{"id":204,"date":"2011-09-28T14:45:58","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T14:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/akdn\/?page_id=204"},"modified":"2025-06-13T19:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T19:10:30","slug":"bd-2-3-nurturing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/akdn\/bd-2-3-nurturing\/","title":{"rendered":"BD 2.3 Nurturing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) introduced on page 1, outlines five components of nurturing care: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, opportunities for early learning, and responsive caregiving. You will begin to explore these components on this page, as well as in subsequent modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the environments that surround children that matter. To really think about babies and how they develop, we have to think about their immediate environment, who is taking care of them, the nature of the relationship(s) and how to best support these relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the overview of this module, Dr. Stuart Shanker explained that infants are “fetuses outside the womb” for the first nine months, completely dependent on caregivers for survival. We have also learned about the interactive nature of genetics and experience in determining how development unfolds. Clearly, the caregiver-child relationship is absolutely critical to early brain development and the key to the child’s survival, health, and development.<\/p>\n\n\n

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First and foremost, the physical and social environments young children experience are created and then mediated in relationships with adults who care for them. Early caring relationships are a filter for experiences that drive the development of neural pathways involved in sensory perception, stress response patterns, self-regulation, language, and intellectual abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you learned on the first page of this module, one of the components of the NCF is good health, including the health and well-being of both children and caregivers. Close physical contact is an important aspect of nurturing and researchers have found that skin-to-skin contact is especially important. The next video, from KidCareCanada<\/span>,<\/span> is an interview with Dr. Nils Bergman, a Swedish public health physician who has studied and worked in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the Kangaroo Mother Care movement that promotes skin-to-skin contact between mothers and their newborns – identified in the NCF as an important intervention providing essential newborn health care.
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\n EXPLORE<\/span>\n View | Social and Emotional Intelligence of Infants<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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In your context, how is skin-to-skin contact between infants and mothers supported and practiced?<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The Baby Friendly Initiative of UNICEF UK advocates skin-to-skin contact as a key aspect of the initiative. Visit the following two sites to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n EXPLORE<\/span>\n UNICEF UK: Skin-to-skin contact<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n EXPLORE<\/span>\n UNICEF UK: Research on skin-to-skin contact<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n

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The Lancet Series: Advancing Early Childhood Development: From Science to Scale <\/em>emphasizes the important role of nurturing care for healthy development and supporting parents\u2019 capacity to provide nurturing care through multi-sectoral interventions. <\/del>
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Nurturing care in the early years ensures individuals and societies thrive” (The Lancet Early Child Development Series, 2016).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Responsive care<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The foundational component of the NCF is responsive caregiving, or “…the ability of the parent\/caregiver to notice, understand, and respond to their child’s signals in a timely and appropriate manner” (Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development, 2018, p. 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many factors that can influence a caregiver\u2019s capacity to provide responsive care. But what do \u201cresponsive, emotionally supportive and developmentally stimulating” interactions look like? The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child compares parent-baby interaction to the “serve and return” (or back and forth) aspect of a tennis match. This refers to the way a baby makes vocalizations and gestures that encourage adults to respond back in a similar way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next video, watch a loving interaction between a mother and her son.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n VIEW<\/span>Talking with Mother (1:27)<\/span> \n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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