkward,
unsure, pity, etc, those in the blind community often may experience similar
feelings depending on their self-efficacy which stems from their social education
as young children.
In 2005, Bishop,
Hobson and Lee researched "Symbolic Play in Congenitally Blind
Children". They defined symbolic
play as "pretending one object was another, attributing novel properties
to an object, or pretending that an absent object was present" (Bishop,
Hobson and Lee). During the course of
their research they came across several studies that had been performed in the
1970s through the 1990s that tried to explore if blindness affected the
development of young children. In an
early study performed in the 1970s a young congenitally blind girl, Kathie, who
was presented with a tub of water, a doll and a towel (Bishop, Hobson and
Lee). Kathie was then encouraged to give
the doll a bath (Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
However, when Kathie touched the water she stepped into the tub and
began chanting her own bath-time songs (Bishop, Hobson and Lee). Even when prompted to pretend the doll was
the one taking the bath, Kathie did not partake in the game. Kathie did not start the role of symbolic
play--pretending the doll was a real person--until after she turned four, when
she was more developed (Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
Symbolic play
has been seen in sighted children as early as the age of 17 months (Bishop,
Hobson and Lee). Other early studies
showed blind children may be delayed in the ability to symbolize, very similar
to that of children with autism (Bishop, Hobson and Lee). When provided with the opportunity for
symbolic play, the blind children had a tendency to regress to simple
repetitive activities and their play was an exact repetition of some event
(Bishop, Hobson and Lee). In the
studies, "although blind children [could] often say what their caregivers
or other people [said] to them, they [were] less able to enact the role of
someone else, and early attempts at role play [lackedgg the constant reversal
of roles that is familiar in the play of sighted young children" (Bishop,
Hobson and Lee). However, some children
made use of language and sounds as a means of expressing pretend/symbolic play
(Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
Bishop, Hobson
and Lee hypothesized that "blind children may be handicapped in developing
creative symbolic play by virtue of their difficulty in seeing how other people
relate to things and events in a shared world, and identifying with others'
psychological orientation" (Bishop, Hobson and Lee). "They are [also] handicapped in
discovering how people ascribe new meanings to objects that have an
alternative, "objective" meaning" and "the handicap is most
severe for those who are also less strongly or affectively engaged with other
people's attitudes to the world, for the reason that this further limits their
propensity to identify with such attitudes to objects and events" (Bishop,
Hobson and Lee). The researchers
realized that due to everyone being different there was a severe chance that
symbolic play in blind children could be a result of their social ability. So when they conducted their study they
emphasized that "socially able children of the age and cognitive ability
studied would have overcome much of the handicap they might have suffered...so
that there would be few if any substantial differences between their symbolic
play and that of matched sighted children" (Bishop, Hobson and Lee). They also "predicted that when socially
impaired blind children compared with socially able blind children of the same
age and cognitive ability, the [socially impaired] group would show deficits in
symbolic play" (Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
And "in some children, congenital blindness may constitute a
contributory but not sufficient factor for the development of symbolic play
deficits" (Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
After surveying
and receiving recommendations from teachers, Bishop, Hobson and Lee separated
two groups of congenitally blind children, one considered socially able and the
other more socially impaired and conducted two symbolic play exercises with
each child. The symbolic play exercise
was then performed with same aged sighted children. In the end, Bishop, Hobson and Lee determined
that "congenitally blind children who were socially impaired were shown to
have limitations in symbolic play when compared with language-matched
congenitally blind children who were socially able" (Bishop, Hobson and
Lee). They also concurred with earlier
studies that "by middle childhood, symbolic play can develop to
sophisticated levels in congenitally blind children who are socially more
able" but that "lack of vision is not a barrier to developing fully
elaborated symbolic play" (Bishop, Hobson and Lee).
