Social Development in 0-1 Year Old Babies
Social development is the baby’s learning to communicate with the people around him, to understand people’s behavior, to regulate his own behavior according to different environments and people.
Social development in 0-1 year old babies
Social development is the baby’s learning to communicate with the people around him, to understand people’s behavior, to regulate his own behavior according to different environments and people.
From the moment of birth, the baby is ready to learn social relations and socialize. The newborn baby establishes his first social relations with his parents. The first relationship is established while the mother is breastfeeding or bottle-feeding her baby. While breastfeeding, the mother makes eye contact with her baby, leans towards him, talks to him, touches him, so that mother and baby begin to get to know each other. This communication between the mother and the baby is the place where the baby gets the first clues about the social relations he has established with his environment. The baby asks, “Am I a loved one?” “Will my needs be met in this world?”, “Are people and the world trustworthy?” Such questions are answered in the relationship he establishes with his mother and father in the first months, and the baby’s view of the outside world is shaped in line with these answers. The relationship that the baby establishes with its parents from the moment of birth is very important. From the first months, the baby’s socialization takes place when his basic needs such as feeding, bathing and changing diapers are met. Socializing during these activities gives pleasure to the baby. Talking with a soft tone while breastfeeding, feeding, bathing, changing diapers, chatting with him by touching his skin, meeting his needs on time with love and affection are important for a healthy social development of the baby. The fact that the father as well as the mother takes care of the baby, makes skin contact, being sensitive to his needs, talking to him, strengthens the communication between the father and the baby, and makes the baby feel the presence of the father.
2 months
At 2 months, the baby begins to express different needs by crying in different ways. Based on their instincts and experience, the parents try to discover what the baby’s cries mean and respond to their needs accordingly. These cries are the first communication in which the baby expresses himself and finds an appropriate response. In the future, the baby communicates with the people around him by making different sounds. Responding to these sounds, stopping and listening to them, responding to them as if they were chatting, helps the baby to need to talk, learn to speak and adopt the rules of verbal communication.
It is very important to make eye contact with the baby from the moment he is born. As the baby grows, he will look back at the person who is speaking to him, who sings and lullaby, and will follow the movements of the person who makes eye contact. Babies who do not make eye contact should be observed well, and if this situation continues, a specialist should be consulted.
The baby smiles by himself in the first months, smiles when he is full, smiles when he is relieved after passing gas, smiles if he is left naked while the dirty diaper is changed, these smiles are not “social smiles”. Baby’s first smiles should always be reciprocated with a smile, if not a “social smile”.
3-10. Months
As of the 3rd month, the baby begins to smile consciously and expects a response. The baby smiles at his parents and those who take care of him. These first smiles are the precursors of social relations with those around.
The baby, who cannot distinguish between strangers in the first months, begins to distinguish his relatives from strangers from the 4th month onwards. He gets excited when he hears his parents’ voices, he is animated when he sees his parents’ face, his activity increases, and he even smiles. Hearing his parents’ voices when he cries, seeing them calms him down. Going to the crying baby without ceasing to cry and cuddling and calming him strengthens the feeling of trust.
In these months, being in the arms of strangers starts to bother him. For this reason, increasing the number of people around the baby to socialize with, ensuring that grandparents, aunts and neighbors communicate with the baby frequently, in short, expanding the social environment will improve the baby’s social skills and make it easier to get used to new people.
In the seventh month, the baby can distinguish strangers fully, and when he sees a person he does not know, he becomes shy, hugs his parents, averts his eyes from the person he perceives as a foreigner, is afraid of the stranger who gets too close to him, and even cries. These behaviors of the baby should be tolerated, and time should be given to get used to strangers instead of pushing them away from strangers.
By the fifth month, the baby makes sounds to attract the attention of the people around him and enjoys playing games such as “peek a boo”. This game shows him that something can come back after it is lost and teaches him to deal with his fears. The baby, who does not like to be alone, becomes much more cheerful when there is someone around.
After the sixth month, the baby begins to show interest in babies larger or smaller than himself, and this interest becomes more evident in the eighth month. Especially when the baby sees older children, he becomes active and makes moves to go towards them. In this month, the baby’s reaction to the absence of the mother also begins. In the morning, when his mother leaves him on the way to work or after playing with him, he cries after her. It is normal for the baby to cry after the parents who have left. After a while, being calmed by another loved one shows that the mother-baby bond is strong and healthy.
10 months and beyond
In the tenth month, the baby starts to wait for applause in every success, plays games with the people around him, and claps for himself when he can’t get applause. Play becomes an important area for the baby to learn and prepare for adult life. By the eleventh month, he begins to imitate the movements of the people around him. The baby, who turns one year old, should be taken out more often and spend time with their peers. Although babies this age do not play joint games together, they learn social relations from each other.
The first and most important source of the baby, who learns to socialize by taking social cues from the moment of birth, is his parents. The baby acquires the first information about the world from parents who support his social development, learns from his parents what kind of person he should be in the future, how to communicate with people, whether he can trust people or not.
Communicating with the baby by looking him in the eye throughout the development process, talking to him, meeting his needs with love on time, always explaining what has been done in a simple language, noticing the progress he has made, appreciating his successes, making him see different people around him, bringing him together with his friends in different social environments, will support a healthy social development of the baby.