Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Problem of Determinants and Mechanisms of Child Development; The Structure and Content of the Book
- 1 Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 2 The Neo-Vygotskian Elaboration of Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 3 First Year of Life: Emotional Interactions With Caregivers as the Leading Activity of Infants
- 4 Second and Third Years of Life: Object-Centered Joint Activity With Adults as the Leading Activity of Toddlers
- 5 Three- to Six-Year-Olds: Sociodramatic Play as the Leading Activity During the Period of Early Childhood
- 6 The Period of Middle Childhood: Learning at School as Children's Leading Activity
- 7 The Period of Adolescence: Interactions With Peers as the Leading Activity of Adolescents
- Conclusion The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development: Accomplishments and Shortcomings
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
3 - First Year of Life: Emotional Interactions With Caregivers as the Leading Activity of Infants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Problem of Determinants and Mechanisms of Child Development; The Structure and Content of the Book
- 1 Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 2 The Neo-Vygotskian Elaboration of Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 3 First Year of Life: Emotional Interactions With Caregivers as the Leading Activity of Infants
- 4 Second and Third Years of Life: Object-Centered Joint Activity With Adults as the Leading Activity of Toddlers
- 5 Three- to Six-Year-Olds: Sociodramatic Play as the Leading Activity During the Period of Early Childhood
- 6 The Period of Middle Childhood: Learning at School as Children's Leading Activity
- 7 The Period of Adolescence: Interactions With Peers as the Leading Activity of Adolescents
- Conclusion The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development: Accomplishments and Shortcomings
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Child psychologists working within different theoretical perspectives (except, maybe, for those working within the Piagetian framework) would agree that attachment (the establishment of infants' emotional ties to primary caregivers) is one of the important, if not the most important, neo-formations of infancy. In this respect, the neo-Vygotskian perspective is not different, for example, from Freud's (1940/1964), Erikson's (1963), and Bowlby's (1969/1982) views of the period of infancy. The neo-Vygotskians, however, have given an innovative explanation of the roots of attachment, the mechanism of its development, and the role of attachment in children's further development.
The Roots of Attachment: Alternative Perspectives
Discussing the first year of life, Vygotsky (1984/1998) emphasized infants' helplessness, their inability to satisfy vital physiological needs by themselves. Indeed, in contrast to animal offspring, human babies are born with only a few reflexes serving survival purposes, which, to make it worse, are not fully developed. For example, even a basic reflex such as sucking is so imperfect in newborn babies that they must learn how to suck. Therefore,
the infant cannot himself satisfy even one vital need. The most elementary and basic vital needs of the infant can be satisfied in no other way than with the help of the adults who take care of him. Feeding and changing the infant and even turning him from side to side is done only with cooperation of adults.
(Vygotsky, 1984/1998, p. 215)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development , pp. 77 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005