Babyhood

Baby hood starts from 2 weeks to 2 years.

Characteristics of babyhood

1. Babyhood is the true foundation age

Babyhood is the time to develop many behavior patterns, many attitude and many pattern of
emotional expressions
Other reasons are;
patterns established early in life persist regardless of whether they are good or bad.
Unfavourable behaviours and believes can be corrected easily in babyhood if they are detected
Early foundations quickly develop into habits through repetition,they will have a life long
influence on child's personal and social adjustment
Learning and experience play major role in development,which can be directed and
controlled well in babyhood
2. Babyhood is an age of rapid growth and hange

Babies grow rapidly,both physically and psychologically.Babies become less top heavy as they
at birth.More apparent changes are associated with the baby’s ability to recognize and respond to
people and objects in the environment

3. Babyhood is an age of decreasing dependency

Decreased dependence is because of rapid increase in body control,which enables baby to

sit,stand,walk and manipulate objects.Independence also increases as the baby becomes capable
to communicate their needs.

If the baby is not allowed to be independent,when they want to be,they protest in the form of
angry outbursts and crying.Further ,which may leads to negativism.
4. Babyhood is the age of increased individuality

As individuality increases,the child will develop preferences for food,eating pattern,schedule of

eating and sleeping.So the parents are in need to treat them as individuals.

5. Babyhood is the beginning of socialization

The egocentrism,qickly develop the desire to be the part of a social group.This desire will be
shown as protest when they are left alone and trying to win attention of others in any way they
can.Attachment behavior is also one of the characteristics showing their interest to be in a social
group.Attachment with mother or mother substitute is prominent.This attachment behavior will
make the individual to develop warm and lasting relationships with others.

6. Babyhood is the beginning of sex-role typing

Almost from the moment of birth,boys are treated as boys and girls as girls.Toys will be selected
based on their sex.Even in the expression of emotions also this difference is observed.Boys are
discouraged to cry,which is considered as one of the “female weaknesses”

7. Babyhood is an appealing age

Even thogh babies are disproportionate adult body standards they are appealing because of their
big head,protruded abdomen,small thin limbs and tiny hands and feet.When they are dressed in
baby clothes they become more appealing.The appealing appearance is also because of their
helplessness and dependency

8. Babyhood is the beginning of creativity

Because of their lack of muscle coordination and inability to control their environment babie are
incapable of doing anything that can be regarded as original or creative.It is the period that lays
foundation for the future creativity or conformity

9. Babyhood is a hazardous age

Some hazards are more common in babyhood.

Among physical hazards,illness and accidents are more dangerous because they often lead to
permanent disabilities or death

Since,behavior patterns,attitudes and interests are established during babyhood,serious

psychological hazards can result if poor foundations are laid at this time

Developmental Tasks of Babyhood

Physiological Functions

Eating Patterns:-From birth until 4 or 5 months all eating is in the form of sucking and
swallowing,so food must be in liquid form.Chewing appear a month later than biting.Biting will
be in the infantile form.Food dislikes begin to develop during the second year.

Sleep patterns:-During the first year of babyhood,the mean duration of night sleep increases
from 8.5 hours to 10 hours.During the first three months ,the decline in day sleep is balanced by
increase in night sleep

Pattern of elimination:-Bowel control begins at 6 months and bladder control begins between
the age of 15 and 16 months.Habit of bowel control will be established at the end of babyhood.

Bladder control will not be well established in the night by an average child until several years
later
Muscle control/Motor Development
Babyhood Skills

Speech Development

Speech is a tool for communication.TO be able to communicate with others,all individuals must
be capable of two distinct and separate functions;

-the ability to comprehend the meaning of what others are trying to communicate with them

-the ability to communicate to others

a) Comprehension

Comprehension means the ability to understand what others are saying to them.The speakers
facial expression,tone of voice and gestures help the baby to understand what is being said to
them.Pleasure,anger and fear can be comprehended from the third month of life.Until babies are
18 months old,words must be reinforced with gestures,such as pointing to an object.
b)Learning to speak

Since the babies are not enough matured to produce speech ,they use substitute forms of
communication known as “prespeech forms”

Prespeech Forms

 Crying : It is the first way in which the infant is able to communicate with the outer
world.It is the first action to start socialization.By the third or 4th week ,it is possible to
understand the needs of the baby by analysing the variations in intensity,pitch and body
movements associated with crying.
Eg:-Hunger cries are loud ,interrupted by sucking movements
 Babbling:-It is the most important form because speech gradually develops from
babbling.Once the vocal mechanism develops the babies are capable of producing
explosive sounds.Some of these sounds retains and develop as babbling.1
 Gesturing:-Babies use gestures as a substitute for speech.Even after they are able to say a
few words,they continue to use gestures,combining them with words to make
sentences.By outstretching their arms and smiling helps the babies to make their
communication more effective.
 Emotional expressions:-It is most effective way of communication,because
-babies hay yet not learned to control their emotions,so , it is easy for others to know their
needs from their facial expressions and body movements
-babies feel to understand what others are trying to communicate to them through their
facial expressions than their words
Nothing is more effective than facial expression
Tasks in Learning To Speak
 Emotional Behaviour in Babyhood
Characteristics of emotions in babyhood includes:
1. It differ markedly from that of adolescent and adulthood because in babyhood
behavioural responses are proportionately very high as compared to the
stimulus,especially in case of anger and fear.
2. It is easy to condition the behavior of the babies,because their intellectual capacity is
limited and can respond easily and quickly to the stimuli

