The First Two Years of Life free essay sample

He proposed three stages in psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic. Erikson’s theory is psychosocial. From birth until about one and a half the child is going through the oral sensory stage. More about these theories and discussing the first two years of a child’s life will be discussed further on in this essay. The first two years of a child’s life is always the fastest. The baby quadrupled in weight, grown taller by more that a foot, and sprouted a new head of hair. A change in attitude will definitely be recognizable as well (Berger, pg. 121). Biosocial Development covers the growth and developments that take place in the body, as well as the biological, social, cultural, and environmental elements affecting this growth and development. During the first 2 years of life, biosocial development occurs at a rapid pace. When a child is born the head is really the heaviest and biggest part of its body. Baby fat is stored to keep the brain nourished if teething or the sniffles interfere with eating. (Berger, pg. 124) It is always good to know a baby’s percentile. Percentile is a point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100 (Berger, pg. 24). It will tell you if the baby is a normal weight at birth. In order for the brain to mature it has to go through something called experience-expectant brain functions. An infant is expected to have this is order to develop normally. Meaning that and infant will have things to see, objects to manipulate, and people to love them. Some don’t have it and have something called experience-dependent brain functions. By age two the brain has developed to two-thirds of what it will weigh by adulthood and has increased to five times the density it was at birth. What began as involuntary movement and reflexes at birth, by 6 months have become voluntary movements. By 2 years the fine motor skills are beginning to develop. Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body that enable such functions as crawling, kicking, sitting upright and rolling over. It is a little harder for an infant to walk because they are top heavy and their thighs are too big to support their little feet. Most infants, starting at nine months begins to learn how to walk. Fine motor skills are necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform. This is the childs ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw. Jean Piaget was a Swiss biologist, philosopher, and psychologist best known for his work in the area of developmental psychology. Even though he divided cognitive growth and development into fixed stages we are focusing on the first two years. His first two years was described as the sensorimotor stage. This is when the child is interacting through physical actions such as sucking, grabbing, pushing, and shaking. The first two stages of sensorimotor intelligence involve primary circular reactions, which involve the child’s own body (Berger, pg. 45). During this stage infants realize that objects still exist when out of sight. Piaget described four distinct periods of cognitive development. The first begins at birth and ends at about 24 months. Piaget called it sensorimotor intelligence because infants learn through their senses and motor skills (Berger, pg. 153). The first two stages Primary circular reactions involve the child’s own body. This stage involves his reflexes such as grasping, sucking, staring, and listening. This stage usually lasts a month. Stage two is when the baby deciphers what kind of sucking to do differently. For example, the child may evidently suck a pacifier differently than sucking a bottle. Stages three and four are called the secondary circular reactions. This is where the baby interacts with something else. Stage three is from four to eight months. They discover â€Å"exciting things† which is new to them and they tend to make things last. When they see mommy coming in the room smiling with a bottle the child will make some kind of reaction because they know that its feeding time. Stage four is from eight months to a year. The child is becoming more deliberate and purposeful in responding to people and objects. (Berger pg. 154) Stages five and six are called tertiary circular reactions. Stage five the child is more experimentive. They will flush things down the toilet, take apart things, and putting things in places where they naturally do not belong. They are referred as â€Å"little scientist† in chapter 6. Stage six the child copies the behavior of what they see. This is known as deferred imitation. A child’s emotion changes during the first two years. At first the child has periodic cries like when they are wet, hungry or tired. But as they get older they emotions changes over time. Around when the child is 6 weeks old they will give a little social smile. When they are 9 months they are getting stranger wariness. This is when a stranger appears or unfamiliar face comes around they start to cry. When the child is a year old they do not only fear unfamiliar faces but anything unexpected such as a phone ringing, flushing toilet, and jack-in-the-box. As a child grows they are learning more about themselves which is known as self- awareness. According to Freud birth to the first year of life is the oral stage (psychosexual) because the child receives much satisfaction from the mouth, more feeding and sucking. Therefore Erikson called the first year trust vs. mistrust. This is when infants learn that their world can be trust to satisfy basic needs (Berger, pg. 187). Freud’s anal stages, occurs in the second year, talks about toilet training is the most important activity. The child basically learns how to use the toilet on his own and knows how to control their needs to go. Erikson describes the second year as autonomy vs. shame and doubt. At 18 months a child wants â€Å"self-rule† over their own bodies and actions (Berger, pg. 187). If they don’t have it they will feel shame and doubtful about the things they do. Ethnotheory is a theory that is embedded in a particular culture or ethnic group. Every culture does or believes things differently. This leads to how frequently parents should carry and cuddle their babies. Proximal parenting is being physically close to a baby, mostly holding. Proximal parenting also usually leads to â€Å"spoiling the child. Holding the child too much may cause them to become too attached. For instance, if a child is frequently being picked up and carried and held, the child will get too used to it and will want to be carried all the time. Distal parenting is keeping distance- providing toys, talking face to face instead of touching or sitting them in front of the television. During the first year starting a t birth attachment is started between the newborn and the parents. Children show a lot of attachment by approaching or following their parent, which is called proximity-seeking or contact maintaining (such as touching, snuggling, or holding). Just as the child shows attachment to the parents, the parents show attachment to the child. They will get up in the middle of the night and check on their baby or they will rub their child’s hand or cheek during the day, letting the child know that they are there. In conclusion, so many things happen over the first two years of life from growth to attachment. You will be amazed at the amazing changes that happen in life. I have actually learned a lot about a child’s first two years while doing this essay. We saw how the body changes, motor skills, learned Piaget’s sensorimotor intelligence, and the development of social bonds.