developmental Tasks

1. Human development across the
lifespan
By C Settley

2. Outcomes
• Describe the development tasks of the infant
• Discuss the following aspects of development:
• Motor development
• Perceptual development
• Language development
• Social development:
• Describe the concept attachment.
• Analyse the following aspects of attachment:
phases of attachment

3. Outcomes
• Types of attachment
• Factors influencing attachment
• The role of the father
• The role of other care-givers and siblings
• Discuss stranger anxiety during infancy
• Discuss separation anxiety during infancy
• Analyse the following aspects of the socialisation
process during infancy
• Parental influence.

4. Developmental tasks
of the infant
• Physical development is rapid during the first
two years of life
• Within 4-6 months the baby is double its birth
weight, and by the age of 2 years the child is
about half its adult height
• Thereafter, growths slows down until the next
‘growth spurt’ at puberty
• Motor skills: divided into gross motor
skills(large muscle movements) and fine motor
skills(small muscle movements)

5. Developmental tasks of the infant:
Gross Motor Movement
• Developmental milestones:

6. Developmental tasks of the
infant: Gross Motor Movement
• Babies are not all the same
• Differences when they achieve their
physical milestones are an indication to
assess whether the child grows within
normal ranges

7. Road to Health Chart

8. Developmental tasks of the
infant: Fine motor skills
• In the first two years of life, skills as
grasping and reaching develop
• Hand-eye coordination also develops in
the first two years of life
• Video on developmental stages 6-8
months

9. Motor development
• Is the development of an infants’ ability to move
their arms and legs
• Large motor actions develop first: they lift their
heads, roll over, sit, crawl and eventually walk
• Fine motor movements also develops gradually.
At first the infant grasps an object with the while
hand, and in time holds the object between
fingers
• As the sensory functions and the fine and large
motor systems become integrated, more
complex actions are possible

10. Motor development:
Sequence of motor development

11. Motor development
• Motor skills and bi-lateral co-ordination
improves dramatically during early
childhood
• Sequence of development more or less
the same with all babies

12. Neonatal Reflexes

13. PRIMITIVE REFLEXES
VIDEO

14. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
• Infant temperament:
• Foundation of personality
• Refers to individual differences in babies
in attention, arousal and reactions to the
environment, like routines, changes and
new situations
• Mostly a result of genetic factors
• Very little to do with good or poor
caregiving

15. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
• Physical and cognitive growth are not the
only aspects that are important
• The are people to be explored, feelings to
be experienced and relationships to be
formed
• All of these contribute towards an
individuals personality
• Social interaction plays a central role in
the individuals overall development

16. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
• Emotional Attachment
• All babies are born with skills that help them
survive
• These skills help them interact and form
relationships with others
• The earliest relationships are the foundations for
their social development in the future
• Attachment is the special bond that links the
baby with the primary caregiver, which is also
felt by the caregiver

17. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
• Babies learn to smile by the age of 6
weeks, and this makes the caregivers
respond with love and protection
• Before the age of 6 it is reflex reaction
• Feeding plays a big part of the attachment
relationship
• Not just the feeding- but the comfort,
soothing touch of the mother that leads to
attachment

18. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
- when babies are unable to rely on their
caregivers, they might have difficulty trusting
others
-Babies also learn to copy the facial
expressions of others

19. Emotional, Personality and
Social development
Factors that promote attachment behaviors:
-The mother’s personality
-Her general attitude towards children
-The quality of the marital relationship
-The attitude of her husband towards the
child
-Her socio-economic situation

20. Types of attachment

21. Secure Attachment

22. Avoidant Attachment

23. Ambivalent Attachment

24. Disorganised Attachment

25. Video
• ATTACHMENT

26. Speech and language
development
• Begins with the sounds that babies make
when they are born
• Speech takes place in a sequence
• First sounds are called ‘cooing’
• Consonant sounds at 5 months of age
• By 8 months babies keep quiet when
somebody talks to them
• At 1 year of age they can say words

27. Speech and language
development
• Begins with the sounds that babies make
when they are born
• Speech takes place in a sequence
• First sounds are called ‘cooing’
• Consonant sounds at 5 months of age
• By 8 months babies keep quiet when
somebody talks to them
• At 1 year of age they can say words

28. The role of fathers during
child development
• Fathers play an important
role in a child's
development from birth
through adulthood.
• In fact, numerous studies
have reached the same
conclusion: Children with
involved fathers have an
advantage -- socially and
academically -- over
children with distant or no
relationships with their
fathers
• Research found better
language skills and fewer
behavioral problems in
children with an actively
involved father.

29. The role of fathers during
child development
• Interestingly, this result holds true even if the father
doesn't live in the same home as the child -- for
example, in divorce situations. It appears that how
involved the dad is -- not where he lives in relation to the
child -- is the crucial factor.
• Children with fathers who take the time to ask about
what they learned in school and their day-to-day social
activities and relationships do better in school than kids
who don't have that kind of input or interest.
• And it's important to note that this father figure doesn't
have to be a biological father in order for children to
benefit. It can be an adoptive father, stepfather, or an
adult male in the household.

30. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Sensitive and responsive
caregiving is a requirement
for the healthy
neurophysiological, physical
and psychological
development of a child.
• - Sensitivity and
responsiveness have been
identified as key features of
caregiving behaviour related to
later positive health and
development outcomes in
young children
• Sensitivity is an awareness of
the infant and an awareness of
the infant’s acts and
vocalizations as
communicative signals to
indicate needs and wants.

31. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Sensitivity is an awareness of the infant and an
awareness of the infant’s acts and vocalizations
as communicative signals to indicate needs and
wants. Responsiveness is the capacity of
caregivers to respond contingently and
appropriately to the infant’s signals.
• To ensure the child’s health and growth,
caregivers need to be sensitive to the physical
state of the young child, to be able to judge
whether the child is hungry, tired, needs
toileting, or is becoming sick.

32. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Responsive caregivers are able to make these
judgements because they monitor the child’s
movements, expressions, colour, temperature,
and the like.
• By continuously taking account of the child’s
response, they are able to adjust their own
actions to achieve an optimum outcome

33. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Inadequate, disrupted and negligent care has
adverse consequences for the child’s survival,
health and development.
• The quality of caregiving relationships has an impact on
children’s health and development.
• These effects occur because children, whose care is
less than adequate or whose care is disrupted in some
way, may not receive sufficient nutrition; they may be
subjected to stress; they may be physically abused and
neglected; they may develop malnutrition; they may not
grow well; and early signs of illness may not be detected.

34. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Factors directly affecting the caregiver and
child, as well as underlying social and
economic issues, influence the quality of
caregiver-child relationships.
• Barriers to the natural emergence of a caring
relationship disrupt the care a child needs.
• Caregiver mood and emotional state are critical
determinants of caregiver behaviour, for
example, with consequences for the child’s
health and development

35. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Faced with chronic stress or anxiety, the
caregiver may withdraw from her infant and
become inattentive to the child’s physical
and psychological states.
• With a lack of attention and poor surveillance,
the caregiver is not aware of early signs of
illness, that a child has not eaten sufficiently
during the last meal, or that no one has praised
the child for efforts to do something or provided
the child with guidance and limits for behaviour.

36. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Chronic stress, associated with poverty and
other environmental challenges, can also disrupt
the capacity of adults to give loving care.
• The effects of caregiving on young children can
persist well into adolescence in the form of
behaviour disorders, anxiety, and depression

37. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Nurturing caregiver-child relationships have
universal features across cultures,
regardless of differences in specific child
care practices
• In all human groups, babies depend on warm,
responsive, linguistically rich, and protective
relationships in which to grow and develop
• They cannot survive in environments that do not
meet threshold levels of these characteristics
•

38. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Caregivers in all cultures demonstrate sensitivity and
responsiveness towards infants and young children,
although the form of the caregiver’s actions may vary
considerably from one cultural milieu to another.
• Sometimes these features of caregiver-child
relationships are not so easily observed because
interactions with children, or the expression of emotions,
are kept private as a matter of social convention.
• This does not mean, however, that caring adults do not
watch young infants, cuddle and talk to them, and
stimulate babies to develop skills indicative of healthy
growth and wellbeing

39. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Siblings play a powerful
role in child development
• While siblings might
compete for attention in
the household, they can
also become supportive
friends and role models
• Siblings who interact
frequently influence the
other's social behaviors
and personalities as they
develop into adults
• Children who grow up with
older siblings observe and
mimic their social behaviors
because they regularly
encounter similar
circumstances and
environments

40. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• Siblings can shape each other's personalities, and birth
order can be key. For instance, an older sibling, who is
used to being the first to learn things, might become
more confident and develop stronger leadership skills
• Firstborn children, who are often surrogates for their
parents as caregivers, teachers, and models, enjoy a
greater status/power position in relationship to their
younger siblings
• A middle child might become insecure and attention-
seeking because she is neither the beloved first born or
the adored baby. He/she might be rebellious or
competitive.
• The youngest might become spontaneous and outgoing.

41. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• As first playmates, siblings can build close
bonds
• They might enjoy spending time together and
learning from each other
• However, sibling rivalry is common during
childhood
• While siblings might compete early on, those
who are coached properly by their parents can
eventually develop relationships of love and
support.

42. The role of other care givers and
siblings during child development
• By watching and listening to a sibling, children
strengthen their communication skills
• Older siblings might read out loud, sing songs, make
jokes, or give instructions in front of their younger
siblings, and in doing so, they act as role models
• The more often children hear the sounds of language,
the faster they will strengthen their own skills
• While parents also model language and communication
skills, siblings live in similar worlds and therefore might
be more likely to absorb new information from an older
brother or sister

43. References
• http://www.guidetochildcare.org/normal-growth-and-
development.htm
• https://www.pinterest.com/meloniebrasher/nerve-stuff/
• http://mbbsdost.com/fbapp/index.php?mno=2618
• https://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/attach
ment-theory-and-the-brain-an-interview-with-dr-daniel-
sonkin/
• http://www.afatherforever.com/
• http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/924159134X.p
df
• http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/role-caregivers-
speech-language-development-children-6214.html

44. References
• http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/importance-siblings-
development-7039.html