Session 6 - Child development and communication Flashcards
What is attachment and what is its purpose?
- Attachment is a biologically based system that functions to maintain proximity to the infant’s care giver
- Infants are predisposed to display proximity and contact seeking behaviours.
- Gives the child protection when young (increasing likelihood of survival)
- Provides love and care to child, influencing brain development and leading to better social competence, physical and emotional health.
At what age are specific attachments made?
7 months
What is the strange situation test?
Method used for identifying attachment styles.
Mother leaves child with stranger and how the child reacts when mother leaves and comes back is assessed.
What are the 3 insecure attachment styles?
o Avoidant – Child not bothered when mother returns, child is independent
o Ambivalent – Child very clingy to mother, distressed even after mother returns
o Disorganised – Extreme difficulty in coping when mother leaves and returns, child freezes or rocks. Associated with withdrawn, depressed mothers or child maltreatment.
What are the stages involved in secure attachment after caregiver leaves?
o Protest – distressed, and look for carer
o Despair – Signs of helplessness, withdrawn
o Detachment – child displays more interest in surroundings, may become sociable, but when carer returns they are remote and apathetic
What are the implications of the caregiver leaving a child in a hospital setting?
Results in high stress negatively affecting health
Give 3 examples of good practise in organising hospital care for children
- Allow carer access
- Allow attachment objects
- Reassure child is not punished nor abandoned
- Stimulating toys and activities
- Continuity of staff
What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s childhood cognitive development? What years are each found?
- Sensorimotor (0-2yrs)
- Preoperational (2-7 yrs)
- Concrete operational (7-12rys)
- Formal operational (12+ yrs)
What occurs in the first stage of Piagets?
Sensorimotor, 0-2:
- Babies think by doing, through senses
- No abstract concepts such as tomorrow and yesterday
- Development of motor coordination, and body schema
- Development of understanding of permanence around 8 months (that objects out of sight continue to exist).
What occurs in the 2nd stage of Piagets?
Preoperational, 2-7:
- Language development
- Symbolic thought and ability to imagine things
- Egocentric (difficulty understanding other’s POV)
- Lack concept of conservation, that things can have the same properties despite looking different.
What occurs in the 3rd stage of Piagets?
Concrete operational, 7-12:
- Think logically but concrete rather than abstract
- Achieve conservation of number, mass and weight
- Able to see things from other’s perspectives.
What occurs in the 4th stage of Piagets?
Formal operational, 12+:
- Abstract logic
- Hypothetic-deductive reasoning
Describe Vygotsky’s theory of social developnent
- Cognitive development requires social interaction
- Child learns through shared problem solving and needs able instruction
- Carer must focus on the zone of proximal development (capability of x, therefore carer must focus on x+1)
- Each child’s level of understanding must be assessed and their zone of proximal development then chosen, and communication tailored
How can you use vygotsky’s theory to communicate to children about illness and treatment?
- Social referencing is important (tailor communication to suit the child and parents), allow the parents to relax and the child will relax
- Children copy parents and will respond positively if their parents do.
- Give simple and clear instructions, act out on doll, give them choices where possible.
- Use play therapists and nurses or carers to play or distract
- Be positive and reward them for acting well, e.g. stickers.
Give 2 examples of good practise in communicating with children
1) Face pain scale
2) Diabetes teddy to practise injecting insulin
