1.

Emotions Behind a Babies Crying:

Babies and crying

While we may want to think that grown-up feelings and motivations are the same
with even very young babies, there are huge differences between adult and baby emotions simply
because emotions are tied to cognitive and physical development.
Since babies haven‟t yet gained the experience that adults have, they are unable to
experience emotions in quite the same way.

When emotions develop?

There is a difference between primary emotions and self-conscious emotions.

Primary emotions are emotions that are present in humans and animals; these emotions appear in
the first six months of the human infant‟s development.
Primary emotions include surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. Emotions that
are present in humans and other animals, emerge early in life, and are culturally universal;
examples are joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.
In one study, 6-month-old infants observed their mothers either giving attention to a lifelike baby
doll or to a book.
When mothers directed their attention to the doll, the infants were more likely to display
negative emotions, such as anger and sadness, which may have indicated their jealousy.
On the other hand, their expressions of anger and sadness may have reflected frustration in not
being able to have the novel doll to play with.
Cries and smiles are two emotional expressions that infants display when interacting with
parents. These are babies‟ first forms of emotional communication.
Crying is the most important mechanism newborns have for communicating with their world.
Babies have at least three types of cries:
 Basic cry: A rhythmic pattern that usually consists of a cry, followed by a briefer silence, than
a shorter whistle that is higher in pitch than the main cry, then another brief rest before the next
cry.
 Anger cry: A variation of the basic cry in which more excess air is forced through the vocal
cords.
 Pain cry: A sudden long, initial loud cry followed by breathe holding; no preliminary moaning
is present.
Most adults can determine whether an infant‟s cries signify anger or pain. Parents
can distinguish the cries of their own baby better than those of another baby.

2. Family as a Social System:

When we look into the area of the family as a social system we see that parents influence
children and children also influence behaviour of their parents. Families are networks of
reciprocal relationships.
We also see that happily married mothers are more likely to have securely
attached children. Children do best when couples co-parent and both parents are involved in
the parenting.
Of course the marital relationship may affect the parenting that the infant receives,
the infant’s behaviour, and so on. Clearly, families are complex social systems.
Families are also developing Systems where developmental change occurs within
the family system. The family changes with the development of the family members.
Growth within the family is therefore dynamic and irreversible.
Families are also embedded within larger cultural and sub-cultural contexts. This
affects how family functions are carried out. For example socialization of children in India
is different from socialization in western countries.
In India infants sleep with their parents, are very close to their mothers and
family members, the number of extended family is large and the social relations are governed by
tradition and respect.

All these differences will have an effect on the development of the child’s personality.
Children will grow up to have personalities similar to their parents and those that are acceptable
in the societies they grow up in.
In India there are two types of families in today’s society.
• Nuclear family with a breadwinning father, a housewife mother, and at least 2 children is a
stereotype
• Families as social systems include dual-career, single parent, blended, and multigenerational
families.
Multigenerational families were the traditional way of raising children.

This set up was very good for language and personality development of children in
the early years since the child always had somebody to take care of them. This system is now
slowly disappearing in India.
We find that collectivistic cultures like Indian culture tend to stress on maintaining
close ties to relatives, strong respect for authority, proper and polite behaviours.
Direct and indirect influence of family on personality development
There are two Major Dimensions of Parenting
• Parental acceptance/responsiveness which includes the amount of support and affection which
is associated with secure attachment.
• Parental demanding or control this relates to the amount of regulation or supervision and the
degree of regulation tied to parental acceptance.
Two major dimensions of parenting. Based on Maccoby & Martin. When we cross
the two dimensions, we come up with four parenting styles there are four Patterns of Parenting.
1.Authoritarian
Here the parents are very restrictive, expects obedience and does not explain why limits exist.
Such parents raise children with less favourable developmental outcomes
2.Authoritative
Here, parents are controlling but flexible, make reasonable demands, provide reasons for limits.
Parents are rational and democratic. Such parents tend to raise highly competent, well-adjusted
children.
3.Permissive
Such parents are accepting and make few demands. They do very little monitoring and end up
raising children with less favourable developmental outcomes.
4.Uninvolved
Such parents are extremely undemanding. They may have rejected their children because they
cannot devote energy to child rearing.
They raise children who are aggressive, selfish, and rebellious, and perform poorly
in school.
In general when we analyse behavioural control versus psychological control we see that firm
behavioural control tends to lead to well-behaved children. But when there is psychological
control – guilt, shame, or withholding affection these lead to poor
developmental outcomes.
The other major influence on child personality development within the family is
the influence of siblings. There are usually changes in the family systems when a new
baby arrives.

The mother devotes less warmth and playful attention to the older child and the
older child may become disruptive and so sibling rivalry often develops.
When we look at sibling relationships over the course of childhood we find that there is fairly
quick adjustment to new sibling. While conflict is normal, it decreases within a few days or
weeks. Sibling rivalry is less if parents get along and also less if parents monitor children’s
activities.

3. Child on the Development Parameters:

As the topic suggests, today we will see what the different milestones are taken by
an infant to become a toddler and then a preschooler.
We see small children going somewhere, everyday carrying a small bag on
their shoulders.
When asked, we come to know that these small children are going to schools called “Pre
Schools”.
The age for the preschool is from 3 years to 5 years. During these years, children change
from clumsy toddlers into lively explorers of their world.
This age is valuable as the child learns and develops in many areas. This age can
be considered a foundation for all his activities and development till his/her adulthood.
Between the ages 3 to 5, a child develops in some areas. The areas are physical or body
changes, cognitive or brain, motor development or movements of hands and legs. The child also
makes a development in the way he/she interacts with the people around

He/she also develops in the way he/she thinks, perceive, etc. The child also starts learning
the language that his parents speak.

Physical development
In these years, a child becomes stronger and starts to look thinner and leaner.

Cognitive development:

A child of this age makes great strides in being able to think and reason. In these years,
children learn their letters, counting, and colors.

Emotional and social development:

 Between the ages of 2 and 5, children gradually learn how to manage their feelings. By
age 5, friends become important.

Language:

By the time the child reaches 6 years, a child will know thousands of words and be able
to carry on conversations and tell stories.

Sensory and motor development:

The child learns to walk up stairs one at a time, kick a ball, and draw simple strokes with
a pencil. He/she also learns to dress and undress themselves and write some lowercase and
capital letters.

Physical growth:
We all know that a baby grows up to be an adult. We also know that in each stage of the
development of a child, there is a physical development too.
This physical development means all the body changes that take place in a child. Even in
this stage, an infant undergoes changes in his/her body. These developmental changes evolve
more slowly during the period from 2 to 6 years of age, than in infancy. During this time,
children lose their baby fat, their legs grow longer and thinner.
During this stage, children gradually become thinner, although girls retain
somewhat more body fat than boys, who are slightly more muscular. As the torso or the upper
body lengthens and widens, the internal organs tuck neatly inside, and the spine straightens. At
this stage they move around the world with increasing speed.
In general children during the first two years of life quadruple their weight and
increase their height by two-thirds. This rate slows down between 2 and 3 years.
Between the ages 4 and 6, the increase in height slows still further and children
gain some weight. As a result of the slower growth rate following age of 2 years, mostly 3rd and
4th year kids seem to eat less food.
Children do not eat less food but rather they eat fewer calories per kg of body weight.
It is shown that the decrease in growth rate requires fewer calories to build their developing
muscles, bones, and nerves.