The view known as nativism advocated by Noam Chomsky suggests that infants are equipped with a neurological construct referred to as the Language Acquisition Device or LAD that makes infants ready for language. Language develops as long as the infant is exposed to it. No teaching, training, or reinforcement is required for language to develop.

Social Pragmatics 

Another view emphasizes the child’s active engagement in learning language out of a need to communicate. The child seeks information, memorizes terms, imitates the speech heard from others and learns to form concepts using words as language is acquired. Many would argue that all three of these dynamics foster the acquisition of language (Berger, 2004, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

Language styles

Researchers have identified that as toddlers develop language two distinct styles can be identified. These two styles are referred to as referential and expressive styles (Bates, Bretherton & Snyder, 1988) . Most toddlers prefer one of the two styles, but some blend the two styles. Toddlers who show a preference for the referential style use language to label objects and people. They tend to use single words eventually building up to phrases. They tend to interact more with adults than peers and may build vocabulary at a fast pace (Babysparks, 2019)

Children showing a preference for the expressive style use it to express feeling, needs and to socialize with adults and peers. They tend to speak in longer phrases and are not particularly concerned about being understood. Eventually longer phrases are broken down into single words. Compared to toddlers who prefer the referential style of language, vocabulary is acquired at a slower pace (Babysparks, 2019).

As with many aspects of development, culture influences the distribution of these styles of language. Research shows that caregivers in North American tend to encourage the labelling of objects and in contrast caregivers in Japan who tend to model the use of language for social connections with others (Babysparks, 2019). To support the development of both styles of language, caregivers can use intentional strategies, which emphasize the two styles and also select quality picture books which include both referential and expressive styles of language to read to toddlers.

Emotional and social development during infancy and toddlerhood

During the first three years of life, children are developing the ability to express and regulate their emotions. They are in the process of developing a sense of self. The ability to see things from another’s perspective (empathy) is beginning to emerge. The early interactions we have with the adults that care for us as infants and toddlers are very important for the healthy development of social relationships. This section looks at how how emotional and social development in infancy and toddlerhood develop.

Introduction

The Play and Exploration for Infants and Toddlers Guide highlight the social and emotional skills which develop at this time. Through positive interactions and relationships, infants learn to master self regulation and develop healthy relationships later in life. (Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, 2010).

Infants (birth to 24 months of age) can express a wide range of basic emotions including: discomfort, pleasure, anger, fear, sadness and excitement. Infants are developing attachments to primary caregivers and may show some anxiety when separated from the important adults in their lives. Infants have strategies to comfort themselves (e.g. thumb sucking) which helps them recover from stressful situations. Infants are beginning to develop a sense of self as they become more aware of their ability to make things happen. Older infants will notice when someone else appears upset and may offer some sort of comfort.

Toddlers start to experience and express more complex, self-conscious emotions such as shame, guilt and pride. While infants use physical strategies for self-soothing, toddlers are starting to use language to help regulate their emotions. They are also beginning to regulate their behaviour by following verbal cues from others. Toddlers still find it challenging to pay attention without being easily distracted. Awareness of how someone else might be feeling is improving. Toddlers have a strong sense of self and need for autonomy, often manifested with a strong “No” when asked to do something.

Attachment is the close bond with a caregiver from which the infant derives a sense of security. The formation of attachments in infancy has been the subject of considerable research as attachments have been viewed as foundations for future relationships. Additionally, attachments form the basis for confidence and curiosity as toddlers, and as important influences on self-concept.

The formation of an attachment relationship (Photo by Marcin Jozwiak on Unsplash)

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory – According to Freud (1938, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) infants are oral creatures who obtain pleasure from sucking and mouthing objects. Freud believed the infant will become attached to a person or object that provides this pleasure. Consequently, infants were believed to become attached to their mother because they were the one who satisfied their oral needs and provided pleasure. Freud further believed that the infants will become attached to their mothers “if the mother is relaxed and generous in their feeding practices, thereby allowing the child a lot of oral pleasure” (Shaffer, 1985, p. 435, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

Harlow’s Research – In one classic study, Wisconsin University psychologists Harry and Margaret Harlow investigated the responses of young rhesus monkeys to explore if breastfeeding was the most important factor to attachment.

