SOCIO-EMOTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT OF INFANTS AND

TODDLERS
Learning Outcomes:
In this lesson, you challenge to:
• Describe the socio-emotional development of infants and toddlers.
• Identify factors that enhance/ impede the socio- emotional development of
infants and toddlers.
• Present an abstract of other’s or your own research related to the socio-
emotional development of infants and toddlers.
• Draw implications of socio-emotional development of infants and toddlers.
Introduction:
• Simply put, socio-emotional development has
something to do with the development of a
person’s ability to master one’s emotions and
the ability to relate to others. It necessarily
includes temperament, attachments and social
skills.
Socio-emotional Development

 Socio-emotional development
represents a specific domain of
child development.
 It is a gradual integrative process
which acquire the capacity to
understand, experience, express,
and manage emotions and to
develop meaningful relationships
with others.
FORMATIVE YEARS

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• It is the first three years of a child

where in considered as of the
important in human development

Between 0- 3 years old

Three element of socio-emotional development of
children:

• TEMPERAMENT

• ATTACHMENT • The emergence of the Moral self

ATTACHMENT
 It is a term used to describe the emotional relationship that develops between
an infant and the primary caregiver,
 According Dr. John Bowly, the father of “attachment theory”, the beginning of
attachment occur within the first six months of a baby’s life with a variety of
built-in signals that baby uses to keep her caregiver engaged.
 It is a relationship that develops over time and is the result of many interactions
and caregiving experiences.
TEMPERAMENT
 Temperament is a word that “captures the ways that people
differ, even at birth, in such things as their emotional
reactions, activity level, attention span, persistence, and
ability to regulate their emotions.
 the way a young child acts and responds to different
situations, caregivers, and strangers.
 Researchers Thomas, Chess, and Birch described nine
different temperament categories
Different Temperament categories:
1. Activity level
2. Mood
3. Threshold for distress
4. Rhythmicity
5. Intensity of response
6. Approach- withdrawal
7. Distractibility
8. Adaptability
9. persistence
Categories of Temperament:
Activity level
> some babies are placid or
inactive. Other babies thrash
about a lot and, as toddlers, are
always on the move. At this
stage, they must be watched
carefully.
The Mood
 some babies are very smiley and
cheerful. Although securely
attached emotionally to their
teachers, others have a low-key
mood and look more solemn or
unhappy.
Categories of Temperament:

Child’s Threshold for distress The Rhythmicity of children

• Some babies are very sensitive. • Some babies get hungry or

They become upset very easily sleepy on a fairly regular and
when stressed. Other babies predictable basis. Other babies
can more comfortably wait sleep at varying times, urinate
when they need a feeding or or have bowel movement at
some attention. unpredictable times.
• They are hard to put on a
“schedule”
Categories of Temperament:
The Intensity of response in
each baby
• Some baby act restless. Others
act cranky or fret just a little.
They shriek with delight and
respond with high energy when
reacting to happy or challenging
situations
Approach to new situation
• Some infants are very cautions.
They are wary and fearful of
new teachers, being placed in a
different crib, or being taken a
new setting.
• Other infants approach new
persons, new activities, or new
play possibilities with zest and
enjoyment.
Categories of Temperament:
Distraction
• Some children can concentrate
on a toy regardless of
surrounding bustle or noise in a
room. Others are easily
distracted.
Child’s attention span
• Some children have a long
attention span. They continue
with an activity for a fairly
long time. Others flit from one
activity to another

Adaptability of each child

• some children react to strange or
difficult situations with distress, but
recover fairly rapidly. Others adjust to
new situations with difficulty or after a
very long period.
Three basic types of babies temperament:
1. The easy child
- easily readily establishes regular routines.
- generally cheerful
2. The slow-to-warm-up child
- shows mild, low-key reactions to environmental changes.
- negative in mood, and adjust slowly to new experience.
3. The difficult child
- irregular in daily routines.
- slow to accept new experiences
- tends to react negatively and intensely to new things.
The Development of emotion
Early Infancy (birth- six months)
• It is not clear whether infants actually experience emotions, or if adults, using
adult facial expressions as the standard, simply superimpose their own
understanding of the meaning of infant facial expressions.
• Between six and ten weeks, a social smile emerges, usually including cooing and
mouthing.
As infants become more aware of their environment, smiling occurs in response
to a wider variety of contexts. Laughter, which begins at around three or four
months, requires a level of cognitive development because it demonstrates that
the child ca recognize incongruity.
Later infancy months ( 7-12 months)
• During the last half of the first year, infants begin expressing fear, disgust, and anger
because of the maturation of cognitive abilities. Anger, often expressed by crying, is
a frequent emotion expressed by infants.
• Fear also emerges during this stage as children become able to compare an
unfamiliar event with what they know. One of the most common is the presence of
an adult stranger, a fear that begins to appear at about seven months. A second fear
of this stage is called separation anxiety. Infants seven to twelve months old may cry
in fear if the mother or caregiver leaves them in an unfamiliar place.
• Another process that emerges during this stage is social referencing. Infants begin
to recognize the emotions and people.
Social Inferencing (13-18 months)

Infants begin to recognize the emotions of others, and

use thisinformation when reacting to novel situations and
people. As infantsexplore their world, they generally rely
on the emotional expressionsof their mothers or
caregivers to determine the safety orappropriateness of
a particular endeavour.
Toddlerhood (1-2 years)
• Infants express emotion of shame or
embarassment and pride. Theseemotions mature
in all children and adults contribute in
theirdevelopment.
Emotional Understanding

• Emotional understandingToddlers acquire

language and are learning to verbally express
theirfeelings. This ability, rudimentary as it is
during early toddlerhood, isthe first step in the
development of emotional self-regulation skills.
MILESTONES