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Gail Adams
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U7740974
First Relationships
Hobson 1993 argued that babies come into the world with an eagerness to relate to others. Relationships with significant others are important to our psychological life. Relationships between children and their caregivers are also important for not only their physical but emotional needs as well.
The relationships that build between infant and caregiver is vital for the development of the infant in their future as adults.
In the weeks after they are born babies have limited abilities to interact with adults who look after them but as they get older they become more and more equal partners in creating and upholding their relationships.
There are many different aids that contribute towards the development and enhance relationships. Three main features of early development are meshing, scaffolding and imitation. Each contributes to early development of the infant. Many psychologists through research have used these aids to make claims or object about the abilities of infants to interact with caregivers.
Meshing is the behaviour that adults and infants undertake when forming early relationships. During interaction each individuals behaviour seems to fit in with the others. Both child and caregiver seem to smoothly integrate with each other and each persons contribution fits in with the others. Turn-taking is a prominent feature of meshing dominantly lead by the caregiver. Mutual action occurs of expressions and signals of emotion. Meshing can be verbal or non-verbal with body language like nods and eye contact that signal ongoing attention. Both infant and caregiver do not need to be skilled in this interaction as the adult pre-dominantly fits their behaviour around the infants.
These forms of dialogue are called pseudo-dialogues. Through this type of interaction the infant begins to form representations of others as well as their own behaviour and they also learn the responsiveness of others. The pseudo-dialogue then turns to proto-dialogue and the infant will then begin to play an active role.
Meshing creates a valuable social interaction for the infant and it plays an important role in an infants development because it provides the infant with the experience of taking part in a dialogue. This unique interaction gives the child its first experience of relatedness.
Meshing can have a conversation-like quality which is a valuable first experience for babies. No other object in the infants world can offer the infant this experience of interaction. The infants behaviour can bring a responsiveness from the adult that gives the infant a sense of relatedness, their actions can produce a sense of being closely engaged with something very attuned to them. This is a valuable social experience for the infant.
Pg 2 of 5
Gail Adams
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U7740974
Meshing can be seen to have strong links with behaviourism because of the influence of the environment. The mother reinforces and the child's actions are rewarded, praised and encouraged to some extent and this is a major theory of behaviourism. Behaviourism sees the importance of the child being tutored as in meshing when the mother tutors her child. Although behaviourism does not explain the internal processes of learning on the part of the child's own interpretation of the interaction and its own role rather they ...
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Pg 2 of 5
Gail Adams
T.M.A 02
U7740974
Meshing can be seen to have strong links with behaviourism because of the influence of the environment. The mother reinforces and the child's actions are rewarded, praised and encouraged to some extent and this is a major theory of behaviourism. Behaviourism sees the importance of the child being tutored as in meshing when the mother tutors her child. Although behaviourism does not explain the internal processes of learning on the part of the child's own interpretation of the interaction and its own role rather they see the child as a blank slate (Locke, BK1: CHP1) being written on by experience so the child will be unable to contribute to and form relationships.
Behaviourism believes that children's learning and development can be hugely influenced by their tutors/caregivers use of the right methods. Behaviourists theories see human beings as mechanical engines, predictable in the way they react to outside stimulation. B.F. Skinner (1904-90) a behaviourist argued that the external environment controls behaviour and aids development as well as re-enforcement being used to shape behaviour.
Meshing could be argued as a one sided interaction as to which the caregiver simply fits their behaviour around the natural flow of the infant. This would suggest that the baby uses little or no social skills to keep this interaction going. The caregivers are so sophisticated in amalgamating their behaviour around the infants that the lack of the infants actual modelling is not apparent.
Scaffolding is a process of the caregiver helping the baby to understand their interactions and that these interactions can be predictable and carry meaning during the process. The caregiver is seen as tutoring the infant and equipping it with the rules of the game. Attention throughout is joint with each individual sharing in the interactions. Once this process is established the caregiver will build upon it by introducing other things they can share together with objects. Jerome Bruner a psychologist studied this process and gave an understanding of how this action may accommodate a crucial basis for the development of language proper and therefore creating dialogue proper rather than pseudo-dialogue. The mother involves the child in a stereotyped sequence of actions which are repeated so that the infant can learn different topics that they can then also learn to do alone.
Bruner described scaffolding as a way of interacting with an infant to allow the child to take an active role as he/she learns. Bruner went on to form joint action formats, where the mother creates simplified sequences of actions with objects that are repeated thus the infant learns.
Scaffolding is a constructivist theory because it involves the child and the environment in its physical and social sense. The caregiver implements objects for the child to interact with and respond to.
Pg 3 of 5
Gail Adams
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U7740974
Lev.S. Vygosky (1896-1934) had a theory that relied heavily upon the social environments influence, he emphasised its role and believed that society was crucial to human cognitive development, beginning with the first interactions and relationships. He argued that humans developed psychological tools to aid their own thinking and behaviour. Children were seen as actively organising their own thought processes through constant interaction with the social world. The child had a zone of proximal development which could only be gained by the support of an adult. Vygosky's theory showed an interaction between the natural line that emerges within a child and the cultural line known as socio-scaffolding.
Piaget argued that not only the environment but the physical and social plays a greater role rather than simply triggering innate structures. 'The human being is immersed right from birth into a social environment which affects him just as much as his physical environment. Society even more in a sense, than the physical environment, changes the very structure of the individual' (Piaget,1973,p.156).
Piaget emphasises the interaction between our biology and our environment but focuses on the construction of internal, mental structures.
