Emotional Development

Emotion is the language of a persons mental state of well being, normally based in or tied to the persons internal and external sensory feeling.

Both maturation and learning are responsible for emotional development in children.

Maturation : Intellectual development results in an ability to perceive meanings not perceived earlier to attend to one stimulus for a longer time.

The growth of imagination and understanding and the increase in ability to remember and anticipate  affect emtional reactions.

Learning: various learning methods, including trial and error, imitation and conditioning affect the emotional development in children.

Stages of emotional development :

0- 1 month is the insensitive stage. The child is not aware / sensitive of the emotions of the people around him. It is a natural phenomenon designed by nature to protect child from adverse stimuli. eg. the mother sobs, the baby is insensitive but he can hear the sounds.

the baby only does actions for his immediate basic needs – crying, sleeping & moving.

1-3 months – turns to the external world and is getting acquainted to the world around him and the sounds but the smile is just a reflex.

3 – 6 months – baby is aware of environment, continuous of previous stage and real emotions start developing. there are real tears, earlier crying was without tears. the child is not aware of the emotions of crying.

4 – 5 months  – babys tears are signs of emotional  development, child is now more sensitive to everything including self and others, so we have to be more careful of the stimulus around the baby.

7 – 9 month – is the social awakening period, baby waits for a stimulus like tickling and laughs loudly, so provide the baby with a lot of stimulus now, as earlier it was of no use, the baby will respond to everything you do. if you take away the baby’s primary caregiver, he will end his relationship with you.

9 – 12 months – is the attachment period and high stranger anxiety. the baby has a strong affinity to primary caregiver. only when you are familiar to the baby and not a stranger anymore, the baby will be comfortable coming to you. Till then enjoy and play with the baby from far.

12 – 18 months -this is the practising stage – one of the best stages of the baby’s life, you can make your baby an extrovert by not showing signs of nervousness or else he will cling to you. Dont hold on the baby, give him an opportunity to go around, ensure the environment is safe.

 

18 – 36 months – stage of emergence of a self concept. baby swings between stubborn behavior to child like behavior to independent behavior “I will do it”. Give the child the freedom and support. Give the child choices between two desires. when the child behaves like a baby dont make him feel that he should be independent. And when the baby behaves independently, we should not want to treat the child like a baby.