What Are The Cognitive Development Of The First Two Years

What is the definition of attachment? If you look it up in a dictionary it explains that it is ‘an emotional bond between an infant or toddler and primary caregiver, a strong bond being vital for the child’s normal behavioural and social development’. That strong bond between infant and caregiver is believed to happen between the ages of 6-8 months although Bowlby (1958) suggests that the infants are born into this world pre-programmed to form attachments, they have innate behaviours in the way of crying, smiling, crawling and cooing which will stimulate attention and comforting responses from the caregivers. These behaviours are called social releasers. Kagan et al (1978)

From the start of childbirth, children depend on their parent(s) or caregiver(s) to take care of their needs in life (Rodrigue & Reeves, 2015). Four types of attachment to focus on are: secure attachment, insecure-resistant attachment, insecure-avoidant attachment, and insecure-disorganized attachment. Secure attachment refers to when the parent(s) or caregiver(s) are present in the child’s life. Children feel comfortable about being independent to an extent and will interact with new and familiar things on their own in the presence of their caregiver. Separation may cause distress, due to the dependence and attachment to the caregiver. Insecure-avoidant the child does not rely on the care giver for safety and will be precociously independent. They also do relatively well with the caregiver being non present and opened to interacting with strangers. Insecure-resistant attachment the caregiver has the child more focused on their presence and will avoid new experiences even if the caregiver is present. If separation occurs, they become distress and do not cope well even after their return. Finally, insecure-disorganized attachment children show more disoriented or strange behaviors. They will wander with no purpose and show engagement in any activity while being distressed and confused about what they should do or how to interact with or around the

Mistrust. An infant trusts that their caregiver is going to be there to meet their needs. If a caregiver does not appear the infant will experience conflict of trusting others. Erikson believed that this shaped a person’s interactions for the rest of their life. Benjamin Spock stated in his book Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care that infants learn during early infancy a sense of trust by having their needs met promptly and lovingly. He does go on to say that after six months a baby can wait a bit for a parent’s attention, especially, if the parent is feeling overwhelmed or anxiety due to the fact that the she is feeling enslavement by the baby always needing to be held (2012. pg. 112-113). Mary Ainsworth has four categories of behavior based on maternal care: sensitivity-insensitivity, cooperation-interference, and acceptance-rejection. Ainsworth believed that a mother to form positive attachment should be able to interpret her baby’s signals and respond promptly, understand that the baby is individual, to intervene in the babies activities without inferring, and the mother’s feelings toward her baby (Benson, Haith. 2009. pg. 32). It seems though that Raj took it to one extreme of not answering cries after in the night after six months, while I was at the opposite end of not putting my six month old down. Cheryl is the balance between us because she has the balance that Ainsworth’s theory requires.

When maternal love is not consistent, infants then begin to develop insecure attachment, for example, when an infant cries or shows distress and the care giver does not respond or only responds in a loud, abrupt way the infant can become more distressed as they pick up on emotions around them. If the care giver does not comfort the infant for example, holding, cradling or showing affection the child becomes frustrated because his or her needs

Early attachment is established in infancy and is primarily based on the acknowledgment and gratification of basic biological needs: the need to eat, the need to drink, the need to be comfortable (not cold, hot, or wet), the need to sleep, and the need to be free from fear. This is exemplified by the infant emitting a cry reflecting a "need state", a signal for help. The caretaker learns to recognize the infant 's different cries to determine the specific need requiring gratification. If needs are consistently satisfied, the infant learns to depend on and trust its caretakers. As the infant becomes assured that its needs will be gratified, it acquires the ability to delay gratification when hearing its caretaker 's voice or seeing the caretakers ' face. The infant understands that help is on the way. This dependency enables an infant to

A relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver.

They do not seek contact with their mother and are indifferent to her comings and goings.(Feldman pg.187) The last type of attachment is the Ambivalent Attachment Pattern. These babies also do not have a secure attachment to their mothers but they exhibit it in a different way. These babies want to be near there mother constantly and rarely explore their environment. When the mother leaves they show great distress and upon her return, they initially hurry to her but then show angry behavior by hitting or kicking the mother.

