Child Development

INFANTS & TODDLERS: SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

  • Reference: Kail, R. V., & Zolner, T. (2015). Children: A Chronological Approach (4th Canadian Ed.). Toronto: Pearson.

LIFE STAGES

  • Prenatal: Conception to Birth

  • Newborn: Birth to 1 month

  • Infant: 1 month to 1 year

  • Toddler: 1-2 years

  • Preschooler: 2-6 years

  • Middle Childhood: 6-12 years

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the class, students will be able to:

  • Explain the difference between basic and complex emotions.

  • Explain how infants and toddlers regulate emotions.

  • Explain how infants and toddlers use other people’s emotions to interpret new experiences.

  • Describe different types of attachment relationships.

  • Explain how attachment is related to later relationships.

  • Discuss how self-recognition in infancy aids in the development of a self-concept.

  • List and describe different features of temperament.

EMOTIONS AND ATTACHMENT

Main Themes:

  1. Basic Emotions

    • Each consists of three elements:

      • A subjective feeling

      • A physiological change

      • An overt behavior

    • Examples include: Fear, Sadness, Joy, Anger, Disgust, Contempt, Surprise.

    • Basic emotions are exhibited across cultures, however, the expression can vary based on cultural context.

      • Happiness:

      • Smiling and laughing begins in response to physiological states;

      • Around ~2 months, infants show "social smiles";

      • At ~12 months, infants laugh in response to psychological stimuli.

      • Anger:

      • Newborns express general distress; emotions are not clearly defined.

      • A clear display of anger emerges around ~4-6 months in response to blocked goals.

      • Fear:

      • Clear displays of fear emerge around ~6 months including stranger wariness, which serves to keep infants close to caregivers. This fear generally decreases as toddlers learn to recognize friendly expressions.

  2. Complex Emotions:

    • Examples include guilt, embarrassment, and pride.

    • Emerge around ~18-24 months, depending upon a child's reflexive understanding of the self (normally around ~15-18 months), and requires advanced cognitive abilities to understand situations and roles.

  3. Connecting with the World:

    • At around ~6-7 months, infants start recognizing emotions in others.

    • Infants use facial and vocal expressions to navigate their environment, engaging in a social referencing behavior to seek cues from parents or trusted caregivers in unfamiliar or ambiguous situations.

  4. Regulating Emotions:

    • Between ~4-6 months, infants begin using simple emotion regulation strategies such as looking away or moving closer to a parent when encountering frightening or confusing stimuli.

    • As children grow, they develop more effective strategies for emotional regulation which are influenced by both genetics and parenting practices. Genetic predispositions can be shaped or triggered by environmental factors such as abuse or neglect, or positively influenced through safe upbringing and role modeling.

ATTACHMENT DEVELOPMENT

Growth of Attachment

  • Attachment: Defined as an enduring social-emotional relationship, which relies on the infant's capability to differentiate between objects and people. A caregiver's synchronization with the infant's behavioral cycles is crucial.

  • By ~6 or 7 months, infants identify a primary attachment figure.

  • Internal Working Model:

    • A set of expectations regarding parents' availability and responsivity, related to trust and a child's sense of worthiness in receiving care.

Attachment Relationships

  1. Types of Attachment Relationships Identified in the Strange Situation Experiment:

    • Secure Attachment:

      • Infants may or may not cry when the caregiver leaves but are soothed upon reunion.

      • Indicative sentiment: “I missed you.”

    • Avoidant Attachment:

      • Infants are not distressed by caregiver’s absence and may ignore the caregiver when they return.

      • Indicative sentiment: “I can take care of myself.”

    • Resistant Attachment:

      • Infants display distress when the caregiver leaves and exhibit anger or distress upon reunion.

      • Indicative sentiment: “I’m angry with you for leaving me.”

    • Disorganized Attachment:

      • Infants show confusion during separation and upon reunion.

      • Indicative sentiment: “What’s going on here?”

Effects of Attachment Relationships

  • Secure attachment fosters:

    • Higher quality friendships

    • Fewer behavioral problems

    • Higher emotional intelligence

    • Enhanced ability to regulate emotions

  • Early attachment relationships establish the foundation for later relationships and influence the development of the adult attachment types: Secure, Dismissive, and Preoccupied.

Serve and Return Interactions

  • The engagement in responsive interactions promotes the structural development of the infant's brain by strengthening neural connections when a child communicates (babbles, gestures, cries) and receives appropriate responses (eye contact, words, hugs).

ONSET OF PEER INTERACTIONS

  • Types of Play:

    • Non-social Play (~6 months): Infant plays alone without direct interaction.

    • Parallel Play (~12 months): Infants play near one another, using similar toys but without direct interaction or sharing.

    • Simple Social Play (~15-18 months): Involves shared unstructured activities and taking turns.

    • Cooperative Play (~24 months): Infants collaborate, cooperate, and share goals within play activities.

SELF RECOGNITION AND SELF-CONCEPT

  • Self Recognition:

    • Can be indicated through the mirror task, typically evident between 18 and 24 months.

    • Other indicators include a preference for photographs of oneself and the use of personal pronouns like “I” or “me.”

    • Children between 20-28 months who exhibit higher self-awareness are inclined to claim ownership, saying “mine” when playing with other children.

  • As children develop, their self-concept evolves beyond material possessions.

TEMPERAMENT

Defining Temperament

  • Based on the New York Longitudinal Study (Thomas and Chess, 1986), there are nine dimensions of temperament traits which categorize children into three groups: easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up.

  • Temperament shows moderate stability through infancy and the preschool years and is influenced by both genetics and environmental factors.

Dimensions of Temperament (Table 7-1)

  1. Activity Level: Amount of physical activity.

  2. Rhythmicity: Regularity in eating, sleeping, and toileting.

  3. Approach/Withdrawal: Response to a novel object (accepting vs. rejecting).

  4. Distractibility: Ease of disruption due to competing stimuli.

  5. Adaptability: Ease of adjustment to environmental changes.

  6. Intensity of Reaction: Energy levels of responses.

  7. Mood: Balance between happy and unhappy behaviors.

  8. Threshold: Level of stimulation needed to provoke a response.

  9. Attention Span and Persistence: Amount of time devoted to activities, especially amidst distractions.

Effects of Temperament on Development

  • Children displaying persistent behavior tend to achieve academic success more readily than those characterized by high activity and distractibility.

  • Shy or inhibited children may struggle with peer interactions and coping strategies.

  • Fearful children often adhere to rules even in the absence of authority figures, while extroverted toddlers might be more prone to accidents.

  • Temperament + Experience influences behavior significantly:

    • Fearful children are more likely to comply when prompted to complete a task under stress, while both fearful and fearless children are equally likely to comply when tasks are framed positively.

Evocative and Active Gene-Environment Relations

  • Evocative Gene-Environment Relation: For quieter infants, parents are more likely to engage in reading, while active infants may elicit more physical play.

  • Active Gene-Environment Relation: An active toddler may actively seek stimulating interactions, prompting caregivers to either read or play energetically with them.