Part I
The birth of a child is an exciting time in a family. However, it is an addition that often requires significant changes for each family member and often ends up being stressful if adequate preparation is not made before the arrival of the new member of the family. The arrival of a baby often changes how the family member interacts with each other, how they express their love to one another and the overall family experience as the focus shifts to the baby. The baby’s arrival affects the new-born, the parents, siblings and extended family as attention shifts on the baby.
For the baby, the arrival to a new world is often stressful since they have just left the comfort and warmth of the mother’s womb to a world that does not provide the kind of security they had experienced for close to nine months. The child has to learn to adjust and adapt quickly by learning to communicate their needs (New Parent Support, 2016). For new-born parents, these times are often challenging as they learn to differentiate between a cry that implies hunger and one that implies diaper change (Shonkoff, & Fisher, 2013). The arrival of a baby also implies less time for a couple. This often translates into less intimate times for a couple. It has a huge toll on the mother as her role shifts from being a friend and lover to that of a caring mother. The father in turn often feels left out and unloved or even cared for as most attention is given to the baby.
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The change of roles often leads to a loving couple growing apart and distanced to each other’s feelings. For the siblings, the arrival often implies less attention as focus shifts to the baby. Feelings of neglect if left unchecked often lead to some mild hostility towards the baby (New Parent Support, 2016). The siblings also tend to begin behaving as babies to seek attention from the parents. The extended family is also affected as others might feel that they have already forgotten how to take care of a baby. A child’s arrival spells an exciting moment for all family members. However, care should be taken to prepare the family in advance, the necessary changes that might need to be made to accommodate the new member before their arrival.
Part: II
Following the arrival of new-born, bodily changes are rapid and profound. Developmental changes occur more slowly in early childhood than in infancy. The psychological and physical changes that occur between age one and three entails a rapid growth and development of the brain. The child begins to lose baby fat, grow longer and thinner legs and walk about with some form of independence. However, they still need assistance from adults and siblings since they lack the ability to concentrate for long periods of time without support. A healthy mother –child relationship is vital for the development of a healthy child (Monk, Spicer, & Champagne, 2012) Scientists have categorized these developmental changes as cognitive, language, physical and social development. However, these developmental changes are interlinked and often interact with the other categories. Ages one through three is therefore characterized by rapid perceptual, motor and physical development that affects cognitive, language, and social behaviors.
Perceptual Development
The process of taking in, organizing, and the interpreting sensory information is known as perception. Perception is considered multimodal with the various senses in play to elicit motor responses. During infancy, the child’s ability to turn their head in response to visual and auditory cues from a face or voice is at this stage. By gazing into a caregiver’s eyes, the infant learns to distinguish between familiar and non-familiar faces. They also use perception to differentiate between environmental features such as height, depth, and color. Despite the presence of perceptual mechanisms in infancy, they lack precision. By the age of 6 months, the child’s ability to utilize the five common senses is usually well established through retention (Barr, Rovee-Collier, & Learmonth, 2010).
However, more complex perceptual mechanisms develop rapidly in early childhood. Learning through active and adventurous exploration of the child’s surrounding environment is vital for the development of perceptual abilities since it ensures an increased awareness and accuracy. Also, the child’s ability to interpret the pictorial representation of people and objects also improve dramatically in early childhood. The child’s ability to draw and interpret information from pictures indicates their eye movement and fixation patterns. Moreover, a child’s perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities continue to develop rapidly where they learn proper coordination of the abilities, for example, an increased motor control and the ability to properly coordinate eye and hand movement can allow a child to draw pictures at this stage.
Motor Development
Motor development implies the changes that occur in a child’s ability to control their body movements from the normal reflexes of infancy such as waving and kicking to voluntary control of the body’s movements. Early childhood is also characterized by significant improvements in a child’s motor control. However, these improvements are largely dependent on the maturity of the brain and body systems. The gradual progress from infancy reflexes to more voluntary coordinated actions increase by early childhood. A smooth and continuous integration of existing movements from infancy increases at this stage until a motor skill is developed for example normal infancy reflexes such as leg and hand movements improve with time until by age three when the child can perform activities such as walking, jumping, and running skillfully and smoothly.
Also, the ability to coordinate eye and hand movement also increase at this stage. Capacity to coordinate eye and hand movements, also known as fine motor control enables the child to develop and acquire skills such as writing, drawing and moving small objects. As the child increase their motor competence, they use their perception to determine which motor action to perform. The development of motor skills varies from child to child. Some kids are athletic than others. Nutrition plays a role. Malnourished children tend to exhibit stunted development of motor ability. Research indicates that children who were breastfed for more than six months tend to develop better motor skills and overall cognitive development outcomes than those breastfed for less than three months (Smith & Ellwood, 2011). Effort should be made to ensure proper feeding and nutrition for healthy development.
Physical Development
The genetics, as well as environmental factors, influence a child’s physical as well psychological development (Shonkoff & Fisher, 2013). Physical development implies the biological changes a child undergoes as they grow. At the neonatal period- the first four weeks, a baby weighs between five and ten pounds, with a height that averages 18-22 inches. The first two years witnesses a rapid growth in the child’s physical as well as psychological development. A child will more than quadruple their weight by age two. The same period also witnesses an increase in height by more than two-thirds. However, between age two and three, the growth process slows down significantly. Environmental and hereditary factors influence physical development for example; a child that has experienced prolonged neglect or abuse reaches a point that they only stop growing because their pituitary glands stop producing growth hormones (Howell & Sanchez, 2011).
In conclusion, the arrival of a new-born baby elicits mixed feeling- it is an exhilarating period in the family’s life as well as stressful one. It requires enough time to prepare and discuss anticipated changes so as to have a complete understanding of the impending challenges that every family member may encounter. Such efforts will ensure cooperation and participation in welcoming and caring for the baby. A child’s development is dependent on genetics and environmental factors. Most perceptual, motor, and physical development phase occurs by age three. Proper maternal care and nutrition are vital at all the development stages of a child’s life. As a result, the care, affection, and attention a child receives from parents and siblings play a vital role in physical development.
References
Barr, R., Rovee-Collier, C., & Learmonth, A. (2010). Potentiation in young infants: The origin of the prior knowledge effect? Mem Cogn, 39 (4), 625-636.
Howell, B. & Sanchez, M. (2011). Understanding behavioral effects of early life stress using the reactive scope and allostatic load models. Deelopment and Psychopathol, 23 (04), 1001-1016.
Monk, C., Spicer, J., & Champagne, F. (2012). Linking prenatal maternal adversity to developmental outcomes in infants: The role of epigenetic pathways. Development and Psychopathology, 24 (04), 1361-1376.
New Parent Support. (2016). Changes in your relationships after having a baby . Retrieved from https://www.nct.org.uk/parenting/changes-your-relationships-after-having-baby.
Shonkoff, J. & Fisher, P. (2013). Rethinking evidence-based practice and two-generation programs to create the future of early childhood policy. Development and Psychopathology, 25 (4pt2), 1635-1653.
Smith, J. & Ellwood, M. (2010). Feeding Patterns and Emotional Care in Breastfed Infants. Soc Indic Res, 101 (2), 227-231.
