HD-303 1!

Ruiz

APPENDIX E:
Critical Self-Analysis

Moises Ruiz

HD-303

Prof. K. Escobar

June 24, 2017

HD-303 1! Ruiz

Introduction

Taking 303 The Earliest Years, has been a challenging course as my second to last

class at Pacific Oaks, learning about the theories and all aspects of how the early years

affect a newborn through development into a child. From the relationships infants form in

attachments, to temperaments and caregivers, there are many facets to their learning,

growth and development.

I do not claim to be a researcher of infant development I understand it the the

most essential part of human growth and it sets the stage for many milestones and

development to come, but as an area of study infant development has not been my

concentration nor has it been a topic I have had interested in as an educator. However in

taking this course there have been several factor that I have thought about nor factored in

to my thinking processes when looking at a infant care program as both an educator-side

and future parents-side. All that it takes to care for an infants and what we do not see in

their growth which may not be apparent all the time.

Critical Analysis of Infant Development

Attachment theory falls into two categories: one theorizes that attachment is a

learned behavior based on the provisions of food (Dollard and Miller, 1950), the

second theory developed by Ainsworht and Bowlby (1973/1969) theorizes attachment is

a evolutionary biological behavior as defined as an emotional bond between two

individuals, that is not necessarily reciprocal, but characterized by certain behaviors in

children towards caregivers. Infants that were studied were shown to go through 3
HD-303 2! Ruiz

Stages of Attachment: Stranger Anxiety, Separation Anxiety and Social

Referencing (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964) followed by a sequence of developmental

attachments: Asocial (0-6 weeks), Indiscriminate (6 weeks -7 months), Specific

(7-9months) and Multiple Attachment (10 months and on ward).

The role of exploration and autonomy is very crucial to an infants development

Erickson second stage Autonomy vs. shame/doubt (1.5 - 3 years) proposed that infants

are discovering many skills abilities (Erickson, 1950). Here is where infants grow

to be toddlers learn to move about either by crawling or walking, to explore their

surroundings. In the movie Babies this stage was particularly joyful to watch them grab

a cats tail, or roll on the ground putting rocks in their mouth, and the discovery of their

environment.

The role of culture is very important for children of immigrants who are not the

dominant society, at a time when more and more parents are leaving their babies in the

care of other non-familial caregiver, or programs, culture sensitivity is necessary for the

infant to maintain that connection to his/her family. Traditions, foods and music should

be incorporated to that infants daily care and routine. Caregiving programs have an

obligation to communicate and set a cultural expectation from the families being served.

Culture is a taught and learned behavior from parent/guardian to child, from birth

the newborn is being exposed to culture through customs and language. Having

something that represent the infants home culture from home can help them maintain a

connection to their family and culture through that object.

HD-303 3! Ruiz

Observation of infants are crucial if you know what to look for and are necessary

to develop a attachment to an infant, since infants cannot verbally communicate they do

so with their body language and noises, we as caregivers must observe and make notes of

their actions to determine an infants needs. When observing baby Allie the caregiver

knew that a certain cry meant she has wet herself and needed to be changed.

Participation in this courses assignments and observations has reenforced what I

had already observed in family and other social attachments, but more so it has given

more validity and terminology to things I have personally observed in attachments,

theory and observations. My grandmother having raised twelve children and some

grandchildren, once came to visit and heard a babys cry form another room and told my

aunt that baby is crying she needs to be burped (in Spanish), and sure enough after

my baby cousin was burped she stopped crying. My grandmother from experience

recognized the type of cry and knew what to do through experience and many

observation through raising children.

Critical Personal Growth and Development

Working in the field of child development has given me the knowledge and

experience of what to expect when analyzing a child care program, I can look at a parent

board and see what posted document may be missing. Since my background has always

been school-age programs, public school domain and preschool (both state and head

start), coming into a infant program has shown me another side of care facilities and

programs. Growing up my mom would say she did not want babies in program because
HD-303 4! Ruiz

she did not know what would happen, she was skeptical of the care and abilities of the

staff.

