The child’s development at around 9–12 months of age is particularly important for how the child will function and thrive later on.
The first important years of life
At no other time later in life does development go as fast as in a child’s first year of life. The child develops its abilities to regulate sleep and eating, and to sense, perceive, understand and explore its surroundings and gain experience in interaction with others.
The child’s behaviour and language reflect how much the child is learning, and the child’s emotional reactions reflect an increasing regulation of the impressions the child receives and its ability to deal with joy, fear, frustration and anger. The child also develops its independence. All of this is manifested in the way the child curiously explores its surroundings and when it has to eat, sleep, play or interact with others.
Recent research has shown that problems with sleeping, eating or with language or motor development are often linked. For most children, such problems are temporary, but for some the problems persist.
Today, we know that these problems and difficulties with regulating emotions, contact and attention may be signs of a mental or physical vulnerability, which risks affecting the child’s development, well-being and weight in the long term.
In our previous research, we have found that in slightly older children vulnerabilities in terms of mental development and function can be identified by community health nurses’ examinations of the child as early as at 9–10 months.
This applies to challenges with the regulation of sleep, eating and emotional responses, and with regard to language development, concentration and attention, development of communication and interaction, and the child’s development and motor skills.
Parents’ possibilities for strengthening the child’s development
The research project Infant Health is based on the latest research-based knowledge about infants’ development, what is important for this development and the great developmental potential that has been demonstrated in the period between 9 and 24 months.
Based on a proven parent-based method for strengthening the child’s development, we have developed the VIPP-PUF method, Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting – the PUF version.
The method is adapted to Danish parents and the special opportunities that exist in municipal healthcare, whereby community health nurses visit virtually all families with infants and are in dialogue with the parents about the child’s development.
As a unique element in Danish as well as international research, Infant Health explores all the most important areas of the child’s development between 9 and 24 months.
In this way, we will gain new knowledge about how children generally develop during this period and how vulnerabilities within one area affect other types of vulnerability.
The project will provide important new knowledge about how the child’s development can be strengthened through the parents and child completing a VIPP-PUF course with a community health nurse.
Read more about the VIPP-PUF method here.