Catching Bubbles: Supporting the Emotional Development of Infants and Toddlers

Through Relationships

Erika London Bocknek, PhD, LMFT, IMH-E® (IV-R/F)

Keynote AddressCouncil of Infant/Toddler

EducatorsIselin, NJ

April 4, 2014

"There is no such thing as a baby ... if you set out to describe a baby, you will find you are describing a baby and someone.'' (Winnicott, 1947)

Overview• Emotional Development in Infancy and

Toddlerhood • Emotion Regulation as Resilience

o What is it?o Why does it matter?

• Co-regulation in relationshipso Parentso Families

• Special Focus on Play

“Emotions are the process by which an individual attempts to establish, change, or maintain his or her relation to the environment on matters of significance to the person.”

(Witherington, Campos, & Hertenstein, 2004)

• Newborn’s emotional life is relatively undifferentiated

• Two global arousal stateso Attraction to pleasant stimulationo Withdrawal from unpleasant stimulation.

• Over time, emotions become clear, well-organized signals.

Early Emotional Development

Directly inferred from facial expressionsBy 6 months, emotional expressions are

well-organized and specificMost research attention

◦ Happiness◦ Anger◦ Sadness◦ Fear

Early Emotional Development

Happinesso Binds parent and babyo Fosters the infant’s developing competence.o Social smile (after seeing a human face) – 6 to 10 weekso Laughter – 3 to 4 monthso 10-12 month olds have several kinds of smiles

o Newborns show only generalized distress

o Angry expressions increase in frequency and intensity from 4-6 months into the second year

o Cognitive and motor development both contribute to the increase in angry reactions with age.

o Anger is adaptive – defend themselves, overcome obstacles

Anger

o Response to pain, removal of an object, and brief separationo Common when parent-child interaction is seriously disruptedo Expressions of sadness are usually less frequent than anger.

Sadness

◦ Fear (like anger) rises during the second half of the first year.

◦ Stranger anxiety (>6 mos.) Temperament Social referencing Past experiences with strangers Culture can modify stranger

anxiety ◦ Protects newly crawling and

walking babies

Fear

Infants’ emotional expressions depend on ability to interpret emotional cues of others

Emotional contagion – process by which babies detect others’ emotions (built-in)

Facial expressions perceived as organized pattern (7-10 months) – can match emotion in a voice with the appropriate face of a speaking person

Dondi et al., 1999 demonstrate early indicators of empathy in newborns, demonstrating differential responses to other babies’ cries than their own.

Understanding and responding to the emotions of others

• Emerges around 8-10 months• Infant relies on a trusted person’s emotional

reaction to decide how to respond in an uncertain situation.

• Method of learning about the environment through indirect experience (safety and security).

Social referencing

• Higher order set of feelingsShame GuiltEnvy PrideEmbarrassment

• Self-conscious emotions involve injury to or enhancement of the sense of self

• Middle of second year (18-24 months)• Emerge with the sense of self• Play important roles in children’s

achievement-related and moral behaviors.

Self-conscious emotions

Emotion Regulation refers to changes associated with activated emotions; can refer to emotions as regulated or regulating.

Cole, Martin, Dennis, 2004

Besides building on their range of emotional reactions, infants and toddlers begin to manage their emotional experiences

Strategies used to adjust emotional states to a comfortable level of intensity in order to accomplish goals.

Depends on maturity as well as input from caregivers.

Language and motor development help as well.

Emotion Regulation

• Effective strategies include:o Sucking (nutritive and non-nutritive)o Rockingo Swaddlingo Touch and infant massageo Body awarenesso Matching infant cueso Supported rhythmicity

Emotion Regulation in Infancy

Emotion Regulation in Toddlerhood

• Identify emotions• Use emerging competencies in motor, cognitive,

and language domains to attenuate emotions• Seek out important others• Build fundamental repertoire• Learn value of coping and problem solving

Resilience in Early Childhood

Resilience

the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched capacity to withstand stress

and catastrophe

capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

MAINTENANCE OF POSITIVE ADAPTATION BY INDIVIDUALS DESPITE EXPERIENCES OF SIGNIFICANT ADVERSITY

Luthar & Zigler, 1991; Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1990; Rutter, 1990; Werner & Smith, 1982, 1992).