In an indirect
way, the study performed by Bishop, Hobson and Lee was a way of testing Social
Learning Theory. It can be assumed that
the children that were considered more "socially able" had a higher
degree of exposure and experience and were better socialized at home. This ties directly in with Bandura's Social
Learning Theory in that children learn from watching others (Bandura). But it can be argued that these blind children
in the study did not "watch" anybody perform symbolic or pretend
play. However, just because a blind
child can not see does not mean that they do not pick up on what is going on
around them. But to ensure a proper
start in preparing a blind child for later life it is essential for the parents
of the child to teach and communicate effectively to their children what is
right and wrong and to instill within them a high self-efficacy.
Communicating
Social Learning to Blind Children:
Ed Weihenmayer
is a former Marine attack pilot and Wall Street executive. He is probably best known for being the
business manager and Father of World Class Blind Athlete Erik Weihenmayer. Erik Weihenmayer is world famous for being
the first blind man to climb the Seven Summits--the tallest peak on each
continent--including Mt Everest.
"What holds most blind people back from being the best they can be
in life is their physical awkwardness, their discomfort or lack of confidence
in their own body movement" said Weihenmayer in an article he wrote for
the National Association of Parents of the Visually Impaired
(Weihenmayer). This "discomfort or
lack of confidence" is manifested when a blind person clumsily enters a
room in which they can not find a seat or eats sloppily with friends at a table
or weakly shakes the hand of a person they first meet (Weihenmayer). And again it is "evident when they walk
awkwardly beside someone on a sidewalk or can not hind the door to get into
their friend's car" (Weihenmayer).
Weihenmayer explains that all of these situations make it appear as
though the blind person is hesitant, unsure or lacks confidence
(Weihenmayer). Not only does it
accomplish these impressions but it also makes the person interacting with the
blind or visually impaired person uncomfortable as well (Weihenmayer). "Judgments are frequently made in the
first 30 seconds of a situation [which can impeed] a blind person"
(Weihenmayer).
Ed Weihenmayer
points out that "we [can not] control the environment in which a blind
person lives and operates" but "we can control the mobility of the
blind person" by teaching them the necessary skills at home
(Weihenmayer). However, it is almost
impossible to just sit a child down and explain to them that they need to be
confident and have that high sense of self-efficacy. This is where the communication from parent to
child becomes more action oriented.
In 2002, Steve
Barnes of the Orlando Sentinel wrote a brief article about a young ten year old
blind rock climber from Jacksonville, Florida, named Kyle Coon, who was
competing in a statewide series of rock climbing competitions. After meeting Ed and Erik Weihenmayer after
losing his sight at age six Coon took up rock climbing and with the
encouragement of his family excelled.
Coon's Father said that the inspiration of meeting Erik Weihenmayer and
the sport of rock climbing showed Kyle that his disability did not mean he
could not do the things that other kids did (Barnes). Kyle's Father said `he has become one very
determined individual--he [does not] let too much stand in his way` (Barnes).
This is again an
example of what Ed Weihenmayer discussed above about empowering blind children
and teaching them to be confident with their body. Ed Weihenmayer wrote that if he were to be a
parent to another blind youngster then he would "aggressively urge the
child into the pool to become a good swimmer" (Weihenmayer). He would encourage sports such as wrestling,
gymnastics, tumbling, dance and rock climbing (Weihenmayer). What all these sports have in common are
complete body control and awareness.
Essentially,
when it comes to teaching social skills to blind children it is most effective
to do so in a way that teaches them to be mobile and confident with their
movements and in their own skin. At the
same time it is important to have effective verbal communication with blind
children. While sighted children can
see, recognize and even imitate an angry, upset or happy/approving expression,
it is more important that when parenting a blind child the parent vocalizes
those emotions so that the child knows when he or she has received approval or
disapproval for an action. Rather than
learning through what they see, blind children learn through what they hear,
touch, smell and taste more than sighted children. They rely on these other four senses to learn
what is and is not socially appropriate, and it is up to the parents, teachers
and peers of that child to be his or her eyes.
