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Stages of human development infancy
Stages of development from conception to birth
Stages of human development infancy
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The infancy stage of development is comprised of the first two years of a child since birth. During this stage infants experience numerous changes ranging from physical, social, cognitive and emotional all of whom adding to their development from one stage to another. Emotional development has been shown to be significant during this stage. Theorists argue that emotional development is closely linked to survival. Being able to express one’s self through emotion allows outside individuals to see and understand how and what one feels and is experiencing. For instance when an individual is sad, happy and angry they tend to convey emotions expressing these feelings, which in turn gives outsiders insight into the emotional state of mind of the individuals.
Emotionally the infant will need love, warmth & care. The baby will need to feel safe and have healthy emotion responses. When the baby is hungry or tired, they cry to express themselves.
There are few fields within the child development science. One of them is represented by the psychoanalytical theory, which looks at the child emotional development within the context of social interaction and early attachments. This framework is called psychosocial as it looks on the emotional and social aspects. Running in parallel and influencing each other there are two more main areas, cognitive and physical. Although I am focusing on the aspects of the psychosocial development, it is important to remember that all these areas are being affected one by the other, where the development of the emotional skills plays central role in a regular development of cognitive and physical skills.
There are eight stages of psychosocial development, according to Erik Erikson. Erikson’s first stage is infancy, which approximates from birth to one year old. The issue for infants is trust vs. mistrust. In this stage, infants depend on others for food and warmth; therefore, infants must be able to trust the parent for providing those. If the infants’ needs are properly cared by the parent, infants will not only develop trust and security attachment with the parents, but also trust their environment. If not, infants will develop mistrust towards people, things in their environment, and towards themselves. Erikson’s second stage is toddlerhood, which approximates from one year old to three years old. The issue for toddlers is autonomy vs. shame and doubt. In this stage, toddlers have an opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as toddlers learn new skills for themselves; toddlers also tend to be helpless during this stage, they have sometimes felt shame and low self-esteem during an inability to learn certain new skills. Erikson’s third stage is preschool, which approximates fro...
Empathy is a really important aspect in a child’s life, as it helps them understand their emotions, increases prosocial behavior, as well as helps preschoolers understand others emotions while interacting with their peers. Facial expressions are another part of child’s understanding of what’s going on with another person’s emotions. An encouragement for the child during preschool years is crucial in order for the child to learn and regulate certain behaviors. However, during the preschool years children are able to communicate a limited amount of emotions they are feeling through the help of the teachers, and by interacting with their peers (Prosocial Behavior, 2002) As the child is growing they will interact more with peers, which will lead them to understand their interests and abilities. They are able to communicate their likes and dislikes during the preschool stage. During the early years many theorists had suggested that young children are too egocentric, and cannot understand or perform empathy (Bierhoff, 2002). However, recent studies have clearly stated that young children are capable of displaying many different types of behaviors, which show empathy towards others, and motivates them to have a prosocial behavior. However, it is a challenge for preschoolers to communicate while showing empathy, as they have limited amount of language they can use. A very common way of knowing whether a preschooler is showing empathy is by observing their reaction to another child’s stress (Prosocial Behavior, 2002).
As a result of the myelination of the limbic system, growth of the prefrontal cortex and a longer attention span, emotional regulation and cognitive maturation develop together, enabling one another to advance (Berger,2014, p.213). This type of development and level of maturation is most noticeable in children ages four and five because uncontrollable outburst of emotion, such as tantrums and phobias begin to disappear; however, I believe it’s possible for children younger than four to achieve this level of maturation and cognitive development much sooner based on external influences such as parents, friends and their environment. For example, not long after my daughter turned she began to speak in small but full sentences to express her needs and emotions. I’ll never forget the first time I told her no when she made a request. Her facial expression immediately changed and she burst into tears. I was completely at a loss for words, being a first time mother, because I could not understand why she had such a dramatic reaction to being told no. Finally, I realized that even though it was very apparent to myself my reason for saying no, she was not able to comprehend the why at this stage in her life. From that day forward I have made it a conscious effort to explain and demonstrate my actions and the reasons for them;
Life without emotions would lack meaning, texture, richness, joy and the connection with others (Leahy, R.L., et al, 2012). Emotion can be defined as various states of feelings, thoughts and verbal interactions that individuals can experience (White el al., 2012). It is from this that individuals are able to create relationships with others, in this case infants are able to create attachments to their parents. For the purpose of this essay, emotions can be categorised into two parts; over-regulation and under-regulation. Over-regulation is one's ability to suppress evidence of emotional distress in various situ...
