Infant sociability and its impact on adults

In parent infant psychotherapy, developmental psychology and public policy affecting the care of infants and under fives, until relatively recently the focus has been on mother infant communication and mother-infant relationships. There is now increasing interest in babies’ other relationships, both within and outside the family. Recent research indicates that babies can manage several important relationships and may be sensitive to the dynamics between other people from a very young age.
This presentation explores some of babies’ abilities and motivations in this respect by looking at:
• Examples from clinical work with young children and parents indicating the importance of the couple relationship in young children’s minds
• Evidence from infant observation and a study of mothering identity that indicates the significance to infants and small children of relationships between family members
• Developmental psychology and attachment studies on the social life of infants
• What babies do with other babies when no adults are present
A DVD of a group of four babies made during research on babies in groups (Bradley , Selby and Urwin, 2011) will be presented. Following this we will explore the impact of this material on us, as adults, for what it can tell us about babies’ emotions and sensitivity to others’ communications.