The relationship a parent and a child have is fragile and is important as a parent or primary caregiver to show some form of emotional availability which refers to the individual’s capacity to be emotionally responsive to the

The concept of infant-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child shall affect that child for its entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or a primary caregiver is imperative for a child’s development. Ainsworth’s study shows that a mother is responsive to her infant’s behavioral cues which will develop into a strong infant-mother attachment. This will result in a child who can easily, without stress, be separated from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows a child with a weak infant-mother relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety, and will never really be that close with the mother. Without the

In first three months of your littles one’s life, their brain grows twenty percent!! This sizeable growth is even more noticeable in your baby’s behavior. In the first couple days of life, babies can only pay attention to objects up to 12 inches away compared to 3 to 4 months later they can see objects across the room and respond to the direction of different sounds.

This is due to the fact that I became exceptionally distressed if I was left alone with strangers and was not easily comforted by them, which is characteristic of an insecure attachment. This can be seen in a more obvious manner when my mom responds that I was always by her side even when we would visit family members. Also, since she was often the only one who could comfort me, means that our attachment was not an Insecure/Avoidant one. This type of attachment is when the infant is as easily comforted by a stranger as they are by their caregivers. In addition, seeing that I was not secure enough to explore the environment, like going to play with other kids when we would visit other people’s houses, means that I would not use my mom as a secure base for exploration. Using caregivers as a base for exploration is characteristic of a secure attachment which is why our attachment would not be categorized as a secure attachment. Lastly, considering I would often notice if she left me alone means that I did not display an Insecure / Ambivalent attachment. This type of attachment is illustrated when babies do not notice or are indifferent towards their caregivers before they are left alone which is not something I would

Infants are a special cohort of a population in the society. Children between the ages of five months to two years are at a stage where they start familiarizing with their surroundings and have different reactions to situations. The surrounding where an infant grows greatly determines his or her development. The primary determinant of the development of infants is the parent-infant interaction (Crain, 2015). The first bond or relation of a child is with its biological parents or guardians in the case of orphaned children.

Separation anxiety is one of the most common anxiety disorders in children affecting one out of twenty. It is a developmental stage during which the child experiences anxiety when separated from the primary care giver, usually the mother, and is in fact a part of natural cognitive development. When a baby is around 6 months old, they start to understand that they are detached from their mother, meaning the mother can leave at any time. Also around 6 months old the baby is capable of “representational thinking”, meaning he can now picture objects, like his mother in his mind where they are no longer in the same room. This all leads to the healthy separation anxiety most babies develop at 7 months old until 3 years old, where they child starts to cry when their primary care giver is no longer in site, even for a brief

However, if there is a failure for this attachment to form and the mother infant relationship does not grow this can produce a stress response in the infant and prevent them from developing fully. As is widely accepted humans are imparted with a social brain and require input from those around them to grow and develop properly. Neglecting to provide adequate stimulation and provide a “serve and return” interaction with the infant fails to provide the human interaction that is critical for development (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2013). This idea of “serve and return” is essential for the developing brain and involves a two-way interaction between the infant and mother or caregiver.

Stages of attachment. Another of Bowlby’s contributions is his proposal that the infant’s attachment to caregiver develops in stages attuned to the infant’s cognitive and emotional development. As described by Broderick & Blewitt (2015), a bond emerges from the affect between mother and child in the first two months as the infant signals their needs by clinging, smiling, and crying. During this stage infants are not yet attached to anyone and do not discriminate between caregivers. Between their second and eighth month, infants become increasingly preferential of one caregiver, most often the mother. The primary indicator of the emerging attachment is whether or not the 7-8 month-old infant protests when separated from their caregiver, and whether they greet the caregivers return with happiness. Soon thereafter, the infant should begin to develop additional attachments with their fathers, grandparents, babysitters etc. By 18 months most infants are attached to multiple caregivers (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, p. 135).