Mary Helms

Lifespan and Human Dev.

Jarvis
09/21/2015

U2 Essay

Except for the birthing process and breast feeding, do you think that a mother's
position as a caregiver of an infant or child is biologically different from that of a father?
Why? What examples can you provide that support your answer?
Mothers have been seen as the primary caretakers of children since the
beginning of time. It may have to do with the fact that mothers can breastfeed their
young ones and there is an unmistakable bond with the mother and child beginning at
pregnancy. But where is the fathers involvement in the infants development? Society
has given us the image of a father who goes to work, brings home the bacon, and
provides what is necessary for the family to live; they maintain the familys shelter,
economic status, food and water supply. Whereas these are all essential to living
shouldnt there be something more that the father can do to help the childs biological
development? Besides what only mothers can physically provide for the child, I feel that
parents are not different to each other when it comes to effectively taking care of an
infant and being a successful parent. So what does being a good caretaker mean?
There is no clear answer but there are a few topics we can identify when looking at the
psychological development of an infant when interacting with a caregiver.
The first topic needed for a childs psychological development is Synchrony.
Synchrony is described as early child-parent interactions (Berger 141). To explain
further, it means the way parents and children interact with each other as well as the
immediate responses that come with them. This is a critical bond between parents and

infant in the first few months together for when the parent imitates the infants actions
and verbalizations, the infant can then connect his or her outside expressions with their
inner feelings and emotions. Parents practice synchrony with their children by copying
their movements and sounds while they play or eat together.
After a year or so, the infant then begins to advance to another stage in their
psychological development. This is called attachment; Attachment is a lasting emotional
bond (Berger 142), that creates a deeper connection between caregiver and child. An
example of how a child performs this stage is when they follow their parent around,
proximity seeking, and by physically touching and cuddling their parent, contact
maintaining. This is an essential skill because it teaches the child how to create
relationships with others as well as it encourages the parents to have a better
relationship with their child and partner.
Around the time a child begins to speak and walk at age 1, they begin to do
Social Referencing with their caregiver(s). Social Referencing is seeking emotional
responses or information from other people (Berger 147). How do they do that? They
look for physical and vocal cues from other people to help guide them in whatever it is
they do. This is useful for the child for they ca learn how to read social cues in real life
and they may begin to create their own as they go along. For example, when a mother
tries to show that it is time to eat she may taste the food and physically show a happy
facial expression to the child to try to get them to eat. They may even need to say things
like yummy, to provoke the child to eat.
I have some personal experience with this topic for I had a stay at home father
and a working mother from the time I was born till I entered elementary school. When

my mom had to go to work my father was left with the duty to take care of me for the
next 10-12 hours. He would cook, clean, cuddle and play with me constantly. Along with
these activities he also was able to create social bonds and help develop my
psychological development with synchrony, attachment, social referencing, and of
course playing. But he was not the only one who provided me with those skills. My
mother was also able to do those things with me quite often during her free time. They
seemed to be able to take turns with caring for me and give an equal amount of effort
and time for me and each other.
Even though it is typical for mothers (to) engage in more caregiving and
comforting, and fathers in more high intensity play (Berger 149), I feel that both my
parents were able to provide my biological needs as an infant.

References
Berger, Kathleen Stassen. "Chapter 4 The First Two Years: Psychological
Development." Invitation to the Life Span. 2nd ed. New York: Worth, 2010. Print.