Emotional and Cognitive Development (Infancy)

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Socialization, or learning how to interact with others, is an extensive phenomenon.

One month old infant

- show they can differentiate between faces and other objects by studying a face or the picture
of a face longer than other objects.
- They are calm and feed well to the person who has been their primary caregiver.

Social smile
- when an interested person nods and smiles at a 6-week-old infant, the infant smiles in return;
a definite response to the interaction, not the faint, quick that younger infants, even
newborns demonstrate.
- It is a major milestone because it reflects growing maturity in a number of areas, most notably
vision, motor control, and intelligence.

Cognitive challenged children or children with spasticity

- may not demonstrate a social smile until much later in the infant year

3 months
- infants demonstrate increased social awareness by readily smiling at the sight of a parent’s
face. Three-month-old infant laugh out loud at the sight of a funny face.
4 months
- when a person who has been playing with and entertaining an infant leaves, the infant is likely
to cry or show that the interaction was enjoyable.
- Infant at this age recognize their primary caregiver and prefer that person’s presence to
others.
5 months
- infants may show displeasure when an object is taken away from them
- a step beyond showing displeasure when a person leaves.
6 months
- infants are increasingly aware of the difference between people who regularly care for them
and strangers
- they may begin to draw back from unfamiliar people.
Seven-month-old
- infants begin to show obvious fear of strangers.
- They may cry when taken from their parent, attempt to cling to the parent, and reach out to
be taken back.
 - Parents may view this as a bad trait or a regression in socialization.
- Help them appreciate that it is actually a big step forward because it shows that their infant
can differentiate between people and also can recognize the difference between persons to
trust and others.
Fear of strangers
- Reaches its height during the eight month, this phenomenon is often termed eight-month
anxiety or stranger anxiety.
- An infant at the height of this phase will not go willingly from the parent’s arms to a nurse’s
arms.
- Taking a few minutes to talk to the child and parents first so you are perceived as a friend,
not a stranger, is time well spent.
Nine-month-old
- Infants are very aware of changes in tone of voice.
- They cry when scolded not because they understand what is being said but because they
sense their parent’s displeasure.
12 months
- Most children have overcome the fear of strangers and are alert and responsive again when
approached.
- They like to play interactive nursery rhymes and rhythm games and dance with others.
- They like being at the table for meals and joining in family activities.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

In the first month of life, an infant mainly uses simple reflex. There is little evidence infants at this
early age see themselves as a separate from their environment. However, this does not mean they
cannot respond actively or interact with people. They demonstrate they are very people oriented
moments after birth by cuddling against an adult’s chest.

Primary and Secondary Circular Reaction

Third Month of Life

- A child enters a cognitive stage identified by Piaget as primary circular reaction.
- The infant explores objects by grasping them with the hands or by mouthing them
- Infants appear to be unaware of what actions they can cause or what action occur
independently.
Ex: if an infant’s hand should accidentally strike a mobile across the crib, the infant appears to
enjoy watching the brightly colored birds move in front of him but makes no attempt to hit the
mobile again because he does not realize his hand caused the movement.
6 Months of Age
- Infants pass into a stage Piaget called secondary circular motion
- When infant reach for a mobile above the crib, hit it, and watch it they realize it was their
hand that initiated the motion, and so they hit it again.
10 Months
- Infants discover object permanence.
- Infants are ready for peek-a-boo once they have gained this concept
- They know their parents still exist even when hiding behind a hand or a blanket and wait
excitedly for the parent to reappear.
1 Year of Age
- They are capable of reproducing a new event (they deliberately hit a mobile once, it moves,
and they hit it again).
- They drop objects from a high char or playpen and watch where they fall or roll. (A frustrating
activity for parents because it involves a great deal of reaching and picking up.)
- An important activity for infants, however because it confirms awareness of the permanence
of objects and how they are able to control events in their world.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT (TODDLER)

Children change a great deal in their ability to understand the world and how they relate to
people during the toddler years.

Autonomy
- The developmental task of the toddler years according to Erikson is the development of a
sense of autonomy versus shame or doubt.
- Children who have learned to trust themselves and others during the infant year are better
prepared to do this than those who have not learned to trust themselves or others.
- To develop a sense of autonomy is to develop a sense of independence.
- A healthy level of autonomy is achieved when parents are able to balance independence with
consistently sound rules for safety.