Multicultural activities are necessary for all children to be acknowledged and give

them validity of who they are, with infants it may not appear to be valid but it is, from

talking to them in their home language to the food they are accustomed to culture needs

to be factored in to infant and early care programs.

Developing curriculum for infants can be tricky, there needs to be a prior

assessment, good temperament and attachment to the caregiver in order for the infant to

grow and develop. Once the assessment are done we as caregiver must determine where

to start the curriculum and go from there, and that curriculum must be flexible to changes

due to the different level of growth for each individual infant, a one-size fits all

approach may not work when infants are developing at different rates and stages.

Some of major links I have noticed in development occurred when I went to

observe baby Allie when she first saw me (a stranger) she did not exhibit the normal

reaction, instead she smiled, which made me perplexed at a level of stranger anxiety, it

wasn't until her caregiver told me that I resemble her father that explained her actions

towards my presence close to her in the program.

Foster positive attachment begins with the staff that is hired and their

temperament, secondly the expectations set by the families in the program which will

carry over into the care of the infant. If the foundation of expectation are not set before

care is begun it will affect the overall attachment of the infant with the caregiver.
HD-303 5! Ruiz

Assessment can help to determine where an incoming infants is when they begin,

a proper assessment of social/emotional and temperament level can help place the proper

infant with a the right caregiver. There also needs to be room for parent, caregiver input

and the ability to change the caregiver to meet the needs of the infant. Using tools like the

Nine Temperament Traits form Temperament of Infants and Toddlers (Chess, 1995) can

help guide caregiver and provide a proper assessment to help with the best placement of

infant.

The ability to change a pedagogy is necessary when fostering play and learning,

for younger children versus older children, younger children tend to gravitate to

autonomous play while older ones tend to play/learn and gravitate a particular activity

and are influenced by adult interest, children attitude begin with the attitude the

teachers(Harlan & Rivkin, 2000). If we as teacher show an interest with a subject

matter the child will follow and also show interest.

Cultural needs can change and shift over time and childs ability to learn,

appropriate practices are needed in order to adapt a specific curriculum. If a child cannot

comprehend written language, then an activity that requires writing may not be suitable,

but if they are learning or showing interest in writing an attempt must be made to show

them in their language if possible.

Conclusion

In the course of taking this class what stands out is the quickness in which infants

develop, they learn and grow so quickly from one moment to the next. During the
HD-303 6! Ruiz

observations I notice that one infant/toddler could only stand with assistance, by the next

time I observed him the following week he was already taking standing on his own with

little to no assistance form the caregiver. The rapid grow of the infant needs to be

matched with the ability to change the curriculum and expectations set for the infant, it

may not take 2 weeks for them to learn, so the pedagogy must change along with the

infants growth. The caregivers must change their plan of action as well as communicate

with the families the progress of their childs growth, keeping all parties aware and in

the loop about where the infant is at developmentally.

Empowerment and environment are essential to a successful early child

development; empowering the child to learn and grow, and their family to better

communicate their needs and expectations. Environment plays a pivotal role in fostering

growth and development as it can affect a child learning milestones as well. Its must be a

safe space that infants are comfortable with supportive caregivers, and a great

environment will help them learn through exploration, play, and socialize with other

infants/children in the program, and must have adequate material for them to use and be

cleaned on a daily basis.

Taking this course really has been a taxing to get through as a student and I feel

this course would be better taken in a physical classroom environment rather than an

online course due to the heavy impact of the learning, theories and assignment load

expectations. I would neglect my conscious if I did not share this part form a students

perspective in taking this course.

HD-303 7! Ruiz

Bibliography

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. Attachment and loss:Vol. 1. Loss.

New York: Basic Books.

Chess, S. M.D. (2011). Temperaments of Infants and Toddlers, A Guide to

Social-Emotional Growth and Socialization, 2nd Edition, 2011.

Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.

Schaffer, H. R., & Emerson, P. E. (1964). The development of social attachments in

infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1-77.

Torelli, L. (2002). Enhancing Development through Classroom Designing Early Head

Start. Children and Families: National Head Start Assoc. Spring Vol. 2002

Tuesta, A. (2007) Assigning Primary Infant Care Teacher. The program for infant/toddler
care.