Imitation of an infant to copy facial gestures of a caregiver is another key feature of first relationships. Imitations can be seen as units that build up to pseudo-dialogue, the units consist of tongue protrusion, mouth openings, lip widening and pouting. Babies naturally produce these actions and parents use these units by responding to them. Imitation is a controversial issue whereas many psychologists have put its relevancy into disrepute as it can be seen as the caregiver imitating the infant more so than the infant imitating the infant.
Moran et al (1987), BK1: CHP1 studied mothers with their 1 year old infants and discovered that mothers actually imitated their babies far more than the babies imitated their mothers. They argued that the mothers might be sensitive enough to predict with great accuracy the patterns of their child. With this skill they could also be able to anticipate what their infant would do and proceed it.
Pawlby (1977) in a longitudinal study of 'imitative sequences' between mothers and their infants aged between 4 and 10 months old also found that within this age range mothers did a lot more imitating of their babies than the other way around. She also found that hand movements accompanied these actions but only from when the child was 6 months. By the time the child had reached 8 months objects such as rattles were being used to dominate the imitations. The mother is seen as framing the infant by fitting her behaviour into the child's natural flow.
Kaye and Marcus (1981), BK1:CHP7 found that infant imitation increases in frequency over the first year, also important as a solitary achievement and forms basics for social interactions.
Babies already contain the ability to use mouth gestures like lip curling, mouth gestures and tongue protrusion and mothers just encourage their babies to accentuate these units of natural behaviours through interactions. These studies prove and most
parents would agree that babies do produce these units themselves without explicit provocation as a natural course and that interaction sequences can be framed around
Pg 4 of 5
Gail Adams
T.M.A 02
U7740974
these ideal behaviours.
Trevarthen used the term primary subjectivity to describe the interaction phase of development; he believed the function was the development of sensitivity to the mother, but also the reverse in sensitivity of mother to baby a so-called meeting of the minds.
Imitation can be linked to the Nativist theory as there are close innate structures that allow learning in imitation. The caregiver is again the teacher here but the infant must input into the interaction as part of the learning. Behaviourism believes that the mother uses the child's natural actions to encourage conversation, she is therefore tutoring her child.
Albert Bandura and his colleagues did extensive labatory studies and he believed that learning by observation was the basis for a wide variety of behaviours including aggression, altruism, sharing and sex typing. But the infants involvement in the imitation requires the child's attention and decisions of what he/she chooses to attend to. An infants view of the stimulus and not the stimuli itself controls behaviour.
'Piaget believed that knowledge is constructed. It does not originate in ornate programming, nor is it discovered in the environment. He argued that from birth we actively select and interpret environmental information. According to Piaget babies don't need to be taught they are born with the ability to adapt to and learn from the environment. Basic patterns of actions, which he called sensorimotor schemes.'
(Open University BK1, CHP1,pg31 1994).
Some key features of first relationships are meshing, scaffolding and imitation. All have their own endeavours in development-social interaction, interaction with the environment and language development. All incorporate the main caregiver as tutor until the infant can be able to take an active role at which point the development becomes a cooperation.
Relationships cannot simply be learnt by experiencing meshing, imitation and scaffolding singly yet more so the infant must go through all processes in stages as suggested by Piaget Transactional Model of Development (BK1,CHP6) the child has an active role in their own development. The infant passes through these processes imitation being of pseudo-dialogue and then to proto-dialogue, Travarthen inter-subjectivity to scaffolding/zone proximal development. Mother and infant need to be harmonized to enter these stages of primary subjectivity. The four main theories of child development can be seen in all processes and is apparent more so in some than others, but certainly an overlap of many theories can be seen throughout.
Each theory focuses on different aspects of development and makes different assumptions about the relative importance of internal and external influences. The implications for the theories is that of the lack for the theories to concretise a transactional model of development to enrol in the appreciation that the child needs to be and play an active role in their own development, with the support network from a primary caregiver.
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Pg 5 of 5
Gail Adams
T.M.A 02
U7740974
References
PIAGET,J. (1952), Hobson,R.P. (1993) Autism and the Development of Mind, Hove, Lawrence Erlbaum.
LOCKE, Bk1,CHP1, The Foundations of Child Development, John Oates, (1994) Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.
SKINNER, B.F. (1980) 'The experimental analysis of operant behaviour: a history' in RIEBER, R.W. and SALZINGER, K. (eds) Psychology: theoretical-historical perspectives, New York, Academic Press.
TREVARTHEN,C. (1979) 'Communication and cooperation in early infancy: a description of primary intersubjectivity', in BULLOWA,M. (ed) Before Speech, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
VYGOSKY,L.S. (1962) Thought and language, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.
PIAGET,J. (1973) The psychology of intelligence, Totowa (N.J.), Littlefield and Adams ( first published in English by Routledge and Kegan Paul 1950)
MORAN,G., KRUPKA,A., TUTTON,A. and SYMONS,D> (1987) 'Patterns of maternal and infant imitation during play', Infant Behaviour and Development, 10,pp. 477-91.
PAWLBY,S. (1977) 'Imitative Interaction', in SCHAFFER,H.R. (ed) Studies in Mother-Infant Interaction, London, Academic Press.
KAYE,K., and MARCUS,J. (1981) 'Infant imitation: the sensorimotor agenda', Developmental Psychology, 17,pp. 258-65.
BRUNER,J.S. (1981) 'Intention in the structure of action and interaction', in LIPSITT,L.P. (ed) Advances in Infancy Research, Vol.1, New Jersey, Ablex.
