Twelve to Eighteen Months

1. Twelve to Eighteen Months Fogel Chapter 9 Created by Ilse DeKoeyer-Laros, Ph.D.

2. Overview Chapter 9 • Physical and Motor Development • Cognitive Development • Emotional Development • Social and Language Development • Family and Society • Applications: Poverty & Risk Experiential Exercises Co-regulating with Baby

3. Physical and Motor DevelopmentWalking Around 16 months of age on average, infants • walk more smoothly • begin to stand on one foot with help • begin to walk up and down stairs with help • take steps that are longer, narrower, straighter, and more consistent See a 15-month-old go down the stairs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0CaFQPBako Picture from: www.juniormagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=5

4. Physical and Motor DevelopmentWalking Infants perceive how different types of surface affect their locomotor actions • They prefer to walk on surfaces that are matte (rather than shiny) and rigid • if the matte surface looked like it was moving in waves (on a water bed), infants shifted to crawling • 14-month-olds regulated their locomotor behavior depending upon the steepness of a slope (research by Karen Adolph and colleagues) Picture from: www.psych.nyu.edu/adolph

5. Physical and Motor DevelopmentHand Movements 1-year-olds begin to discover what properties of the environment are best suited to support their motor actions • matching of motor action with the type of surface is essential for operating safely and successfully • in one study, infants did more mouthing and held objects with both hands at a foam table, but used each hand differently and used the table to explore the objects at a hard table • adapting their skills to the properties of objects and surfaces, infants become more able to use objects as means toward goals

6. Physical and Motor DevelopmentHand Movements Deliberate tool usage begins around 12 months – for instance, spoon usage • Stage1 – infants take the spoon in and out of their mouths or in and out of their dishes, but these two repetitive cycles are not connected • Stage 2 – the outlines of the complete action sequence emerge but babies don’t pay attention to how much food gets onto the spoon • Stage 3 – the action sequence of moving the spoon from the dish to the mouth incorporates the function of moving the food YouTube clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEsII2ZX6N4 Picture from: www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2007/05.html

7. Cognitive Development • Piaget’s Stage V (12 - 18 months) is called tertiary circular reactions • the beginnings of active experimentation & the search for novelty • Infants become able to adapt to new situations • by using tried and true methods • by trial-and-error, attempting new combinations of action schemes until they find the one that will solve the problem

8. Cognitive Development Infants of this age seem to have multiple goals • they examine the techniques available to determine which are best suited to the particular goal at hand For example, • a distant object can be retrieved by pulling the blanket on which the object sits • trying to figure out which objects best fit into particular containers • following the path of an object and find its hiding place, even after a long series of moves or after a 24-hour delay Picture from: www.ape2zebra.ca/toddler-toys-canada.asp

9. 12- to 18-month-olds are able to model acts that are completely different from those seen before they will try to imitate complicated actions just for fun – without understanding the reason for those actions Cognitive DevelopmentImitation • these are the origins of role play and dramatic play • infants can also infer intentions from modeled actions & display the same intentions in their imitations Picture from: http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o294/momtohanna/?action=view&current=babyclothdiaper.jpg

10. Cognitive DevelopmentImitation In one study, 14-to-18-month-olds watched adults operate simple tools • sometimes the adult said “There!” (intentional action) after pressing the level and other times “Whoops!” (accidental action) • infants were twice as likely to imitate if the action was intentional: they are not simply reproducing a mechanical action but acting for a purpose Baby “talking” on the phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_su9rNKrA Picture from: pediatrics.about.com/.../Pretend-Play.htm

11. Cognitive DevelopmentMemory • Infants can recall events for long periods of time • when they are tested using familiar objects & events • when they are allowed multiple exposures • when they can enact the sequence in action rather than in words • when there are reminders • This period is a transitional period for memory • in the next period, infants develop verbal-conceptual memories

12. Cognitive DevelopmentCategorization Infants develop more advanced categorization skills during this period • by 15 months, infants can correctly form higher-order categories for familiar objects • e.g., they can classify animals together, but they will not include cars with the animals Picture from: www.juniormagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=5

13. Emotional Development • After 12 months, they still seek help from adults in regulating their emotions, but also will attempt to control their own emotions • Infants gain a new sense of self-awareness & control over emotional expressions

