Infancy and Early Childhood Development

After reading chapter 6 of the textbook, I have realized that children early years are severely important because they provide the foundation for the rest of their life, as adolescent, and as adult. Children that are well nurtured can live well and be sociable. Early childhood is the most rapid period of development in a human life. A child creates their own sense of identity. Indeed, it is important for a child to have a sense of identity. Although individual children develop at their pace, all children progress through an identifiable sequence of physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. The early child development approach is based on that children respond best when caregivers use specific techniques designed to encourage and stimulate progress to the next level of development. Early childhood is the time during which essential, intellectual, and emotional abilities form. Keeping young children safe and nurturing them is protective against lifelong problems. Including the risk of becoming involved in violence. Early experiences affect the brain development, shaping the brains physical growth and sculpting neural connections. This occurs primarily between birth and school age years. Besides, the family, community and society are powerful in shaping young children’s development. They grow at a very rapid rate during the first one and a half years of life. Their development is not only physical, it is also mental, emotionally, and social. These developments are

1. My niece fits into the infancy stage. She is not even a year old. I can see the oral-sensory mode with her. She is constantly taking in the world around her by trying new things with her senses and trying to put things in her mouth. At this stage she is experiencing basic trust vs mistrust. She is trying to trust the world and the people around her. I see this as the basic issue. Hope is another issue that is present. I believe with the help of her supportive parents she is being to develop hope and not withdrawal. She is very open and not withdrawn in any setting. Understanding her basic concerns of trust and mistrust helps me better understand her needs. Although she cannot talk yet, I can use this information to better connect with her

This research paper is written on infant and toddler development from birth to three years of age. I chose this topic to research because I am an aspiring Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit (NICU) Nurse. Neonatal nursing is a subspecialty of nursing that works with newborn infants that are born with a variety of problems ranging from prematurity, birth defects, infection, cardiac malformations, and surgical problems. The neonatal period is defined as the first month of life; however, these newborns are often sick for months. To successfully pursue this career, I must understand the process of birth, and how the infant develops.

Teachers of infants require a bunch of key concepts and various activities to unlock each infant’s treasures of loving kindness, eloquent use of languages, curiosity to learn, a sincere desire to master new tasks and willingness to cooperate. They need to know the unique personality of each baby. The teachers should know that babies may not understand any language, but they do know when your tone sounds loving and when it sounds angry.

“Cooing” and “Babbling” are stages in infant development when the infant begins its speech protection. Infants begin cooing by 2-3 months and babbling around 5-6 months. Babies are very interesting as they show tremendous development in their first year of birth. They tend to produce all kinds of sounds including squeals, giggling, growling, cry, going sounds, vowel sounds like da, la, boo, mi etc. babies speak one or two words by their first birthday. Infants also learn a lot through gestures. They pay close attention to human voices and tend to catch them quickly. They will always look for care and attention, especial from their mother. Their sounds like ma ma will turn into mamma once they are in line with their vocal production. This paper

Throughout infancy, the individual typically interacts almost exclusively with their immediate family. At this time the child does not have a social environment outside of the family and therefore the family is representative of child’s entire environmental influence. As was discussed previously, the environment has an undeniably large influence on the individual’s development and therefore it is clear that the family plays a huge role during early development. Additionally, it is during this time that the family will have the greatest influence on the individual as other environmental factors will come into play later in life. The role of the family in development is incredibly complex. The family, especially the parents, will stimulate the child, comfort

In order to observe the development of infants in a real life setting, the objective of my observations was my 18-month old niece who had come over for a week to visit. Katherine was observed at my home, which is a new environment to her, with her parents and other caretakers constantly present. During observations, most of the focus was directly towards her cognitive and emotional developments that are commonly present during this age group.

The four different styles of parenting are authoritarian, democratic, permissive (or laissez-faire), and uninvolved. An example of the authoritarian style of parenting would be if the parents in a family never let their kids have a say in anything and they expect their children to never question their decisions. An example of the democratic style of parenting would be if the parents of a child debate a lot with them if the child asks to somewhere. An example of the permissive (or laissez-fair) style of parenting would be if the parents always let their children have the final say in decision making, such as a child always getting to eat junk food because that's what they want to eat. Lastly, an example of the uninvolved style of parenting would

Life. Without life there is no existence. Starting from the zygote to the embryo and then the fetus, this is a critical time for the development of the soon to be infant. Studies have shown that the prenatal period is the most important period for neurodevelopment in the womb.

“During the first 2 years of life- the developmental period we refer to as infancy to toddlerhood- change is more rapid and more dramatic than any other 2 year period” (99, qI) . Our brain is made up about 100 billion neurons if not more that are constantly going through change and development. These neurons communicate with each other through something amazing called synapses and glial cells. Although all the neurons we have developed prenatally they undergo much more growth during childhood. During the infants first 2 years “the growth of neural fibers and synapses take place at an astonishing pace” (figure 4-1). The brain goes through a growth spurt during infancy and toddlerhood, during birth the brain only weights about 25% of its adult

Scholars note the important role that attachment plays in the development of an infant. Mary Ainsworth, a pioneer in the study of attachment describes attachment as an emotional bond between persons who binds them through space and time. Attachment is the basis for social skills. (As stated by Vaughn)

There is an enormous amount of information about parenting styles. According to Baumrind there are four styles of parenting, which are, authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved parenting (as cited in Kail and Cavanaugh, 2012, pg. 250). Authoritarian parenting means you exercise a lot of control over the child with little to no concern for the child 's opinion. The parents establish strict guidelines for the child with the threat of repercussions if not followed. Authoritative parenting combines a fair degree of parental control with being warm and responsive to children ( Kail and Cavanaugh, 2012, pg. 250). This is the parenting style recommended by most people, as studies have shown this parenting style reared children better who are better equipped with social skills

There are various parenting styles, some encourage empowerment and growth; others stifle independent expression and create co-dependency. Baumrind (1996) describes three styles of parenting as authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. Authoritative parenting combines high levels of control and support resulting in children who display psychological autonomy and behavioural compliance. Authoritarian parenting consists of low support and high control producing children who show little autonomy but respect for authority. Permissive parenting integrates high levels of support with low control leaving children lacking social ability and autonomy. Cherry (2009), notes a

There are two main styles of parenting which are Authoritative and Authoritarian. The McClelland Institute (n.d). states that Authoritative parents offer more support than control towards their children. Children under this type of parenting are said to be better-off; as they cope better with their problems, do better in school, and tend to be more optimistic. On the other hand, Authoritarian parents offer low support and high control towards their children. They are likely said to damage their child’s well-being as they act more like a leader than parents.

Authoritarian parents “allow for little open dialogue between parent and child and expect children to follow a strict set of rules and expectations. They usually rely on punishment to demand obedience or teach a lesson. Permissive parenting, also known as indulgent parenting is another potentially harmful style of parenting. These parents are responsive but not demanding. These parents tend to be lenient while trying to avoid confrontation. The benefit of this parenting style is that they are usually very nurturing and loving.” (Types)