Emotional dominance in babyhood

Emotional responses involve dominance of pleasant or unpleasant emotions.For

example,children those who cry from fear or anger more often than they smile may be resulting
from neglected environment or punitive treatment.Such babies will show unpleasant emotional
dominance

.Common Emotional Patterns

Development in Socialisation

The foundations of early social behavior and attitudes will be laid by the family situations.There
are two reasons for the importance of early social foundations ,which are:-

a) The behavior they shown in social situations will influence their personal and social
adjustments.A smiling child will gain attention of elders,provoke intense maternal
feelings and build strong relationships.The development of attachment behavior with
objects will help the child to reduce anxiety in novel situations and to make adjustment
with the situations
b) Once the social foundation established,which will persist as the child grows.The children
who cries excessively as babies tend to be aggressive and will show other attention
getting behaviours.Friendly,happier babies usually become socially better adjusted as
they grow.Making change after a behavior become habitual is never easy.This is why
social foundation in babyh hood is important

.
Play Development in Babyhood

Play in babyhood is greatly influenced by physical,motor and mental development.That

is,a 6 month old baby plays with a single object while a nine month baby can play with
two objects having similarity.

Value of Play in Babyhood

 Play is very important for various developments,especially various learnings will
be taking place during playing ,which are problem solving and creativity.
 Play helps the baby to understand their environment and the people and things in
their environment
 One of the most important contributions of play is providing an opportunity for
enjoyment.Otherwise the babies become bored and spend their time for cry to get
attention.The detrimental effects of cry can be eliminated by playing
 Self confidence that comes from self-sufficiency helps the baby to cope up with
the problems they may face in their future life
 The creativity developed in babyhood period is in rudimentary form,they require
adequate motivation and support to develop creative thinking
 Most of the plays in babyhood is solitary.Some of it is carried out with
others,mainly family members-parents ,siblings or grand parents
 Playing with others encourages to develop cooperation,which will help to meet
the demands of childhood
 Common Type of Play in babyhood

Beginning of Morality

 Babies have no scale of values or conscience.They are either moral or

immoral,but are non moral,because their behavior is not guided by moral
values.Eventuallyu they will learn moral values from their parents,then from
teachers and play mates
 Learning to behave in a socially approved way is a long as well as slow process.
 Since ,the babies having poor intelligence they judge rightness and wrongness of
an act in terms of pleasure or pain associated with the act.
 They have no idea related to personal property rights,so they will not feel guilty if
they have taken some others property

Beginning of sex role typing

It means,learning to play an appropriate sex role.It starts to develop from birth because the
significant people start to show the difference while giving care.As the child grows they are
supposed to do more sex appropriate behavior.For example ,in case of babies independence is
viewed as male character and dependence as female character.

Personality Development

Personality development is an interplay of temperament and environment.

Babyhood-The critical period of personality development

Babyhood is critical period of personality development because the foundations of personality

,on which adult personality structures develop,are laid on this period.Other reasons are:-

1. Personality changes are inevitable accompaniment.Neglect in the home or

institutionalization may cause emotional deprivation
2. Because babies environment is limited and the person he interact mostly is mother or mother
substitute,the kind of person and the type of relationship with mother will influence the
personality of the baby
3. Anything that happen unfavourably in the environment during the active stage of
development will induce damage.For example,Over protection by the parents while the baby
tend to be independent will harm the development
4. Sex difference in personality development begin to appear in the early stages of
development.The environmental pressure for sex appropriate development is different for
boys and girls
5. Studies shown that the personality traits that gained in the early stages of development
persist as the child grows and most of which can be seen as unchanged in later stages of
their life

Hazards of Babyhood

The hazards may be physical ,psychological or both.For example,excessive crying have

impact on both physical and psychological development of the baby.It cause gastric
disturbances,regurgitation of food,night waking,and general nervous tension.
Excessive crying leads to the feeling of insecurity and will result in unfavourable
relationship with parents and other family members.It may affect the personality
development of the baby.