Rhesus monkey sucking its thumb. (Image by splotter_nl is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Infant monkeys were separated from their biological mothers, and two inanimate surrogate mothers were introduced to their cages. The first inanimate surrogate (the wire mother) consisted of a round wooden head, a mesh of cold metal wires, and a bottle of milk from which the baby monkey could drink. The second Inanimate surrogate was a foam-rubber form wrapped in a heated terry-cloth blanket. The infant monkeys went to the wire “mother” for food, but they overwhelmingly preferred and spent significantly more time with the warm terry-cloth “mother.” The warm terry-cloth “mother” provided no food but did provide comfort (Harlow, 1958, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). The infant’s need for physical closeness and touching is referred to as contact comfort. Contact comfort is believed to be the foundation for attachment. The Harlows’ studies confirmed that babies have social as well as physical needs. Both monkeys and human babies need a secure base that allows them to feel safe. From this base, they can gain the confidence they need to venture out and explore their worlds.

Bowlby’s Theory – Building on the work of Harlow and others, John Bowlby developed the concept of attachment theory. He defined attachment as the affectional bond or tie that an infant forms with the mother. An infant must form this bond with a primary caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development. In addition, Bowlby proposed that this attachment bond is very powerful and continues throughout life. He used the concept of a secure base to define a healthy attachment between parent and child (Bowlby, 1982, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). A secure base is a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as the child explores the surroundings.

A mother offering a secure base as their infant plays on a slide. (Image is licensed under CC0)

Bowlby said that two things are needed for a healthy attachment; the caregiver must be responsive to the child’s physical, social, and emotional needs; and the caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions (Bowlby, 1969, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).  Additionally, Bowlby observed that infants would go to extraordinary lengths to prevent separation from their parents, such as crying, refusing to be comforted, and waiting for the caregiver to return.

This child is seeking comfort from an attachment figure. (Image on Pexels)

Bowlby also observed that these same expressions were common to many other mammals, and consequently argued that these negative responses to separation serve an evolutionary function. Because mammalian infants cannot feed or protect themselves, they are dependent upon the care and protection of adults for survival. Thus, those infants who were able to maintain proximity to an attachment figure were more likely to survive and reproduce.

Erikson: Trust versus Mistrust – As previously discussed,  Erik Erikson formulated an eight-stage theory of psychosocial development. Erikson was in agreement on the importance of a secure base, arguing that the most important goal of infancy was the development of a basic sense of trust in one’s caregivers. Consequently, the first stage, trust versus mistrust, highlights the importance of attachment. Erikson maintained that the first year to year and a half of life involves the establishment of a sense of trust (Erikson, 1982, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Infants are dependent and must rely on others to meet their basic physical needs as well as their needs for stimulation and comfort. A caregiver who consistently meets these needs instills a sense of trust or the belief that the world is a trustworthy place. The caregiver should not worry about over indulging a child’s need for comfort, contact or stimulation.

This baby-wearing father is creating trust with his infant. (Image on Unsplash)

Intergenerational relationships and the development of trust. (Image on Unsplash)

Challenges to Establishing Trust – Erikson (1982, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) believed that mistrust could contaminate all aspects of one’s life and deprive the individual of love and fellowship with others. Consider the implications for establishing trust if a caregiver is unavailable or is upset and ill-prepared to care for a child. Or if a child is born prematurely, is unwanted, or has physical differences that make them more challenging to parent. Under these circumstances, we cannot assume that the parent is going to provide the child with a feeling of trust.

The Strange Situation – Developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth, a student of John Bowlby, continued studying the development of attachment in infants. Ainsworth and colleagues created a laboratory test that measured an infant’s attachment to their parent. The test is called The Strange Situation because it is conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for their parent (Ainsworth, 1979, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

An infant crawling on the floor with toys around as done in the Strange Situation. (Image is in the public domain)

During the procedure, which last about 20 minutes, the parent and the infant are first left alone, while the infant explores the room full of toys. Then a strange adult enters the room and talks for a minute to the parent, after which the parent leaves the room. The stranger stays with the infant for a few minutes, and then the parent again enters and the stranger leaves the room. During the entire session, a video camera records the child’s behaviours. Which are later coded by the research team. The investigators were especially interested in how the child responded to the caregiver leaving and returning to the room, referred to the “reunion”. On the basis of their behaviours, the children are categorized into one of four groups where each group reflect a different kind of attachment relationship with the caregiver. One style is secure and the other three styles are referred to as insecure.

