Psychological Development

Over the past 25 years, a revolution has taken place in the understanding of infants and their psychological development. It was ear­lier believed that young infants couldn't comprehend or respond to their environ­ment. Today we know that infants are inter­ested and attentive from the very start.

THE NEWBORN ANSWERS QUESTIONS

Can 2-day-old babies recognize their own mother by her smell? To have infants "answer" this question, researchers put a breast pad moist with the mother's milk on a pillow to one side of each baby. To the other side they put a breast pad moist with milk from another woman. The infants turned their head toward their own mother's milk! When the pads were switched, the babies still turned their head toward their own mother's milk. In this way, the researchers found that infants actually recognize the smell of their own

mother — and, the mother's smell was pre­ferred. In this and similar ways, scientists are now better at finding what infants can do —helping infants to answer, in their own way, the questions being asked.

Video recordings have given us new opportunities to study what happens when infants and parents are together. We can watch the tapes picture by picture and study everyone's facial expressions. This has pro­vided a new perspective on the non-verbal interplay between children and parents dur­ing the early days and weeks. Little babies participate actively in the "conversations" with their parents, conversations involving looking, smiling, and mimicking sounds and "language." Parents answer automatically in a way infants like: nice, gentle voices with rhythmic repetition and melody, and "open," expressive faces. Contact and inter­play are incredibly important for your infant's

development, because it's first and  foremost through interactions that babies learn abort themselves and their world!

THE NEWBORN SENSES AND REACTS

Right after birth, babies seek out impres­sions from their environment. Little ones can focus and follow your face when it is within about 1 foot. And, they can follow sounds with their gaze or by turnin^g their head in the direction of the sound.

Also from birth, infants prefer certain sensory impressions over others. For instance, babies prefer to look at a pattern resembling a face more than other patterns. They also prefer to listen to a human voice, especially when the voice is soft and gentle.

Young infants quickly learn to distinguish between the known and the unknown. First they'll recognize their mother by her smell, then her voice, and after a fear

by her face.

THE INFANT UNDERSTANDS WHOLENESS AND CONTINUITY

Newborns understand wholeness and continuity. One way the^y do this is to "trans­late" impressions from one sense to another. Amazingly, one experiment showed that 4-week-old babies could recognize b^y sight a certain pacifier with rubber knobs that they had earlier only felt in their mouth!

Only 3 days after birth, newborns can imitate expressions such as opening the mouth, sticking the tongue out, and moving the fingers. They can also imitate emotional impressions such as joy, fright, and surprise.

It appears that small babies comprehend and react to emotional language where rhythm and movement are involved. They move rhythmically to human voices, but not to banging noises, for example. Babies are, therefore, especially responsive to songs, rocking, and movement.

VULNERABILITY

Your little child is also very vulnerable, and cannot regulate his or her own condi­tion. The young baby often switches between sleeping and being awake, between crying and being calm. A newborn sleeps for short periods and is easily overwhelmed by stimulations when awake. This can be hunger, sleepiness, sights and sounds, or other kinds of stimulation. So, babies need to be soothed and comforted, and should be protected from overwhelming sensations. They should also be breast-fed (or bottle-fed) frequently during this period, to keep them content and happy.

It is when babies are awake and calm that they'll express their sensory talents. In the first few weeks, this will often only happen for a few minutes. It's during these minutes

that you can have eye contact and small "conversations" with the baby.

Babies who are born prematurely, or are immature in some other way, are even more sensitive to stimulations. They'll have a greater need to feel cared for and protected. It may take some weeks before the baby develops the abilities that are normally pre­sent at birth.

INFANTS ARE DIFFERENT

From the moment of birth, babies have dif­ferent ways of reacting. Some find their own rhythm early on, sleep undisturbed, wake up slowly, and can withstand a lot of unrest without becoming overwhelmed.

Others are disturbed by the slightest sound, start crying, and need a long time to be soothed. These children can get into rest­less rhythms. If they eventually calm down at your breast, they may fall asleep before they are fully fed and will therefore wake up quickly and easily again. These infants need protection from overwhelming impressions and need some help to find a calmer rhythm.

