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| Subject: Esther Thelen, 63; Psychologist Studied Infant Minds | |
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Author: cancer |
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Date Posted: January 11, 2005 11:11:04 EDT Dr Esther Thelen, a psychologist whose research into the way babies develop early motor and mental skills exerted a powerful influence in the field, died on Dec. 29 at a hospital in Bloomington, Ind. She was 63. The cause was cancer, said her daughter, Jennifer Thelen of Richmond, Calif. Dr. Thelen, a psychology professor at Indiana University, was known for studying childhood development through the conceptual framework called dynamic systems theory. Many psychologists had once believed that babies developed on a relatively rigid timetable, dictated by changes in the brain. But Dr. Thelen proposed that developmental milestones occurred through a complicated interaction involving the brain, the environment, the baby's growing awareness of its body and other factors. "She had a profound impact on the way people think about how kids develop," said Dr. John Spencer, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa, a friend and former colleague of Dr. Thelen's. "She really viewed development at the level of the organism, the whole child, and showed that it's not just the genes or the brain but all these things coming together." Dr. Thelen also proposed that environmental experiences in the first year of life played an enormous role in shaping the neuronal networks in the brain that determine much of a growing child's abilities - intellectually, creatively and in other ways. Dr. Thelen was born on May 20, 1941, in Brooklyn. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and in 1977 she received a doctorate in biology from the University of Missouri. She was a member of the university's psychology department until she left for Indiana in 1985. In addition to her daughter, Dr. Thelen is survived by her husband, David, a history professor at Indiana; a son, Jeremy, of Providence, R.I.; a sister, Harriet Saeck of Sacramento; and one grandson. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |