Middle Childhood - Research Paper Example

? Different Issues Related to Infancy al affiliation: Biological Issues Related to Infancy The biological issues that affect infancyinclude genetic influences, temperament, physical health, and physical attributes. These factors in some cases might be modified while in other cases they might not be modified. The initial heath care services provided to the infant ensure a healthy start for them. It also ensures that the biological modifiable factors of infant development are addressed. Mental health development of the infant depends highly on the child’s biological context and experiences. Prenatal as well as postnatal biological attentions of the infant dictate much the functional development of the infant’s brain as noted by Benson and Haith (2009). Structural brain development takes place mostly during the prenatal period of the infant’s growth. Biologically, the prenatal experiences of the infant are likely to affect their brain growth directly. These experiences include poor nutrition and poor maternal health. For instance, exposure to pharmacological agents at the prenatal stage may result in the infant showing symptoms of withdrawal in their behavior. The infant may also experience changes in their stress-regulating capabilities which are associated with prenatal maternal stress. Physical health effects include the care needs of the child, the caregiver’s response to the needs of the infant, the infant’s capacity for mental growth and development as well as normal physic of the infant. The temperament factors include behavioral inhibitions and their physical attributes. Both physical and temperament factors may affect the interaction between the caregivers and the infant thus affecting the caregiver’s response to the infant’s behavior. For instance the caregiver may feel disconnected from the infant, protective of him/her or even drawn to him/her. The physical as well as behavioral attributes of the infant may trigger either negative or positive interactions, or later have exacerbating interactions which are negative. In studying biological effects during infancy it is good to focus on the infant’s behavior and hormonal response. For instance, immature sensory development in infancy is associated with the infant’s social world. Immature limb systems are associated with locomotion at infancy while immature cortex is associated with the search behavior of the infant according to Freedheim (2003). Social/Cultural Issues Related to Infancy Social issues affecting infancy revolve around access to resources as well as support provided by those around the infant’s life. The environment in which the infant lives affects the infant’s needs depending on the availability, prioritization and type of resources. Lower social class leads to a probability of the infant being faced with environmental risks as noted by Benson and Haith (2009). For instance, frequent experiences with poverty negatively influence the infant development at the early stages of life. This is due to the association between psychological and environmental stress. The risks associated with this type of stress such as community violence may affect the infant’s social behavior like being rude or rough in facing life issues. Social factors associated with crowded areas, rural areas and unhealthy living situations limit the infant’s access to necessary resources for development. This is because each of these social environments is characterized with competition for available resources. In the context of child development, culture is concerned with the norms used in parenting practices and beliefs. Cultural factors impact the way the infant is taken care of and influence the role of the family in molding the infant’s behavior and beliefs. According to Benson and Haith (2009), despite the fact that there are different cultural backgrounds, there are certain cultural values which are found common across the world. These include, providing safety and good health to the infant, ensuring that the infant grows to be economically self-reliant, and ensuring the infant develops the ability to maintain and uphold societal values. Cultural factors impact the expectations of the parents regarding values and hopes relating to the infant’s development. Cultural effects resulting from norms and regulations also determine parents’ care for the infant and the infant’s experiences. In as far as socio-cultural relations with infancy are concerned, interpersonal relationship in infant development is a crucial factor as noted by many a psychologist. Through this relationship, the infant is capable of socializing and gradually adopting cultural values of the community in which he or she belongs. Psychological/Emotional Issues Related To Infancy Psychological or emotional issues in infancy affect the ability to capture what is subjective to the infant’s mental state while at same time conceptualizing the association between their mental state and phenomena. This is triggered by psychological characters such as thinking capacity in association with phenomena. The ability to view the attitudes of other people through their visual mechanisms is a significant opportunity for the infant who has the ability to see. The direct perception associated with the individual and their reaction to nature through gestures and actions helps the infant to conceptualize issues in their mind. During the first year of infancy, the child is capable of having insights concerning psychological functioning of nature. Thus experience works out the mechanism in which the child’s mental state functions according to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2009). Psychological factors affecting the relationship between the infant and the caregiver are important for child’s development. A sensitive, warm and responsive pattern of interaction between the infant and those around them leads to the child developing secure emotional attachments. Through this, the infant develops a sense self competence. During the first year of life some infants tend to develop some psychological and emotional problems. These problems include unusual behavior and responses in certain conditions. For instance negative alteration of the relationship between the caregiver and the infant may result in the infant reacting in negatively with those interacting with him/her. Issues such as psychological or emotional maltreatment may undermine the infant’s self-esteem. The main types of psychological maltreatment include psychological neglect and psychological abuse according to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2009). Psychological neglect of the infant involves failure to meet the requirements of the child including their emotional well being. Psychological abuse