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The importance of attachment with regard to a childs emotional development
The development of infant-mother attachment
The importance of attachment with regard to a childs emotional development
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There has been a constant debate of whether co-sleeping is beneficial or detrimental to infants development. But studies have shown that co-sleeping with the parent influences emotional development between the parent and the infant. By co-sleeping with the parent the warmth from their body in addition, to the sense of protection allows for attachment between the two. The infant is able to follow the breathing rhythm of their parent while co-sleeping as well. Exposing infants to toxins in parents’ breath also assist in development. Furthermore, co-sleeping has been seen to have prolonged effects on social interactions between the parent and child. The purpose of this paper is to review how co-sleeping is beneficial to infants development.
One of the issues with most parents of newborns is the amount of sleep their infant obtains and when the sleep occurs whether it is daytime or nighttime. An important goal for parents is ti eliminate the stress of their infants night awakenings by getting their infant to form early, healthy, and independent sleep habits. This is the goal of most parents specifically in western countries such as the United States which is why many are against co-sleeping. Sleeping through the night or settling is a misleading concept. Most adults and children periodically wake up throughout the night and fall back asleep without being aware of these awakenings, something infants cannot achieve right away. Parents of newborns cannot expect the baby to have eight hours of uninterrupted sleep especially in a room by themselves but they can expect gradual improvement. Wolfson, Lacks, and Futterman (1992) studies the effects of parent training on infant sleeping patterns, parents’ stress, and perceived parental compete...
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...nt, if not more important, than bedtime practices in predicting infant sleep quality (Teti et al., 2010). Results support the theoretical premise that parents’ emotional availability to children in sleep context promotes feelings of safety and security and, as a result, better-regulated child sleep.
In conclusion, though none of the above directly states how co-sleeping effects emotional development in infants it is apparent that infant sleep is very essential to infant development in a general. During the moments when infants are sleeping with their parents they have much parental availability that will soothe them back to sleep. In turn this makes the parent-infant attachment better which will affect how infants display their emotions. Being able to express their emotions freely and having a responsiveness parent will be beneficial to their emotional development.
There was this study done by Meret A. Keller and Wendy A. Goldberg that is focused on if co-sleeping is affecting student’s independence and self-reliance in a negative way. They hypothesized that children who sleep on their own are more independent and self-reliant than children who co-sleep. The procedure focuses on 83 preschool aged children and their mothers. They send out surveys to the parents to answer questions that are about independence and self-reliance. For a child to be independent they need to be able to fall asleep on their own, sleep through the entire night all by themselves, and be weaned from breastfeeding. In order for the child to be self-reliant, they need to be able to do things themselves such as dress themselves. For the results the children were split into three categories, early co-sleeping where the parents started co-sleeping their child when they were infants, reactive co-sleeping where the parents started co-sleeping their child at or after they were a one-year-old, and solitary sleeper where the child sleeps in the different room as the parents. The results were interesting. They were split into three different types of results. There was “Children’s Self-reliance and Social Independence,” “Independent Sleep Behaviors,” and “Adaptive Independence.” In “Children’s
Sara believed that it was important for the infant to establish a sense of security by sleeping in the same room as the parents early on, so that in the future when the child becomes old enough to sleep in a different room, the child will feel secure and be calm even when she is alone by knowing that her parents are just in the other room. One way to understand the link between Sara’s sleeping arrangements and her goal of making the infant feel more secure is to consider Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development (Erikson, 1963) The first stage of Erikson’s (1963) theory is trust versus mistrust, during which babies come to trust that their caregivers and other people will meet their physical and emotional needs or start to mistrust that the parents and other people will not take care of them. Sara hoped that by sleeping near her infant so that she could let her child see her when the child goes to sleep or wakes up in the middle of the night, the infant could feel more safe, or “trust,” that the infant’s needs would be tended to whenever necessary. The “trust” would then impact the child’s future development and especially when the time comes for the child to move to a separate room. The child, having received reliable
All parents have different opinions about allowing their children to sleep in their beds with them. Some will be surprised to find out that it is not only in certain cultures that parents and children sleep together at night in the same bedroom or even in the same bed, but it happens everywhere. Some families keep it a secret for fear other parents will frown on their habits, but it is truly a common practice. In fact, the National Sleep Foundation reports that about 24% of parents let their children sleep with them for at least some part of the night.
Newborns do not contribute much to society at large. In fact, they do not do much in general. It is impossible to know the details of what goes on in an infant’s mind. One of the things we do know about newborns is that sleep is crucial and they spend an average of 16-18 hours each day sleeping (Ward, 2015). This paper will examine the experiences of one mother’s decisions in regard to sleeping arrangements and the values, both cultural and personal, that support these arrangements. It will also compare her decisions to the decisions of U.S. and Mayan mothers discussed in the research article “Cultural Variation in Infants’ Sleeping Arrangements: Questions of Independence.” The mother who was interviewed for this paper is 54 years old and
The concept of infant-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child shall affect that child for its entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or a primary caregiver is imperative for a child’s development. Ainsworth’s study shows that a mother is responsive to her infant’s behavioral cues which will develop into a strong infant-mother attachment. This will result in a child who can easily, without stress, be separated from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows a child with a weak infant-mother relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety, and will never really be that close with the mother. Without the right help, this child may harbor these ill feelings for life.