TEMPERAMENT

Throughout infancy, your baby will have his or her own characteristic way of reacting. This is called temperament. We distin­guish between different sides of a baby's temperament — activity level, attention span, ability to adjust, approach/ withdrawal. Differences in temperament are found from early infancy. As ^your child grows, his or her temperament will be affected by interaction and emotional experience.

CONTACT AND INTERPLAY

Infants quickly stir up feelings in their par­ents and, therefore, create contact and inter­play. When your little one is crying and upset, you'll want to comfort and take care of him or her. When the baby smiles, you will 4 smile back and start a little soft chatter. This emotional language lays the foundation for future interactions.

Through emotional language, infants have their first experiences of being understood and of sharing both sorrow and joy. When your baby will not be comforted, it's easy to get frustrated or angry. It's hard to feel happy and take part in the little conversations when one is tired or fed up. Do your best to stay positive and focused on the baby, and remem­ber that he or she is more vulnerable — and probably even more upset — than you. If you're having a lot of trouble remaining calm,

or are thinking about hurting your child, please talk to a doctor, a trusted friend, or someone at a parent support group. Taking it out on your child will harm both of you!

ATTACHMENT AND SEPARATION

The emotional bond formed between par­ent and child is unique, and becomes an important "point of reference" in the child's inner world during the first year. This bond MR be reflected in interactions and relation­ships with other people.

A newborn's ability to sense and under­stand allows him or her to recognize you by ^your smell and voice within the first week. The ability to recognize people and things develops and strengthens through interac­tion, and by the end of the first year a child seeks his or her parents consciousl^y and with determination, both ph^ysicall^y and emotionally. This search becomes especially strong when the world feels unfamiliar and overwhelming, and when the child is sick or tired. At such moments, closeness with the parents is the onl^y thin^g that can com­fort the child.

12-month-old will cry and clearly miss his or her parents.

Longer separations can be prepared for by gradually adapting your child to them. It also eases the transition if the people who will be caring for your child know as much as possible about his or her habits and favorite toys.

DEVELOPMENT HAPPENS IN LEAPS

You will notice that the development of your baby happens in leaps and bounds, not in a steady way. This is due to changes in the brain that show themselves in psychological development and skills.

At about 2 months of age, there's usually a leap in development that, among other things, affects the baby's sleeping pattern. He or she will now usually sleep longer during the night. At the same time, the baby becomes more aware, which is expressed by longer periods of contact and interaction, and greater attentiveness.

A new leap happens at about 7 months, and again at 12 months. There's now a shift in the baby's way of interacting with other people and the way he or she explores. In particular, the abilities to cooperate and solve problems develop at these stages. A baby will, for example, learn to follow some­one else's gaze, and at about 1 year will start expressing himself or herself in words.

During the first year, development happens incredibly fast ... There's hardly any other period in life when one learns so much!

DEVELOPMENT AND INTERPLAY IN THE FIRST YEAR

During the first 12 months, new outlooks and experiences are created in the baby's inner world. At the same time, the baby is able to master more tasks and gets better and better at problem-solving. All these changes mean that you'll be adapting the way you interact as your child develops.

THE WORLD OF FEELINGS (MONTHS 1-2)

During the first 8 weeks, the feelings of excitement and peace are most important in the infant's world of experience. These feelings and their intensity probably impress themselves in the memory. Impressions of sight and sound, touch and movement give rise to different degrees of emotional strength.

The baby perceives shapes most easily, and will learn to use the center of the visual field. At the outer edges of the visual field, the baby can register movement. The whole experience of vision is, in a way, "variations on the same theme." Sensing the different expressions on your face is an example of this.

Bodily feelings also create inner emotions. Hunger is a very strong emotion for the

young infant, and can be compared to a storm that's gathering strength! Feelings of hunger temporarily disrupt all other experiences.

COMFORT ME WHEN I CRY

When such a storm of feelings is on its way, the cry — a baby's most important way of communicating — triggers a response from the parent. You begin to talk calmly, pick the baby up, and rock or walk the baby or put him or her to the breast. This gives the youngster 4 new experiences to break the pattern: Sound, touch, movement, and a new position. The music in your voice and the rhythm in the movements help the baby to endure and calm down.

