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

Child development and parents’ responses – children under 5 years 121Difficulties in communication and in fine motor control can be a frustratingexperience, which may result in occasional temper tantrums. Two-year-olds oftenbecome insistently independent, and can appear contrary.In relation to self-care skills children of this age are beginning to learn to dressand feed themselves, and meal times are generally hassle free.Possible impact on emotional and behavioural developmentParents’ preoccupation with their own problems to the exclusion of other priorities,the need to get and use drugs or alcohol, feelings of apathy and despair, and a senseof worthlessness will impact on children’s sense of emotional security. Parents whoare unavailable emotionally will evoke feelings of separation anxiety. Inconsistencyand a lack of routine increase a child’s sense of insecurity and fearfulness and mayresult in infants being extremely clingy.Children may be separated from their parents when, for example, parents gofor residential treatment, are arrested because of violence or drug-related crimesor detained under the Mental Health Act 2007. When partings are unplanned, orparents fail to return or return in a confused state, children may become extremelyanxious. Planning the separation and ensuring the presence of a caring and familiaradult can ensure continuity of care and reduce the impact of separation on infants.Parental mental illness, learning disability, substance misuse and domestic violencecan result in parents behaving in unpredictable and frightening ways....One minute Mammy’s wanting to play with you all happy and the next minuteshe’s ‘GRRR’, screaming at you, running you up the hall and throwing you in yourroom, know what I mean, and shut the door, ‘STAY THERE’...(Mother, quoted in Barnard 2007, p.77)Very young children find it difficult to express fears and anxieties in words andmay display aberrant behaviours such as rocking, disturbed sleep patterns and bedwetting.Identity and social presentationExpected developmentA sense of identity starts around the age of 1 year and is demonstrated by children’sability to recognise their own reflection in a mirror and to respond to their ownname. By the age of 2 years children are able to give their full name and gender, andidentify their own image in a photograph.