Emotional need and learning of your baby begin as early as in your womb. The social and emotional development of the child begins at a very young age when they discover and experience different emotions and relations as they interact with the environment around them. Early childhood is a stage when the foundation of social skills, emotional development, and competence to handle the crisis is laid. Understanding of their needs and requirements, independence through scaffolding and secure attachment with the caretaker will highly influence the social and emotional competence of your child as an adult.

Understanding Your Child

As adults, we lose our ability to live in a child’s world or understand how a child's sense of awe and wonder and feelings of joy make them wonderful little humans so different from us.

When you understand your child, you will interpret the signals and respond to them as per the need of the child consistently. When the clues sent out by a child is responded by an adult in a reliable, predictable, and meaningful way consistently, the child will fall in tune with the adult and develop healthy social behaviour and will be able to regulate emotions and learn what it is like to be calm.

Since the emotion regulation and planning/thinking areas of the brain are interconnected (proved through brain imaging), children and adults who are able to regulate their emotions will be better with life skills like decision-making, planning, and problem-solving. On the other hand the social development of the child with building trust, empathy, compassion and sense of right and wrong.

Independence Through Scaffolding

When the task ahead gets tough, the child will pleadingly look at the caretaker, melting their heart in a moment forcing them to get the task done on his/her behalf. No matter what prompted you to do the task, the result is – the independence of the child is hampered.

The best way to handle a situation is through scaffolding. Provide just enough support for the child to complete the task on his/her own. Provided clear directions, reduce confusion, understand ‘zone of proximal development,’ and encourage the child to complete the task. Soon the child will develop a sense of doing things, rather than the results.

An independently functioning child is more stable in groups and able to interact well with peers due to the high level of confidence. This lays the foundation for the strong social and emotional skills in the child for life.

Secure Attachment

The theory of attachment was first formulated by John Bowlby (1907 - 1990), a British psychoanalyst who was attempting to understand the intense distress experienced by infants who had been separated from their parents.

In early childhood separation from the attachment figure--someone who provides support, protection, and care - can cause severe distress in the child and he/she can resort to clinging, crying, and frantically searching for the person to develop the proximity with them again.

Secure attachment establishes a connection between the caretaker and child which goes way beyond, language and communication. Secure attachment is not parental love, care or affection but a nonverbal emotional connection or communication between the caretaker and child which gives the child a feeling of being understood.

This secure attachment will predict how well the child will do in school, in relationships and also in managing crisis in future. A child who has a secure attachment with the parent will socialize and communicate with others more easily.

Totsguide Prudentia LLP is proud to announce the new campaign #StopLabellingStartActing which focusses more on educating parents about taking action rather than labelling their children with tags.

This campaign will be targeting young parents in an effort to raise awareness of disorders and disabilities in children which can be managed via timely intervention. We request all the Parents, Doctors, Guardians & Friends to support the cause by visiting Totsguide Pledge page. There, you will find the form to be filled with basic details that will help support the movement. It will not take you more than half a minute to sign up for the cause and help us hit 50,000 supporters.