Reflecting on these arguments and our childhood relationships with our own parents can help us develop the skills needed to provide effective guidance and nurturance. The infant brain develops within an interpersonal context, where structural and functional networks are shaped by the nature and quality of early caregiver and infant interactions. Environmental influences in infancy are particularly the quality of the infant and caregiver relationship and emotional interactions with each other this context, has been appealed to shape neurological, psychological and social development and have potential long-term effects on psychological and emotional functioning.
Psychoanalytic developmental theory and attachment theory is initially described by Bowlby. John Bowlby noted that the close attachment relationship between responsive caregivers and infants from about 6 months to 2 years of age. The emotionally charged connection between caregiver and child ensures that the two will remain in physical proximity, especially when the child is between 8 and 18 months of age. When the infant becomes more mobile, he will rely on the caregiver less often for proximity maintenance, although he