Need torah sources on topic of infant emotional development

amother

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 9:21 pm

I need to give a talk on the topic of baby emotional psychology. Why it's important to be responsive to an infant, hold and talk to them, how this influences what kind of people they'll become later on, etc. I have plenty of info from secular sources to support these ideas but I need some ideas from Torah sources. Stories, anecdotes, halachos, etc. Thanks so much!

southernbubby

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 9:34 pm

Chana, the mother of Shmuel, refrained from the pilgrimage to Yerushalyim until he was weaned in order to not short change his breast feeding.
Yosef gave his brothers more food for their small children because little kids crumble food and waste it.
Moshe Rabbeinu told the shvatim who wanted to settle on the other side of the Jordan that their children were more important than their cows.

amother

Slategray

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 9:36 pm

R matisyahu Solomon in his parenting book says that children learn to trust Hashem from their interactions with parents. For those reason you don’t let a child cry - to build trust in Hashem.

trixx

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 11:12 pm

how about, it's just the healthy thing to do?? Throw in any seminary quote here. We are raising hashems princes. Women are rachamanim. Chochmas nashim. Blah blah. You don't need a rabbinic stamp if there's common sense... maybe the torah assumes women will be emotionally healthy and doesn't feel the need to specify, "be a loving mother and follow the latest science not outdated ineffective stuff"?!

octopus

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 11:25 pm

Well a lot of excellent chinuch ideas are in the haggada which makes sense because leil haseder is really THE night of chinuch. With an "aino yodeah lishol" the hagadda says "at p'sach lo." Which is really vygotsky's idea in early childhood learning of scaffolding and zone of proximal development!!!

amother

Natural

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 12:41 am

In pirkei avos, I forgot which Tanna it was but his Torah learning and gadlus was credited to his mother who would bring him to the Beis Midrash as a baby and he grew up to the sounds of Torah. Everything that a child sees or hears becomes a part of them.

sneakermom

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 12:55 am

True bitachon is described as the feeling an infant has nursing from the mother. Complete security. I think it’s described like that in tehillim. Not sure of the source though.

I think it’s so sad that basic human connection that was taken for granted in biblical times is so foreign to us that we need it backed up by Torah sources.

Do you need it to be backed up by Torah sources that fire is hot and ice is cold? Then you shouldn’t need Torah sources to explain that a young helpless infant needs love and nurturing until it’s strong enough to be more on its own.

amother

Tangerine

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 1:22 am

Rabbi Lawrence (lieb) Kelemen from Neve has a book that touches on this topic called "to Kindle a soul". I haven't read it in close to a decade, but if I recall correctly, he says that the Even Ezra (again, best of my memory could be wrong) says that humans are the only mammals born with no level of independence. Other animals can stand, walk, etc at birth. He says the reason for this is that the gestation of a human can't happen fully in the womb because a human's main job in this world is relationships. So the human baby has 40 weeks of gestation in the womb and 40 weeks out of the womb where he prepares for life through the love and relationship his caretakers have with him.

Something like that. The book is well written and well sourced.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 2:55 am

amother [ Tangerine ] wrote:

It is indeed a good book, but the analogy doesn't work. Many mammals are born blind and deaf, and some even hairless, so that they depend on their mother for warmth. Think of kittens for example, or otter pups.