McKenna, James J. Joyce, Edmund P. "Cosleeping and Biological Imperatives: Why Human Babies Do Not and Should Not Sleep Alone." Neuroanthropology.net. n.p. 21 December 2008. Web. 8 March 2014
...es have to realize that they are not just caring for a premature infant, but also a new family. It is also important for the nurse to understand that the mothers’ and fathers’ approach to touching and bonding with their infant may differ. Although quantitative data from Chiu and Anderson (2009) did not reveal significant differences between the control group and the SSC group at 18 months, the data from Latva et al. (2008) showed significant behavioral differences at six years old when infants were touched as newborns and formed a secure attachment. Therefore, for the health and well-being of both parents and child, time and opportunity to have SSC and bonding experiences must be priorities in the plan of care for infants in the NICU. As one mother stated, “I need to be allowed to feel that he is mine.” (Fegran, Helseth, & Fagermoen, 2007, pg. 813)
After birth, babies immediately begin to establish a bond with his or her caregiver (BOOK). There are instances, such as childbirth complications or sickness; where infants are taken away from the mother immediately after birth. In sterile hospital settings, researchers have determined attachment activities, such as singing, “encourages the infant to strive towards maintaining homeostasis and internal equilibrium”. (A). By fostering attachment, the hospital “ultimately contributes to the infant’s psychological and physical development” (A). The child is able to receive warmth and empathy from the mother, ultimately increasing survival and stimulating physical development. (A)
Feldman, Ruth, Weller, Aron, Sirota, Lea & Eidelman, Arthur I. (2002). Skin-to-skin contact (kangaroo care) promotes self-regulation in premature infants: Sleep-wake cyclicity, arousal modulation, and sustained exploration. Developmental Psychology, 38, 194-207. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.2.194
Newborn babies normally feed every few hours throughout the day and night and may therefore sleep a few hours then wake up again. Because of this, parents cannot begin training the newborn or impose a regular schedule for sleeping. One must quickly respond to the child's hungry cries and feed her to comfort her. Although you may also lose sleep because of of this, you can try napping whenever the baby sleeps to catch up with yur own sleep.
The purpose of this essay is to expose the dangers of allowing a child to sleep over at someone’s house without either the mother or father being present. A sleepover might be at a longtime family-friend’s house or just at a classmate's house. You might know the parents well or you may have never met them. Either way, the danger of a sleepover far outweighs any benefit.
Attachment is crucial to the survival and development of the infant. Kenneth and Klaus points out that the parents bond to their child may be the strongest of all human ties. This relationship has two unique characteristics. First, before birth one individual infant gestates within a part of the mothers body and second, after birth she ensures his survival while he is utterly dependent on her and until he becomes a separate individual. According to Mercer, the power of this attachment is so great that it enables the mother and father to make the unusual sacrifices necessary for the care of their infant. Day after day, night after night; changing diapers, attending to cries, protecting the child from danger, and giving feed in the middle of the night despite their desperate need to sleep (Mercer 22). It is important to note that this original parent-infant tie is the major source for all of the infant’s subsequent attachment and is the formative relationship in the course of which the child develops a sense of himself. Throughout his lifetime the strength and character of this attachment will influence the quality of all future ties to other individuals. The question is asked, "What is the normal process by which a father and mother become attached to a healthy infant?"...
To support the emotional and physical health of these families, nurses provide interventions that assist them through the nine tasks of family development. For Danny and Mark, lack of sleep, lack of time, social isolation, and fatigue impacts their relationship and emotional state. To help mitigate the effects of stress, the nurse educates them on activities to reduce stress and finds ways to maximize their schedule to provide opportunities to participate in those activities. .The nurse also helps Danny and Mark by suggesting and/or finding resources to help with childcare which will provide time for them to spend with each other and with friends. Supporting the emotional health of families with newborns influences positive parent-child relationships and decreases infant maltreatment, family conflicts and negative outcomes (Goldberg & Smith,
Studies have previously been conducted about sleep and students. These studies cover a variety of variables including sleep length, inductive reasoning, preference in time of day, grade-point average, sleep quality, etc. (Escribano & Díaz-Morales, 2013);(Gilbert & Weaver, 2010). In one study researchers used Likert scales on a one to five platform to gather information (Gilbert & Weaver, 2010), and another on a one to four scale (Gaultney, 2004). Another study had a survey that asked for objective information such as exact grade-point average (Kelly, Kelly & Clanton, 2010). Yet another study used sleep logs and divided the students into a series of three classes based on their sleep habits (Tsai & Li, 2004). This stu...
Central idea : Sleep is vital to our health and well-being throughout our life, therefore, in order to protect our mental and physical health, quality of life, and safety, we must get an enough quality sleep at the right times.