Losing Isiah

This is a summary of Part 2 (chapters two through five) of The Nurture Effect by Anthony Biglan, PhD. Chapter two is titled ‘Nurturing Families.’ As one might imagine the chapter revolves around the topic of family. It discusses the importance of nurturing development during pregnancy and the first two years of the child’s life. The Nurse-Family Partnership program is talked about as a great solution for poor single teenage mothers. As the chapter continues it goes into topics related to the development of young children and adolescents. Specifically, emotional regulation and nurturing young children as well as the power of attuned, attentive interactions and the

According to the author Smidt (2013), childhood is a social construct which means that the ideas of childhood life consists of what is determined by the adults. She also stated that children lives are represented through culture and group change. However, the changes can occur over a period of time, place and circumstances of the child. As I read chapter one, I was impressed about the author views concerning early child development. The characteristics of development recognized by Smidt (2013), was how prenatal development of the fetus can change over time before birth. The child’s mother can contribute to the changes, through the economic and culture factors. Therefore, this can also influence the environment during the prenatal stages.

In the film Babies, 4 infants are being observed for the first two years of their lives. Each babies comes from different culture, which shows how the various customs can impact the child’s development. Ponijao is the youngest one in his family and lives in a village in Opuwo Namibia. Bayar lives in Bayanchandmachi, Mongolia. Mari is the first child of a couple who lives in Tokyo Japan, and Hattie lives in Sans Francisco California. The film shows the babies develop cognitively, physically and socially-emotionally, during the infancy and toddler years. The Infancy and toddlerhood period is from birth to 2 years. “This period brings dramatic changes in the body and brain that support the emergence of a wide array of motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities” (Berk & Meyers, 2016, p.6).

Once a child is born and their development continues, then starts the controversy and wonder as to whether how the child is raised effects their outcome in adult hood, or whether they are just born to be a certain way. Child psychology looks into the many different factors that affect the pregnancy and raising a child. Such as, parenting styles, and how the environment (nurture) and the genetics (nature) play an important role in the child’s development.

This investigation of maternal age is related to the area of study ‘sociocultural influences’ as it addresses the topics of family structures and environments and the ways in which these support the needs of the behavioural, cognitive and social and emotional development of children aged 0-8 years, as well as the roles and responsibilities of parents in the nurturing of children.

The definition of early life as a social determinant of health given by Rumbold and Dickson-Swift is “A good start in life means supporting mothers and young children.” (Rumbold & Dickson-Swift, 2012, p. 180). Early life describes the period from prenatal development to eight years of age, and is a time of remarkable brain growth and development, this period establishes the foundations for subsequent development and learning (Siddiqi, Irwin, & Hertzman, 2007).

It has been shown that the relationships infants develop early on in life have lasting effects on their identity and behavior. Extensive research has indicated that the relationship between an infant and its caregivers is particularly important.

One of the main aspects of this chapter that really hit home for me was the concept of nurturing a child. I have always been in the camp of nurture, or the lack thereof, being the source of why children suffer from emotional and developmental issues. In the nature vs. nurture debate, my hand was always raised high on the side of nurture. However, this chapter has shed some light in the depth of that train of thought. It is true that parental bonds and attachment play an enormous roll in early childhood development, but they can be displayed in a variety of ways.

As the infant develops, with the help of a facilitating environment provided by a good-enough mother, he or she gradually moves away from absolute dependence towards a state of relative dependence. In this phase, the child develops a growing awareness of his or her dependence on the mother, and acquires an ability to relate objects to his or her impulses. This is a stage that is characterized by adaption to the environment and is accompanied by a gradual failure of the adaption on the part of the mother. As Phillips (1988) states, from the infant’s perspective, the mother changes from “an

Infants are a special cohort of a population in the society. Children between the ages of five months to two years are at a stage where they start familiarizing with their surroundings and have different reactions to situations. The surrounding where an infant grows greatly determines his or her development. The primary determinant of the development of infants is the parent-infant interaction (Crain, 2015). The first bond or relation of a child is with its biological parents or guardians in the case of orphaned children.

This paper will discuss how a child’s development is influenced by environmental and cultural influences as well as parenting styles and education. This will be argued through four topics including

Pregnancy is a naturally occurring event, and parents are responsible for providing a healthy and safe environment for the unborn child while maintaining an optimal emotional and physical health. The pregnant woman should not just ensure that the pregnancy affect her adversely, but also that she does not affect her baby’s prenatal adversely. The parent is the only route which different environmental factors can enter the fetus. Additionally, she is also the most critical environment that can severely affect the child prenatal development, which will later have some alarming consequences on the child’s postnatal and adult life. What the mother do during her pregnancy affects many processes that are link to the development of the child

Some fact (Yarrow, 1961, as cited in Early Experience, 1967) states that also the first few years of life have crucial effects upon later development and adult characteristics and that the significance of early infantile experience for later life development has been repeated so frequently and so seriously that the general effectiveness of this declaration is now almost unchallenged. Bowlby, 1951, (as cited in Early Experience, 1967) quotes that “the prolonged deprivation of the young child of maternal care may have grave and far-reaching effects in his character and so on the whole of his future life.” In comparison to this J.B. Watson (1928) also felt passionately about the first two years of a Childs life. He believed they were the most important and that

5. Shifts from instinct to early relationships Emphasize environmental influences Weight is given to how the infant develops a ‘self’ through relationships within family and how this self relates toward others

“As infants grows older, they form close and enduring emotional attachments with the important people in their lives”. Reference 1. This essay will discuss the developmental period of infancy. Infancy is categorised as the development stage of a human from birth to 2 years of age. Infancy is a time in the human life that involves rapid growth and extraordinary changes in the first two years of life. Infants not only grow dramatically physically, their brains develop, and there is the start of locomotor skill development as well as the start of reflexes and sensory growth. The essay will also discuss anxiety and the role it plays with infants in regards to physical, cognitive and psychosocial stages an infant experiences. This essay will argue that the attachment of an infant to its mother is highly important. It will discuss the different way in which attachment affects an infant. This essay will discuss typical development milsetones in the first year years of human life. It will then go to analysis the relationship between infants being in day care or at home with their mother. T The typical physical development of a babys starts at borth. When a Baby is born on average it will weigh 3.4 kilograms and measure to be around 51 centimeters. A baby is typically 25 percent of its final adult weight when it is born but by its