infancy physical and cognitive development

when does the visual cortex mature in babies

1 year

what is a newborns vision

20/400

when does binocular vision (eyes work together as a team) occur

2-4 months

discriminate colors by

4-8 weeks

Preferential looking paradigm

look away once they are bored (habituation)

newborns have a preference for looking at

mom, attractive people, when they have direct eye contact

when can babies first hear

in utero (last trimester) after birth are quickly able to ecolocate

can even recognize stories read to them in utero

newborns are most sensitive to

high-pitched sounds like parentese (real words) and infant-directed speech (baby talk)

at 6 days smell

prefer moms breastpad vs clean one

what buds are more plentiful at birth

sweet

where do newborns learn taste

through amniotic fluid and breast milk

how could researchers tell after 2 hours of age that newborns could taste

had different facial expressions for sweet, sour, and bitter

the relationship between babies and touch

like being tightly swaddled (pressure)

can newborns feel pain

maybe

crying is not a good indicator

evidence that babies can feel pain is

brain scans

gross motor

• large muscle activities

  • Ex: moving arms, walking, crawling

fine motor

Finely tuned or small body movements

• Ex: grasping a toy, using a spoon, buttoning a shirt

Two types of grasp

Palmer and Pincer

palmer

is where object is gripped with the whole hand

pincer

is where object is griped with thumb and forefinger

motor abilities in first year (8)

• Lift head

• Roll over

• Sit up alone

• Crawl

• Pull up

• Cruise

• Stand

• Walk

jean piaget had what theory

cognitive developmental theory

cognitive developmental theory

from infancy to adolescence, children progress through four qualitatively different stages of intellectual growth

schema

• organized understanding

  • Everything in our memory has it

Equilibrium

comfortable with our understanding and can take in (assimilate) new information

assimilation

fitting environmental input into our existing mental capacities

ss (schema stays)

disequilibrium

uncomfortable with our understanding and have to accommodate new info

accomodation

enlarging our mental capacities to fit input from the wider world

create new schema or adjust an existing one

cc = concept changes

4 stages of piaget cognitive developmental theory

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

sensorimotor stage lasts from

birth to 2 years

sensorimotor is best described as

making sense of physical reality

substages of sensorimotor

simple reflexes, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, and coordination of secondary circular reactions, tertiary circular reactions, internalization of schemes

simple reflexes

• Birth-1 month

• Examples: sucking, rooting, grasping

primary circular reactions

• 1-4 months

• Habits centering around BABYS BODY

• Happens by chance

• Ex: Sucking thumb, kicking legs

secondary circular reactions

• 4 months-8 months

• Habits center on ENVIRONMENT 

• Repeat because of consequence; make interesting sights last

• Examples: grab toys, hit mobile, shake rattle

coordination of secondary circular reactions

• 8 months-1 year

• Coordinate vision and touch (hand-eye coordination)

• Intentional actions (work to achieve goal); initiate & anticipate

• Example: uses a stick (tool) to bring a desired toy within reach; fuss or point to get what they want

what develops in coordination of secondary circular reactions

object permanence

object permanence

the cognitive understanding that objects and people continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched

tertiary circular reactions

• 12-18 months

• Interested in the properties of objects and what they can do with them

• EXPERIMENTING

  • Trial & error 

• Examples: dropping, spinning, or sliding an object

internalization of schemas

• 18-24 months

• Use of primitive symbols to form enduring mental representations (imagination)

• Think about consequences

• Examples: infant observes another child throw tantrum, remembers it and throws one next day

when does deferred imitation occur

internalization of schemes age 18-24 mo

deferred imitation

observer watches someone perform an action, retains a mental representation of it, and reproduces that behavior later after a delay

social cognition

Any skill related to understanding feelings and negotiating interpersonal reactions

When can we start making inferences about other people’s goals and feelings?

5 mo

newborn language development

reflexive—>cries, facial expressions

2 months language development

cooing, fussing, crying, laughing

3-6 mo lang development

new sounds—>squeals, growls, trills, vowel sounds

6-10 mo lang develop

babbling (dada, lalala)

10-12 lang develop

understand simple words; speechlike intonations (those who know infant well can understand meaning from these sounds)

12 mo lang develop

first spoken words

18 mo lang develop

huge growth—>3 or more words learned per day (some do not speak yet)

24 mo lang develop

2 word and multiword sentences

language acquisition device

• Chomsky’s term for a hypothetical brain structure that enables our species to learn and produce language.

  • Genetically programmed—>want to imitate

Social-interactionist perspective of language

We all have a desire to communicate which drives the development of language (socially motivated) 

• Learn language as a means to understand other’s intentions/communicate

• Joint attention—> promotes word learning

behaviorist perspective on language

• Language is something to be taught

  • Parents are expert teachers

  • Repetition important for learning

• Reinforce language 

  • Attention, interaction, praise, smiles, food, toy, etc

• Need to talk to infants for language to develop

  • Parents who talk more to infant—>more verbal infant

Infant directed speech

• Helps with language development

  • Babies whose parents use IDS communications tend to have babies who speak at younger ages

  • Keyto help with language development, spend a LOT of time talking to your baby!