The document discusses various topics in child development including the role of fathers, stranger and separation anxiety, emotions, socialization, and parental influence. It notes that fathers are now more involved in child rearing and their support is beneficial. Separation anxiety typically involves protest, despair, and detachment phases as infants struggle with parents leaving. Parental influence on socialization includes direct teaching, modeling behavior, and control over the child's environment and activities. Socialization involves learning social and behavioral norms.

1. Child development
By C Settley

2. OUTCOMES
• - The role of the father
• - Discuss stranger anxiety during infancy
• - Discuss separation anxiety during
infancy
• - Analyse the following aspect of the
socialisation process during infancy
• - Parental influence

3. The role of the father
• Child minding was often left to mothers
• Fathers did not attend to the birth or take much notice of
the baby
• Mothers need the support of her family and community
during pregnancy
• Having the support of the father is important
• In some cultures the father is not obliged to be involved
in the birth
• But it recognised that when the father is supportive in an
emotional way, there are many positive benefits

4. The role of the father
• When the fathers feel part of the pregnancy and know
what to expect, they often feel a closer bond to the baby
• Fatherhood project initiated by Human Sciences
Research Council in SA encourages men to nurture,
protect and interact positively with their children
• From the time of conception the father’s support is
valuable for both the mother and the infant. Even the
knowledge that the father is thinking about the infant
provides the mother some relief and allows her have
mental time out
• Video- role of fathers

5. Emotions
• Children’s cognitive and social
development contributes toward changes
in their emotional experiences
• Children become more aware of their own
emotions as well as those of others
• They learn to control their emotions

6. The most important emotional
developments
• Happiness
• Expressed through smiling and laughter
• By the end of their second year, babies are able
to express themselves spontaneously
• They will jump up and down, clap their hands,
run, laugh out loud and hug their loved ones to
indicate their joy and excitement

7. The most important emotional
developments
• Happiness
• During the course of the socialisation process,
children are taught to control their emotions
• Children learn that they can be spontaneous at a
birthday party, but learn that they should be
controlled in church

8. The most important emotional
developments
• Fear and anxiety
• Fear: caused by a specific object or situation
• Anxiety: caused by vague feelings
• Both fear and anxiety cause psychological and physical
distress
• Separation anxiety: refers to specific reactions that a
child experiences, such as protest and despair, during
anticipated or actual separation from the parent or care
giver

9. Separation anxiety
• 3 phases: protest, despair, detachment phases
• Protest phase: lasts for about 3 days, children cry a lot and search
for their parents
• Despair phase: increasing despair over the possibility that parents
will not come back. Children’s activity levels drop, they cry less, they
become restrained and tend to withdraw by showing little interest in
their environment. Substitute caregivers then believe that children
have adjusted to their new situations. In reality, they give up hope of
their parents returning. Should the parents return during the first two
phases, children usually react positively.

10. Separation anxiety
• Detachment phase: children start showing interest in
their environment again. Should parents return at this
stage, they will most likely be rejected by the children.
For instance, the child will turn his/her back on the
parent(s), or refuse to greet the parent. However, after a
few hours (or days), children will go through an
ambivalent phase where children will cling to the parent
at one moment and in the next moment be hostile
towards the parent. Examples: divorce, hospitalisation,
starting nursery school or day- care

11. Separation anxiety
• Young children cannot yet understand time, therefore
they do not know when or even if you will ever come
back
• Children at this stage are struggling between feelings of
striking out on their own and yet wanting to stay safe by
a parent or caregiver's side
• Although separation anxieties are normal among infants
and toddlers, they are not appropriate for older children
or adolescents and may represent symptoms of
separation anxiety disorder.

12. Separation anxiety
• To reach the diagnostic threshold for this disorder, the anxiety or
fear must cause distress or affect social, academic, or job
functioning and must last at least 1 month
• Children with separation anxiety may cling to their parent and have
difficulty falling asleep by themselves at night
• When separated, they may fear that their parent will be involved in
an accident or in some other way be "lost" to the child forever. Their
need to stay close to their parent or home may make it difficult for
them to attend school or camp, stay at friends' houses, or be in a
room by themselves. Fear of separation can lead
to dizziness, nausea, or palpitations.

13. Causes of fear and anxiety
• Videos: child anxiety and separation anxiety
• The causes of fear and anxiety are numerous. Some are easily identifiable
while others are difficult to identify. There are many theories about what
causes fear:
• Biologically:
• - fear has a genetic basis
• - there are also indications that specific emotions appear in accordance with
maturation of the central nervous system
• - example fear appears from approximately six months of age, while other
emotions, such as guilt and pride emerge during the pre school years

14. Causes of fear and anxiety
• Psychoanalytic approach:
• - according to this approach, the increase in fear during
early childhood is associated with children’s fear of being
injured and guilt feelings towards their parents
• - children’s fantasies are related to developmental
conflicts

15. Causes of fear and anxiety
• Learning theory:
• - states that fear is learnt
• - learning theorists say that environmental factors, as
well as children’s own personal experiences could
contribute to this
• - factors such as: violent television programmes or
frightening images (monsters etc).
• - also being bitten by a dog previously could establish
fear for dogs

16. Causes of fear and anxiety
• Cognitive Viewpoint:
• - fear develops because of preschoolers’ intense
fantasies and imaginations and their ability to distinguish
between fantasy and reality.