Physical Hazards
Physical hazards are serious for all babies,but especially for those who are born
prematurely,those who suffer from barain damage or other birth defects and those physical
development and physical condition at birth are poor.

a) Mortality:-Mortality is death rate.Greater mortality rate in first three months than the
later part.During the first year of life,mortality occur due to severe illnesses but in the
second year it is because of accidents.More boys die than girls.
b) Crib death:-Sudden,unexpected death following a long period of sleep is termed
as crib death.Crib death is found in first six months of birth.Mostly it occur in
babies having breathing abnormalities,those who are having any abnormalities
during birth like jaundice and those having a history of oxygen therapy during the
new boen period.Exact cause of crib death is unknown.
c) Illness:-The cause of death during athe first few postnatal period is because of the
respiratory and gastro intestinal illnesses.Then the chance of severe illnesses
decline because of immunization.
Minor illenesses such as cold and digestive upset are common.If it is neglected
and not taking proper treatment and medical care which may cause serious
disturbances.Prolonged illness,eventhough it is not severe,may interfere with the
normal developmental pattern of the baby.
d) Accidents :-It is common in second year of life,because the babies start to move
freely as they are achieving motor control.Some babyhood accidents such as bruises
and scratches are minor which will not have permanent effects.But which may cause
psychological scars.Other accidents such as blows on the head or cuts are serious enough
to leave permanent scars or may even be fatal.
e) Malnutrition:- Malnutrition may be caused by inadequate intake or unbalanced diet.It bot
only affect the physical development but restrict psychological development.Along with
stunted growth physical defects such as carious teeth,bowe leg etc. may occur.
Babyhood is the critical period for brain development,because the rate of brain
development during this period is higher.So this is most vulnerable period for
brain damage .If brain development is impaired due to malnutrition the baby can
not achieve their intellectual potential
f) Foundations of Obesity:-Many parents equate the health of the babies with plumpness
and they will do what they can to make their baby chubby.It is evident that chubby
babies show the problems of obesity as they grow older,while others not
There are three critical period for fat cell development,first in the last 3 months of
prenatal life,second in the first 3 years of post natal life and the last during the
early part of adolescent period.Those who overfed will suffer from the problem of
obesity in their later life.Bottle fed babies are more likely to be overfed than
breast fed babies.
g) Physiological habits:-The habits like eating,sleeping and elimination will be established
during the babyhood period and thus a common physical hazard during this period is the
unfavourable development of habits

Psychological Hazards

The most serious hazard babyhood involve the baby’s failure to master the
developmental task for that age.Mastery of these task is important for two reasons:-
1. Sooner the baby gain control over their body ,sooner they can be independent
2. Mastery of the developmental task of babyhood lays the foundation of mastery of the
tasks in later development
Psychological hazard of babyhood is directly or indirectly associated with the failure
to develop mastery over their tasks
 a) Hazard in Motor Development:-When motor development is delayed,the task of
acquiring babyhood skills will be delayed .Babies whose development is delayed will be
frustrated while they try to do things themselves and fail.
b) Speech Hazard:-Speech is the tool for communication ,which will induce serious hazard
in the process of socialization.There are a number of reasons for delayed speech,which
are

-low level of intelligence

-lack of stimulation

-Multiple birth

When parents and other care takers fail to stimulate babbling and early attempt to
speak,most babies lose interest in trying to speak.Positive changes in environmentand new
experiences will be a motivation to vocalize.

Delayed speech in babies of multiple birth may be due to developmental lag,such babies use
prespeech forms for communication.

Baby talk-childish pronounciation-is frequently regarded as “cute” by parents,and they

encourage to continue the same.Once it become habitual it is very difficult to change it to the
normal pattern.It is found that such children has to face ridiculous commends “talk like babies”
by their peer group.

c) Emotional Hazards:-There are 4 psychological hazards which arise during the emotional
development they are recognized corrected the chances of persistence can be reduced.
 d) Social Hazards:-The major social hazard is lack of opportunity and motivation to learn to
become social.This encourages the prolongation of egocentrism and the development of
introversion.Shyness in the later part of life is because of the lack of opportunity and
motivation in the babyhood period .It is found that the shyness is a carry over from
babyhood if the individual was subjected to too many strange people and strange care
takers.

The long term effects of shyness include:-loneliness,self consciousness and

unfavourable social evaluation.

e) Play Hazards:-Toys can cause cuts ,bruise and even choke.The play become hazard when
the baby come to rely more on toys rather than paying with others.Television is a built in
–baby sitter,which discourage the baby to take active role in play.Television deprive the
opportunity to play through which the baby can get satisfaction from simple creativity
and imagination
 When playing with parents or with siblings,babies are always allowed to win.As a
result ,they may feel difficulty while competing with other children

f) Hazards in Morality:-During babyhood,the pattern of behavior that present the

greatest problem for care takers are dawdling,defiance,and disobedience-the 3 D’s
of moraliy.
g) Hazards in personality development:-The development of self concept in early
stages is the mirror image of what significant people in their life think of them.As
the family relationship deteriorates in the second year ,the attitude of family
memers will resemble in their treatment to the baby.This reinforces the
unfavourable self concept development among babies