Psychology of childhood exam 2

Body Growth- Trends 

• Growth ‘spurts’ are real 

• An infant or toddler can grow up to ¼ of an inch overnight 

• Infant growth are tied to sleep-periods of increased sleep are correlated with small bursts of growth

patterns of growth: Cephalocaudal development:

• the head grows before the other body parts 

patterns of growth: Proximodistal development:

• body grows from the center, out

• Internal organs -> arms and legs -> hands and feet 

• Benefits to baby of breastfeeding for infant

• Right amount of fat, suagr, water, and protein needed for the baby’s growth 

• Immunizing agent against infections 

• Easier to digest. Fewer allergies and GI symptoms 

• Reduced risk of obesity and childhood cancer 

benefits of breastfeeding for mother

• Lower rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression 

• Post menopause: lower risk for ovarian, breast cancer, and bone fractures

Breastfeeding tied to privilege: The US low SES =

decreased breastfeeding rates 

Breastfeeding in the US

• Low-income jobs often do not support parental leave and breastfeeding upon return to work 

• Formula 

• supplementation is readily available 

• Fed is best  

in developing countries low SES = 

higher breastfeeding rates

Breastfeeding in developing countries

• Educated women shun breastfeeding: associate with poverty 

• Access to formula is more limited: only available for more privivldged mothers 

• Infants are more likely to be cared for at home by low income women than in the US

Paid maternity leave for 1st year =

= very high rates of breastfeeding 

breastfeeding and maternity leave

• Access to lactation support 

• If baby is with you breastfeeding is more convenient than formula feeding, once established 

malnutrition: growth stunting 

= reduced growth rate 

• Effects 1 in 4 children globally 

• Predominantly due to food insecurity 

Marasmus:

wasting disease associated w/chornically inusfficent calories, nutrients, and protein 

Marasmus characteristics:

• Body’s fat and muscle are depleted 

• Growth stops, skin becomes wrinkly and aged looking, the abdomen shrinks, and the body takes on a hollow appearance 

• More typical in infants 

Kwashiorkor:

disease associated w/protein deficiency 

Kwashiorkor characteristics

• Lethargy wrinkled skin, and fluid retention which causes bloating of the belly 

• More typical of older infants, young children

Malnutrition associated with reduced growth and significant cognitive deficits 

• Impairments in cognitive development including language, motivation, curiosity, interaction with environment 

food insecurity 

Malnutrition is not limited to developing countries 

16% of US households classified as food insecure-lack consistent access to healthy food 

Food insecurity linked with:

• Growth stunting 

• Reduced academic achievement 

• Health and behavior problems 

growth faltering

AKA failure to thrive 

• Weight < 5th %ile for age 

• Calorie intake is insufficient to maintain growth 

• Untreated can lead to delays in cognitive, verbal, and behavioral skills 

growth faltering causes

• Medical conditions 

• Abuse and neglect 

• Food insecurity 

Sudden infant death syndrome:

unexpected death of an infant less than 1 year of age during sleep 

• Leading cause of death for infants under age of 1 

• Sids is dx when no other cause of death can be determined 

sudden death infant syndrome causes

• Biological vulnerabilities + environment 

• Sleep 

• Unsafe sleep environment 

• UK study: ⅓ of SIDS cases were infants co-sleeping with parents 

• Soft bedding 

• Sleep position 

• Stomach or side sleeping increases risk 

• Back to sleep campaign saw dramatic reductions in SIDS

critical period 

• most occur between 2 and 5 months; critical period 

vaccines

doses of inactive virus injected into the body to stimulate the production of antibodies 

vaccine characteristics

• 10 vaccines are standard for children birth-10 years 

• Vaccines prevent dangerous infectious diseases; dramatic decline in measles, mumps, whooping cough over last 60 years 

• Swinging the other direction 

• Decline in vaccination

• 2001: 99.7% of children received at least one vaccine, 2015 down to 98.3% in 2015

• Failure to vaccinate as high as 20% in some places

failure to vaccinate 

• Declining awareness of risk associated with disease 

• Myths about autism chemicals in vaccines 

• Complicated immunization schedules and lack of access 

• religious/philosophical reasons 

• Some cannot be vaccinated due to medical conditions, depends on herd immunity 

axon

Long tube-like structure that extends from the neuron and carries electrical signals to other neurons

dendrites

Branching receptors that receive chemical messages

synapses

• Gaps between neurons 

axons

• Coated with fatty bustance called myelin, which speeds the transmission of electrical impulses and neurological function 

