Tools for Exploring the World: Physical, Perceptual, and Motor Development

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture on physical, perceptual, and motor development in infants and toddlers.

Reflexes

Unlearned responses triggered by specific stimuli; can indicate the health of a child's nervous system.

Apgar Score

Assessment of a newborn based on appearance, pulse, grimace response, activity, and respiration.

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS)

Assesses a newborn's autonomic, motor, state, and social systems.

Alert inactivity

A newborn state characterized by calmness, open and attentive eyes, and deliberate inspection of the environment.

Basic Cry

A cry that starts softly and builds in volume and intensity, often indicating hunger.

REM Sleep

A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement; accounts for 50% of newborn sleep and 25% by 12 months.

Co-sleeping

The practice of sleeping in the same room or bed with a child.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

The sudden, inexplicable death of a healthy baby.

Temperament

Consistent styles or patterns of infant behavior.

Surgency/Extroversion

A dimension of temperament indicating how happy, active, vocal, and stimulation-seeking a child is.

Negative Affect

A dimension of temperament indicating how angry, fearful, frustrated, shy, and easily soothed a child is.

Effortful Control

A dimension of temperament indicating how focused, distractible, and impulsive a child is.

Neurons

Cells that make up the brain and nervous system, consisting of a soma, dendrites, axon, and terminal buttons.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals released by terminal buttons to communicate with other neurons.

Cerebral Cortex

The wrinkled surface of the brain.

Hemispheres

The two halves of the brain.

Corpus Callosum

The thick band of fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain.

Dynamic Systems Theory

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

Differentiation

Mastery of component skills.

Integration

Combining components into the sequence needed to accomplish a task.

Perception

Brain processes involved in receiving, selecting, modifying, and organizing sensory inputs.

Visual Acuity

The clarity of vision, or the smallest pattern that can be distinguished dependably.

Cones

Neurons located along the retina specialized to one of the three light wavelengths for color perception.