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Early Childhood Development

Wed, 01/31/2007 - 2:18pm — Will

At birth, a baby’s brain has been developing for several months as a fetus, but still has miles to go to reach full development. This is the time when babies begin forming social and emotional attachments to the people most often in their lives, such as parents, siblings, caregivers, etc. Studies have shown that babies will react to human touch, sound, smell, and a face more than any other stimulant. Specifically the touches, sounds, smell, and faces of Mom or Dad.

Emotional and social development begins with one simple action: the development of trust. Every child will learn to trust or distrust his or her caregivers. Trust them to feed him when he’s hungry, trust them to keep her warm when she’s cold, and trust to be taken care of when in need. If these needs are met, the baby will begin to trust the parents and the environment. With the development of trust will come emotional attachments to those most often in the baby’s life.

Emotional development teaches children about their own feelings, the people in their lives, and their environment. Strong, positive emotional attachments will help children learn a strong sense of self and high self-esteem; these will later help children value their relationships with others. These emotional attachments even teach children resilience, self-control, initiative, and other protective factors.

Proper emotional development will encourage proper social development. Strong, proper social development will help children form and value relationships with others. It will help them learn to express their views and to discuss and resolve conflicts. They also learn to share, cooperate, take turns, compromise and negotiate so they get along with others.

Almost every parent wants his or her baby to be “ahead of the curve” developmentally. To sit up, crawl, walk and speak before everyone else his age. Additionally, almost every parent believes his or her baby has a develpmental delay, social or emotional, when his or her baby is not the first to sit up, crawl, walk or speak. In many cases, it’s just parents’ natural overreaction, in some cases, however, it’s a legitimate concern.

The list below is a few of the warning signs that could occur in social/emotional development that could be indicative of a delay. In many cases, development for a child may be confusing, unpredictable, erratic, and/or inconsistent, but here are a few things to watch for.

    If your child seems to over or underreact to everything, or you see a loss of emotional control, laughter one moment, crying the next, or an under or overreaction to touch, your child may have a delay. Some other warning signs are:
  • No big smiles or other warm expressions by 6 months
  • No back and forth sharing of sounds, smiles or facial expressions by 9 months
  • No babbling by 12 months
  • No back and forth gestures, such as pointing, reaching or waving by 12 months
  • No words by 16 months
  • No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months
  • Any loss of speech or babbling, or social skills at any age.

Around 7 to 12 months, your child will begin to learn that you and he are two separate individuals. With this realization will also come separation anxiety when he is left with someone else for a time. By 12 to 24 months, this anxiety will probably still exist, but probably won’t last as long when your child realizes that you will come back for him. Each child is different and therefore, his or her reaction to you leaving will be different. However, if his or her anxiety to your leaving is so overwhelming that he is unable to do anything without you close or if he’s inconsolable even after you’ve been gone a while, this could mean a delay in his social and emotional development.

Social and/or emotional development delays may be characteristic of an emotional, behavioral or mental health disability. For example some infants with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD-term used regarding Autism spectrum disorders) tend to avoid eye contact and demonstrate little interest in human voice. These infants don’t usually put their arms up to be picked up, and may seem indifferent to affection and seldom show facial responsiveness. Later, in early childhood, a lack of social responsiveness may be present, as well as a failure to attach to people. For example, they may not follow their parent through the house, or may not display separation anxiety. They may also show a lack of interest in being with or playing with other children, or may avoid other children altogether. (If this sounds like your child, please consult his or her pediatrician, PDD is not an actual diagnosis, merely a collection of symptoms of other diagnoses.)

A social or emotional development delay could also be a possible indicator of Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID). SID refers to the brain’s inability to properly take in information through the senses (i.e. touch, taste, smell, hear, see, etc.). Basically, an underreaction or overreaction to stimuli. In the case of SID, sometimes a child can be distracted by something like background noise, such as a fan or air conditioner. By having too much stimuli in his or her environment, the child will react to this, and cannot react to socializing with other children. Reaction to the “wrong” stimuli can also be mistaken for a learning disability before it is diagnosed as SID.

FOR THE FAMILY

All of these warnings are just those, warnings. They are not meant to be used as a diagnosis for a delay or for something more serious. Only the baby’s pediatrician can calm a parent’s fears or confirm a delay. If you think your child may have a developmental delay, the sooner you know for sure, the sooner you can ease your mind or begin to work with your child’s delay. The best advice is to use your own natural instincts.

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