PY 212: Infant/Toddler Development & Early Childhood

Average birthweight

5-10 lb

Average birth length

20 in

4 months

Doubled in weight

1 year

Tripled weight

2 years

Quadrupled in weight; average length is 35 in

Gross Motor Skills

Physical abilities involving large body movements; walking, kicking, clapping; more physical therapy-aligned

Fine Motor Skills

Physical abilities involving small body movements; holding a pencil, pointing, pinching; more occupational therapy-aligned

Infant Physical Milestones (2 Months)

Lifting head when on tummy

Infant Physical Milestones (4 Months)

Propped up on elbows on tummy, hold objects when put in hand

Infant Physical Milestones (6 Months)

Reach for toys, can roll over

Infant Physical Milestones (8 Months)

Crawling

Infant Physical Milestones (9 Months)

Sit up independently; raise arms

Infant Physical Milestones (12 Months)

Stand with assistance

Infant Physical Milestones (18 Months)

Walking independently

Rooting

Stroking the infant’s cheek causes its head to turn in direction of touch, and the infant opens their mouth for feeding

Gripping

Something placed in infant’s hand causes them to grasp firmly, almost enough to support their weight

Toe curling

Stroking the inner or outer sole of the foot causes toes to curl (inner) or spread out (outer)

Moro/Startle

Sudden noise or movement causes infant to throw head back and arms and legs out, and they cry

Galant

Stroking of the infant’s lower back, next to spinal cord causes them to curve toward the side that was stroked (poses like a fencer)

Learning to Grab progression

Palmar, Raking, Inferior Pincer, Superior Pincer

Palmar (4-6M)

The ability to intentionally grasp an object in their palm and wrap all fingers around it

Raking (6-7M)

Ability to intentionally use all fingers to “rake” an object in the palm of their hand

Inferior Pincer (9-10M)

Ability to pick up small objects between the pads of their thumb and forefinger

Superior Pincer (11-12M)

Ability to pick up small objects between tips of thumb and forefinger

Cephalocaudal

Lift head, sit up, stand

Proximodistal

Control of shoulders before control of arms and fingers

Mass-to-specific

Gross motor skills before fine motor skills

Synaptic blooming

Period of rapid neural growth during first 2 yrs; creating a lot of connections (dendrites)

Synaptic pruning

Neural connections are relaxed (use it or lose it); more efficient; starts in infancy but continues throughout lifespan

Myelination

Fatty tissue that acts as an insulator around the axon of a neuron, which leads to faster action potentials

Newborn sleep

About 17 hr in a 24 hr period; 50% spent in REM

2-year-old sleep

About 10 hours

Sleep

Important for all the learning being done because it, especially REM, helps consolidate and process new information

Habituation

The predictable loss of interest that develops once a stimulus becomes familiar; used to explore infant sensory capacities and thinking

Infant sight

Prefer faces vs. other stimuli; more symmetrical faces; faces looking at them; primary caregivers; novel things

Imitation (Newborns)

Imitating facial expression to the best of their ability

Deferred/delayed Imitation

Around 18M, imitating at a different time

Hearing

Rhythmic preference (shushing, songs/lullabies); prefer caregiver’s voice

Smell

Prefer smell of breastmilk

Taste

Sensitive to bitter, sour, and salty; like sweet, but not too sweet

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

0-2 yr: Motor activity without use of symbols

Schemas

A cognitive framework/concept that helps organize and interpret information

Assimilation

Incorporating new experiences into existing schema (miscategorizing a cat as a dog)

Accommodation

Developing different schemas for different things

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4M)

Repetitive habits center around the child’s own body (ex: sucking thumb)

Secondary Circular Reactions (4M-1Y)

Habits center on environmental objects (ex: grabbing toys, batting mobiles)

Secondary Circular Reactions (8M-12M)

Employ two reactions in concert to attain a goal (ex: grab a toy in each hand; bat mobile back and forth)

Tertiary Circular Reactions (1-2Y)

Child flexibly explores the properties of objects (ex: exploring dimensions of a toy; throwing a bottle off a high chair in different directions)

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18M)

Experiments with concrete objects

Tertiary Circular Reactions (18-24M)

“Little scientist” behavior transcends the observable and involves using symbols to stand for something else

Object Permanence

Realization that objects, including people, still exist when they can no longer be seen, touched, or heard; during secondary circular reactions

Infant-directed speech (motherese)

High-pitched, simplified, repetitive (baby talk); positive effect on language development

