Infancy and Early Childhood Development

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When discussing the development of a child from infancy to young childhood it is important to know the things that a child is exposed to ultimately can mold will become. Different cultures have their methods for rearing their children which, can be seen as ineffective to another culture; however, exposure to one method opposed to another can at times yield the same developmental results. Discussing the role families play in a child’s development can explain what their early childhood education can afford them. Also the type of parenting style used can result in some unsatisfactory characteristics in children also. The bond a parent creates with his or her child can begin for a mother from the pregnancy but the most crucial moments for families is during infancy. Researchers believe that the parent-infant bond is something that develops in the first few hours after birth. The moment a mother holds her naked child an instantaneous bond forms. The infant becomes familiar with his or her mother’s scent and rhythmic heartbeats that can often times be soothing to him or her. Despite many researchers will argue that the need for skin to skin contact is something not required to have a strong bond. Kangaroo care is a good example of this, it is when a mother and infant are allowed to bond by having the infant lay skin to skin between the mothers breast. There is a soothing factor in this as previously stated because the child becomes familiar with his or her mother by her scent, rhythmic heartbeat, and feel of her body heat. Studies show that children who have this kind of care available to them sleep more deeply and gain weight more rapidly and are alert more hours in the day than those who cannot or do not receive this type of care. Low birth weight babies have benefitted greatly from kangaroo care allowing them the build to reach a healthier point in regard to the

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