Perhaps this soft introduction is necessary well

for infants to feed when they're hungry. When young babies cry and cry, they can get so excited that they need to find a peaceful rhythm in order to settle down. Once that hap­pens, the world begins to emerge again through the senses, and the baby will recog­nize you and maybe fall asleep in that security

Most parents soon learn to distinguish between different types of crying. Pain and hunger cries are especially characteristic, and parents automatically react most quickly to cries of pain. Babies will calm down fastest when only a short time has passed before comfort arrives. It's important that babies be given the chance to calm themselves down,

which sometimes they can do. However, this does not apply to hunger and other over­whelming needs.

A good way to soothe a newborn is to put him or her on your shoulder. This supports the baby's arms and legs, which often get restless. Together with the upright position, this also makes the child open his or eyes. A steady, rhythmic movement — paired with your voice — can help your baby find a calmer state of being.

THE NEAR SOCIAL WORLD (MONTHS 2-5)

At around 2 months of age, the infant's talent for social contact will really bloom. Smiles can now be controlled, and the child starts using smiles as greetings. He or she also starts to babble, and can keep eye con­tact over a longer period of time.

Your little one is finding great pleasure and interest in face-to-face contact, and it seems that he or she is learning to under­stand what different facial expressions mean. Never will social contact be more important than now! An 8-week-old baby is attracted to shapes and movement on the face itself, whereas during the newborn period he or she followed the edges of the face.

However, your facial expressions are not the only reason that faces are so important. The face also reflects what the baby is doing from one moment to the next. This feedback

helps the baby understand that there's a con­nection between the self and the face.

During this period, a jo^y in learning about his or her own actions and the ability to affect the environment also develop. These are shown in many ways. Babies may, for exam­ple, quickly learn that they can move a hang­ing mobile with their foot, and take great delight in the resulting motions.

IN EACH OTHER'S GAZE

Nothing can compare to the delight of eye contact! It seems as if these small "conversa­tions" are mainl^y about observing each other and exchanging feelings and looks. It's like the infant sees the eves as "the mirror of the soul." So, eve contact is an important way for the baby to establish a sense of belonging.

Happy smiles and babble belong to this period, too. Then the baby — by looks, expressions, and movements — conveys "That's enough; I need a little break." Small breaks are an important way infants control the impressions the^{y T} receive.

When a mother talks to her baby, she con­veys clear messages with her looks and expressions: "So, you like talking to your mommy. What are ^you going to tell me today, then?" As the child grows older, small games like "peek-a-boo" and variations of "I'm coming to get ^you" become part of the inter­play that the child happily participates in.

A WHOLE WORLD OF PEOPLE AND THINGS (MONTHS 5-12)

From around 5 months, infants become more and more aware of the world around them, and are more engaged in exploring. Motor skills and coordination are continu­ing to develop, and babies learn to grab, shake, bang, and let go. They explore objects they've gotten hold of: Can it move? Does it make a sound? In the second half of the first year, children start to move around, which gives all sorts of new opportunities for exploration.

At this time, infants can clearl^y distinguish between people they know and strangers. At first this happens through increased interest and the need to explore. Then, at 6 to 7 months, a change takes place. The contact is more hesitant and expectant, and your child may reject and withdraw from strangers. This fear of strangers shows that the child is aware of an attach­ment to the people he or she normally associates with.

Children this age will also be cautious toward everything unknown, be it sounds, objects, places, or people. The more over­whelming the unknown, the more fright­ening the experience. At such times, parents' arms are the best place from which to explore!

LET'S DISCOVER THE WORLD TOGETHER

Gradually an interest for discovering the world with another person develops. This hap­pens at around 7 months of age, when the child is developing an ability to follow someone else's gaze. At about 9 months, the baby learns to point, and he or she understands that a point­ed finger indicates the direction to something.

Eye contact is no longer quite as important to your baby. Instead it's the fact that both of you have your attention directed toward the same object. Pointing becomes a way of inviting you to join in a journey of discovery. Parents and other close people become companions while the child is discovering the world. A new game, a new way of togetherness develops.

Eye contact and facial expressions are still important, but now they're only part of the way of making contact. Looks reassure your child that "Now we're looking at this together" or "We're interested in the same thing." Facial expressions tell the child what you're feeling. It's as if he or she starts under­standing that people have inner feelings.

In fact, children this age use adult facial expressions as a way of interpreting the world. The expressions show what's safe and what may be dangerous, and also what's fun! The joy of these little games have now sur­passed the delights of eye contact.