TMA2
Children’s relationships within the family
One of the most important stages in a child’s development is their socialisation within a particular group. For most children, the family and their relationship within is initially responsible for this. The family relationships are very important and give meaning to their lives, as the attachment relationships play vital role to their survival and well-being.

Attachments are emotional bond between a young child and most involved people with them. They can be considered as primary, which is that one that child established with those who gives them main care and have a key parenting role. And secondary attachment is the one that child formed with individuals who are closely connected with, such as siblings, aunts, uncles, or key persons, like member staff of their playschool or nursery environment. If the care which a baby receives is reliable, consistent and appropriate to their needs, this impacts on how secure they feel in their attachments as they are more likely to feel secure if they have established a strong relationship with their caregiver. On other side, child can feel very insecure if the relationship with the care giving person is inconsistent and unpredictable, and this has a negative impact on forming of a bond. The child psychologists in Western Europe and the USA have been used the ‘strange situation’ test (The Open University, 2016, p.72), in which the parent and child had been put into an uncluttered room with chairs and toys. In a short while a stranger comes into the room and talks with the parent, and then remain with the child directly, as the parent leave the room. The parent comes back in short while, comforts the child and leaves again, with the stranger leaving shortly after the parent and leaving the child alone. Then the stranger returns alone and again engages with the child and the parent finally comes back in the room and stays with their child. Researchers noted the child’s reactions, throughout the comings and goings of the parent and the stranger, and they could assess the quality of the attachment between parent and child, as if the child is quickly comforted on the return of the parent this showed evidence of secure attachment, whereas if the child continuing to cry or ignore the parent would suggested an insecure attachment bond.
The primary source of children socialisation in early childhood is the family, but moving into school they establish relationships that serve as a secondary socialisation. Play with other children provide opportunities for mentally preparing, or so called “rehearsing” (The Open University, 2016, p. 9), for the future life of adults and relationships. From around 2 years old, children will play alongside with each other with minimal interactions, just watching what the other child doing. At that age they can be selfish, and find it difficult to see the world from someone else viewpoint. Around the age of three or four children begin to understand that may be the other people think differently to them. The psychologists named this process “theory of mind” (The Open University, 2016, p.11) or “rather of other minds” (The Open University, 2016, p.11), through which kids become more aware of another’s people perspective or “what they could be thinking in relation to a situation” (The Open University, 2016, p.10). Children at that age begin to play with each other in what is called “cooperative play” (The Open University, 2016, p.9,10), which includes a lot of interactions and negotiation. That increasing exposure to other children, alongside with the developing of their own cognitive abilities, stimulate the ability to take into account the perspective of another child so to understand the motives, intentions and emotions of others, and contributed to the development of social skills. Playing “let’s pretend” (The Open University, 2016, p.11) games with other child encourage variety of competencies and realising that another people may have different thoughts and feelings, gives the child ability to pretend in games and take on different roles. Younger children will play familiar scene as a ‘mummies, daddies, babies’, while older children will play hospitals, shopkeeper or pirates, showing that they have more awareness of the wider world. Jan Hughes et al. (1989) found that the children are more socially competent and popular with peers, when they are more skilled at this type role of playing.
Playing games contributes to children for their physical, social and intellectual development. By modelling adult roles, they are able to connect with adult world. Establishing strong and secure relationships with their care givers allows children to feel more secure to go out and explore the world.

References:
The Open University (2016) ‘Unit 1 Psychology: Relationships and interactions’, YO32 Block 2: Families and Relationships (pp 8-13), Milton Keynes, The Open University
The Open University (2016) ‘Unit 5 Childhood: Family and relationships’, YO32 Block 2: Families and relationships(pp72,73), Milton Keynes, The Open University
Hughes, J.N., Boodoo, G.,Alcala, J., Mggio, M.C., Moore, L. and Villapando, R.(1989) ‘Validation of role-play measure of children’s social skills’, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, vol.17, no.6, pp 633-46