Child Development

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The practice of child psychiatry calls for knowledge of the normal process of development from a helpless infant into an independent adult. In order to judge whether any observed emotional, social, or intellectual functioning is abnormal, it has to be compared with the corresponding normal range for the age group.

Normal development

The first year of life

This is a period of rapid development of motor and social functioning. Three weeks after birth, the baby smiles at faces; selective smiling appears by 6 months, fear of strangers by 8 months, and anxiety on separation from the mother shortly thereafter.

Bowl by (980) emphasized the importance in the early years of life of a general process of attachment of the infant to the parents and of more selective emotional bonding. Although bonding to the mother is most significant, important attachments are also made to the father and other people who are close to the infant. Research has stressed the reciprocal nature of this process and the probable importance of early contacts between the mother (or other carers) and the newborn infant in initiating bonding (Rutter 1995).

By the end of the first year, the child should have formed a close and secure relationship with the mother or other close carer. There should be an ordered pattern of sleeping and feeding, and weaning has usually been accomplished. The child has begun to learn about objects our side himself, simple causal relationships, and spatial relationships. By the end of the first year, the child enjoys making sounds and may say 'mama', 'dada', and perhaps one or two other words.

Year two

This is also a period of rapid development. The child begins to wish to please the parents and appears anxious when they disapprove. He begins to learn to control his behavior. By now, attachment behavior should be well established. Temper tantrums occur, particularly if exploratory wishes are frustrated. These tantrums do not last long and should lessen as the child learns to accept constraints. By the end of the second year he should be able to put two or three words together as a simple sentence.