• A child with a secure attachment style usually explores freely while the caregiver is present and may engage with the stranger. The child will typically play with the toys and bring one to the caregiver to show and describe from time to time. The child may be upset when the caregiver departs but is also happy to see the caregiver return.
• A child with an ambivalent (sometimes called resistant) attachment style is wary about the situation in general, particularly the stranger, and stays close or even clings to the caregiver rather than exploring the toys. When the caregiver leaves, the child is extremely distressed and is ambivalent when the caregiver returns. The child may rush to the caregiver, but then fails to be comforted when picked up. The child may still be angry and even resist attempts to be soothed.
• A child with an avoidant attachment style will avoid or ignore the mother, showing little emotion when the mother departs or returns. The child may run away from the mother as they approach the child. The child will not explore very much, regardless of who is there, and the stranger will not be treated much differently from the mother.
• A child with a disorganized/disoriented attachment style seems to have an inconsistent way coping with the stress of the strange situation. The child may cry during the separation, but avoid the mother upon return. Or the child may approach the mother but then freeze or fall to the floor.

How common are attachment styles among children? In Canada, attachment disorders are uncommon in the general population (under 1%). That increases to possibly 40% for children who are exposed to gross maltreatment or poor-quality institutionalization (Atkinson & Beiser, 2016).

Keep in mind that methods for measuring attachment styles have been based on a model that reflects middle-class, Western values. New methods for assessing attachment styles involve using a Q-sort technique in which a large number of behaviours are recorded on cards and the observer sorts the cards in a way that reflects the type of behavior that occurs within the situation (Waters, 1987, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). There are 90 items in the third version of the Q-sort technique, and examples of the behaviors assessed include:

• When the child returns to the mother after playing, the child is sometimes fussy for no clear reason.
• When the child is upset or injured, the child will accept comfort from adults other than the mother.
• Child often hugs or cuddles against the mother, without the mother asking or inviting the child to do so.
• When the child is upset by their mother’s leaving, the child continues to cry or even gets angry after the mother is gone.

At least two researchers observe the child and parent in the home for 1.5-2 hours per visit. Usually, two visits are sufficient to gather adequate information. The parent is asked if the behaviors observed are typical for the child. This information is used to test the validity of the Strange Situation classifications across age, cultures, and with clinical populations.

Reactive Attachment Disorder – Children who experience social neglect or deprivation, repeatedly change primary caregivers that limit opportunities to form stable attachments, or are reared in unusual settings (such as institutions) that limit opportunities to form stable attachments can certainly have difficulty form attachments. According to the Diagnostic and Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) those children experiencing neglectful situations and also displaying markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate attachment behaviour, such as being inhibited and withdrawn, minimal social and emotional responsiveness to others, and limited positive affect, may be diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder. This disorder often occurs with developmental delays, especially in cognitive and language areas. Fortunately, the majority of severely neglected children do not develop Reactive Attachment Disorder, which occurs in less than 10% of such children. The quality of the caregiving environment after serious neglect affects the development of this disorder.

Infant Toddler Emotions

At birth, infants exhibit two emotional responses: attraction and withdrawal. They show attraction to pleasant situations that bring comfort, stimulation, and pleasure, and they withdraw from unpleasant stimulation such as bitter flavours or physical discomfort. At around two months, infants exhibit social engagement in the form of social smiling as they respond with smiles to those who engage their positive attention (Lavelli & Fogel, 2005, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

Social smiling becomes more stable and organized as infants learn to use their smiles to engage their parents in interactions. Pleasure is expressed as laughter at 3 to 5 months of age, and displeasure becomes more specific as fear, sadness, or anger between ages 6 and 8 months.

Anger is often the reaction to being prevented from obtaining a goal, such as a toy being removed (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson). In contrast, sadness is typically the response when infants are deprived of a caregiver (Papousek, 2007). Fear is often associated with the presence of a stranger, known as stranger wariness, or the departure of significant others known as separation anxiety. Both appear sometime between 6 and 15 months after object permanence has been acquired. Further, there is some indication that infants may experience jealousy as young as 6 months of age (Hart & Carrington, 2002, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

^{Figure 7.1: A toddler making an angry facial expression. (Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash)}

Emotions are often divided into two general categories: Basic emotions (primary emotions), such as interest, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness and disgust, which appear first and self-conscious emotions (secondary emotions), such as envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment. Unlike primary emotions, secondary emotions appear as children start to develop a self-concept and require social instruction on when to feel such emotions. The situations in which children learn self-conscious emotions varies from culture to culture. Individualistic cultures teach us to feel pride in personal accomplishment, while in more collective cultures children are taught to not call attention to themselves, unless you wish to feel embarrassed for doing so (Akimoto & Sanbinmatsu, 1999, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

