Attachment behaviour and language skills in infants and toddlers.

 

It was while preparing to participate in a discussion on deviant behaviour of infants and toddlers with regard to attachment behaviour, language development and emotional reciprocity, I returned to this book, presented to Anna and myself in 2022 by Dr Alison Kerr, one of its authors. 

It was a chance meeting with Dr Alison, in her home in central England, who had by then spent over two decades on understanding the emotional reciprocity, communication style and language development process of infants who had an unusual set back to the developmental process as early as 6-9 months in the first year of their life. 

During the three hours spent with her, Anna and I felt introduced to a new level of understanding of the foundation of the communication process between parents and infants. The concept of this communication process in infants came to be illustrated by a schematic presentation that Dr Alison presented in her book, which is reproduced as the last photo here. 

Let me go back to a concept that she proposed about infant-mother communication process after studying hundreds of home videos she had gathered from a few countries. 

Mother's presence to an infant when made explicit by different facial expressions on her face, Dr Alison thought, that an infant adapted better to the communication process. In fact, most mothers are occupied while engaging their infants. They might be watching a TV show while feeding a baby, attending to a phone while carrying the baby, or talking to others at home  or at work place, etc while nursing the baby. Mother is present physically but distant emotionally  from her infant.  

The schematic presentation of the communication process is bathed in emotional engagement between a mother and her infant. 

While some infants wired differently in their cerebral cortex due to a genetic marker, might show deviant behaviour in communication, Dr Alison thought that the environment at home had an in irising or enhancing role in the breakdown of communication process. She spoke o this possibility when the concept of Epigenetics was still evolving conceptually. 

To be present to infants and toddlers is a wholesome experience when other distractions are set aside and infant-mother visual engagements, language reciprocity  and facial feed backs of approval and pleasure become an ambience for the baby-mother relationshp to develop a sense of belonging, which is what builds attachment behaviour.

During my years of involvements with families, most parents keep this focus to build communicative relationship with infants and toddlers.

But a small percentage of parents would find parenting demanding or burdensome as children come in the way of pursuing their personal career prospects. 

I recall this visit to Dr Alison twenty years ago,  as a turning point in understanding the different levels of communication which take place between parents and infants. 

I feel clearer than even before that parents initiate communication with infants and toddlers and children respond!

I look forward to make this as an area of study and observation as fifty percents of toddlers who visit us for developmental support are those with communication dysfunction. 

I agonise over the fact that the TV and Mobile phone viewing are replacing the personalised communication process between parents and infants and toddlers essential for them to develop attachment behaviour and communicative intent and content!

M.C.M Mathew(text and photo)