Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

Child development and parents’ responses – children under 5 years 111Babies may be at risk of suffering significant harm when parents are preoccupiedwith their own feelings and emotions, find it difficult to notice the baby’s feelings orwishes and fail to respond to them appropriately. In addition, feelings of exhaustion,physical illness, depression and a lack of self-confidence and self-worth – all factorsassociated with domestic violence, parental mental illness, learning disability andparental substance misuse – may result in limiting the mother’s capacity to engagewith and stimulate her baby.Parents (both with learning disability) have received advice and guidance inrespect of stimulation from both health visitors and the family centre. Their abilityto demonstrate and continue to offer appropriate stimulation is questionable.(Health visitor discussing parenting of an 8-month-old boy, quoted inCleaver and Nicholson 2007, p.78)Longitudinal studies have found no evidence to suggest that prenatal exposureto cocaine is associated with physical growth, cognitive development or thedevelopment of language skills (Frank et al. 2001; Messinger et al. 2004). However,there is some tentative evidence to suggest that premature exposure to alcohol isnegatively associated with mental development among 12- to 13-month-old infants(Testa et al. 2003).In relation to mental illness, the impact on cognitive development tends toresult from parents’ behaviour. For example, mothers who experience psychoticsymptoms after giving birth are more likely to regard their babies as passive creaturesand perceive their gestures and facial expressions negatively (Murray et al. 2001).When the mother suffers from depression the baby’s cognitive development maybe affected because interaction between mother and baby is reduced. Depressedmothers are also less likely to modify their behaviour according to the behaviour oftheir baby (Murray et al. 2001).Depressed mothers, mothers with learning disabilities, or those with alcohol ordrug problems have been shown to respond less frequently to their baby’s cues,and when they did respond, were more likely to do so in a controlling rather thanfacilitative manner, ‘it appears to be the manner or quality of this intrusive form ofrelatedness, that is most important for infant development’ (Hobson et al. 2005, p.342).For further information see: Cox et al. 1987, Murray et al. 2001 for mental health;Cleaver and Nicholson 2007 for parental learning disability; Hill et al. 1996 andJuliana and Goodman 1997 for alcohol and drugs.Emotional and behavioural developmentExpected development‘Babies are like the raw material for a self’ (Gerhardt 2004, p.18). During the firstyear and a half of life, the baby’s brain is growing at its most rapid rate and requiresthe right conditions to develop adequately. At birth, emotions and feelings are ata very basic level and the baby relies on adults ‘to reduce discomfort and distress andincrease comfort and contentment’ (Gerhardt 2004, p.18).