CH5: Perceptual and Motor Development

What are sensory and perceptual processes?

The means by which we receive, select, modify, and organize stimulation from the world

How are perception and motor skills related?

Perception guides a child’s movements, helps them avoid obstacles etc.

What are motor skills?

Coordinated movements of the muscles and limbs

What is habituation?

Becoming unresponsive to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly

How do researchers assess perception in newborns?

Can present two stimuli (e.g. high vs low pitched) and then record the baby’s responses such as heart rate, facial expressions, and eye movement

How do newborns react to unpleasant smells?

Frown, grimace expression

How do newborns react to pleasant smells?

Content expression

How is a newborn’s sense of taste?

They have a highly developed taste and can differentiate between salty, sour, bitter, and sweet

What tastes do newborns prefer?

Salty and sweet, indicated by smiling, sucking, and licking

What tastes do newborns dislike?

Bitter or sour, indicated by grimace

Describe a newborn’s sense of touch

Newborns respond reflexively when touched

What are some touch responses found in newborns?

Babinski

Blink

Moro

Palmar

Rooting

Stepping

Sucking

Withdrawal

Describe babinski

A baby’s toes fan out when the sole of the foot is stroked from heel to toe

Describe blink

Baby’s eyes close in response to bright light or loud noise

Protects the eyes

Describe Moro

Baby throws its arms out and then inward in response to a loud noise or when its head falls

May help a baby cling to its mother

Describe palmar

Baby grasps an object placed in the palm of its hand

Precursor to voluntary grasping

Describe rooting

When a baby’s cheek is stroked, it turns its head toward the stroking and opens its mouth

Helps baby find where to drink breastmilk

Describe stepping

A baby who is held upright by an adult and is then moved forward begins to step rhythmically

Precursor to voluntary walking

Describe sucking

A baby sucks when an object is placed in its mouth

Permits feeding

Describe withdrawal

A baby withdraws its foot when the sole is pricked with a pin

Protects a baby from unpleasant stimulation

What is an auditory threshold?

The quietest sound a person can hear

How is a newborn’s sense of hearing?

Infants hear well, though not quite as accurately as adults

Hearing is best for sounds that have pitches in the range of human speech (not very high or low)

Early sensitivity to music

What can cause hearing issues?

Heredity or disease (meningitis)

Heredity is the leading cause of hearing impairment in newborns

What signs should be watched for to determine hearing impairment?

Infant does not respond to loud, sudden noises

Repeated ear infections

Does not respond to their name by nine months

Does not imitate speech sounds by 12 months

How is a newborn’s sense of sight?

By 7 months, they start to see cues for depth (pictorial cues)

What is visual acuity?

The smallest pattern that can be dependably distinguished

Improves rapidly from one month to one year (by age 1, see the same as adults)

How do we detect colour?

Cones in the retina of the eye detect colour by detecting the wavelength of light

By 3-4 months, an infant’s colour perception is the same as an adult’s

Describe multimedia events

Infants perceive/integrate many of the relations between sensory systems, e.g., a rattle stimulates vision, hearing, and touch

Describe amodal

Information such as duration, rate, or intensity that is not restricted to a single mode of presentation and can be presented in different sense

What is the intersensory redundancy theory?

Situation in which information is presented simultaneously to different sensory models, such as rhythm

How is cross-modal perception for babies?

Easier since brain regions devoted to sensory processing are not specialized yet

How do infants perceive objects?

Sensory stimulation such as motion, colour, texture, and aligned edges are used to perceive objects

By 4 months, infants have size, shape, brightness, and colour constancy, and many cues are used to infer depth

What is size constancy?

Realization object’s actual size remains the same despite changes in the size of its retinal image

What are kinetic cues?

Motion used to estimate depth

What is a visual cliff?

A glass-covered platform that appears to have a shallow and deep side, used to study depth perception

Young babies detect a difference but only older crawling babies are fearful of the deeper side, suggesting they can perceive depth

What is motion parallax?

Cue where the fact that nearby moving objects move across our visual field faster than those at a distance gives info about depth and distance

What is retinal display?

Cue to depth based on the fact that when a person views an object the retinal images in the left and right eyes differ

What are pictorial cues?

Cues for depth that depend on the arrangement of objects in the environment

What is textural gradient?

Texture of objects changes from coarse but distinct for nearby objects, to finer and less distinct for distant objects

What is interposition?

Nearby objects partially obscure more distant objects

What is visual expansion?

Cue that provides info about the distance of an object since an object fills a greater proportion of the retina as it moves closer

What is linear perspective?

Parallel lines come together at a single point in the distance

What is relative size?

Nearby objects look larger than distant objects

How do motor skills help perception?

Improved motor skills allow children to learn more about the properties of objects, transforming how they perceive them

How do infants perceive faces?

They like to look at faces, might help in learning facial recognition

At one month, they look more at the perimeter but by 3 months they tend to look at the features of the face (more in the centre of the face)

What is attention?

Selecting information that will be processed further, allows people to control input from the environment and regulate behaviour

How do we maintain attention?

Developing inhibitory skills, as interfering thoughts and behaviours that direct attention to other things need to be inhibited

How can we help children be more attentive?

Remind them to be attentive/stay focused

Teach strategies to be attentive

Remove distractions

Must expect that some children will revert back to the “old rules” when new ones are taught, because old rules can’t be inhibited yet

What are the 3 areas of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?

Inattention

Hyperactivity

Impulsivity

Describe inattention

Skip from one task to another

Difficulty in paying attention

Difficulty to concentrate on schoolwork

Describe hyperactivity

High energy levels

Fidgety behaviours

Unable to keep still

Describe impulsivity

Often think before acting

What issues are often seen in children with ADHD?

Conduct problems, difficulty in getting along with peers, challenges in academic performance

Does heredity influence ADHD?

It’s an important factor, greater occurrence in identical twins than non-identical

The genes involved may affect the alerting and executive networks of attention and the brain structures that support these functions

How can stimulants help ADHD?

Certain stimulants can be used to stimulate the part of the brain that normally inhibit hyperactive and impulsive behaviour, increasing attention

How can psychosocial treatment help ADHD?

Can help with new cognitive and social skills, for example learn to remind themselves to read instructions before starting an assignment

What is locomotion?

To move around in the world

What are fine motor skills?

Associated with grasping, holding, and manipulating objects

What are the motor milestones?

0: fetal posture

1: chin up

2: chest up

3: reach and miss

4: sit with support

5: sit on lap, grasp object

6-7: sit alone

7-8: stand with help, crawl

8: pull to stand by furniture

11: stand alone

12: walk alone

What is the dynamic systems theory?

Motor development involves many distinct skills that are organized and reorganized over time to meet demands of specific tasks

What is the process of coordinating skills?

Understanding each of the skills and how they are combined to allow movement in a specific situation (differentiation and integration)

What is handedness?

Toddlers prefer to use one hand and this preference becomes stronger during the preschool years

Influenced by heredity and culture

How do cultural practices influence motor skills?

They can enhance or limit opportunities for practice which can accelerate or delay early stages of motor development

Some african cultures: carried on back helps develop muscles in trunk and legs, able to walk sooner

Europe and NA cultures: sleeping on back delays crawling as babies are deprived of opportunities to propel themselves

Why is physical fitness important?

Lifelong pattern of exercise helps to reduce cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, obesity, some cancers, diabetes etc.

What is a good way to encourage physical fitness?

Participating in sports helps children be physically fit and improves cognitive and social skills, increases feelings of competency and self-esteem

Parents/coaches should emphasize skill development instead of winning/criticism, so they don’t lose interest and drop out