Resilience in Early Childhood

“Ordinary Magic”Resilience does not require something rare or special

Masten, 2001

Resilience in Early Childhood

• Copingo Self-regulation considered a primary source of

resilience for prevention of mood disorders (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000)

o Particularly pivotal in predicting good outcomes after traumatic experience (Agaibi & Wilson, 2005).

Emotion Regulation Underscores:

• Academic Achievemento Attention, problem solving skills

• Mental Healtho Lower risk of internalizing/externalizing behaviors

• High Quality Relationshipso Processing emotional information and social cues

• Physical Healtho Reduced risk of obesity and addictive behaviors

Brophy-Herb, Farber, Bocknek, Stansbury, & McKelvey, 2013 ; Domitrovich, Cortes, & Greenberg, 2007

A Relationship-Based Model

Constructive, caring relationships are fundamental to the human experience. Healthy early relationships are fundamental to later ability to love and learn. A responsive adult is sensitive and caring.

Wittmer & Petersen, 2013

Family“Only the family, society's smallest unit, can change

and yet maintain enough continuity to rear children who will not be ‘strangers in a strange land,’ who will be rooted firmly enough to grow and adapt.”

Salvador Minuchin

FAMILY

National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project 3,001 families Longitudinal design, assessments at

14-month, 24-month, 36-month, and Transition to Kindergarten timepoints

Emotion Regulation, Parenting, and Learning

Readiness (Brophy-Herb, Farber, Bocknek, Stansbury, &

McKelvey, 2013)

Enhancing maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered to be crucial for the development of young children’s school readiness and are particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness.

What about the parenting relationship matters?

Emotion Regulation and Parenting

Maternal supportiveness is a longitudinal predictor of toddlers’ emotional regulatory development over toddlerhood, particularly in at-risk families (Bocknek, Brophy-Herb, & Banerjee, 2009).

These processes are supported by child factors, parenting emotion socialization processes, and family resilience (Bocknek et al., 2008; Brophy-Herb, Schiffman, Bocknek, et al., 2011).

An important overarching consideration: how does family organization lead to child organization?

Family Routines and Rituals

What are rituals?• INTENTIONAL• Occur at the same time and place: “This is what

we do.”• Reflect significance to the family: “This is what is

important to us.”• Promote family identity: “This is who we are.”

Doherty, 1999; Fiese et al, 2003

Why are rituals important?

• Develop family identity and meaning-making• Provide sense of security and predictability for

young children• Promote parenting self-efficacy• Create “emotional residue” and support family

and individual resilience (Fiese, Tomcho, Douglas, Josephs, Poltrock, & Baker, 2002).

Why are rituals important?

• Emotional Residue (Fiese et al., 2002):o Defining characteristic of a ritualo Affective memory of a ritual that those persons involved

in the ritual can replay later to recapture some of the experience

o Children in high-risk contexts can access the emotional residue that is often produced by a parent ritually sharing a few minutes with him/her in a special activity as a protective factor in stressful times.

Why are rituals important?

• Rituals and Family Organization

▫ Rituals impart meaning regarding family identity. ▫ Rituals clarify family roles, delineate boundaries which define family

membership and relationships, and transmit information about family identity, even across generations (Wolin, Bennett, & Jacobs, 2003).

▫ Children’s self-organization is intertwined with family-level organization (Sameroff, 1989).

Why are rituals important?

• Rituals and Family Resilience

o Resilient individuals seek out and utilize resources available to them as a means to cope and to thrive (Higgins, 1994).

o “Rituals are comforting and healing for children. They allay anxiety and provide a sense of mastery in a harsh and incomprehensible world.” (O’Connor & Horowitz, 2003, p. 162)

What does the research say?

• Rituals, such as typical bedtime routines, help children develop self-regulation skills early on during toddlerhood.

• This is likely based on associations between family patterns of organization and self-organization in early childhood.

• These effects likely contribute to adaptive functioning at older ages, such as optimal learning readiness.

Naturally occurring rituals

“Any routine has the potential to become a ritual once it moves from an instrumental to a symbolic act.” (Fiese et al., 2003, p. 383)

• Bedtime• Mealtime• Mornings• Departures and Greetings• Displays of affection• Culture and Spirituality

Family Bedtime Rituals and Emotion Regulation Among Toddlers

Bedtime Rituals and Emotion Regulation

• Bedtime rituals which are consistent across toddlerhood promote greater regulatory competencies at 24 months of age, with a moderate effect size, though not necessarily more rapid rates of development in regulatory skills.