Socialization
- Once toddlers are walking well, they become resistant to sitting in laps and being cuddled;
this is not a lack of a desire for socialization but a function of being independent.
- At 15 months, children are still enthusiastic about interacting with people, providing those
people are willing to follow them where they want to go.
- By 18 months, toddlers imitate the things they see a parent doing, such as ‘study’ or ‘sweep’,
so they seek out parents to observe and imitate.
- By 2 or more years of age, children become aware of gender differences and may point to
other children and identify them as a ‘boy’ or ‘girl’.

Play Behavior
- All during the toddler period, children play beside other children, not with them.
- Side-by-side play (parallel play) is not unfriendly but is a normal development sequence that
occurs during the toddler period.
- Caution parents that if two toddlers are going to play together, they must provide similar toys
because an argument over one toy is likely to occur.

- They toy toddlers enjoy most are those they can play with by themselves and that require
action.
- Trucks they can make go, squeaky frogs they can squeeze, rocking horses they can ride, pegs
they can pound, and a toy telephone they can talk into are all favorites; these are all toys
children can control, giving them a sense of power in manipulation, which is an expression of
autonomy.

- Some parents are not prepared for this change in play habits in their child. They wonder why
a child who used to play quietly in his crib is now more interested in banging trucks together.
- They need only watch a toddler tug a pull toy, stop to see if it is following, walk again, and
stop and look to see if it is still following to understand the feeling of accomplishment involved
in manipulating toys.
At 15 months of age
- children are still in put-in, take-out stage, so they continue to enjoy stacks of boxes that fit
inside each other.
- They enjoy throwing toys out of playpen or from a high chair tray as long as someone will pick
them up and return them again and again.
18-month-old child
- walks securely enough to enjoy pull toys
- toys should be strong enough to take a great deal of abuse because children this age may use
toys in ways other than those for which they were designed.
Age of 2 years
- when toddlers begin spend time imitating adult actions in their play such as wrapping a doll
and putting it to bed or driving the car, they begin to use fewer toys than before.
- The act of imitating has become their play.
- By the end of the toddler period, both boys and girls begin to like roughhousing and spend at
least part of every day in this very active stimulating type of play
- Encouraging parents to schedule this type of play outdoors, where vases or other prized
possessions cannot be broken, makes it more acceptable.

 A child who feels a need for active play is notably not easy to get sit down and eat, fall asleep
or play quiet games and so may be described as ‘trouble’.
 It is good to explore with parents the amount of outside or roughhousing time they allow a
child each day.
 Stroller walks are good because they provide fresh air and sunshine, but toddlers also need
opportunities to engage in strenuous activity such as running and jumping.
 Because of this rough activity, most toddlers have at least one black-and –blue mark on their
legs at all timed from tripping over their feet while trying to run too fast or from jumping or
bumping into a chair or doorways.
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (TODDLER)

- As a toddler, a child enters the final stages of Piaget’s sensorimotor thought and the beginning
of the preoperative period at approximately 12 months.
- During the fifth and sixth stages of the sensorimotor phase, toddlers are described as ‘little
scientists’ because of their interest in trying to discover new ways to handle objects or new
results that different actions can achieve.
- By stage of 6 cognitive development (between 18 and 24 months of age), toddlers are able to
try out various actions mentally rather than having to actually perform them, the beginning
of problem solving or symbolic thought.
 They may have difficulty viewing one object as being different from one another.
 At this stage children have a type of faulty reasoning (pre-logical reasoning) that can
lead them to wrong conclusions and faulty judgment.
 Children at this stage are also able to remember an action imitate it later (deferred
imitation); they can do such things as pretend to drive a car or put a baby to sleep
because they have seen this previously and not just in the recent past.
 Object permanence becomes complete.
- At the end of the toddler period, children enter a second major period of cognitive
development termed preoperational thought and begin to use a process termed
assimilation.
 Because they are not able to change their thoughts to fit a situation, they learn to
change the situation (or how they perceive it.)
 This ability is what causes toddlers to use toys in the ‘wrong’ way.