Child Development: 0-2 Years
From Birth to 6 Months
During this initial adjustment period, infants develop skills to regulate basic feeding and sleep-wake cycles. They begin to internalize both internal and external experiences, leading to the development of human attachment. Initially, the child may struggle to establish bonds of affection, but by 7 months, their capacity for attachment, particularly to the mother, increases.
A lack of stimulation during this stage (e.g., due to hospitalization) can hinder development, highlighting the importance of a consistent caregiver.
From 6 Months to 2 Years
The attachment bond strengthens, and the child requires the constant presence of their mother. Prolonged absence can lead to anxiety, eating disorders, digestive problems, sleep disturbances, and rejection behaviors. After two years, the child develops the ability to remember their mother without her physical presence.
Importance of a Significant Attachment Figure
Freud’s Oral Stage (0-2 Years)
Freud characterized this stage by pleasure-seeking activities focused on the mouth, such as sucking and suckling. Key aspects of this stage include:
- Principles of Pleasure: Seeking satisfaction of the id’s impulses.
- Id Formation: The id contains the most primitive desires for gratification and is where unconscious processes occur.
- Archaic Narcissism: The child’s initial self-perception is characterized by self-absorption. They are primarily concerned with their own needs and image. Two types of narcissism emerge: Primary Narcissism (the child absorbs the world and sees it as an extension of themselves) and Secondary Narcissism (the child begins to differentiate themselves from the world and express their personality).
Lacan’s Symbiosis
Lacan proposed that the child initially builds images through the mother and experiences a sense of oneness with her. This is followed by the Mirror Stage, where the child begins to differentiate themselves from the mother through symbolism (a mental construct that allows them to imagine things and understand that they are separate entities).
Erikson’s Acquisition of Basic Trust vs. Mistrust (0-2 Years)
Erikson emphasized the development of a basic sense of trust, which arises from the consistent meeting of the child’s needs by the mother. This trust forms the foundation for hope and the belief that their needs will be met. Conversely, a failure to meet these needs can lead to mistrust and insecurity. The mother-child relationship is crucial in shaping the child’s perception of the world as either safe and attainable or unpredictable and threatening.
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years)
Piaget described this stage as a period of motor development, where the child lacks representational thought or concepts. The six sub-stages are:
- Use of Reflexes (0-1 month): Innate reflexes guide behavior.
- Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): Unintentional repetition of pleasurable actions centered on the body.
- Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): Repetition of actions that produce interesting effects on the environment.
- Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months): Intentional combination of actions to achieve goals (e.g., reaching for a toy).
- Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Exploration of objects through trial and error.
- Invention of New Means Through Mental Combinations (18-24 months): Emergence of symbolic thought and the ability to plan actions mentally.
During this stage, the child is considered amoral and exhibits egocentric thought (unable to see things from another’s perspective). Their language development progresses from egocentric speech (internalized language) to communicative speech (using language to interact with others).
Irreversibility vs. Reversibility of Thinking: The child begins to understand that some actions are irreversible (e.g., eating) while others are reversible (e.g., putting together and taking apart a toy).