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Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy. Head large relative to the rest of the body flops around uncontrollably Infant becomes capable of Rolling over Sitting Crawling standing stooping climbing usually walking.

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Chapter 3

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  1. Chapter 3 Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy

  2. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy • Head • large relative to the rest of the body • flops around uncontrollably • Infant becomes capable of • Rolling over • Sitting • Crawling • standing • stooping • climbing • usually walking

  3. The First Year • Average North American newborn -- 20 inches long; 7½ pounds • Most newborns lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight adjusting to feeding • They double their birth weight by the age of 4 months; nearly triple it by their first birthday • Infants grow about 1 inch per month during the first year

  4. From Age 1 to 2 Years • At 2 years of age, children weigh approximately 26 to 32 pounds • gaining a quarter to half a pound per month • attain about one-fifth of their adult weight • At 2 years, the average child is 32 to 35 inches tall • nearly half of their eventual adult height

  5. The Brain • Cerebral cortexcovers the forebrain like a wrinkled cap • Two halves, or hemispheres, based on ridges and valleys in the cortex • Lateralization -- specialization of function in one hemisphere or the other • Example: Spatial ability

  6. Neuron • Parts of the neuron • Axon carries signals away from the cell body • Dendrites carry signals toward it • Myelin sheath -- a layer of fat cells -- provides insulation and helps electrical signals travel faster down the axon • At the end of the axon are terminal buttons, which release chemicals called neurotransmitters into synapses • Synapses -- tiny gaps between neurons' fibers • Transient exuberance

  7. Changes in Neurons • The infant’s brain is literally waiting for experiences to determine how connections are made • Experience enhances brain development • Experience-expectant brain growth • Examples: Maturation, eating, sensory • Experience-dependent brain growth • Examples: Language, siblings, parent interaction

  8. Changes in Regions of the Brain • Both heredity and environment influence synaptic overproduction and subsequent retraction • Pruning -- unused connections are replaced by other pathways or disappear • Prefrontal cortex -- the area of the brain where higher-level thinking and self-regulation occur

  9. Sleep • Considerable individual variation in how much infants sleep • typical newborn sleeps 16 to 17 hours a day • preferred times and patterns of sleep also vary • Infants spend a greater amount of time in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep • by 3 months of age, the percentage of time in REM sleep decreases

  10. SIDS • Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) -- condition that occurs when infants stop breathing, usually during the night, and die suddenly without an apparent cause • SIDS is the highest cause of infant death in the United States • Risk of SIDS is highest at 2 to 4 months of age

  11. Risk Factors for SIDS • SIDS decreases when infants sleep on their backs • More common in low birth weight infants • Infants who are passively exposed to cigarette smoke are at higher risk • More frequent in infants who sleep in soft bedding or use a pacifier when they go to sleep

  12. Benefits of Breast Feeding • Appropriate weight gain and lowered risk of childhood obesity • Fewer allergies • Prevention or reduction of diarrhea, respiratory infections, bacterial and urinary tract infections, and otitis media • Denser bones in childhood and adulthood • Reduced childhood cancer and reduced incidence of breast cancer in mothers and their female offspring • Lower incidence of SIDS • When should a mother not breast feed ?

  13. Nutritional Needs • Nutritionists recommend that infants consume approximately 50 calories per day for each pound they weigh • This is more than twice an adult’s requirement per pound • Many U.S. parents are feeding their 4- to 24-month-old babies too few fruits and vegetables, and too much junk food

  14. Reflexes • Reflexes -- built-in reactions to stimuli – automatic, involuntary • Allow infants to respond adaptively to their environment • Examples: Rooting and sucking, Moro or startle reflex, coughing, sneezing, blinking, shivering, and yawning

  15. Gross Motor Skills • Skills that involve large-muscle activities • Sitting with support -- 2 months • Sitting upright without support -- 6 to 7 months of age • Pull themselves up and hold on to a chair -- 8 months • Stand alone – 10 to 12 months

