Essay Example on Infant Development: Caregiver Interactions and Brain Development

Introduction

The daily interactions between infants and their caregivers significantly contribute to their development. Infants' development relates to the input of the caregivers. Children below two years construct their world and develop their brains by processing all types of information that comes into their brains. This state calls for caregivers' responsibility in using their time to engage actively and promotes a sense of safety and care in the children. This paper discusses how the brain affects different processes in children concerning the role of caregivers in their development.

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How Brain Affects Different Processes

Cognitive Development

The brain acts as a central coordination point of all the activities of infants. In infants, the brain acts as a storage of all the information that comes by its side. The brain absorbs, stores, orders, classify, and integrate all types of information. This process ensures that future encounters with the same classification of data, the child would quickly understand it. According to Brain Development and Early Learning (2007), the brain has a cortex, a part of the brain that controls abstract and concrete thoughts. The first four months of a child's life entails its brain absorbing information through cycles of sensory and motor activities (Parks, pg. 2, 2014). Therefore, the brain absorbs critical information regarding neural processes.

Physical Motor skills

The brain controls all the motor skills in children (Sparks, 2014). Whole children under two years use their mouths as touch organism; it is the brain that ensures that even after birth, the infants is still able to use physical activities it learned while still in their wombs. The brain facilitates the mastery of the skills to develop high-level motor skills. The infants later develop other means like sucking pleasant fluids in response to their satisfaction. The midbrain part of the bran regulates an infant's motor skills and sleep ("Brain Development and Early Learning," 2007).

Park (2014) acknowledges that a significant part of infant motor skills development comes after their brain absorbs different types of their surroundings. The children can swat, grab, and hold objects placed before them upon brain maturing in the coordination of hands and eyes. The brain thus coordinates acuity and motor skills. Exposing the children to items of different tactility by their caregivers promotes their cognitive ability. At this stage, the infants will start differencing objects by color, texture, and smell. Children in the older toddler stage can even describe them.

Sensory Stimulation

The Brain Development and Early learning (2007) indicate that infants under for months majorly perform absorbing information through cycles of sensory activities (2). Sparks adds that the brain absorbs critical information regarding the neural process. California Department of Education and WestEd, Sacramento (2012) indicate that infants learn through their senses and that all tastes develop simultaneously. About a billion neurons in the infants connect through synapses, which link the brain with other body parts. The experiences of the infants impact the extents of synoptic connections that their brain uses. Parks (2014) agree that as infants respond to the activations, they build neural relationships in the brain. The scholar identifies vision, hearing, smell, and taste as the critical senses connected to the brain. For instance, if the brain had initially encountered some smell, the infants would identify the scent in the future and wrinkle their noses once their nose detects it.

Social-emotional Development

Brain Development and Early Learning (2007) identify limbic as part of the brain that controls infants' attachment and emotional reactivity. Children under twelve months can recognize someone who shows them love and care. At one year, they can fool around with objects, experimenting with their skills. Sparks indicate that Brain development in children depends on responsive care through which adults recognize and respond to their specific needs. Responsive caregivers mainly employ the concepts of attention and approval that base on understanding the needs of children, respecting their uniqueness, and ensuring their safety and cheerfulness.

Language Development

Most of the child's verbal interactions significantly affect their vocabulary and readiness for schooling. The ability of children to communicate correlates with social-economic status. Parents who enjoy functional social conditions engage the brains of their children in a manner that boosts their communication skills (Brain Development and Early Learning, pg.1, 2007). Sparks indicate different communication milestones, from startling to talking, the brain receiving credit for the achievement of these milestones. California Department of Education and WestEd, Sacramento, (2012) indicate the stages of infant discovery from learning schemes to imitation.

Why caregivers need to understand the impacts above

Understanding the effect of the brain on the areas above facilitates caregiving to the children in different ways. Statistics show that infants whose parents have a busy work schedule encounter most challenges in raising their children safe, healthy, and ready for school than those that have regular contact with their young ones (Brain Development and Early Learning, pg. 4, 2007). Understanding the effect of the brain on cognitive development help caregivers in knowing how to support the intellectual growth of infant. The guardians stress on the methods that prove best for the learning of infants. The social aspect ensures that caregivers develop a friendly relationship with children while knowing how the infants communicate allows them to engage in communications methods that are meaningful to the children (Sparks, 2014). Having good knowledge of the needs of the infant, the environment suitable for their development helps caregivers establish regular, reliable, and supportive relationships and expose them to costly and interactive language.

How Caregivers establish an understanding of how to Support the Infants

The process of caring for infants creates an understanding of how to support them. A child who indicates a positive response to a reasonable, early care and education program helps the caregivers move and makes them fully engage the technique (Brain Development and Early Learning, pg.1, 2007). On occasion, caregivers who possess the extensive experience to incorporate their background familiarity with infants' sensory abilities to identify the need for children. The caregivers then incorporate the requirements into the planning developmentally suitable activities, creating a friendly environment, and ensuring meaningful interactions with babies (California Department of Education and WestEd, Sacramento, 2012). Sparks (2014) identifies that in some cases, the caregivers allow the toddlers to control their learning and exploration. The literature adds that this approach facilitates children's growth and will enable teachers to identify individual responses of every child.

References

Brain Development and Early Learning. (2007). Quality Matters: A Policy Brief Series on Early Care and Education, 1. Retrieved from https://larrycuban.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/brain_dev_and_early_learning.pdf

California Department of Education and WestEd, Sacramento. (2012). Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Cognitive Development and Learning. (Pages 1-10). Retrieved October 1, 2019, from https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/documents/pitcguidecogdev2012.pdf

Parks, L. (2014). Sensorimotor development: Hands-on activities for infants and toddlers. Texas Child Care Quarterly, 37(4), 18-28. Retrieved from https://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/spring14_infants.pdf