The Attachment Phase
INFANTS
Module 4
Birth – 1 Year
A Strong Start for Life
Education grows out from the close and continuous relationship that results from caregiving. Lifelong learning and attitudes can be initiated on the diapering counter while babies are being washed, dressed, and groomed, and during feeding times.
Development, learning, and attachment are vitally related. From attachment come feelings of trust and security, which in turn is critical for the babies to explore and learn.
Common Scenario: Babies are often bound to cribs, car seats, slings.
In a way, being left alone, without much sensory input, but more important without attachment, as a result they might fail to thrive. Adding mobiles, music boxes, or dangling objects to the crib isn’t the answer.
What babies need is to perceive their own involvement in stimulating experiences. Their involvement comes when they are able to have some effect on that is, interact with—the people and things that are part of the experiences.
We hope that the curated list of articles:
- Speak to you, putting into words the development you see occurring each day with children from birth.
- Support you in understanding and propagating effective practices of child development
- Make you better equipped to plan for intentional interactions with your child
- Strengthen your commitment to respectful, responsive & reciprocal relationships with your child
- Enhance your belief system around the individual nature of the developmental trajectory and the crucial role that family and context play in each child’s development
Psed
Physical Development
Communication & Language
Literacy
Math
Infants
PSED
Cardinal
Chapter 4.1
Personal,Social,Emotional Development (PSED) in Infants – An Introduction
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) are three building blocks of future success in life. They are closely linked to each other and often bracketed together as one area of learning and development.
Individuality
Chapter 4.2
Personal Development In Infants
‘Attachment’ is a complex, on-going process which evolves with the child’s age. However, w.r.t to the context of early years, in essence it involves closeness and responsiveness to infants. Research indicates, warm, positive interactions stabilize connections in the child’s brain, leading to strong neural pathways.
Survival
Chapter 4.3
Social Development in Infants
Attachment being the foremost indicator of social development. It is hard to miss the tiny eyes gleam at the sight of his/her parents. When you interact verbally or otherwise, there is a dance-like movement in the petite body, a movement whose rhythm matches that of your communication with him.
Security
Chapter 4.4
Emotional Development in Infants
Infants do have emotions from the first moments of life. However, these might not be very reformed. Emotions related to newborns are all about immediate experiences & sensations that can lead to a stirred up or calmed down responses, and therefore it is hard to label their feelings.
Happenings
Chapter 4.5
Enabling Environments for Infants
What is enabling environment?
The surroundings of young children (i.e. both emotional & physical collectively) also known as environment plays a vital role in supporting and extending their personal, social and emotional development.
Nudge
Chapter 4.6
Positive Relations with Infants
Parents are their child’s first and most enduring educators. They have a deep impact on their child’s development and learning. Young children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with their parents.
At a Glance
Chapter 4.7
Characteristics of PSED in Infants
The first year is marked by:
– Awareness of Self
– Awareness of Others
– Taking Interest in other children/siblings
– Managing Feelings & Behavior
Infants
Physical Development
Instinctive
Chapter 4.8
Physical Development in Infants – Implicit
Everyday behaviors and reflexes also provide significant insights in brain development. Advancement in neurosciences has established that by the age 3, a child’s brain is 90% the weight of that adult’s brain. Understanding infant’s physical development can open up opportunities for parents to enhance the care they offer their new-born.
The Obvious
Chapter 4.9
Physical Development in Infants – Explicit
A new-born who has just mastered the art of sitting up, is still dependent on others for bringing objects within her reach to strike an engagement. Pivoting on her tummy is the first sign of your baby “being on the move”. Next, she will try to creep by pulling herself forward with her arms.
Infants
Communication & Language
All Ears
Chapter 4.10
Communication & Language with Infants
Social relations wiggle its way into the baby’s life right after birth. Tending parents become the centre of attention of the baby. Constant talk, affection, attention generates the need for new impressions (Bozhovich, 1981), i.e. the need:
Mindfulness
Chapter 4.11
Building Communication & Language Skills from Birth
Parent–infant ‘interaction’ is a key factor towards fostering communication & language development in infants.
It is not just about “quantity of words” the infant hears. Vocabulary Enrichment is also a function of the “quality of Interaction” with parents and other adults around.
Infants
Literacy
The Prints
Chapter 4.12
Early Literacy during Infancy
Early literacy is different from reading readiness, which is about introducing shapes, colours and the use of writing tools. Emergent Literacy is a process of developing awareness about oral (language & reading) and written language, and it starts at birth.
Seamless
Chapter 4.13
Best Practices to Boost the Literacy Quotient in Infants
Introducing literacy is important, but at this nascent stage ‘how we do what we do’ is critical. By focusing on picture book sharing, you can assist your child with observing and exploring written language. However, not all children will show the same interest in books!
Infants
Math
Concepts
Chapter 4.14
Math for Infants
From the moment they are born, babies begin to form ideas about math through every day experiences. Mindful parental interaction helps the baby to develop math concepts & skills early on in life. But why Promote Mathematical Experiences in Infants?
The Play Way
Chapter 4.15
Math Talk Ideas with Infants!
Bringing more math into the home doesn’t have to take up any extra time: Parents can talk about math with their new-borns while reading books, having meals, playing with toys, and even just going about their regular routines. Where to begin?