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Socio-emotional Development in Infancy

The first two years are considered essential to the mental and social development of a

child. Newborns are born without many ways of expression other than crying, which denotes

hunger, exhaustion, frustration, or sleep. From the point of birth, children learn methods of

expression and socialize and communicate without necessarily wailing. As babies grow through

the human life cycle, they undergo a series of developmental tasks or psychosocial crises which

enable them to learn and socialize with their immediate environment. The aim of development is

always to achieve autonomy and relatedness of the various culture models. Therefore a child

learns from their environment and gets accustomed to their most immediate cultures. Through

the early relationships, the nature of parenting and the relationships with adults plays a major

role in the social-emotional development of the infant. Children learn how to identify and control

their emotions through their immediate environment, which is the parents and the most

immediate family at large. These areas of development happen concurrently and are referred to

as socio-emotional development. Different children achieve various milestones at different ages,

and the milestone cannot be used as a checklist to judge an infant's development. For instance,

some children develop a language between the age of six and nine months, while some can begin

as early as four months and others delay up to ten months. How well each milestone or

developmental crisis is handled determines the achievement of the subsequent milestones. The
infant development is marked by the development of trust and mistrust and autonomy and doubt

crises, which significantly help develop the child's emotional identity and sociability.

Throughout the first year, infants depend on their immediate caregivers for food,

affection, and other basic needs. As a result, they grow a sense of affection and trust for their

caregivers and identify them as a safe environment where their basic needs can be met (Sage

publications 165). When a child is born, each time they cry, they are picked up by their parents,

held in their hands, fed if needed or checked for any other cause of the disturbance. Soon, they

develop their basic expectation that every time they are in need of something, their parents will

always respond promptly. They also learn the main person or persons who take care of them,

thus learning to differentiate them from others. This process has been identified as trust versus

mistrust and has been identified among the initial developmental crises that a child goes through

(Sage publications 165). If the caregivers promptly meet the child's needs, the child develops

trust in them, and as they grow, they learn to trust other people as well. However, if this

developmental task is poorly handled, the child may fail to learn to trust and thus have trust

issues in the future (Sage publications 165). If the caregivers to the child neglect their duties to

feed and provide the basic needs, the infant develops mistrust for them and, in extension, the

world. The failure to obtain a sense of love and fulfilment of the basic survival need from the

immediate caregivers often lead to mistrust which further interferes with the subsequent growth

development stages. Development of trust enables the child to comfortably socialize in and

explore their environment and further enhances the cultural acquisition.

The first year is important for trust and mistrust and entails the development of emotions

that play a significant part in the expression of trust. It is often difficult to describe newborns'

emotions since they rarely express these emotions until about two to four months. At the age of
two to three months, children develop a social smile and differentiate anger from happiness and

surprise (Sage publications 167). It becomes easier to observe their facial expressions and define

their feelings at this age. Infants develop a social smile in their second to third months in

response to improved visual perception. They often smile in response to bright colors or other

people smiling at them, showing social engagement and response to stimuli. This smile plays a

significant role in initiating social relationships between the infant and the caregivers. It is also a

sign of trust for the caregiver and other people around them. The smiles grow into laughs as they

grow, and they laugh more often at random exciting things. Though negative emotions are

developed at birth, they become more differentiated as the infant grows past six months. They

can elicit anger and frustrations when provoked or unable to complete certain desired actions

(Easterbrooks 111). This is because the children grow more aware of their social environment

and understand the actions of others. For instance, a child can express anger after seeing their

mother leave the house. At this age, tantrums are rare but become more common as the child

approaches the age of two, depending on the stress levels. The development of emotional control

is paramount to the individuality and personality of the infant in the future. This is because

constitutional aspects of temperament are involved in various interactions, even during infancy

(Easterbrooks 111). At this age, the infant develops an understanding of people, and the

interaction between their emotional development and social interactions helps develop the child's

sociability.

Though infants spend most of their time under constant monitoring or with an adult

bending over them making eye contact, sometimes the child is left alone either with toys or other

distractions that distract them from the need for attention. At the time, children are left without

any social agents within their sights, which ignites the need for autonomy. They attempt to learn
the security agents, the toys or the melodies that make up their environment at the time (Keller

3). It is important for babies to be left alone so that they can explore their immediate

environments and learn to be autonomous and independent of others. The success of this stage

in infancy leads to the development of some sense of autonomy in which a child becomes able to

sleep on their bed. Later, they can complete basic tasks independently, such as dressing

themselves, brushing teeth and feeding themselves (Keller 4). Take, for instance, my case. I was

often left alone in a rocking chair with children songs playing on the screen that I faced. I would

stay quietly in that environment, playing with my toys, watching animated videos or nursery

rhymes for hours, and sometimes sleeping while enjoying the environment. As per my mother's

record of my development, she notes that I quickly adapted to sleeping in my own room alone,

and by the age of two and a half, I would often attempt to dress myself and frown when my

mother aided tried to help. Now I can identify this process as growth in the second stage of

development, the autonomy versus doubt stage in which I desired to be Independent. In this

stage, the toddlers explore the world with more cognition and attempt to express themselves like

adults and be independent like their caregivers.

In summary, a child's infancy plays a major role in defining their individuality and how

they relate to other people and their environment at large. The end of infancy and the beginning

of early childhood marks an important psychosocial development arising from partly the

development and successful regulation of emotional expressions and the socialization of the

child. Further, this period is important as it brings social awareness, self-awareness, and

representational capacities that help grow and acquire knowledge and culture late as they age. As

they grow, the emotions become more specific, organized and regulated. Parents and caregivers
need to ensure sustainable growth of the child by emphasizing the child's autonomy and

enhancing trust in the child. This way, it becomes easier for the child to learn and trust the world.
 Works Cited

Easterbrooks, M., et al. "Social and emotional development in infancy." (2013).

Keller, Heidi. "Parenting and socioemotional development in infancy and early

childhood." Developmental Review 50 (2018): 31-41.

Sage Publishers. "Chapter 6: Socioemotional Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood."

https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/111981_book_item_111981.pdf