on the other hand involves aggressive and negative response to the infant’s behavior. These two factors affect the child’s psychological development as well as their physical and mental well being. The effects of psychological maltreatment experienced iduring infancy results in adult problems such as low self-esteem, depression, emotional instability and other anti-social behaviors. Issues of Gender, Race and Ability Affecting Infancy Gender is socially and culturally determined but it is also influenced by genetic characteristics according to Mares and Newman (2005). Gender identity is defined as the individual’s sense of belonging as psychologically, biologically and socially female or male. The infant learns about their core gender identity at the age of 18 months and beyond according to Mares and Newman (2005). The infant learns gender identity through interacting with care givers while the sense of belonging to a certain gender dictates the way their gender identity develops. The infants start perceiving gender as an important aspect to them and others hence affects their interaction with others either negatively or positively. The issue of race also affects infant development; for instance, the black infant mortality rate is said to be caused by poor prenatal care among the blacks. The race factor determines the infant’s access to maternal and health care. For instance, most of African infants have limited access to good health care facilities unlike infants in developed countries. The treatment of a disease at infancy is also determined by race factor in that some of the most complicated diseases associated with infancy cannot be treated in Africa due to lack of resources. The infant’s abilities such as feeding affect their development, for instance, a child with good eating habits is bound to have good health hence will be less prone to diseases. The ability of the infant to communicate especially with the care giver affects their relations with the care giver. This is because it enables the care giver to attend to the needs of the infant such as the need for food, bath or sleep. Ethical Practices of Social Workers Related To Infancy Focusing on the ethical practices of social workers in child protection, their first priority to the infant should be the infants’ good health since they are unable to protect themselves as suggested by Nybell, Shook and Finn (2009). The ethical practices of social workers in relation to infant welfare can affect the child’s heath and education. This can be improved through maintaining the infant’s community attachment by educating the caregiver. It is the responsibility of the social worker to study the values of good infant nurturing and teach the caregivers about these values. The social worker is also in a position to establish a problem existing between a mother and the infant. Child welfare social workers can teach the community on the effects of poor parenting at infancy and how it affects the adult life of the child. The policy of the child welfare social worker is to ensure a positive infant-adult attachment in nurturing a child. This leads to the infant’s positive outcome in life. The social worker’s ethical practices impact the infant’s development through establishing class and race issue existing in the parent-child relationship. The social worker aims at reducing the family poverty in ensuring child welfare and facilitating the security of national health insurance covers for the infants. Eriksson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development Eriksson’s theory of psychosocial development establishes the framework in which the patterns of psychosocial development within individuals are understood. Erickson maintains the belief that conflict within the individual arises from their interaction with the environment. He also argues that culture is an important factor to the individual’s psychosocial development. Erickson’s theory is made up of eight stages of development according to Skovholt and Mathison (2010). In each of these stages, resolving of a crisis to ensure that it is not carried to the next stage may be done. The first stage is the infancy stage where the crisis solved concerns trust versus mistrust. When the crisis is resolved in favor of trust as opposed to mistrust, it results to the virtue of hope. The second stage is the toddler stage where the crisis solved is that of autonomy versus shame. In resolving the crisis in favor of autonomy, the resulting virtue is the individual’s sense of will. The third stage (play age) in this theory is characterized by the crisis of initiative versus guilty. On resolving the crisis in favor of initiative, the result is the gaining of a sense of purpose which is a virtue. The fourth stage is the school age which involves the crisis of industry versus inferiority. When the crisis is resolved at the advantage of industry, the child gains the virtue of personal competence. The fifth stage is the adolescence stage where the child struggles with the crisis of identity versus role confusion. When the crisis is resolved in favor of identity, the fidelity is assured. The sixth stage is the young adulthood stage which is characterized by intimacy development and feeling of isolation. If intimacy is developed, the virtue acquired is love. The seventh stage covers adulthood and involves the crisis of generativity versus stagnation where if generativity occurs the virtue of care is acquired. The last stage is old age characterized by integrity and despair where if the former is favored, the virtue of wisdom is developed. The advantage of Erickson’s theory is that it agrees with the fact that all through ones life there is a probability for change. This is because each life stage beginning from infancy is capable of influencing the future life stages. Thus the way each life stage is resolved affects how the future stage is resolved. References: Benson, J. & Haith,M. (2009). Diseases and Disorders in Infancy and Early Childhood. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Freedheim, D. (2003). Handbook of psychology, Volume 1. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Mares, S. & Newman, L. (2005). Clinical Skills in Infant Mental Health. Camberwell, Australia: Australia Council for Ed Research. Nybell, L. Shook, J. & Finn, J. (2009). Childhood, youth, and social work in transformation: implications for policy and practice. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Skovholt, T. & Mathison, M. (2010). The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for Counselors, Therapists, Teachers, and Health Professionals, (Second Ed.) London: Taylor & Francis. Zastrow, C. & Kirst-Ashman, K. (2009). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Auckland: Cengage Learning. Read More