PSY5: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - INFANCY: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes on Infancy: Physical Development.

Cephalocaudal principle

Growth occurs from the top down; sensory and motor development proceed similarly.

Proximodistal principle

Growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward.

Growth Patterns

Children grow faster during the first 3 years, especially during the first few months, than they ever will again.

Breast-feeding

It should begin immediately after birth and ideally continue for at least 1 year.

Marasmus

Caused by a severe protein-calorie deficiency and results 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; can cause swelling with water.

Central Nervous System

The brain and spinal cord.

Brain stem

Part of the brain responsible for basic bodily functions; fully developed by birth.

Cerebellum

Part of the brain that maintains balance and motor coordination; grows fastest during the 1st year.

Cerebrum

Largest part of the brain, divided into hemispheres with specialized functions.

Corpus callosum

Tough band of tissue joining the two hemispheres, allowing them to share information.

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 higher-order processes, such as goal setting, reasoning, 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.

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; newborns can and do feel it, and become more sensitive to it during their first few days.

Hearing

Develops rapidly after birth; infants as young as 2 days old can recognize a word they heard up to a day earlier.

Sight

The least developed sense at birth.

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 of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object.

Shape Constancy

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

Milestones of motor development

Achievements that develop systematically, each newly mastered ability preparing a baby to tackle the next.

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.

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