APPLIED RESEARCH

Applied Research in Early Years

Applied Research in Early Years

Introduction

This study provides greater insight into how emotional development is supported in young children within a contact centre for lone parents. The researcher gained a specific interest in examining how emotional development is supported in this specific setting where she was a volunteer. Emotional development comprises the emergence of the experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of emotions from birth and the growth and change in these capacities throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (Fox 1994, 243-246). The development of emotions occurs in transaction with neural, cognitive, and behavioral development and emerges within a particular social and cultural context.

Emotional Development in Childhood

The expression of emotions during infancy promotes the transition from complete dependency toward autonomy. The expression of interest promotes exploration and cognitive development. Social smiles and other expressions of joy promote social interaction and healthy attachment relationships with primary caregivers. The expression of sadness encourages empathy and helping behavior, and the expression of anger signals protest and discomfort. The infant's unique tendency to experience and express particular emotions and the threshold for expressing these emotions is usually referred to as their temperament or characteristic emotionality. An infant's temperament/emotionality emerges at birth as the infant's genes interact and transact with the environment, particularly through early experiences with caregivers. (Fox 1994, 243-246)

Currently, researchers generally agree that the neonatal smile is present at birth and that the social smile and the emotion expression of interest appear as early as 6 weeks of age. By 4 to 5 months of age, infants selectively smile at familiar faces and infants and their caregivers begin to share positive emotional exchanges.

Researchers disagree in their explanations of the development and time of emergence of discrete negative emotion expressions. One group has produced evidence of such expressions within the first 4 to 9 months, whereas others have failed to find discrete negative emotion expressions in the first year of life. Apparently consistent with the view that infants express negative emotions in early infancy, scientists have shown that infants perceive and respond differentially to the negative emotion expressions (e.g., sadness, anger) of others by the age of 4 months.

During the second 6 months of life, as infants gain rudimentary cognitive and memory capacities, they begin to express particular emotions based on context. Emotions begin to emerge dynamically as the infant begins to take more of a directive role in the emotional exchanges with caregivers. The attachment bond with the caregiver is increasingly important as infants engage in social referencing to seek support for exploration and look for signals of danger.

Emotional Development during Toddlerhood and Early Childhood

During the toddler period, in conjunction with rapid maturation of the frontal lobes and the limbic circuit in the brain, recognition of the self emerges. As a result, the toddler strives to become more independent and the expression of anger and defiance increases in this struggle for autonomy. The ability to differentiate the self from others also promotes basic empathic behavior and moral ...