Re: Research on Extended Crying

[Anne Brady <abrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Macall,

Look into the attachment literature and the literature on self-regulation
development in children.  From an attachment perspective, one would never
advocate leaving a child to cry.  Attachment research shows that children
who receive an immediate response to crying, cry less.  The work on
self-regulation, more directly related to sleep, says that children need to
learn how to calm themselves down.  I think that the advice that advocates
letting a child cry for hours, etc., is a bit of an extreme version of
this.  _Zero to Three_ had a recent issue on infant sleep.

Good luck,

Anne Brady

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*
Anne E. Brady, Ph.D.
Project Manager
Massachusetts Healthy Families Evaluation
Tufts University
177 College Ave.
Medford, MA  02155
(Ph)  617/ 627-5327
(Fax) 617/627-3625
e-mail: abrady@tufts.edu