Affection, interaction and movement: keys to development

Let's look at how physical and affective interactions influence infant development.

The womb is the first environment of the fetus, and in that environment interactions begin to modulate between the fetus and the mother, and between the mother and her affective family system.

The first affective connections take place before birth in the shared states of mother and baby-to-be and the mother's environment that reaches the fetus through her.

The adaptation of the environment from the affective relationship

In addition to this emotional current to which it is exposed, the fetus also receives physical stimuli from its immediate environment, the uterine walls and the amniotic fluid. The development of the fetus takes place in a liquid environment, the maternal uterus. In the uterus, the fetus it will begin to receive its first stimuli such as vestibular stimuli, through the swaying of the placenta; tactile stimuli, with the rubbing of the walls of the uterus; auditory stimuli (both filtered sounds from the outside and the internal sounds of the mother's body).

Thus, the fetus will begin to respond to this first stimulation; by means of movement, it will change position before definitively placing itself in the birth canal, it will push and press against the mother's womb, it will suck its little fingers, it will respond to the tastes of the food that reaches it through the umbilical cord, and its response will be fundamentally with movements, incipient movements and with little control, governed and encouraged by the primitive reflexes that help it adapt to its environment.

Later, the moment of delivery will come, and the primitive reflexes will allow and facilitate the baby's exit from the uterus, producing the first contact with the outside world, an aerial environment governed by gravity to which it will have to adapt.

And it will be the incipient, primitive movements, which will favor the adaptation to the new environment in which the baby is going to develop. The driving force for becoming interested in the environment is the affection, the affective relationship, the affective dance that takes place between the baby and the mother or father..

In this dance the face to face interaction is crucial, in these interactions the baby first and later the child learns to calm down, to know himself and to know the other.

The correct neurological development of the baby

After birth, a baby has millions of neurons present and waiting to connect with each other. Neural connections will be produced through physical and affective stimulation and the response to that stimulation is what we call learning. In every minute of a newborn's life, more than four million neural connections are generated..

These connections are produced thanks to the stimulation that the baby receives through the different senses: auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, visual. This stimulation occurs when the baby is cared for, fed, cradled, nursed, smiled at, looked at, perceived... and also through the movements it spontaneously makes.

These rhythmic and stereotyped movements that it makes during its first year of life help the different areas of the brain to mature and connect with each other.. In other words, the movements we see babies make are produced according to a certain order, an innate program. Thus, the baby will raise its head, discover its little hands and feet, lift its chest, turn from face up to face down and later from face down to face up, roll over on its chest, crawl, crawl and manage to walk, and later on, it will manage to run, jump, climb stairs or walk on its own two feet.

If the baby covers each and every one of the floor stages properly and does not skip any, we will be guaranteeing that all developmental stages are covered and that adequate neurological maturity is achieved..

To the extent that we facilitate the establishment of sufficient neural connections, we promote communication and maturity of the different areas of the brain. The best way to achieve this is through adequate emotional and physical stimulation, and by encouraging movement at each stage of development.. For this it is important that the baby remains on the floor.

On the ground he will have the opportunity to explore his environment. Thus will arise the need to roll over and then move crawling, crawling and finally wandering and then running, jumping, climbing, cycling, smiling at their peers, looking at each other and struggling between children. Interacting face to face, like any mammalian puppy, indeed like all mammals. Filled with satisfaction in the interaction in the look, in the shared smile, in the free and liberated movement loaded with impulsivity that is regulated as it matures and grows.

In this convulsive moment where face-to-face interaction is limited, where facial connection is difficultwhere facial connection is difficult, where we are afraid of each other, where we limit movement, touching, and if it is done under the shadow of a mask that stifles emotion, I can only worry and wonder.... How will the development of brain organization, body organization and sociability be affected in our growing and developing children?

There is no doubt that we will have to make efforts to compensate for the reduced daily movement in the classroom, and the reduced sociability that so much stress load is generating in the whole population and especially in children.

Author: Cristina Cortés Viniegra, Psychologist, therapist specialized in attachment and trauma, Director of the Centro de Psicología de la Salud Vitaliza.