The human lifecycle model provides a significant tool for understanding of both the vulnerabilities and the potentialities for development in adults, children and infants. Human development during infancy is not a uniform process. According to the World Bank, ôàcritical periods exist during the life cycle. Any significant harm that occurs during these critical periods is likely to produce particularly severe, often irreversible, and intergenerational effectsö (Children, 2005, p. 1). Viewing infancy through the framework of the lifecycle permits opportunities for interventions that can benefit older children from intervention, ones that will bring benefits to successive generations.
Rapid physical and neurological development occurs during the first months and year of life, commonly known as infancy. While research documents a host of biological, psychological, economic and cultural factors that impact development during infancy, there is also an array of literature from John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, Erik Erikson and others whose works argues for or infers that infancy is the most critical time for the development of healthy attachment relationships. Healthy attachment relationships lead to an enhanced capacity for development, whereas unhealthy attachment relationships trigger a host of developmental issues that will impact the infant even into adulthood. This analysis will review the literature on infancy and attachment relationships in order to provide an assessment of infancy as the most critical time for the development of healthy attachment relationships. A conclusion will address the significance of the findings of this research.
In An Ethological Approach to Personality Development, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (1991) argue that attachment theory is ôpersonality development based on the interaction of the child and the caregiver during infancy and early childhoodö (p. 333). BowlbyÆs attachment theory in...