17. Expected fears at certain age groups
Age Fear
0-6 months Loss of support; loud sounds
7-12 months Strangers; heights; sudden objects
1 year Separation from parents, toilet training
2 years Loud sounds(vacuum), animals,
darkness
3 years Masks, the dark, animals
4 years Separation from parents, noise, the
dark
5 years Animals, ‘bad people’, the dark
6 years Supernatural creatures, the dark,
physical injury
7-8 years Supernatural creatures, thunder and
lightning, being alone
9-12 years Tests and exams at school, school
performance, physical injury
Teenager Social performance, sexuality

18. Guidelines to decreasing fear
and anxiety
• Children should be encouraged to talk about their fears
• The feared object or situation should be neutralised by
associating it with something positive
• Children should see other people handling the object or
situation that they fear, without fear. The child who fears
dogs for example, should see someone play with a dog
• The child could gradually be brought into contact with the
feared object or situation
• By explaining the feared situation, certain fears could be
overcome. Eg thunder

19. Guidelines to decreasing fear
and anxiety
• Situations that could cause fear, such as hospitalisation or starting
nursery school, could become less fearful when the hospital or
school is visited beforehand
• In the event of a divorce, the reasons should be explained to the
child
• Until they are old enough to distinguish between fantasy and reality,
children who have irrational fears of monsters and other fantasy
creatures should not be allowed to watch too many television
programmes or reading books that contain this kind of material
• Parents should provide a secure haven by dealing with their
children’s fears in a sympathetic, patient and comforting manner

20. Stranger anxiety
• Refers to the fear some babies show in the presence of
strangers
• Eg a baby suddenly crying without any traumatic event
happening
• Generally occurs during 2nd
half of 1st
year
• Reaches climax at 8-12 months and gradually
diminishes at 12-25 months
• Not all babies at 6-12 months develop a stranger anxiety

21. Socialisation
• Babies’ developmental abilities and skills that enable
them to move more freely and to explore environment.
• Become increasingly more able to manipulate objects
and to solve problems in new ways.
• During this period parents start to socialise with their
children
• Socialisation refers to process in which child learns to
conform to moral standards, role expectations and
requirements for acceptable behavior.
• E.g. not be noisy at table, not play with food, not jump up
+down on bed, start to control excretion functions.

22. Socialisation
• Socialization is a learning process that
begins shortly after birth.
• Early childhood is the period of the most
intense and the most crucial socialization.
• It is then that we acquire language and
learn the fundamentals of our culture.
• It is also when much of our personality
takes shape.

23. Influence of parents on
socialisation of their children
1. Through direct teaching , by showing them, e.g. , how
to Eat and how to dress themselves.
2. Parents act as important role models through their
interaction with their children.
- Parents who are loving, warm and responsive will have
children who are warm and responsive toward others.
3. Parents control certain aspects of child’s life that could
have an influence on their social development, such as
neighborhood in which they live ,and which friend to
visit, and when to visit.

24. 3Types of techniques parents
use to control child
1. Induction- includes reasoning ,
explaining and the setting of clear limits.
2. Power assertion- physical punishment ,
forceful commands and the removal of
objects and privileges.
3. Love withdrawal- parent ignores the child
and react coldly towards his/her
behaviour.

25. • Induction (authoritative parenting
style) leads to more acceptable
behaviour in children.
• Assertion of power (authoritarian style)
leads to aggressive behaviour in children.
• Withdrawal of love is never recommended.

26. • Most important stages in socialisation is the acquisition
of toilet skills.
• Generally accepted that toilet training should begin
before children have reached the necessary level of
neuromuscular maturity.
• This level of development is usually not reached until
child is 18months old.
• Toilet training before this age and before the necessary
level of maturation has reached will subject the child to
too much biological and psychological pressure.
• The later toilet training begins, the faster the child will
learn the desired behaviour (20-24 months)

27. • The way parents deal with the process is far more
important than the age at which training starts.
• Parents should make ensure their children experience
the situation as a source of pride, as achievement of
greater self-control and new skills, and not as a power
struggle between them and their parents.
• During toilet training children often test their parents’
limits.
• A relaxed , supportive and accepting attitude – with
sufficient positive reinforcement each time the child
achieves success- is more likely to produce positive
results
• Ideal age for complete control is 2½ - 3yrs.
• Girls achieve faster than boys due to earlier
physiological maturation

28. References
• http://www.aucklandtherapy.co.nz/Articles/FathersContribution.htm
• Louw, D.A, Van Ede, D.M.& Louw, A.E (1998). Human
development. 2nd
edition. Cape Town. Kagiso.
• Louw, D.A & Edwards, D.J.A (2008) Psychology: An introduction for
students in South Africa. 2nd
edition. Cape Town: Heinemann Higher
and Further education.
• Middleton, L. Nicholson, G. & O’Neill, V. Juta’s Nursing
Psychology. Applying Psychological concepts to Nursing Practice
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/separation-anxiety