  16. Gross Motor Development in the Second Year • Toddlers become more mobile • 13–18 months • can pull a toy attached to a string • use their hands and legs to climb up a number of steps • 18–24 months • toddlers can walk quickly or run stiffly • walk backwards without losing their balance • stand and kick a ball without falling and stand and throw a ball • jump in place

  17. Fine Motor Skills • Finely tuned movements • anything that requires finger dexterity • At birth, infants have very little control over fine motor skills • During the first two years of life, infants refine how they reach and grasp • Perceptual-motor coupling is necessary for the infant to coordinate grasping • Experience plays a role in reaching and grasping

  18. Sensory and Perceptual Development • Sensation occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors -- the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin • Example: Everything… • Perception is the interpretation of what is sensed • Example: Mommy, foods, HOT!

  19. Studying the Infant’s Perception • Visual Preference Method -- Infants look at different things for different lengths of time • Orienting response -- to determine if an infant can see or hear a stimulus • Habituation -- decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus • Examples: Pacifier, holding hands, football game? • Dishabituation -- is the recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation • Example: sleeping in the car…

  20. Visual Acuity and Color    • Newborn’s vision is estimated to be 20/600 on the well-known Snellan eye examination chart • By 6 months of age -- vision is 20/40 or better • By about the first birthday, the infant’s vision approximates that of an adult • By 8 weeks, possibly even by 4 weeks, infants can discriminate among some colors • (Banks & Salapatek, 1983; Aslin & Lathrop, 2008)

  21. Perception of Pattern and Depth • Infants prefer to look at a normal human face rather than one with scrambled features • Can babies detect attractiveness? • They prefer to look at a bull’s-eye target or black-and-white stripes rather than a plain circle • Depthperception -- visual cliff • Infants develop the ability to use binocular (two-eyed) cues to depth by about 3 to 4 months of age (Gibson & Walk, 1960)

  22. Hearing, Touch, and Pain • Prenatally at 7 months, infants can hear sounds such as mother’s voice and music • Immediately after birth, infants cannot hear soft sounds or pitch as well as adults do • Newborns respond to touch and feel pain • Infants also display amazing resiliency • Within several minutes after the circumcision surgery (which is performed without anesthesia), they can nurse and interact in a normal manner with their mothers

  23. Smell and Taste • Newborns can differentiate among odors • Example: Mom vs. Dad • Sensitivity to taste might be present even before birth • At only 2 hours of age, babies made different facial expressions when they tasted sweet, sour, and bitter solutions • At about 4 months of age, infants begin to prefer salty tastes, which as newborns they had found to be aversive (Windle, 1940; Rosenstein & Oster, 1988; Harris, Thomas, & Booth, 1990)

  24. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development • Piaget thought we build mental structures that help us to adapt to the world • Adaptation involves adjusting to new environmental demands

  25. Processes of Development • Developing brain creates schemes, which are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge • Assimilation -- children use their existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences • Examples: Banging, chewing, dropping, hot dirt, parties • Accommodation -- children adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account • Examples: no cats!, get splashed • Examples: Juice, in the hoop, “Bye, Bye” (Lamb, Bornstein, & Teti, 2002)

  26. Equilibrium and Disequilibrium • Cognitive conflict -- disequilibrium • the child is constantly faced with inconsistencies and counterexamples to existing schemes • An internal search for equilibrium creates motivation for change • the child assimilates and accommodates, develops new schemes, and organizes and reorganizes old and new schemes

  27. Sensorimotor Stage • Sensorimotor intelligence: From birth to 2 years: infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical actions

  28. Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor stage • Primary circular reactions • Stage 1: Stage of reflexes • Examples: Sucking, arms up! • Stage 2: First acquired adaptation • Examples: Bottle vs. pacifier, crying

  29. Sensorimotor Stage • Secondary circular reactions • Stage 3: Make interesting events last • Examples: Rattle on table, bouncing, Peek-a-boo, ripping paper • Stage 4: New adaptation and anticipation or “The means to the end” • Examples: The “drop game,” books, Exersaucer, feeding Mommy, size • Objectpermanence • Examples: Mommy, keys, which hand?

