Dr Jacqueline Harding-Vallance

Dr Jacqueline Harding-Vallance, MA, Cert Ed, PhD is Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University and founder of Tomorrow’s Child and TCTV. Following a successful career as BBC Education Editor, government consultant, founder of Parentchannel.tv, head teacher and author of best-selling books for children and adults, she became internationally known as a leading child development expert across Europe. 

Tomorrow’s Child works with clients from across Europe to ensure that their media proposition for children is developmentally correct, engages the young developing brain in the nest way possible and offers an active experience.

www.tomorrowschild.co.uk

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In response to “Origin” – photograph by Angelika Spranger

• Brief description: Intimate mother-baby exchange in the perinatal period. The main subject matter is water and, as water is the source of life, the artist created these images through this medium
• While there is a wealth of literature regarding the importance of parent-baby interaction (Trevarthen, 2005; Moullin, Waldfogel and Washbrook, 2014), rarely are photographic images used with such intimate focus to capture the vulnerability of the exchange. The images draw upon the baby’s affective and embodied responses ‘in the moment’ and explore the ebb and flow of the conversation as it took place in real time between mother and baby.
• Furthermore, the images provide fertile ground for an analysis of the comparative elements between the shifting leadership roles of the two parties – almost a game of hide and seek or tag. The researchers used a multimodal analysis tool for understanding the baby’s body and facial language that provided an unfolding narrative, which interprets the dynamic exchange between mother and baby.
• This emotionally compelling piece of art offers a window into understanding the reciprocal gaze of engagement in terms of fleeting ‘moments’ that deepens the understanding of the neural basis of mother-infant attachment (Strathearn, Fonagy and Montague, 2007). Attachment can be described as ‘the particular impulse for babies and young children to seek close relationships with their parents’ (Tickell, 2011, p.52). Consistent and sensitive response by the parent or caregiver to the baby’s needs builds trust and supports the formation of secure attachment. This in turn, enhances the effective development of the baby’s social and emotional competence and self esteem which enables cognition and learning to flourish.
• In his report on Early Intervention, Graham Allen (2011, p.7) noted that children’s social and emotional capabilities enable them ‘to be happily engaged with others and with society, and to learn, to develop fully, to attain and to achieve’ and ‘are less likely to adopt antisocial or violent behaviour throughout life’. A key element in the development of positive and trusting relationships between the attachment figure and the young baby is effective verbal and non-verbal communication together with attentive and respectful listening. Trevarthen (2005, p.60) suggests that from birth to the emergence of early language, the baby ‘makes expressive moves to have adventures and ideas with known companions’.