IV.   Mind Development (PSYDEV)

Infancy is the 2nd Degree and Mind Age being from the time of birth to the age of two (2)

Excluding life threatening risks, the most important period and context for learning for the health and well being of an infant is to be immediately with their mother without being removed, separated or isolated.

Infants are biologically predisposed to form attachments with adults before children and other infants for healthy social development.

An infant is born already familiar and anticipating the sounds, sensations, smells and feelings of its mother and regular voices closest to the mother. Therefore, the absence of either the mother or the original regular environment during the previous five months of pregnancy immediately following the minutes and hours from birth creates severe anxiety within the new born and will result in some infantile learning difficulties if no regular surrogate is immediately established.

Infants deprived of a stable devoted adult for their care are less likely to smile, vocalize, or develop strong interpersonal social connections as adults. If the trauma is sufficiently great as an infant, a Homo Sapien may even develop extreme antisocial behavior and cognitive malfunctions as an adult.

The first three emotions acquired of all Homo Sapiens at birth are bliss (joy) demonstrated by smiling and pain (discomfort) demonstrated by crying and wailing and honesty (authenticity).

Within three to four months of birth, infants will normally extend their emotional range beyond bliss (joy), pain (discomfort) and honesty (authenticity) to include respect (curiosity), enthusiasm (concentration), cheerfulness (happiness) and contempt (disgust).

During the first few months of life, infants spend more than three quarters of the day in around four to six active sleep periods developing new neuroglia and neuron networks from information absorbed throughout the day. However, by the age of two with the cessation of nocturnal feedings and morning and afternoon naps, sleep usually becomes concentrated into one long nocturnal period of between 9 and 12 hours.

Infants have a hyper sensitivity to sound and while unable to immediately form phonemes or words, are able to distinguish subtle differences between pitch, tone, rhythm and phonetic discrimination greater than adult speakers within a few months of being borne. However, this hyper sensitivity to sound and the building blocks of language “normalizes” by the age of two with hypersensitivity reduced when phonetic, tone distinction is found to be unnecessary for normal speech.

Of infant learning of sound, continuous rather than intermittent, low tones rather than high pitched and normal speaking voice rather than artificial “baby speak” is preferred. Contrary to misinformation, “baby speak” impedes infant learning of language and can cause distress to the infant as the opposite to the kind of sounds it wishes to hear.

Excluding instinctual memories perfected prior to birth, normally associated with the mother, infant memory learning is highly dependent on familiarity and repetition.

Infants will start to mimic the necessary motor controls for producing phonemes normally within the first two to three months of being born. This is normally called the "babble" phase and does not represent any kind of undeciphered "baby language".

By the age of one, infants have usually acquired sufficient control and replication of mouth and facial motor skills to start pronouncing their first words, usually through short replicatable phonemes associated with their permanent carers and key objects or events.

The recall of memories by an infant, while dependent on familiarity and repetition, also increases in sophistication so that by the same age as the concept of fear and anger is acquired, an infant is also capable of grasping the location of objects previously observed but hidden from view by applying recent memory to present observations.

By the age of nine to eleven months, infants acquire the emotion of fear in its first form as avoidance of perceived danger, unknown objects or people and particularly spatial voids or “darkness”. This emotion is sufficiently strong that if an infant is forced to confront an avoidance they will inevitably demonstrate crying and anxiety.

By the age of nine to eleven months, infants acquire the emotion of anger in its first form as an interruption of intent and perception. This emotion is sufficiently strong that an infant will demonstrate a clear facial expression of annoyance which may quickly devolve to the more staple emotions of crying and anxiety.

The association of the first onset of the emotions of fear and anger corresponding to the acquisition of an infant to use recalled memories applied to solve present problems indicates that the root of the first learning of fear by all Homo Sapiens is associated with a disconnect between recalled memories unable to solve or resolve an unknown present problem or “void”.