^{Figure 7.2: A sad looking child seeking comfort from an adult. (Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash)}

Facial expressions of emotion are important regulators of social interaction. In the developmental literature, this concept has been investigated under the concept of social referencing; that is, the process whereby infants seek out information from others to clarify a situation and then use that information to act (Klinnert, Campos, & Sorce, 1993, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). To date, the strongest demonstration of social referencing comes from work on the visual cliff. In the first study to investigate this concept, Capos and colleagues (Sorce, Emde, Campos, & Klinnert, 1985, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) placed mothers on the far end of the “cliff” from the infant. Mothers first smiled to the infants and placed a toy on top of the safety glass to attract them; infants invariably began crawling to their mothers. When the infants were in the centre of the table, however, the mother then posed an expression of fear, sadness, anger, interest, or joy. The results were clearly different for the different faces; no infant crossed the table when the mother showed fear; only 6% did when the mother posed anger, 33% crossed when the mother posed sadness, and approximately 75% of the infants crossed when the mother posed joy or interest.

Other studies provide similar support for facial expressions as regulators of social interaction. Researchers posed facial expressions of neutral, anger, or disgust toward babies as they moved toward an object and measured the amount of inhibition the babies showed in touching the object (Bradshaw, 1986, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). The results for 10- and 15-month olds were the same: Anger produced the greatest inhibition, followed by disgust, with neutral the least. This study was later replicated using joy and disgust expression, altering the method so that the infants were not allowed to touch the toy (compared with a distractor object) until one hour after exposure to the expression (Hertenstein & Campos, 2004, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). At 14 months of age, significantly more infants touched the toy when they saw joyful expressions, but fewer touched the toy when the infants saw disgust.

A significant emotional change is in self-regulation. Emotional self-regulation refers to strategies we use to control our emotional states so that we can attain goals (Thompson & Goodvin, 2007, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). This requires effortful control of emotions and initially requires assistance from caregivers (Rothbart, Posner, & Kieras, 2006, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Young infants have very limited capacity to adjust their emotional states and depend on their caregivers to help soothe them. Caregivers can offer distractions to redirect the infant’s attention and comfort to reduce the emotional distress. As areas of the infant’s prefrontal cortex continue to develop, infants can tolerate more stimulation. By 4 to 6 months, babies can begin to shift their attention away from upsetting stimuli (Rothbart et al, 2006). Older infants and toddlers can more effectively communicate their need for help and can crawl or walk toward or away from various situations (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). This aids in their ability to self-regulate. Temperament also plays a role in children’s ability to control their emotional states, and individual differences have been noted in the emotional self-regulation of infants and toddlers (Rothbart & Bates, 2006, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).

Canadian researcher Dr. Stuart Shanker has written extensively about the young child’s emerging ability to self-regulate. He defines self-regulation as “how efficiently and effectively a child deals with a stressor and then recovers” (Shanker, 2013). We start laying the foundation for development of this skill when we use calming strategies with a newborn baby. As the prefrontal cortex grows, the social engagement between adult and child becomes more complex. Toddlers begin to develop the language skills (expressive and receptive) needed for self-regulation. Shanker believes that, instead of rewarding or punishing children in order to get them to do what we want, we must help with the development of self-regulation skills by:

1. identifying the underlying stressor or stressors,
2. reducing those stressors, and
3. teaching children strategies for calming themselves.

Rewards and punishment may temporarily result in a change in a child’s behaviour, but they have little long-term effect because they do not address why the child is displaying the undesired behaviour (Shanker, 2013).

Development of sense of self: During the second year of life, children begin to recognize themselves as they gain a sense of self as separate from their primary caregiver. In a classic experiment by Lewis and Brooks (1978) children 9 to 24 months of age were placed in front of a mirror after a spot of rouge was placed on their nose as their mothers pretended to wipe something off the child’s face. If the child reacted by touching their own nose rather than that of the ‘baby “in the mirror, it was taken to suggest that the child recognized the reflection as themself. Lewis and Brooks found that somewhere between 15 and 24 months most infants developed a sense of self-awareness. Self-awareness is the realization that you are separate from others (Kopp, 2011, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Once a child has achieved self-awareness, the child is moving toward understanding social emotions such as guilt, shame or embarrassment, as well as sympathy or empathy (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).