Neurogenesis

development of new neurons Begins in embryo’s neural tube 

• Born with >100 billion neurons; most we will ever have at one time 

• Neurons die and new are formed, but never develop at prenatal rate again 

Glial cells:

another type of brain cell that:

• Provide a physical structure 

• Nourishes the brain 

• Instructs neurons to form connections 

Synaptogenesis:

dendrites grow and branch out, increasing synapses (i.e., connections) with other neurons 

Synaptogensis is concentrated in different regions at different periods in life: 3-4 months

• visual cortex 

• Slowly through childhood- prefrontal cortex- planning, higher order thinking)

Synaptogensis is concentrated in different regions at different periods in life: 1st 5 weeks

• sensorimotor and subcortal areas of brain (respiration and essential survival processes)

Loss of unused neural connections is called

• synaptic pruning 

Cerebral cortex:

the wrinkled and folded outermost layer of the brain is known as the cortex; makes up 85% of the brain 

Prefrontal cortex:

part of the brain responsible for higher thought 

lateralization

• R and l hemispheres specialize to carry out different functions

• Influenced by genes and early experiences 

• Through childhood, one becomes stronger; most adults experience left hemispheric dominance 

• Begins prenatal-babies facing left 

Experience-expectant brain development 

• The brain depends on experiencing certain basic events and stimuli at key points in time to develop normally 

• Blindfold an animal for the first several weeks after birth and they will never develop normal vision b/c those neural connections never develop 

Experience-dependent brain development 

• Growth that occurs in response to learning experiences 

• Learn to crawl in the dirt, roll a baby, play peek-a-boo

• More stimulation leads to substantial brain development 

Sleep and Brain Development 

Newborns wake every 2 hours to eat; continue night feeds through 4-5 months

Newborns sleep 16-18 hours a day 

• Promotes physical growth and development 

• Associated with increased connections among neurons 

Infants spend ½ their sleep time in REM compared to 20% in adults 

• Provides stimulation and promotes cognitive growth and brain development 

• Associated with memory formation 

Habituation 

Repeated exposure to a stimulus results in the fradual decline in the intensity, frequency, or duration of infant’s response 

What response? Physiological response, direction of attention

Dishabituation

 reaction to new stimulus 

• Indicates that infant recognizes that stimulus is different from the first 

• If they don't dishabituate, we assume they don’t perceive a difference 

Older babies habituate faster -> their processing the new info ore quickly with fewer exposures

classical conditioning

The older they get, the more quickly they become conditioned 

Neutral stimulus paired with unconditioned stimulus - mom’s PJs smell liker her

operant conditioning: reinforcement

Behavior - child acts, says “dada”

Reinforcement - desirable outcome, parents cheer 

Behavior increases - child more likely to do  the same things again, repeats word  

operant conditioning: punishment 

Behavior - child acts, bites while nursing 

Punishment - undesirable outcome, mom stops nursing 

Behavior decreases - child less likely to do the same thing again, child learns not to bite 

imitation

Mirror neuron system 

• The capacity to make associations and respond to actions of others by mirroring their actions 

Preferential looking tasks:

: experiments designed to determine whether infants prefer to look at one stimulus or another 

• Useful for determining visual acuity (sharpness of vision)

Capacity for habitation

: if the infant does not react to the new stimulus by showing dishabituation, it is assumed that the infant does not perceive the difference between the two stimuli 

vision

Fetus respons to bright light as early as 28 weeks gestation 

Infants reach adult levels of visual acuity between 6 months and 1 year of age 

• Improvement in vision due to maturation of the eye structures and the visual cortex 

Infants show preferences for:

• Female faces when their caregivers are female; no preference when caregivers are male 

• Same race faces: can distinguish between faces of frequently experienced groups more easily 

• Get better at distinguishing within group with age 

• Get worse at disengaging out-group with age -perceptual narrowing 

color vision 

• Newborns see color but cannot distinguish between them 

• Exposure to color necessary for normal development 

• Improve over first few months; fully operative by 7 months 

object exploration

• Externality effect 

• Visual tracking; fully operative by 7 months 

depth perception

ability to perceive the distance of objects from each other and from ourselves 

Newborns prefer to look at 3D vs 2D objects- therefore we know we can perceive depth at birth 

visual cliff

• 3 month old babies show changes in HR

• Crawling babies refuse to go to the deep side 

• If they both perceive the difference, why don’t they avoid it til’ they’re crawling?

