Key Features of First Relationships and Their Importance to Infant Development

Key Features of First Relationships and Their Importance to Infant Development

Human infants rely on other people for their survival. It was once

believed that someone to provide food and shelter was enough. However,

Rutter (1981, cited in Oates, 1994) has shown that this basic

requirement will not guarantee that an infant will thrive. Studies of

infants raised in orphanages show that physical care, such as warmth

and food is not enough and that the relationships an infant has with

caregivers is of equal importance in aiding development and survival.

Many cultures have differing infant rearing practices however, this

need for relationships and well as physical care is universal, whether

this care comes from the mother, grandparents or child minders.

This essay will first define some of the key features of infants first

relationships giving the importance of each of these features in the

psychological development of the infants. Then it will show how these

features can be linked to some of the theories of child development.

One of the main key features of infant – caregiver’s relationships is

the early development of interactions. One form of interaction,

meshing, is so called because of the way the turn taking action

develops into a smooth conversation-like interaction. Meshing is

important in social interactions, for a relationship to run smoothly

the participant needs to be able to read the other person, knowing

when they should listen and when they can speak. Trevarthen (1993,

cited in Oakes, 1994) used the term co-regulation to describe this

turn taking and synchronisation, which occurs between the infant and

caregiver. The...

... middle of paper ...

...epeating of

behaviour supports the Behaviourists theory. Piaget’s stages of

development is also supported by the way the infant assimilates and

accommodates new knowledge. However, the supporting evidence for the

Social Constructivists theory is possibly the strongest for these

particular key features. Both the early interactions and scaffolding

are behaviours, which are repeated many times, with the caregiver

giving encouragement to the infant to take a proactive role in the

repetition of the behaviour.

References:

Das Gupta, P. (1994) “Images of Childhood and theories of

Development”, in Oates, J. (ed.) The Foundations of Development,

Oxford, Blackwell/The Open University

Oates, J. (1994) “First Relationships”, in Oates, J. (ed.) The

Foundations of Development, Oxford, Blackwell/The Open University