The ideas of this article intrigued me because of the information presented in the beginning paragraphs. This article elaborates upon how important the ability of being able to distinguish between positive and negative emotions is. Through the faces presented in the start of the article, I learned that affective development “generally precedes cognitive and behavioral development, as children experience emotions and react to them long before they are able to verbalize or cope. However, social and emotional competencies do not unfold automatically; rather they are strongly influenced by the child’s early learning environment” (Kramer, Caldarella, Christensen & Shatzer 2010). As an educator, I feel as though this is a pertinent piece of important information. Oftentimes students will view school as their safe-haven, and, with all the struggles that they are facing at home, emotions are let loose in the wrong ways. This social-emotional learning program reportedly help...
A child is considered an infant from the age of 2 to 12 months. From 12 months to 36 months this is considered the toddler years where the cognitive, emotional, and social development is great. The social emotional development occurs during early childhood where children experience different moods as well as expanding their social world by learning more about their emotions and other people. The social emotional development is a child's way of understanding the feelings of others, controlling their own feelings and behaviors and getting along with peers. The key to a successful emotional and social development are positive relationship with trusting and caring adults. The social and emotional development in infants and toddlers can have negative
There are multiple prenatal influences that can affect the well being of infants. One of these
The first few years of human development has a significant impact on the person’s overall growth and progress. Since there are well-defined developmental milestones for each particular stage of infancy, interactions between a 15 month old (mo) female infant and her thirty-four year old female caregiver were observed to relate theoretical concepts of human development to infant behaviour.
Children’s development in all aspects are influenced by genetic composition (Nature) and the environment in which they grow (Nurture). They are influenced by all adults in which they come into significant contact. Smiling at someone unfamiliar or speaking to a stranger is less likely to have a lasting impact on the child or their development. However, parents and immediate family have the most impact on a child’s development. A family is defined as at least one adult and one child who live together and in which the adult is control of the child’s life and behavior as well as demonstrates responsible care for the child (McDevitt & Ormand, 2013). Parents are the primary educators and caregivers,
Early childhood reveals a distinctive opportunity for the foundation of a healthy development and a time of immense growth and of helplessness. In early childhood, children begin to learn what causes emotions and begin noticing others reactions to these feelings. They begin to learn to manage and control their feelings in self regulation. Emotional self regulation refers to the strategies used to adjust emotions to a contented level so goals can be accomplished. This requires voluntary, effortless management of emotions (Berk, 2007). Promoting young children’s social-emotional development is essential for three interconnected reasons: Positive social-emotional development provides a base for life-long learning; Social skills and emotional self-regulation are integrally related to later academic success in school, Prevention of future social and behavioral difficulties is more effective than later remediation (U.S Department of Health and Human Services). Research on early childhood has highlighted the strength of the first five years of a child’s life on thier social-emotional development. Neg...
Infants are in no way passive recipients of care and support, both while in utero and during infancy into adolescence. As humans evolved towards modernity, fetuses and infants have adapted concurrently, actively attempting to increase their own fitness and guarantee their safety. While these adaptations may not be conscious, infants have a biological agency that allows them to maximize the attention given to them, leading to a higher chance of surviving past the helplessness of infancy and into adulthood. This can be seen in utero through the fetuses interactions with the placenta, as well as extrauterine, through cuteness and all the benefits that may arise from being cute.
Transition from childhood to adulthood is not just age related. It is a shift in the way our mind starts to process things.
assist in the development of emotions in early childhood (Berk & Meyers, 2016). These different