Birth to Age 3 - Emotional Development Guidelines

From the moment they are born, babies prefer to look at human faces more than anything else and recognize their parents’ faces best. Newborns also pay more attention to the sounds of talking over other sounds and prefer to listen to voices they know. 

These sight and sound preferences show that people become the most important part of babies’ lives from their very first days, and their primary caregivers and parents play the most important role of all. The first signs of a special relationship with caregivers and parents can be seen when babies show preferences for and stronger emotional reactions to one person. This is the start of attachment, which really grows at 12 months. 

Attachment helps children feel protected so they can deal with the stresses of life, and it impacts brain development. Caregivers and parents’ behaviors can show what kind of attachment a baby will develop. This means that the best way to ensure a child has secure attachment is for an adult to give responsive and sensitive care.

Emotional development in infancy and toddlerhood grows in several ways:

• First, babies learn to express more complicated emotions, from joy and anger to pride and shame. 
• Second, they learn to recognize, make sense of, and respond to the emotions of other people. 
• Third, babies learn ways of regulating and controlling their own emotions. 

A baby’s temperament impacts his or her emotional behaviors as an infant. Children show differences in things like how easily they get distracted or frustrated, how shy or outgoing they are, or how they respond to a new situation. Understanding each child’s differences in temperament and giving care that respects these differences is important in supporting social-emotional development in infants and toddlers.

An important milestone in social development is when a child begins to show self-awareness as infants discover first their physical independence from a caregiver and later the difference in their own wants. 

Asserting their independence is often connected to toddlers’ frustration, and shows up in emotional outbursts and tantrums. Remember that these behaviors indicate children’s emotional growth and are not signs of a difficult child. At the same time, caregivers and parents should help toddlers deal with their frustrations by teaching them simple ways to regulate their emotions.