Questions that apply to all articles

How do attachments with others influence an infant’s development?

What are good indicators of healthy development of infants, toddlers, and young children?

Syanberg, P. O., Mennet, L. & Spieker, S. (2010). Promoting a Secure Attachment: A Primary Prevention Practice Model. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 15(3): 363-378.

It is increasingly recognized that early sensitive care-giving predicts a secure attachment in infancy and early childhood. This preliminary report details the development, implementation, and evaluation of a clinical programme that used a targeted prevention approach following a universally-offered screening of parent-infant interactions. The CARE-Index was used to assign dyads to low, medium, and high risk groups, and interventions – featuring reflective videotape-based feedback – were tailored to each risk group in order to increase maternal sensitivity and improve infant attachment status. Results showed improved maternal sensitivity and improve infant attachment status. Results showed improved maternal sensitivity in the intervention conditions compared to comparisons. In addition, infants in the intervention conditions were significantly more likely to be classified as secure, and significantly less likely to be classified as having DMM complex attachment strategies. Methodological shortcomings, however, mean that these findings should be regarded as tentative.

• What are the benefits of increasing maternal sensitivity and strengthening the parent-infant attachment?

Casby, M. W. (2003). Developmental Assessment of Play: A Model for Early Intervention. Communication Disorders Quarterly. 24(4): 175-183.

This article is the second in a two-part series. It presents an integrated overview of the construct of play and its development in infants, toddlers, and young children. The author describes developmental levels of play ranging from early sensorimotor— exploratory to symbolic play involving complex and planned multischeme sequences. In addition, functional components of symbolic play—agent, instrument, and scheme—are specified. Finally, the author presents a developmentally based, descriptive, and criterion-referenced protocol for the dynamic assessment of play in infants, toddlers, and young children.

• Do you think play is a useful developmental assessment tool for infants, toddlers, and young children? Why or why not?

Whaley, S. E., Sigman, M., Beckwith, L., Cohen, S. E., & Espinosa, M. P. (2002). Infant-Caregiver Interaction in Kenya and the United States: The Importance of Multiple Caregivers and Adequate Comparison Samples. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 33(3): 236–247.

This study explores infant-caregiver interaction in two cultures, replicating and expanding on previous cross-cultural comparisons. For this study, 132 Kenyan infants, 112 preterm U.S. infants, and 27 full-term U.S. infants were observed with their caregivers during multiple home observations. Results expand on previous work in Kenya, illustrating the importance of multiple caregivers in the lives of infants. When all care- givers are taken into account, as opposed to just mothers, similarities between Kenyan and U.S. cultures in styles of interacting with young infants become more apparent. In addition, when infant-caregiver interaction in Kenya is compared with infant-caregiver interaction with U.S. preterms, previously reported differences between Kenyan and U.S. caregiving behaviors also become less evident. These findings are particularly important in that they counter the concern that the development of children in environments such as rural Kenya is compromised by lower levels of stimulation from mothers.

• In what ways are Kenyan and U.S. infant-caregiver interactions different? Similar?

Slack, K. S., Holl, J. L., McDaniel, M., Yoo, J., & Bolger, K., (2004). Understanding the Risks of Child Neglect: An Exploration of Poverty and Parenting Characteristics. Child Maltreatment. 9(4): 395-408.

A strong association between poverty and child neglect has been established, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship have not been clearly articulated. This research takes advantage of survey and child maltreatment administrative data about families with young children and assesses the influence of poverty and parenting characteristics on subsequent neglect. The authors find that indicators of poverty, such as perceived material hardship and infrequent employment, and parenting characteristics, such as low parental warmth, use of physical discipline, and allowing a child to engage in frequent television viewing, are predictive of child neglect. Parenting characteristics do not appear to mediate the link between perceived hardship and neglect, although they suppress the link between employment and neglect. Results from this study provide information that is highly relevant to the approach and design of child maltreatment prevention and intervention strategies.

• Why is important for social workers to be aware of the links between poverty, parenting characteristics, and child neglect?