14. Emotional DevelopmentPositive Emotions Between 12 – 18 months, infants • show elation – remaining happy over a long period without the continuation of the stimulating event • are active in producing & maintaining happy situations • e.g., making funny faces • show delight in their own achievements, and become aware of their own abilities to act on the environment, to create new means, and to experiment • an indication of an expanding sense of a subjective self Picture from: www.wholisticresearch.com/shop/home/m/Shop/c/61/

15. Emotional DevelopmentPositive Emotions • Babies continue to show affection • more from a distance, such as a smile and a wave • In one study, after a brief separation • 11-month-olds sought physical contact with their mothers immediately • 14-month-olds were more likely to use some form of signaling from a distance: crying, whining, or raising their arms as if to ask to be picked up • by 19 months, the babies were content merely to look at their mothers before resuming their play

16. Emotional DevelopmentNegative Emotions • After 12 months, infants fight back tears and use other self-comforting behaviors (e.g., lip biting) • babies who successfully fight back tears during separation almost certainly will burst into tears upon the mother’s return • Parents are more willing to expose infants to potentially stressful events • they are less likely to intervene when the infant has an everyday problem (e.g., a nonserious fall) • they are more likely to leave the infant with a babysitter or in child care and they are more likely to take trips without the infant Picture from: flickr.com/photos/tmedina/2222862398

17. Emotional DevelopmentNegative Emotions • Separations • 2- or 3-day separation: relatively few problems • longer separations: more severe disturbances in routines and less positive engagement (while the mother is away and several weeks after) • Individual differences in coping ability • infants who are temperamentally inhibited & have insecure attachments are more likely to show distress at even minor stresses • infants with more difficult and withdrawn temperaments take these separations harder than others

18. Social & Language DevelopmentThe Basic Properties of Language All human languages – no matter where or how they are used (spoken, signed, or written) – share important properties that distinguish them from other kinds of communication systems

19. Social & Language DevelopmentThe Basic Properties of Language Human language has three basic properties • Semanticity – the capacity of a language to carry meaning • Productivity – the ability of a speaker to express many different meanings with a relatively small number of words (using grammar rules) • language becomes productive after 18 months, when toddlers begin to combine words • Displacement – enables speakers to describe distant or absent objects & communicate abstract notions; allows speakers to discuss past, present, and future

20. Social & Language DevelopmentThe Basic Properties of Language Language has a characteristic structure & function • syntax (grammar) is the structure of language: out of all possible combinations of word order, only a small number are meaningful • the study of a language’s social and communicative function is called pragmatics

21. Social & Language DevelopmentTheories of Language Acquisition Learning theory • Learning theorists explain language acquisition & productivity with concepts like “delayed imitation” and “generalization” of learned responses However, • Can’t explain linguistic universals of syntax (e.g., sentence structure: subject, verb, and object) • Can’t explain why language is acquired at the particular time in the infant’s life that it is

22. Social & Language DevelopmentTheories of Language Acquisition Behavior ecology theory • Noam Chomsky: infants are born with a rudimentary notion of syntactic structure – an innate universal grammar • This approach led to an attempt to write down grammatical rules for infant speech • the problem is that infant speech could not be easily fitted into these simple rules: there were too many exceptions

23. Social & Language DevelopmentTheories of Language Acquisition Functional theory • Studies language development in relation to the social system in which it naturally occurs – a type of interactive systems theory • Key milestones are not individual, but achievements of the parent-infant dyad • taking turns; paying joint attention to an external object; sharing meaning of particular gestures, words, and phrases • Frames for coordinated joint attention are essential prerequisites for the emergence of language • a joint focus of attention makes it easier for infants to associate objects & events with words

24. Social & Language DevelopmentCoordinated Joint Attention Research that supports the Functional Theory • Infants are more likely to acquire the correct object word if they are looking at the object • infants who are more skilled in establishing joint attention to an object acquire language at an earlier age than children who are less able to jointly attend • Infants use more words & gestures with mother than with peers or alone • adults can use a combination of pointing, showing, and words to highlight specific features of the object • the more mothers do this, the more advanced the child’s language skills

25. Social & Language DevelopmentCoordinated Joint Attention Research that supports the Functional Theory • Mothers who emphasized single words in their speech had children who were more likely to speak clearly and not run their words together • e.g., “That’s a dog; look at the dog” • 14-month-olds’ participation in shared book reading predicted language skills at 18 months • 15-month-olds who were better at joining in frames for joint attention were more socially competent at 30 months Early language example from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTwzvR-GMgc

