The continuum concept is an idea relating to human development proposed by anthropologist Jean Liedloff. According to Liedloff, in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings — especially babies — require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution. For infants, these include such experiences as:

• constant physical contact with the mother (or another familiar caregiver as needed) from birth
• co-sleeping in the parents' bed, in constant physical contact, until leaving of their own volition (often about two years);
• breastfeeding "on cue" — nursing in response to the child's body's signals;
• being constantly carried in arms or otherwise in contact with someone, usually the mother, and allowed to observe (or nurse, or sleep) while the carrier goes about his or her business — until the infant begins creeping, then crawling, usually at six to eight months;
• having caregivers immediately respond to body signals (squirming, crying, etc.), without judgment, displeasure, or invalidation of the child's needs, yet showing no undue concern nor making the child the constant center of attention;
• sensing (and fulfilling) elders' expectations that he or she is innately social and cooperative and has strong self-preservation instincts, and that he or she is welcome and worthy.

External links

• continuum-concept.org

Human development