Although this
method of socializing blind children seems simple enough, there are barriers
that often comes up. Apart from the
stereotypes and perceptions of others placed upon blind people, possibly the
biggest obstacle for the parents of the blind child is the protective
instinct. "As parents we want to
protect our children" says Ed Weihenmayer and then adds "but we also
know we need to let go" (Weihenmayer).
Weihenmayer then recounts an episode when his son Erik was about 11 or
12 years old. Erik had brought another
blind boy over to the house and the two boys went back through the woods behind
the Weihenmayers house and to a rushing stream.
Erik, having been brought up in an athletic family and unafraid and
completely aware of himself and his surroundings, jumped right in and started
swimming around. However, the other boy
clung to the bank scared that if he were to go beneath the water he would
become disoriented and not know which way was up and therefore he would drown
(Weihenmayer). The boy had been told
this by his parents in order to protect him and keep him safe, but on the other
hand Weihenmayer points out that the boy might still be alive today because of
that protectiveness but he is more than likely no where close to what he
potentially could be.
Weihenmayer then
recollects standing at the base of the 3000 foot overhanging rockface of El
Capitan as Erik attemfted to become the first blind man to reach the top. He remarked to a passerby that his blind son
was up there (Weihenmayer). The woman
said that Ed was a terrible parent and how she could not believe how a Father
could ever let his blind son do something as dangerous as climbing a rockface
(Weihenmayer). Then a friend of Ed's
said, about Erik, "he also skydives" (Weihenmayer). Needless to say, the woman was a little angry
and upset with Ed and went speeding off in her car (Weihenmayer). It is reactions and over protectiveness like
the woman's that hinder a person's--blind or sighted--potential.
Conclusion:
Within this
paper we have explored what is Social Learning Theory. In the simplest explanation, Social Learning
Theory says that we learn from watching others (Bandura). These observations and imitations of others
can be both positive and/or negative especially with young impressionable
children. While Social Learning Theory
can be applied across all age ranges it is most closely assigned to that of
young children. The home and family are
the first levels of education for children.
We then examined
how Social Learning Theory may affect children who are blind or visually
impaired and concluded that no matter what, vision--or any other physical
handicap--should not be a hinderance in the social education of children. When it comes to blind children "academics
are important and blindness skills--cane mobility, braille, computer--are
essential but physical mobility and one's comfort with that mobility is just as
important" (Weihenmayer). Effective
verbal communication between parents and children is key. But the willingness to let go, if ever so
slightly, of the overly protective instinct is also crucial.
References:
Bandura, A.
(1978). Social Learning Theory of
Aggression. Journal of
Communication-Volume 28, Issue 3, Summer, 1978
Barnes, S.
(2002). Tests of Agility,
Strength Have Kids Climbing Walls.
Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, FL May 30, 2002 J1
Bishop, M., Hobson, P.R., Lee, A. (2005).
Symbolic Play in Congenitally Blind Children. Development and Psychopathology-Volume 17, Issue
2, April, 2005
Heng-Hsiang, H., Chou-Kang, C. (2006).
Proposing Student Learning Performance in Physical Education by Applying
Social Cognitive Theory. Journal of
American Academy of Business, Cambridge.
9, 2, September, 2006 280-284
Mojab, C.G.
(1999). Helping The Visually
Impaired or Blind Mother Breastfeed.
Leaven. 35. 3.
July 31, 1999: 51-56
Money, W.H.
(1995). Applying Group Support
Systems to Classroom Settings: A Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Explanation. Journal of Management
Information Systems. 12, 3. Winter 1995/1996 65
Tenberken, Sabriye (2003) My Path Leads to Tibet: The
Inspiring Story of How One Young Blind Woman Brought Hope to the Blind Children
of Tibet. Arcade Publishing House New
York, NY
Weihenmayer, E.
Parenting A Blind Child. National
Association of Parents of the Visually Impaired
