Early Mother/Child Interaction Flashcards
The Beginning of the Mother/Child Relationship
By 22 weeks gestation the baby can start responding to sound, especially the sound of the mother. In the womb the baby has a preference for mother’s voice and native language. At birth auditory pathways developed in the womb enable baby to match mother’s voice with her face. Neural pathways laid down antenatally for smell of mother’s breast milk. All are important factors in development of bonding and attachment.
Risk Factors to the Foetal Brain
- Alcohol and Drugs - Foetal Alcohol Syndrome: growth impairment, abnormal facial features, problems with learning attention, memory, problem solving, speech and hearing.
- Eating Disorders - may affect closure of neural tube
- Domestic Abuse - often starts 3rd trimester. Stress (cortisol) restricts blood flow to foetal brain. Child more anxious. Symptoms ADHD.
- Maternal Stress and Anxiety contribute to all of these.
Early Experiences Determine Brain Architecture
A baby’s experiences are influential in determining future development. From early infancy, they naturally reach out to create bonds, and they develop best when caring adults respond in warm, stimulating and caring ways. This secure attachment with those close to them leads to the development of empathy, trust and well-being. In contrast, impoverished, neglectful or abusive environments can result in a child who doesn’t develop empathy, or learn how to regulate their emotions or develop social skills and this can lead to increased risk of mental health problems, relationship difficulties, antisocial behaviour and aggression.
Brain Development and Children’s Mental Health
- Early experience determines which parts of the brain grow and which parts of the brain do not.
- Memories of early experiences, especially strongly emotional ones, are not dependent on conscious process.
- Early exposure to negative experiences e.g. abuse and neglect, limits long-term capacity to regulate feelings.
- Good early attachment to primary caregiver serves to promote resilience to later traumatic experiences.
Attachment
- A universal need to form close affectionate bonds with others. Infants are born with the need to bond. They have instinctual behaviours that trigger responses in their mother: sucking, clinging, crying, smiling, etc. Maternal separation or loss is dramatic because it prevents the development of a biological need.
- Attachment System - “Secure base”: the essence of what the attachment figure represents for the child. A secure base provides a safe haven to return to in case of danger or anxiety and a launch pad from which the child can explore. There is a paradox: the “attachment system” gets triggered and becomes evident at times of danger or when disrupted and is turned down when all goes well. When danger threatens, we cling to our attachment, once danger passes, their availability enables us to work, relax and play.
Child contributions
- Difficult temperament - lack of fit with caregivers
- Premature birth
- Medical conditions
- Hospitalisations, separations
- Failure to thrive
- Neurological impairments
Parent Contributions
- Parental Mental Health - perinatal depressiona nd anxiety
- Parent’s own experience - abuse, neglect, attachment (adult attachment interview)
- Parents’ attributions/beliefs
Environmental Contributions
- Poverty
- Violence: victim or witness
- Multiple caregivers
- Lack of social support
- High stress from marital conflict
- Lack of stimulation
Mentalisation
- Mentalisation refers to the ability to reflect upon, and to understand one’s state of mind; to have insight into what one is feeling, and why.
- Assumed to be an important coping skill that is necessary for effective emotional regulation.
- When early caregivers are unable to reflect on children’s state of mind or when this feedback to children is either completely missing or inaccurate, children are unable to fully develop the capacity to mentalise. Therefore, they do not learn how to understand their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations; nor the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others.
Containment
- Linked to the Klein’s concept of Projective Identification where for example a mother will project her feelings of unlovableness onto her child.
- Containment is filtering and detoxifying own thoughts and not dumping or offloading onto child.
- A person good at containing others is: receptive, able to hold on to another persons difficult feelings without being overwhelmed by them themselves, makes calm and thoughtful attempts to understand the problem, can convey a feeling that what the other person is feeling is tolerable and meaningful and managable.
- Containment of an emotional experience - when a particular feeling is aroused, old neural networks automatically become activated to manage the arousal in the old way. The process of having feelings recognised and acknowledged by another person can facilitate the development of new ways of relating, and develop new pathways.
Reciprocity
- Reciprocity describes the sophisticated interactions between a baby and adult when both are involved in the initiation, regulation and termination of the interaction. Reciprocity applies to interaction in all relationships.
- It is a fundamental building block for our relationships. Crucial to the development of language. The rhythm of sucking and stopping when feeding is the prototype for the development of turn taking.
- If reprocity is not developed well in an emotional way, language acquisition is likely to be impaired.
- Initiation > Orientation > State of attention > Acceleration > Peak of Excitement > Deceleration > Withdrawal or turning away
Lookaway
- Brazelton identified four strategies babies use to withdraw from too much stimulation or inappropriate stimulation: turning or shrinking from it, rejecting it by pushing it away, decreasing its power to disturb by withdrawing attention, or signalling behaviour by crying, fussing, laughing or yawning.
- Lookaway describes baby’s attempts to self regulate as well as process information so immature nervous system is not overwhelmed.
- Opportunity for the brain to store interactions to memory or make new synapse connections.