• At first-b/c they know they can’t navigate it 

• Later, fear 

Brain activity in the cortex is response to auditory stimuli indicates that newborns can discriminate speech patterns 

• Infants localize sound days after birth 

• Prefer speech over non-speech sounds 

• Prefer mother’s voice 

• From birth, prefer their native language-this is early language development 

• This is why it is so important we do hearing screenings early 

hearing

Hearing is the most well-developed sense at birth 

touch

Touch, using the mouth, is a critical learning tool for infants 

Massages can reduce stress response 

Skin-to-skin contact with a caregiver has an analgesic effect 

Capacity to feel pain develops even before birth 

Medical benefits debated for circumcision

• Reduced risk of UTI, penile cancer, HIV

• HIV can be presented through behavior 

• AAP + AMA: not enough evidence to recommend routine circumcision, but enough benefit that insurance should cover it?

smell and taste

Well developed at birth 

• Hours after birth, infants show disgust response to offensive smells 

Familiar scents are reinforcing and can reduce stress responses in infants 

• Infants are calmed by their mother’s sent 

Newborns show taste preferences

• Show preference for breastfeeding, regardless of how they are typically fed

• Prefer sugar to other substances; sugar works as an anesthetic 

Experience can modify taste preferences 

• Protein based formula - prefer sour flavors at 4 years 

• Soy based formula - prefer bitter at 4 years 

Intermodal Perception 

Process of combining information from more than one sensory system is intermodal perception

Sensitivity to intermodal relations among stimuli is critical to perceptual development and learning

• Neonates can coordinate auditory and visual stimuli to recognize their mother 

• Turn their heads to sound- tells us they understand that a sound will also have a visual stimulus 

• Infants integrate touch and vision very early in life 

• When they see something they reach out to touch it 

gross motor

ability to control the large movements of the body 

dynamic systems 

Motor development reflects interaction among development domains, maturation and environment 

• Separate abilities blend to provide complex effective ways of exploring and controlling the environment 

• Social and cultural influences provide context to movements 

context

• Opportunities to practice skills are critical​

• Tummy Time​

• Iran orphanage – 1st 2 years on their backs in a crib; can’t walk​

• Cultural variations​

• African tribal cultures​

• train sitting and walking; achieve before NA counterparts​

• De-emphasize crawling; almost nonexistent​

• Clothing

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory 

50’s and 60’s-

first systematically examine children’s thinking 

Viewed infants and children as active explorers who learn by interacting with the world 

• Interaction with the environment is key to cognitive development 

Recognized that cognition and motor action are linked: cannot have one without the other 

schema

an organized understanding of a concept, idea, or way of interacting with the environment 

How do we update our schema?

through accommodation and assimilation 

accommodation

Modify schema to include new experience 

assimilation

Include a new experience in with our existing schema 

cognitive equilibrium

when our schemas clearly match the outside world 

sensorimotor stage 

0 to 2 year old: 

Characteristics: motor activity without use of symbols 

proportional stage

2 to 7 years old

Characteristics: development of language, memory, and imagination

concrete operational stage

7 to 11 years old 

Characteristics: more logical and methodical manipulation of symbols

formal operational stage 

12 year to up 

Characteristics: use of symbols to relate to abstract concepts 

Reflexes (Birth to 1 Month)

Newborns use reflexes, such as sucking, to react to stimuli 

Assimilation: suck all things 

• Nipple 

• Bottle 

• Pacifier 

• Finger 

Accommodation (about 1 month): suck some things differently 

• Suck pacifier without swallowing 

Primary circular Reactions (1 to 4 months)

Babies engage in disorganized random movements 

Cause them to accidentally discover interesting or pleasurable sensations 

Then they repeat what they did, trying to achieve the same outcome 

Example: flailing and grasping 

Grab hold of own feet

Continue same motor sequence till it happens again 

Learn to do it intentionally 

Secondary Circular Reactions (4 to 8 months)

Babies engage in repeated movements that trigger reactions in the environment 

This tells us:

• Their awareness has expanded to their environment 

• They understand their actions can impact the world outside their body 

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions 

No longer discovered by accident - 

• Represents true means-end behavior 

• Beginning of intentional behavior 

Baby purposefully coordinates 2+ secondary circular reactions to achieve a goal 

Baby discovers object permanence 

Object Permanence:

the ability to think about an object outside sensory awareness 

• Out of sight no longer = out of mind 

• This demonstrates the capacity for internal thought 

• Important for language: sound symbols stand for language 

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 to 18 months)

Toddler experiments with behavior to see results 

“Little scientist” 

• Dropping different objects 

• Rolling toys/balls

• Banging different things 

Also beginning of testing limits

Mental Representation (18 to 24 months)

Transition from sensorimotor to preoperational stage 

• Develop representational thought 

• Ability to use words and mental pictures to represent objects 

• Memory of objects, experiences 

• Can think about how to solve a problem rather than solve it through trial and error 

• Children use objects to represent other things. E.g., ‘talking’ on a hairbrush as if it were a phone 

Violation of expectation tasks:

if ifnant has expectations about how an object should move because of its physical properties, then it can mentally represent the object. Infant’s gaze can show they are looking for expected outcome 

Violation of expectation tasks: age groups

• 4 and 5 months old: watch a ball roll behind a screen -will look to where they expect it to appear 

• 6 months old: infant sees an object and then lights are turned off-infant will reach for it where they last saw it 

A-Not-B Tasks:

error occurs when infants search for an object at its old location even after it has been moved. 

• The infant learns that a ball hides one blanket. If it’s moved to other blanket in front of him, will still look under blanket for the ball

• Evidence that infant actually correctly looks to blanket despite reaching under , been suggested that the error is due to inability to suppress impulse

Deferred Imitation: tasks:

deferred imitation is the ability to repeat an act performed some time ago

• Piaget thought infants could not do this before 18 months b/cthey lacked mental representation 

• Evidence against: 6 wks old infant watch an unfamiliar adult’s facial expressions and then mimic when they see them again the next day

• Deferred imitation requires stored representations of actions 

• Imitation improves with age-gradual, not stage based like Piaget thought 

core knowledge theory 

Infants are born with core domains of thought that promote early rapid learning and adaptation; for example, newborns understand 

1. Objects do not disappear out of existence 

2. Objects cannot pass through other objects 

3. Objects will fall when you drop them 

4. Liquids are nonsolids 

5. Differences in large and small quantities of things 

Belief is that babies are statistical learners who quickly identify patterns in the world around them 

information processing theory

Cognition is a set of interrelated components that permit people to process information 

• Notice 

• Take in 

• Manipulate 

• Store 

• Retrieve 

Infants are born ready to learn because they have information processors 

attention: infants

• show more attentiveness to dynamic and complex stimuli.

sensory memory 

first step in getting information to the mind. 

◦ Visual information lasts 1/4th a second

◦ Auditory information lasts 4 seconds

working memory

holds and processes information that is being ‘worked on’

◦ Has a limited capacity

◦ Responsible for:

◦ manipulating information (consider, comprehend)

◦ encoding (transforming into a memory) 

◦ Recalling from long term

infant’s thinking: categorization

Grouping different stimuli into a common class.

◦ Studied using habituation and sequential touching tasks. 

◦ E.g. infants looking at fruit; presented with a new fruit and a cat. Which do they habituate to faster?

◦ E.g. infants presented w/four trucks and four animals. Sequentially touch within category more than expected by 

chance

◦ Ability to organize becomes more sophisticated w/age (all vehicles; all cars; all red cars)

Bayley Scales of Infant Development III (1-42 mos)

Motor Scale – gross, fine motor

◦ Cognitive Scale – attending to stimulus, search for hidden toy

◦ Language Scale – comprehension and production of language; following directions, naming objects

◦ Social-Emotional Scale – parent report on behavior

◦ Adaptive Behavior Scale – parent report on skills in day-to-day tasks

Challenges

◦ Scores vary from one session to another

◦ Highly dependent on infant arousal and motivation

◦ Don’t predict intelligence scores on adult measures

Primarily used as a screening tool

If they at are above age-level, then 

◦ If they don’t do well, we just know we need to re-evaluate. Doesn’t mean they are behind, but it might