chapter 6 part 2- motor, sensory, and perceptual developent

fine motor skills

involve finely tuned movements such as pinching, picking up small object, and writing

fine motor skills in infancy

• only crude shoulder and elbow movements

• early reaching (often clumsy)

• palmer grasp

palmer grasp

early grasping involves gripping with the whole hand (bring fingers in toward palm)

fine motor skills cont

• 4-5 mo reach across body

• 5-6 mo coordinate motions of both hands

• 1st yr pincer grasp

pincer grasp

use thumbs and forefingers to lift and explore objects

fine motor skills cont again

• 6 mo eat finger foods (good hand eye coord)

• 1st year introduction of spoon

• preschool - more skill dressing/feeding (good with zippers and buttons)

• 1st grade - tying shoes

• the more complex the movement, more time needed

handedness

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

• hereditary and early experience influence handedness

• identical twins share same

• role of culture

• brain development of left-handedness may give creativity advantage

visual preference method

present the infant with two stimuli at the same time

• then measure the length of time the infant spends looking at each

• a preference indicates the infant can discriminate between the two

visual acuity

the smallest pattern that can be distinguished dependably

visual acuity cont

• infants look at the stiped image next to gray (most look longer at striped)

• tester adjusts the striped and when the infant looks at both images for an equal amt of time this means that no distinction can be made and gives us and estimate of acuity

• vision is 20 / 240 at birth

• improves rapidy; 1st yr = adult like

face perception and pattern perception

• early preferences for face like figures (gaze longer)

• color vision (newborns and young babies can perceive few colors, by 4 mo color perception is like adults)

depth perception experiment

visual cliff (gibson and walk)

• place babies in center (one side looks safe, other is a cliff)

• infants start to fully perceive depth after a period of crawling (7 mo)

• wont cross to other side

• young infant non crawlers had a slower heart rate if lowered to deep side but no fear

hearing

• fetus can hear at 7-8 months after conception

• fetal heart rate increased when hearing a recording of their mother vs father or stranger

• infants hearing is pretty good

hearing impairment

estimated that 2 to 3 in every 1000 infants is born deaf or hearing impaired

• early detection is important so language develops normally

signs of hearing impairment

• not responding to loud noises

• repeated ear infections

• doesnt turn head in direction of sounds by 4-5 mo

• doesnt respond to name by 8-9 mo

• doesnt imitate speech sounds and simple words by 12 mo

Treatments: hearing aids, cochlear implants, introduce sign languahe

smell in newborns

• newborns can smell, taste and feel

• smell = respond positively to good smells and familiar odors

• turn head toward pad preferred scent

taste in newborns

• taste - detect differences (salty, bitter, sweet, sour)

• sensitivity to taste is actually present before birth

• infants like sweetness! (smile, suck more), sour taste - grimace

• sensitive to changes in breast milk, if mom eats something sweet the baby will nurse longer

• research suggests our food preferences may be tied to what were exposed to in infancy and prenatally

newborns are..

• sensitive to touch

• sensitive to warm, cold and pain

• pain- pain cry, agitation, grimace, elevated heart rate

• touch stimulation and preemies - (gain more weight, more relaxed, better sleep patterns)

intermodal perception

integrating information from 2 or more sensory modalities

• young infants can coordinate visual-auditory info

  • longer looking times if an objects motion matches its sound

  • can link their body movements to their perception of musics rhythm