26. Social & Language DevelopmentCoordinated Joint Attention • At the beginning of the 2nd year, infants begin to take the initiative in creating joint attention • They follow their mothers’ line of vision • They use pointing to direct their mothers’ interest to something they want • They imitate parent’s words more consistently • Research: • If the mother is asked not to respond to the infant’s requests, the infant will repeat the request using more exaggerated movements or will change the form of the request (e.g., by replacing a gesture with a word)

27. Social & Language DevelopmentCoordinated Joint Attention • After 12 months • infants begin to use gestures in combinations to communicate more complex meanings • intersubjectivity expands: infants become more aware of the relationship between self and other • Metacommunication • communicative acts that refer to the communication in the relationship itself Picture from: www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/Dads.html

28. Social & Language DevelopmentConventional Gestures & Words After 12 months, gestures and words become more conventional – they represent an action or object using a ritualized manner of expression

29. Social & Language DevelopmentConventional Gestures & Words • Between 10-16 months, infants begin to use words to communicate intention • one manifestation of this is the onset of naming – the intentional use of a gesture or word to refer to a specific object or event • Infants learn about 1-3 words per month, first for • objects (car, shoes, teddy, cup) • social interaction (hello, no, yes, bye-bye) • simple concepts (gone, more, there) • They seem to prefer objects and events for which they already have a word

30. Social & Language DevelopmentConventional Gestures & Words • Babies can be taught conventional gestures (“sign language”) prior to having acquired the words • parents report that infants can learn the signs easily and appear to enjoy using them • Early words are used like conventional gestures • they are like the conventionally used adult word • they are used consistently in similar situations • they are not yet used as symbols http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABKAquX8s30

31. Social & Language DevelopmentConventional Gestures & Words • Overextension – using a word for instances not included in the adult’s definition • e.g., all vehicles are “cars” • reflects an active attempt to try to categorize objects • When adults use only the adult word consistently, the child soon picks up the correct name

32. Social & Language DevelopmentProduction & Comprehension • Comprehension comes before production • 13-month-olds can understand about 50 words, but infants cannot speak 50 words until about 19 months • the earliest instances of word comprehension have been found at 10 months, for objects that are salient & very familiar • By 17 months, infants acquire word meanings easily – sometimes after a single exposure • it may be from overheard conversation and not necessarily speech directed to the infant

33. Social & Language DevelopmentProduction & Comprehension • Individual differences • Some children do not have noticeable lags between comprehension & production; but others do • A small percentage may suffer from a speech or hearing disorder • Some children may be overly cautious about speaking out • Lags in production may be related to the amount of explicit naming done by caregivers • Currently, there is no complete explanation of what accounts for these individual differences

34. Social & Language DevelopmentProduction & Comprehension • Children with high linguistic comprehension show high levels of gestural production • Even though they hesitate to communicate with words, they have articulated a rich array of symbolic gestures • deaf children develop a large number of gestural signs that signify objects and actions at ages similar to when hearing children develop linguistic names

35. Social & Language DevelopmentProduction & Comprehension • The young child’s speech may be an important part of the process of concept formation • One study showed that infants pay closer attention to objects after adults label novel objects for infants • In complex ways, the acquisition of language may place the infant on a fast track toward conceptual and cognitive development

36. Social & Language DevelopmentCommunication with Peers • About 77% of peer play is parallel play, but peers increasingly respond contingently • a peer will show or give an object after a verbal request or visual regard from another infant • Interacting with adults vs. peers • joint attention occurs much less during peer play • with adults, toys can be objects of a request or an offer, or the subject of naming and labeling routines • with peers, toys are the major focus of attention & serve as vehicles for the initiation and maintenance of social interactions

37. Social & Language DevelopmentCommunication with Peers • In one study, a novel toy was introduced into play between adults and infants & between peers • in the infant-adult interaction, the infant pointed to the toy and looked at the mother, requesting the toy’s name & wanting to use it • when the same toy was introduced between two peers, they just looked at each other and laughed Picture from: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_DTkDZzT0UTo/Rynv7amW_BI/AAAAAAAAAHg/7aOH0rywIVE/2007-10-31-Halloween+044.jpg

38. Social & Language DevelopmentCommunication with Peers • When mother and a peer are both present • infants are more likely to initiate play with a peer • they are more likely to seek physical contact and show negative emotions like distress and anger with their mothers • In one study, 10- and 14-month-olds were more social and less negative to peers when their mothers were out of the room (in their co-op nursery school)