Temperament

Perhaps you have spent time with a number of infants. How were they alike? How did they differ? How do you compare with your siblings or other children you have known well? You may have noticed that some seemed to be in a better mood than others and that some were more sensitive to noise or more easily distracted than others. These differences may be attributed to temperament. Temperament is the innate characteristics of the infant, including mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity, noticeable soon after birth.
In a 1956 landmark study, Chess and Thomas (1996, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) evaluated 141 children’s temperament based on parental interviews. In what is referred to as the New York Longitudinal Study, infants were assessed on 10 dimensions of temperament including:

Activity level

• Rhythmicity (regularity of biological functions)
• Approach/withdrawal (how children deal with new things)
• Adaptability to situations
• Intensity of reactions
• Threshold of responsiveness (how intense a stimulus has to be for the child to react)
• Quality of mood
• Distractibility
• Attention span
• Persistence

Based on the infants’ behavioral profiles, they were categorized into three general types of temperament:

Types of Temperament (Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021)

Personality

Temperament does not change dramatically as we grow up, but we may learn how to work around and manage our temperamental qualities. Temperament may be one of the things about us that stays the same throughout development. In contrast, personality, defined as an individual’s consistent pattern of feeling, thinking, and behaving, is the result of the continuous interplay between biological disposition and experience.

Personality also develops from temperament in other ways (Thompson, Winer, & Goodvin, 2010, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). As children mature biologically, temperamental characteristics emerge and change over time. A newborn is not capable of much self-control, but as brain-based capacities for self-control advance, temperamental changes in self-regulation become more apparent. For example, a newborn who cries frequently doesn’t necessarily have a grumpy personality; over time, with sufficient parental support and increased sense of security, the child might be less likely to cry.

In addition, personality is made up of many other features besides temperament. Children’s developing self-concept, their motivations to achieve or to socialize, their values and goals, their coping styles, their sense of responsibility and conscientiousness, as well as many other qualities are encompassed into personality. These qualities are influenced by biological dispositions, but even more by the child’s experiences with others, particularly in close relationships, that guide the growth of individual characteristics. Indeed, personality development begins with the biological foundations of temperament but becomes increasingly elaborated, extended, and refined over time. The newborn that parents gazed upon thus becomes an adult with a personality of depth and nuance (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).

Cultural and Gender Variations

Within a culture there are norms and behavioural expectations. These cultural norms can dictate which personality traits are considered important. The researcher Gordon Allport considered culture to be an important influence on traits and defined common traits as those that are recognized within a culture. These traits may vary from culture to culture based on differing values, needs, and beliefs. Positive and negative traits can be determined by cultural expectations: what is considered a positive trait in one culture may be considered negative in another, thus resulting in different expressions of personality across cultures.

^{A family from a non-Western culture. (Photo by Ivan Andriavani on Unsplash)}

Considering cultural influences on personality is important because Western ideas and theories are not necessarily applicable to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). There is a great deal of evidence that the strength of personality traits varies across cultures, and this is especially true when comparing individualist cultures (such as European, North American, and Australian cultures) and collectivist cultures (such as Indigenous, French, Asian, African, and South American cultures). People who live in individualist cultures tend to believe that independence, competition, and personal achievement are important. In contrast, people who live in collectivist cultures tend to value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs. These values influence personality in different but substantial ways; for example, Yang (2006, as cited by Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) found that people in individualistic cultures displayed more personally-oriented personality traits, whereas people in collectivist cultures displayed more social-oriented personality traits (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).

In much the same manner that cultural norms can influence personality and behavior, gender norms (the behaviours that males and females are expected to conform to in a given society) can also influence personality by emphasizing different traits between different genders.

Ideas of appropriate behaviour for each gender (masculine and feminine) vary among cultures and tend to change over time. For example, aggression and assertiveness have historically been emphasized as positive masculine personality traits in Western cultures. Meanwhile, submissiveness and caretaking have historically been held as ideal feminine traits. While many gender roles remain the same, others change over time. In 1938, for example, only 1 out of 5 Americans agreed that a married woman should earn money in industry or business. By 1996, however, 4 out of 5 Americans approved of women working in these fields. This type of attitude change has been accompanied by behaviour shifts that coincide with changes in trait expectations and shifts in personal identity for men and women (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).

^{Toddlers dressed in stereotypically Western feminine clothing. (Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash)}

 ^{A male toddler wearing stereotypically Western masculine clothing. (Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)}