5.5: Emotional Stages of Development

Emotional Stages of Development

While infants and toddlers are growing socially, they are also developing their understanding of emotions. Infants and toddlers are often learning about what they are feeling as many experiences in feelings are new for them.

While these are the typcial patterns of development, infants and toddlers vary in development due to culture, environmental, and biological factors.

Infancy (0-12 Months)

0-2 Months: Early Emotional Expressions

• Basic emotions: Infants primarily express distress (through crying), contentment (through soft vocalizations and relaxed posture), and interest (through focused attention).
• Responding to comfort: They seek comfort from caregivers and can be soothed by holding, rocking, and gentle touch.
• Early social smiling: Around 6-8 weeks, they begin to smile in response to faces and voices, indicating early social engagement.

2-6 Months: Developing Awareness and Interaction

• Wider range of expressions: Infants start to show joy (through smiles and laughter), sadness (through whimpering and frowning), anger (through fussing and crying), and surprise (through wide eyes and a raised brow).
• Emotional reciprocity: They engage in "emotional mirroring," responding to and imitating the emotional expressions of their caregivers.
• Soothing themselves: Some infants begin to develop early self-soothing behaviors like sucking on fingers or a pacifier.

6-12 Months: Emergence of More Complex Emotions

• Fear of strangers (stranger anxiety): Around this time, infants can distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people and may show wariness or distress around strangers.
• Separation anxiety: As they form strong attachments, they may become upset when separated from primary caregivers.
• Increased emotional communication: They use a wider range of vocalizations, facial expressions, and gestures to communicate their feelings.
• Understanding emotional cues: They begin to recognize and respond to the emotional tone of their caregivers' voices and facial expressions.

Toddlerhood (1-3 Years)

12-18 Months: Exploring Independence and Emotions

• Temper tantrums may begin: As toddlers strive for independence but lack the language to express themselves fully, frustration can lead to tantrums.
• Developing self-awareness: They start to recognize themselves in mirrors and pictures, which is linked to the emergence of self-conscious emotions later on.
• Showing affection: They express affection towards familiar people through hugs, kisses, and cuddles.
• Imitating emotions: They mimic the emotional expressions they see in others.

18-24 Months: Growing Self-Regulation and Empathy

• Increasing self-regulation: Toddlers begin to develop some ability to manage their emotions, though this is still very limited. They might try to comfort themselves.
• Early signs of empathy: They may show concern when they see someone else is hurt or upset.
• More frequent and intense emotions: They experience a broader range of emotions, sometimes with rapid shifts.
• Using language to express emotions: They start to use words to label their feelings (e.g., "happy," "mad").

2-3 Years: Expanding Emotional Understanding and Social Interactions

• More developed self-regulation: Toddlers become better at managing their emotions, although tantrums can still occur.
• Understanding others' emotions: They improve in recognizing and responding to the feelings of others.
• Developing more complex emotions: Self-conscious emotions like shame, guilt, and pride begin to emerge, influenced by social interactions and understanding of rules.
• Engaging in pretend play: This allows them to explore different roles and emotional scenarios.
• Increased use of language for emotional expression: They can use more complex sentences to talk about how they feel and why.