Post by Dory Cervantes

1 day agoRe: Week 2 | Discussion – Infant Development

Infant Development

Social/emotional Infants

In social and emotional development, it is healthy and important for infants to form and develop; it’s a great milestone in infancy.

Infants are such an easy target, everyone seems to notice them and building a relationship or getting a reaction from. They easily communicate with whoever initiates the communication with them, whether it’s a hi, a smile, a simple touch in the cheeks or the hand. Usually kids respond to others including strangers by what I like to call a ‘gut” feeling, kids are so pure and innocent they can sense good and bad intentions and that’s how they will react to others.

Infants will always and will have relationships with strangers and infants will try to communicate by using emotions throughout their lifetime. It doesn’t matter who might be the stranger. It usually depends on how children feel with others.

They can also experience Stranger Anxiety, which can and does occur. It seems as if infants don’t interact much and see different faces they become frightened by others. Another thing that can cause this when they are used to being held by only certain people such as mother or father. These are some examples but they don’t occur to all of them. (Scher & Hare, 2008)

Depending how they react and actually emotionally respond to their mother is such a great way for infants to actually communicate to their parents. Most of us will try to figure out why the baby is crying and crying could be almost anything it could be for pain or hunger. Maybe the baby feels separated by its mother. It can be various reasons. Most adult can determine whether an infant’s cries signify anger or pain. (Klein, & Marshall, 1992). I believe this is great area for development. Because this is a good way to communicate with parents instead of using words to communicate, the infants uses emotions. Yet the baby has a lot to learn. 

Santrock, J. W. (2017) Life-span development (16th Edition) McGraw-Hill Education

 

Post by Priscilla Krawchuk

1 day agoRe: Week 2 | Discussion – Infant Development

Social and Emotional development in an infant is an important part of babies development. Infants mostly communicate with emotions such as crying. the way infants react to others is mainly influenced by a child’s caregiver and their ability to make the infant feel safe. Emotional bonds with infants is crucial in this developmental stage because the child needs to feel a sense of nurture from their caregiver. Eric Erikson’s theory of development describes that the first year of life is categorized by trust versus mistrust. Within the first years, Erikson explains that the infant is learning life outside of the womb and an infant learns to trust when they are cared for. If the infant is not given warmth or security, the infant can grow a sense of mistrust.(Stantrock,2017).

With Erikson’s theory in mind, I believe it is important to understand an infant’s life outside of the womb. An infant’s Social and Emotional development begins at infancy and can serve as a building block in their development. Giving an infant a sense of security is vital in their development because if they build trust with their mother/caregiver they will be able to complete milestones confidently. 

Some strategies for growth in this stage of development are:

– Emotional Expressions: An infant can express the emotions he/she is feeling through facial expressions.

– Personality development: emotions and temperament can make up personality.

– Social orientation: Infants begin to understand the sound of their caregivers and recognize faces.

 Each of these stages shows part of an infant’s development and can serve as building blocks in social and emotional development. 

References:

Santrock, J. (2017). Life-span development (16th edition). New York, NY. McGraw Hill education.