I am unsure if you are familiar with the concept of “modeling,”  but it is a term used in psychology that has to do with describing where a child gets his or her behavior from.  This is the classic picture, for example, of a young toddler talking on their play phone in their own, cute way because that is what mommy or daddy does.  In the same way, it is how a child yells or bickers at his or her sibling, because it is the way mommy or daddy deals with anger or frustration.

In an experiment done by Alfred Bandura on aggression of children, he showed kindergartners a video of a woman beating up a bobo doll.  He then let the kindergartners go play with the doll.  He found similar behavior to what the adults did in the video.  Some children even took a step further; aiming their fingers like a gun for between the doll’s eyes and so on.  Modeling is a process and a real thing that happens from an early age.  It is no wonder why children pick up things from movies and video games, and bad words from older children and adults!

Dr. Uzelac, one of my former professors, showed us this video in our Senior Psychology Seminar class.  It is a very inspirational video, a commercial from Australia, that touched me.  I can’t even imagine the way it would hit me if I were a parent (as my professor was).  This is why I am sharing it.  This will show the power that educators and parents have on their children.  This will show the value of how good of a parent you are or can be.  Enjoy!