Establishing Basic Trust in Children

Establishing Basic Trust in Children

Two Psychological Legs
Just as we have two physical legs so that we can walk and move around, we also have two psychological legs that allow us to function in order to survive.
1. Trust in the world,
Trust in the world is developed during symbiosis. The world is the mother or whoever the attachment figure is. That basic trust is established through that primary bond. If the child has enough experience having to self soothe, they learn the world does not take care of his needs, I need to do it myself. If they keep crying, they believe a lot of and expression, violence, screaming is required in order for you to get what they want or need. You don’t want to frustrate children during this time. They don’t need to cry it out. You want to respond and understand, this is the point at which they learn to develop trust in the world around them.
2. Trust in Self
Trust in self begins to develop when the child starts walking. “I learned to trust the capacity of my own body.” This happens by interacting with the environment. Crawling, creeping, pulling to stand, rolling over, all the movement acquisitions give the child the belief that they can trust in the capacities of their own body. They move forward from depending on the world to satisfy my needs, I can do things as well.
Just as physical legs go through a period of maturation, so do the psychological legs. The maturation of those legs comes from walking until around age 3 (12 to 36 months). Children have such a sense of what they can do and if they are in an environment that supports that, and it’s phenomenal possibilities, they cannot, grow. They are our foundation.

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