Do you have a youngster between the age range of 0 and four years? Are you currently dealing with parenting arrangements for your boy or girl? Just about one of the most challenging jobs legislative practitioners undertake on frequent basis is drafting, proposing and filing parenting orders for children within the 0-4 year age group where parents have separated. In addition, nothing we know of evokes more anguish and controversy than mothers and fathers attempting to work through what is the best parental agreement for kids of this age group, especially when one parent insists on overnight time and the opposite (typically primary carer) doesn't agree.

It really is divorce lawyers professional accountability to grasp the social science literature and direct and aid people with regards to what exactly is in the best interest of children of this age group. Divorce lawyers additionally emphasise that the social science teaching doesn't swap facts based outcomes for what is in the best interests of the specific infant.

What does social science tell us?

1. That the time frame from birth to about 4 years of age is when bonds are developed which is a large growth point in time both neurologically and behaviourally for the toddler

2. Well balanced ties are essential to a child's functioning and future prospects

3. From the ages of 0 to nine months infants form preferential attachment to care givers and by around the time of between 5 - 9 months, a child's bonds have formed and thereafter stranger caution and separation fear begins

4. Children aged 0-4 are particularly vulnerable to variations and disorders in the development of their bond to a main care giver

5. Repeated tension in this age group can bring about anxiety and depression in later life; it may decrease a child's anxiety tolerance so that they will be easily distressed. Little ones might encounter nightmares, excessive dependence, repeated and inconsolable tears, lack of appetite, regressive behaviours

6. A toddler may have more than one attachment individual, but this is going to be a small number and such attachments will be prioritised by the infant.

7. Attachment is basically a biological drive, linked to the survival of our kind and it is even more crucial compared to hunger and thirst.

8. Sometime around three or four age group or possibly a bit older, young kids become less troubled if removed from main attachments figures

9. Children up to about the age of four years cannot regulate their personal emotions without using the aid of an attachment person

10. Children have a very special vulnerability about night time.

Parenting arrangements for zero to four year old age group are quite challenging to say the least and a guarded and sensitive attitude has to be taken. Mums and dads should query their motivation for asking for overnight time or an equal time arrangement with young children of this age group. Lastly, it is recommended to be conscious that arrangements which are produced when the youngster is between 0-4 years of age, will not inevitably be constant and as the child matures and develops, modifications to parental agreements will be impossible to avoid.