12 Human babies thrive on warm, responsive, early care. Premature babies who are touched and held on a regular basis gain weight more quickly, make greater gains in head circumference and show greater overall improvement. Infants that receive early care experience fewer behavioural problems at elementary school. They also have higher emotional intelligence , that is a higher emotional self-awareness and the ability to identify their feelings. Their interaction with others tends to be positive, healthy, mutually productive and crucially, non-violent.
Emotional development begins at home in the process of attunement with the parent.
Attunement is where the parent and child are emotionally functioning in tune with each other and where the child learns from the parent that its emotional needs for love, acceptance and security are met and reciprocated. 14 Maternal depression impedes brain development 15 whilst maternal hostility and abuse at three and a half years of age predict aggression in elementary school. These emotional deficits become harder to overcome once the crucial window has passed. Interestingly, low maternal responsiveness at eighteen months did not seem to have this effect. This is consistent with the hypothesis that there are windows for emotional development and that the timing of the deprivation is important.