Infancy: Physical Development

Flashcards on Infancy Physical Development

Cephalocaudal principle

Growth occurs from the top down; infants learn to use the upper parts of the body before the lower parts.

Proximodistal principle

Growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward; babies learn to use the parts of their bodies closest to the center before the outermost parts.

Growth Patterns in Infancy

Children grow faster during the first 3 years than they ever will again.

Breast-feeding

Almost always best for infants, should begin immediately after birth and continue for at least 1 year.

Acceptable alternative to breast milk

An iron-fortified formula that is based on either cow's milk or soy protein and contains supplemental vitamins and minerals.

Marasmus

Caused by a severe protein-calorie deficiency, resulting in a wasting away of body tissues in the infant's first year.

Kwashiorkor

Caused by severe protein deficiency, usually appears between 1 and 3 years of age, can cause the child's abdomen and feet to swell with water.

Central Nervous System

Brains and Spinal cord

Brain stem

Responsible for basic bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and the sleep-wake cycle.

Cerebellum

Maintains balance and motor coordination.

Cerebrum

The largest part of the brain, divided into right and left hemispheres with specialized functions.

Right hemisphere

Visual and spatial functions

Left hemisphere

Language and Logical thinking

Corpus callosum

A tough band of tissue joining the two hemispheres, allowing them to share information and coordinate commands and that grows dramatically during childhood, reaching adult size by about age 10.

Occipital lobe

Primarily concerned with visual processing.

Parietal lobe

Involved with integrating sensory information from the body.

Temporal lobe

Helps us interpret smells and sounds and is involved in memory.

Frontal lobe

Involved with a variety of higher-order processes, such as goal setting, inhibition, reasoning, planning, and problem-solving.

Reflex Behavior

Automatic, involuntary, innate responses to stimulation.

Primitive Reflexes

Related to instinctive needs for survival and protection or may support the early connection to the caregiver.

Postural Reflexes

Reactions to changes in position or balance, becomes active during first 2-4 months.

Locomotor Reflexes

Resemble voluntary movements that do not appear until months after the reflexes have disappeared.

Plasticity

Modifiability, or molding, of the brain through experience.

Touch

The first sense to develop and the most mature sensory system for the first several months.

Hearing

Develops rapidly after birth, with infants recognizing words and distinguishing sounds early on.

Sight

The least developed sense at birth but improves rapidly, reaching 20/20 level by about 8 months.

Perceptual Constancy

Sensory stimulation is changing but perception of the physical world remains constant.

Size Constancy

The recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image changes as you move.

Shape Constancy

The recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation changes.

Systems of actions

Increasingly complex combinations of motor skills, which permit a wider or more precise range of movement and more control of the environment.

Denver Developmental Screening Test

Used to chart progress between ages 1 month and 6 years and to identify children who are not developing normally.

Gross motor skills

Physical skills that involve the large muscles.

Fine motor skills

Small muscles and eye-hand coordination.

Visual guidance

The use of the eyes to guide the movements of the hands or other parts of the body.

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive objects and surfaces in three dimensions, depends on several kinds of cues that affect the image of an object on the retina of the eye.

Kinetic cues

Produced by movement of the object or the observer, or both.

Haptic Perception

Involves the ability to acquire information by handling objects rather than just looking at them.

Ecological Theory of Perception

Theory developed by Eleanor and James Gibson, which describes developing motor and perceptual abilities as interdependent parts of a functional system that guides behavior in varying contexts.

Visual Cliff

Apparatus designed to give an illusion of depth and used to assess depth perception in infants.

Dynamic Systems Theory

Esther Thelen's theory, which holds that motor development is a dynamic process of active coordination of multiple systems within the infant in relation to the environment.