About Cognitive Social Emotional Development

Children are born as "blank slates." They have no experience or knowledge of who will take care of them. When they cry, they want to be fed, changed, comforted and loved. If parents are consistent, reliable and loving, their children will develop mentally, socially and emotionally into strong, productive members of society.

  1. Basic Infant Development

    • When your baby cries and you respond and feed, change and comfort her, she begins to understand that you will be there to help her and love her. When she gives her first "social" smile and receives smiles and vocal interactions in return, she is encouraged to become even more social. She will progress to vocalizations that come before her first true words.

    Cognitive

    • Children develop cognitively by progressing through several developmental stages, called the Theory of Cognitive Development. (Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist, developed this theory.) Briefly, the infant begins in the sensorimotor stage where he interacts with the world through motor activity. The second stage is the pre-operational stage (toddlerhood and early childhood). The child deepens his cognitive development by using symbols, language, imagination and memory. His thinking is not logical and is egocentric (the world revolves around him). As he reaches elementary and early adolescence, the child leaves egocentric thinking behind and begins to think more logically. He also develops operational thinking.

    Emotional

    • Your baby becomes more and more used to your presence in her life, learning to rely on you for love, comfort and physical care. She begins to prefer your comforting and care over that of strangers. As she grows older, she will exhibit anxiety when you are gone; this is called "separation anxiety" and is a marker of how attached she has grown to you. As she grows older and more independent, she learns how to identify emotions in others.

    Social

    • Your child's social development is closely tied into his emotional development. As he learns that you will be available for him, he learns he can safely separate from you for periods of time. The toddler will play with his toys and alongside other toddlers, returning to your side occasionally to reassure himself that you are still there. As he grows older, he begins to identify more and more with his same-age peers, spending more time with them and less time with you.

    Importance of Positive Interactions

    • When your children are born, they start from the beginning, learning to rely on you for food, comfort and love. If your interactions with your baby are loving, supportive and positive, she will learn she can trust you and her attachment to you will be healthy. If, on the other hand, you are not loving and your care of your baby is not always reliable, she will learn she cannot trust people in her world. She will grow up mistrustful of others and her attachments to you and other caregivers will be unhealthy.

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