Infant Red Flags & Social Milestones

RESEARCH: The Impact of Social Cues: THE VISUAL CLIFF

The visual cliff research described earlier was expanded to see how much parental expressions influence infants to take, or avoid, the “plunge” of crossing the “cliff.” Researchers noticed that uncertain babies on the cliff would look at the “drop-off” and then at their mothers’ faces for information. Some of the mothers made encouraging faces (smiling and looking happy), while the others made negative expressions (frowning and looking fearful). None could gesture or use other bodily movements. This experiment showed that none of the infants whose mothers had fearful expressions would cross, while nearly all the babies of the positive-looking mothers would (Sorce, Emde, Campos, & Klinnert, 1985). A similar experiment found that one-year-olds’ reactions to new toys is also heavily determined by parental expression alone (Hornik, Risenhoover, & Gunnar, 1987).

Vignette: When I got a puppy a couple of years ago I was very surprised to see how much joint attention and social referencing she did. When anything new--and potentially scary--appears in her environment, she looks to me to see whether to bark or wag her tail. This is much like the toddler who falls and then looks at your face to determine if he is hurt.

Theories on Social Emotional Development

Erikson built upon Freud’s belief that infants are in the oral stage to focus on their need for emotional security. He believed it is the quality of the caregiver’s actions rather than the amount of food that determines an infant’s emotional development. According to Erikson’s psychosocial theory, infants will develop either basic trust or mistrust of people based on interactions during their first two years of life. He believed that infants would learn to trust when they received consistent and loving care and to mistrust when deprived. Attachment and brain development research findings conducted after Erikson's theory was formulated support his views.

Atypical Infant Social-Emotional Development

It is the relationship between the primary caregiver and the infant that determines social-emotional development. Babies with insecure or no attachments fail to develop basic trust that is needed for optimal growth. This may, in turn, delay physical growth (i.e. failure to thrive) and development in other domains. Conversely, physical problems can impact social-emotional development. For example, the relationship between mother and child is usually affected when newborns are born prematurely and/or have medical needs requiring long hospitalizations. Studies have found that early separation limits nurturing interactions (Eckerman & Ochler, 1992), which compromises maternal responsiveness (Minde, 2000). Development in this domain may also be affected by conditions previously mentioned, such as CP or Down syndrome.

Other varying factors shape the development of infant relationships and emotional development. Cultural values, gender roles, family situations, and more all strongly impact social-emotional development.

RESEARCH: Gender differences: How do adults treat boys and girls differently?

From the moment of birth, gender is the major determinant in socialization. Gender is so important that it is the first question asked by others at the birth of a baby. Recent research has uncovered biological differences between the brains and visual preferences of boy and girl infants, but many of these studies are controversial. Even though there may be biologically based differences, gender roles are transmitted primarily through the environment. A classic experiment is where a group of adults is asked to play with a baby, who is sometimes identified as a girl and sometimes as a boy. When the adults thought the child was female, she was given a doll to play with, and when thought to be a boy, he was offered a hammer or rattle. They also touched the babies identified as girls more gently, while boys were bounced and given full body stimulation (Gleitman, et al., 2000). Another study found that adults describe infants very differently based on their genders. Boys are most often called “sturdy” and “tough” while girls are “dainty” and “sweet” (Giddens, 1993). Obviously how adults play with, touch, and label children will impact their social-emotional development greatly.

INFANT DEVELOPMENT RED FLAGS

Red flags are indicators that development is not progressing as expected. At any age, a loss of previous skills or a lack of expected weight, height, and head circumference gain are cause for concern. Professional screening and assessment may be indicated if a child…

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