39. Social & Language DevelopmentCommunication with Peers • Friendship can be shown to exist as early as 12 months of age • Friends are more likely than nonfriends to • touch and lean on each other • initiate interactions with each other • show positive affect with each other Picture from: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_t2MXVO32jMQ/SCkO37PSc4I/AAAAAAAABZ0/CTn01TRJtrI/DSC_5419.jpg

40. Social & Language DevelopmentSelf-Awareness • Sense of a Subjective Self – between 9-12 months, infants develop a sense of being a subject who can feel and experience and who is different from other subjects. • Between 12-18 months, this sense of self is elaborated • infants exaggerate facial expressions & other social actions as if to explore their own subjectivity in relation to another person • they communicate more intentionally: they will persist when their gestures or words are not understood • they discover that they have some emotion regulation skills of their own (e.g., lip biting to control their distress) • they will look toward someone for confirmation of an achievement, but they will also smile, jump, or wave their arms to recognize the achievement for themselves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsHG8EMtID8

41. Family & SocietyInfants with Special Needs When an infant has a long-term or permanent challenge, a systems approach predicts that this infant will affect the entire family and that the family’s response to the infant will affect the infant’s own development(p. 448)

42. Family & SocietyInfants with Special Needs • Parents, siblings, and other relatives of infants with special needs • almost always experience a chronic sorrow or depression—a feeling that the child will never fit into their lives or dreams • may feel an emotional rejection of the infant that may result, in part, from a lack of knowledge about the infant’s condition • experience difficulty adapting & find most of their interpersonal relationships strained

43. Family & SocietyInfants with Special Needs • Parents may be in a state of high emotional arousal much of the time • the shame and guilt they feel at being the “cause” of the problem are coupled with the extra difficulties of caring for the child • these may include extra doctors’ visits, financial difficulties, and special difficulties, housing or equipment needs, care arrangements, clothing, and transportation • a parent may swing between the extreme attitudes of either wanting to abandon the child or trying to overprotect the child

44. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • Siblings • may have trouble with peer relationships, become restless & disobedient, display temper tantrums, or live in a state of emotional misery • part of the difficulty is that the added stress on the parents reduces the amount of parental time and emotional energy available to them • parents also worry about these potential effects on the siblings

45. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • Grandparents • the feedback a mother receives from her own mother may make her feel less supported and affect her ability to care for the baby • in one study, maternal grandmothers were less supportive of their daughters if the daughters had infants with special needs rather than typically developing infants

46. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • Effects on the parents’ marriage • Most of the research on the effect of a child with special needs on marital discord has shown that there is little or no effect • marital discord that could be directly traced to the child amounted to only 4% of the cases studied in a sample of 243 children with a rubella-related birth defect • for almost 2/3 of families, having a child with special needs brings the couple closer together • the parents collaborate more on child-rearing issues than do parents in families without an infant with special needs

47. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • Effects on family interaction patterns • changes in family routines, lack of vacations and other out-of-home visits, a limited social life, and parents’ neglect of other children • these problems only occurred in about 25% of a sample of 243 children with a rubella-related defect • some of these families had experienced similar disruptions even before the infants’ births • the more serious disabilities requiring more care and adaptive equipment result in the biggest impacts on parental and family life

48. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • a realistic assessment of the child’s abilities and limitations • continued feelings of sadness – but about the child rather than about the effect on the parents • a recovery of parents’ self-esteem • Resolution of these challenges usually means • Most (75%) parents report the growth of feelings of love, joy and acceptance over time Picture from http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2194924/Ehowbabyexample-main_Full.jpg

49. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • The parent-child interaction • The amount of disruption of the parent-infant interaction depends on the severity of the disability • The mildest effects are seen in premature infants, many of whom would not be classified as disabled • mothers are often overindulgent and overstimulating in the first year • premature infants who were delayed in smiling were smiled at less by their mothers • many of these differences disappear after the first year Picture from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2077124126_a30f4ef276.jpg

50. Family & Society Infants with Special Needs • Prematurity • by age 3 years, differences between preterm and full-term groups are typically absent • more subtle effects may persist until early and middle childhood (e.g., in emotional maturity, language skills, perceptual-motor functioning) • In preterm groups, as for full terms, individual differences are best predicted by • security of attachment at 1 year • the severity of birth complications independent of prematurity • the infant’s history of illness during the first years of life