• The 24-month timepoint may be of greatest interest as children in this sample experienced a small decrease in regulatory competencies at 24 months of age.

Bocknek, Brophy-Herb, & Ravaeu, in progress

Impact of Consistent Bedtime Routines Across Toddlerhood on the Development of Emotion

Regulation

Bedtime Rituals and Emotion Regulation

• Consistency of parent-child interactions create opportunities for predictable patterns that allow children to practice regulation; Rogoff, Mistry, Goncu, & Mosier, 1993, Rogoff, 1990).

• Bedtime rituals may serve as a protective factor for children, particularly during a time in development when children may be more vulnerable.

• Results demonstrate modest effects, suggesting that bedtime rituals may be one aspect of larger patterns of family organization.

• Bedtime rituals likely concretize for children these more abstract broader patterns of family organization.

Group Activity• Think about…

•Bedtime•Mealtime•Mornings•Departures and Greetings•Displays of Affection•Culture and Spirituality

Summary• Supporting parents to reflect on opportunities to

“make meaning” through rituals can strengthen families and support family health and well-being.

• Simple rituals can be powerful protective factors for at-risk children, with long lasting benefits.

Play

PlayJust PlayingBy Anita Wadley When I’m building in the block room, please don’t say I’m “just playing”For you see, I’m learning as I play, about balance and shapes.Who knows? I may be an architect someday. When I am getting dressed up, setting the table, caring for the babies.Don’t get the idea I’m “just playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play.I may be a mother or a father someday. When you see me up to my elbows in paint or standing at an easel, or moulding and shaping clay, please don’t let me hear you say “He is just playing”For you see, I’m learning as I play, I’m expressing myself and being creative.I may be an artist or an inventor someday. When you see me sitting in a chair “reading” to an imaginary audience.Please do not laugh and think I’m “just playing”.For you see, I’m learning as I play.I may be a teacher someday. 

When you see me combing the bushes for bugs, or packing my pockets with choicethings I find, don’t pass it off as “just playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play.I may be a scientist someday. When you see me engrossed in a puzzle or some “plaything” at school.Please don’t feel the time is wasted in “play”. For you see, I’m learning as I play.I’m learning to solve problems and to concentrate.I may be in business someday. When you see me cooking or tasting foods, please don’t think that because I enjoy it, it is “just playing”. I’m learning to follow directions and see differences.I may be a chef someday. When you see me learning to skip, hop, run and move my body, please don’t say I’m “just playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play. I’m learning how my body works.I may be a doctor, nurse or athlete someday. When you ask me what I’ve done at school today, and I say, “I just played”Please don’t misunderstand me. For you see, I’m learning as I play.I’m learning to enjoy and be successful in my work. I’m preparing for tomorrow.Today, I am a child and my work is play.

Catching Bubbles

Post-Traumatic Play Children use play to both re-experience and make sense of traumatic,

confusing, and difficult experiences.

Post-traumatic play is often distressing to adults.

Post-traumatic play may be repetitive, violent, and aggressive.

Play themes may be directly or symbolically related to traumas.

Terr, 1994; Lieberman & Van Horn, 2008

Aggressive Play Gun/War Play

Prevalence may predict increased risk of real aggressive/antisocial behavior, likely mediated by parents’/caregivers’ aggressive behaviors.

Likely differences between constructed and more concrete toy guns.

Superhero Play Prevalence not related to more aggressive behaviors/outcomes. Provide opportunities for imagination and creativity to develop.

Holland, 2003; Parsons & Howe, 2006; Turner & Goldsmith, 1976; Watson & Peng, 1992

Resilient Play• Play narratives

ProsocialVariedCreativeRelationalEmpowering

Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 1990; De-Souza & Raddell, 2011

Resilient PlayProsocial: Themes of helping, kindness, team work.

Varied: Expose children to many kinds of toys.

Creative: Toys can by multi-purpose.

Relational: Look for opportunities to connect.

Empowering: Children develop Integrated and confident sense of self

• All children have the opportunity to become resilient…it’s “ordinary magic.”

• Resilience in the earliest years sets the stage for the later and ongoing repertoire of regulatory skills.

• Families can support resilience by increasing opportunities for…

• Meaning making• Affective ties• Structure and identity• Capacity building

Questions and Discussion