Week 7 — Infancy and Toddlerhood: Social-Emotional Development

Why this matters

An infant-room teacher at morning drop-off and a home visitor watching a baby turn to a parent both read a toddler's feelings as behavior, never as a label.

In plain language

This chapter is about the feelings and first relationships of babies and toddlers. In the first two years, babies start to smile at faces, grow wary of strangers, and cry when a familiar adult walks away. Children also differ from the start in temperament (a child's own steady style of activity, mood, and reaction). Most of all, babies form an attachment (a lasting bond with a particular caregiver) that they lean on for comfort and use as a home base for exploring. You will learn how researchers studied these bonds, why their categories describe patterns of behavior rather than children, and how a toddler begins to recognize their own face in a mirror.

• Already covered: Weeks 5 and 6, the infant's body and thinking.
• This week: early emotions, temperament, attachment, Erikson's first two stages.
• How they connect: record R3's toddler, now read for separation and reunion.
• Where we're going next: Week 8, the midterm review and play.

Focus

How do feelings and first bonds grow in the first two years, and how do you read them fairly?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] name social smiling, stranger and separation anxiety, social referencing
• [ ] tell temperament from attachment in a record
• [ ] explain Harlow's finding and the secure base
• [ ] name the four attachment patterns, never as labels
• [ ] place a record beside Erikson's first two stages

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 7 (~35–45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Try the practice set (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment, then the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: split a drop-off record into temperament and attachment, with no label.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

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