Child Development
EFFECTS OF ATTACHMENT ON EARLY AND LATER DEVELOPMENT
There is no doubt that early experience influences later development. This influence could account for individual differences in many aspects such as cognition, behaviour, social skills, emotional responses and personality. Some developmentalists assert that early experience guarantees long-term developmental outcomes or protects against subsequent trauma (Sroufe and Jacobvitz, 1989). Early experiences, especially emotionally or affectively charged experiences with other humans, induce and organize the patterns of structural growth that result in the expanding functional capacities of a developing individual. Schore (1994) points out that these early experiences shape the development of a unique personality, its adaptive capacities as well as vulnerabilities to and resistances against particular forms of future pathologies.
Research over the course of past 30 years demonstrated that upon birth infants are far more competent, social, responsive and more able to make sense of his or her environment than we ever imagined. The infant is no longer regarded as passive, responding only to stimuli (Fantz, 1963). Detailed studies of the amazing behavioural capacities of the normal neonate have shown that the infant sees, hears and moves in rhythm with his/her mother’s voice in the first minutes and hours of life, resulting in a beautiful linking of the reactions of the two and a synchronized “dance” between the mother and the infant (Klaus and Kennel, 1982). However, it is important to realize that the infant can only be competent in the context of a relationship.
Therefore, an infant is born expecting a competent caregiver to pay attention to and care for him or her. Winnicott (1965), in a beautiful statement puts this in this way: “A baby alone does not exist.” Among the many different relationships individuals form during the life span, the relationship between mother and child is the most important. This
There is no doubt that early experience influences later development. This influence could account for individual differences in many aspects such as cognition, behaviour, social skills, emotional responses and personality. Some developmentalists assert that early experience guarantees long-term developmental outcomes or protects against subsequent trauma (Sroufe and Jacobvitz, 1989). Early experiences, especially emotionally or affectively charged experiences with other humans, induce and organize the patterns of structural growth that result in the expanding functional capacities of a developing individual. Schore (1994) points out that these early experiences shape the development of a unique personality, its adaptive capacities as well as vulnerabilities to and resistances against particular forms of future pathologies.
Research over the course of past 30 years demonstrated that upon birth infants are far more competent, social, responsive and more able to make sense of his or her environment than we ever imagined. The infant is no longer regarded as passive, responding only to stimuli (Fantz, 1963). Detailed studies of the amazing behavioural capacities of the normal neonate have shown that the infant sees, hears and moves in rhythm with his/her mother’s voice in the first minutes and hours of life, resulting in a beautiful linking of the reactions of the two and a synchronized “dance” between the mother and the infant (Klaus and Kennel, 1982). However, it is important to realize that the infant can only be competent in the context of a relationship.
Therefore, an infant is born expecting a competent caregiver to pay attention to and care for him or her. Winnicott (1965), in a beautiful statement puts this in this way: “A baby alone does not exist.” Among the many different relationships individuals form during the life span, the relationship between mother and child is the most important. This