Language Development (Skinner)

Argued that infants need to be taught; more teaching led to better language

Language Development (Chomsky)

Argued infants taught themselves; supported by universal grammar

Universal grammar

Applying grammar rules that are incorrect to the specific word/situation

Language acquisition device

A hypothetical brain structure that enables humans to learn and produce language; biological predisposition to language

Language Milestones progression

Cooing, Babbling, Holophrases, Telegraphic speech

Cooing (2-4M)

First sounds growing out of reflexes (“ooo”)

Babbling (5-11M)

Alternate vowel-consonant sounds (“bababa”)

Holophrases (12M)

First one-word sentences (“ja” = “I want juice”)

Telegraphic Speech (18M-2Y)

Two-word combinations, often accompanied by an explosion in vocabulary (“Me juice”)

Temperament

Innate characteristics in infancy; before full personality is formed

Easy/flexible temperament

Adaptable, easy to soothe, generally positive mood

Active/fiesty temperament

Trouble with routine, generally negative reaction to new things

Slow to warm up temperament

Start fiesty/active or shy but become easier/flexible as they get more comfortable

Attachment

Close bond with caregiver; acts as an anchor for child to feel safe while exploring, but can always come back for reassurance

Healthy Attachment (Bowlby)

Caregiver must be responsive to child’s physical, social, and emotional needs; caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions

Trust vs. Mistrust (Erikson)

Should develop trusting relationship with caregiver

Secure Attachment

Child is secure, explorative, happy, and believes and trusts their needs will be met; mother is quick, sensitive, consistent; low anxiety, low avoidance

Anxious (preoccupied) attachment

Child is anxious, insecure, angry, and can’t rely on their needs being met; mother is inconsistent, sometimes sensitive, sometimes neglectful; high anxiety, low avoidance

Avoidant (dismissive) attachment

Child is not very explorative, emotionally distant, and subconsciously believes their needs probably won’t be met; mother is distant and disengaged; low anxiety, high avoidance

Disorganized (fearful) attachment

Child is depressed, angry, completely passive, non-responsive, and severely confused with no strategy to have needs met; mother is extreme, erratic, frightened or frightening, passive or intrusive

Internal Working Model

Cognitive representations of self and others used to interpret events and form relationships

Positive Internal Working Model

People are dependable; I am lovable

Negative Internal Working Model

People can’t be trusted; I am unlovable

Eye contact

Emotional recognition, social connection, communication

Social smiling

Reaction to caregiver’s voice or attention

Responsive smiling

Copying caregiver’s smile

Social referencing

If uncertain, baby will look to caregiver on how to react/respond

Basic emotions

Interest, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust

Self-conscious/secondary emotions

Envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment; need self-concept and social instruction

Parental Leave

12 weeks of unpaid time off, not all people are eligible, theoretically protects people from being fired; consider impact on infant/toddler and parental relationships

Harlow Monkey study

Baby monkeys preferred the soft mother without food over the wire mother with food, demonstrating that parent-child relationship is more than just about food

Piaget’s Preoperational Thinking

Kids 2-7Y begin developing language and representational thinking; can engage in make-believe play; cannot engage in logical thinking, egocentrism, lack of conservation and class inclusion (still figuring out schemas)

Egocentrism

Inability to understand other people have different perspectives

Identity constancy

An inability to grasp that a person’s core “self” stays the same despite changes to one’s appearance

Animism

Belief that inanimate objects are alive

Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)

The gap between what a child can accomplish solo and his/her potential if taught by a more accomplished person

Scaffolding

Talioring one’s teaching to match a person’s competence level

Phonemes

Units of sound (mm, sh, ka)

Morphemes

Smallest unit of meaning (dis-, tract-, -ion)

Syntax

Grammatical rules (-ed to indicate past action; exceptions apply)

Semantics

Meaning of words

Syntax/Grammar

When kids start putting 3 words together, they begin to show an understanding of grammar (“Me want milk”)

Overregularization

Use of the regular tense with irregular words

Overextensions

Extending verbal language too broadly (ex: calling an apple a ball because it’s round)

Underextensions

Making name categories too narrow (ex: not recognizing a duck because only view rubber ducks as real ducks)

Maturation of Frontal lobes

Working memory, regular sleep, emotional development, less temper tantrums, emotional regulation

Executive functions

Any skill related to managing our memory, controlling cognitions, planning behaviors, and inhibiting responses

Theory of mind (4-5Y)

Other people have thoughts and perspectives outside of one’s own