The 2nd house/Taurus, six months old until eighteen months old, physical-sensory reality, the physical world, the senses, to crawl and walk, attitudes towards the body, security, finances and property.
The senses are the essential link between the inner and outer worlds. Only through the senses do we transcend isolation and make connections to a larger sphere. Sensate experience is simultaneously physical, emotional and spiritual.
Anoeda Judith, Eastern Body Western Mind.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
The beginning of this stage is usually marked by starting to wean the child off breast milk, or formula, and to introduce solid food into his diet, exposing him to him to new tastes and textures in the process. This is vital to the childs healthy physical development as his body now requires a wider range of nutrients; especially iron.
Between six and nine months old the child begins to roll from his back to his front and to gesture with his arms to be picked up or carried. He can reach for a toy, and is soon putting it in his mouth, or passing it from hand to hand.
Between nine and twelve months of age he can sit unassisted and is likekely to be mobile i.e. bottom shuffling, rolling or crawling.
Sometime between one year and fifteen months he begins to stand unassisted for short periods of time. He may also cruise holding onto furniture, or walk without support.
By eighteen months there is a good chance he will be able to crawl upstairs and may be walking with hesitation. He begins to grasp crayons (palmar grip) and makes precise movements with his thumb and indexfinger to pick up crumbs or small objects (pincer grasp).
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
By six months of age, the amount of crying tends to tail off as the child increasingly uses his voice to attract attention.
Between six and nine months old he enjoys bathtime and recognises familiar routines such as bedtime.
Sometime between nine and twelve months he begins to string syllables together creating tuneful babbling e.g. dadada, he also understands some simple words such a bye-bye and no
Between the age of one year and fifteen months of age the child’s first words appear alongside his babbling. He understands simple instructions and understands his name.
By eighteen months old he communicates by vocalising and pointing, may possess a vocabulary of up to six words and responds to simple instructions.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Erickson’s second stage is early childhood, the psychological crisis of which is, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, and extends from approximately two until four years old. Which the child works throughin in his relationship with his parents, and if mastered results in him acquiring ‘Will’. Erikson, also identifies this stage of psychosocial development with a ‘sense of self’.
Anoeda Judith in her book, Eastern Body Western Mind, identifies the crisis of early childhood as separation vs attachment, leaving basic trust vs. mistrust to infancy. Acknowledging the childs growing physical independence and awareness of, self and other, good and bad, pleasure and pain, closeness and distance. About which she has this to say:
In this stage, these distinctions are felt rather than understood. At this point, the child is all need, sensation and desire.Needs want to be satisfied. Sensation gives Way to desire. Needs and desire mark the motivation for locomotion, seeing something, moving toward itand incorporating it (most often through the mouth). As language is not yet developed, the prime means of communication is through emotion, which hopefully is responded to in a caring and meaningful way. This stage focuses on the formation of an emotional body which is mainly interested in self-gratification.
References:
Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and society.
Anoeda Judith, Eastern Body Western Mind.
A.T. Mann, Astrology and the Art of Healing.
Penny Tassoni, Children’s Play, Learning and Development.