  30. Object Permanence • One of the infant’s most important accomplishments • Watch an infant’s reaction when an interesting object disappears. If the infant searches for the object, it is inferred that the baby knows it continues to exist • A-not-Berror is the term used to describe the tendency of infants to reach where an object was located earlier rather than where the object was last hidden

  31. Sensorimotor Stage • Tertiary circular reactions • Stage 5: New means through active experimentation • Example: Cabinet, water • Little scientist • Examples: Beans, vacuum • Stage 6: Mental representations • Example: Little cowboy…, bandaid • Deferred imitation • Examples: DVD, spanking • Make-believe play • Examples: Dolls, trucks, “Sip…” “Bite…”

  32. Learning, Remembering, and Conceptualizing • Infants can learn through operant conditioning • Examples: Reading a book, building a castle, using signs • Attention is the focusing of mental resources on select information and improves cognitive processing on many tasks • Joint attention involves individuals focusing on the same object or event and involves: • The ability to track another’s behavior • One person directing another’s attention • Reciprocal interaction

  33. Learning, Remembering, and Conceptualizing • Meltzoff (2007) concludes that infants don’t blindly imitate everything they see and often make creative errors • He argues that beginning at birth there is an interplay between learning by observing and learning by doing • Critics say the newborns simply engage in automatic responses to a stimulus

  34. Learning, Remembering, and Conceptualizing • Memory involves the retention of information over time • Some infants as young as 2 to 6 months can remember some experiences through 1½ to 2 years of age • Implicit memory refers to memory without conscious recollection • Explicit memory refers to conscious memory of facts and experiences • Infantile or childhood amnesia -- few memories before age 3

  35. Language Development • Language -- a form of communication—whether spoken, written, or signed—that is based on a system of symbols • All human languages have some common characteristics • Rules describe the way the language works • Infinite generativity -- the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules (Berko Gleason, 2009)

  36. Key Milestones in Language Development • Babies' sounds and gestures go through this sequence during the first year • Crying: can signal distress, but there are different types of cries that signal different things • Cooing: about 1 to 2 months, gurgling sounds that are made in the back of the throat and usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver • Babbling: In the middle of the first year, babies babble -- strings of consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ba, ba, ba, ba” • Gestures: Infants start using gestures, such as showing and pointing, at about 8 to 12 months of age • Example: simple signs (operant conditioning)

  37. Recognizing Language Sounds • First words occur between 10 to 15 months (average is 13 months) • Overextension -- the tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s meaning • Underextension -- the tendency to apply a word too narrowly • Examples: Duck, Shoes, Train

  38. Two-Word Utterances • Occurs by the time children are 18 to 24 months of age • “Big ball” • “Where cat?” • Telegraphic speech is the use of short, precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives • “Mommy hold you” • “No mo’ monkey jump bed…”

  39. Biological Influences • The ability to use language requires vocal apparatus as well as nervous system capabilities • Brain regions predisposed for language • Broca’s area -- an area in the left frontal lobe of the brain involved in producing words • Wernicke’s area -- a region of the brain’s left hemisphere involved in language comprehension • Aphasia -- a loss or impairment of language processing as a result of damage to brain

  40. Biological Influences • Language Acquisition Device (LAD) -- Humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way and to detect the various features and rules of language

  41. Environmental Influences • Behaviorists opposed Chomsky's LAD hypothesis • Stated that language was nothing more than chains of responses acquired through reinforcement • The behavioral view is no longer considered a viable explanation of how children acquire language • Example: Not all imitation: “I runded…” • Language is not learned in a social vacuum • Most children learn at a very early age

  42. Environmental Influences • Vocabulary development is linked to the family’s socioeconomic status and the type of talk that parents direct to the child • Compared to professional parents, parents on welfare: • Talked much less to young children • Talked less about past events • Provided less elaboration • Child-directed speech is language spoken in a higher pitch than normal, using simple words and sentences • Other strategies include recasting, expanding, labeling

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