Infancy is a crucial
time for development both physically and mentally in every human’s life. The
successful completion of biophysical development will result in healthy brain,
growth, and motor skills which are necessary components for the utmost quality
of life. For a healthy completion of cognitive development and information
processing an infant will need to acquire language skills, advance their
emotions, begin to understand and emit a sense of self, and start to make
judgments regarding what is right and what is wrong. Jean Piaget believed that
these judgments will be made based upon consequences (Ashford, J., &
LeCroy, C. 2013), determining the social structure of an infant’s growth. He
assumed that there are “inborn, invariant processes in humans that play a
fundamental role in understanding reality.” (Ashford, J., & LeCroy, C. 2013).
These processes are known as adaptation and organization.
Much of a successful infancy also depends on the parents or adults involved. The social dimension that they represent can make or break the experience of going from infancy to early childhood. Margaret Mahler believed that “the infant grows from being a newborn with no sense of self as separate from her caretaker to being an autonomous, independent individual.” (Ashford, J., & LeCroy, C. 2013). Hence, different types of social situations such as adoption and foster care will severely alter a child’s perspective and can be either a positive or negative experience. This is why social workers must always be aware of the history of the clients that they interact with. How their infancy, childhood, adolescence, and all other stages went will influence their overall well-being and could either prevent or enhance a successful client/social worker relationship.
Much of a successful infancy also depends on the parents or adults involved. The social dimension that they represent can make or break the experience of going from infancy to early childhood. Margaret Mahler believed that “the infant grows from being a newborn with no sense of self as separate from her caretaker to being an autonomous, independent individual.” (Ashford, J., & LeCroy, C. 2013). Hence, different types of social situations such as adoption and foster care will severely alter a child’s perspective and can be either a positive or negative experience. This is why social workers must always be aware of the history of the clients that they interact with. How their infancy, childhood, adolescence, and all other stages went will influence their overall well-being and could either prevent or enhance a successful client/social worker relationship.
Ashford, J.,
& LeCroy, C. (2013). Human behavior in the social environment: A
multidimensional perspective (5th ed.). Australia: Brooks/Cole, Cengage
Learning.
Brentleigh, I agree Piaget's stages are very important at this stage in infancy. Another theory to look at is Erikson's eight stages of change, they actually are similar in many ways. One of the most fascinating similarities to me is the in Erikson's Infancy stage he talks about how infants learn about trust and mistrust and Piaget speaks about how infants develop in the later stages of sensorimotor skills this is where the trust and mistrust coming because the infant learns from movement and sounds what will work and what will not.
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