Week 4: Infancy

Wolff’s 6 states of infant alertness

1. Quiet/deep sleep: Non-REM sleep

2. Active/light sleep: REM sleep

3. Drowsiness

4. Alert inactivity: best for research

5. Alert activity: Eyes are bright, fussiness, close to 6^th stage

6. Crying: Very high activity

1) Quiet/deep sleep

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - non-REM sleep

• Eyes firmly closed with no movement.

• Deep, regular breathing.

• Relaxed face; little to no body movement.

• High threshold for noise; very difficult to wake

2) Active/light sleep

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - REM sleep

• Eyes closed, but REM (rapid eye movement) or fluttering is visible

• Irregular, shallow breathing.

• Frequent facial twitches, grimaces, smiles, or slight limb movements.

3) Drowsiness

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - transitional state,

• Eyes open and close heavily, looking glazed or unfocused

• Delayed reactions to stimuli.

• Smooth, slow movements of the arms and legs.

4) Alert inactivity

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - best for research— “quiet alert”

• Eyes wide open, bright, and focused

• Body is relatively still and quiet

• Highly receptive and attentive to faces and sounds

5) Alert activity

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - Eyes are bright, fussiness, close to 6th stage

• Constant, active body movements (kicking, thrusting arms)

• Jerky or frantic gestures

• Brief fussing, yawning, or looking away from stimuli.

6) Crying

Wolff’s 6 stages of infant alertness

____________ - very high activity.

• Loud vocal crying or screaming

• Highly disorganized, frantic physical movement (flailing, kicking)

• Face changes color; completely shut off from external play

80; 50; 33; 20

Developmental changes

__________ - Distinctiveness in the distribution

• 25wks prenatal: __% is REM/active sleep

• Newborn: __% non-REM and REM sleep

• 3mos: __% is REM

• Adult: __% is REM

Moving between stages; diagnostic

Developmental changes

_________- Babies can go straight into REM sleep, but changes show up in 3mo.

• ________ tool: Some babies who don’t make the switch can be a red flag

Rhythms

_______ - regular patterns of activity

Do newborns have them? Yes, they have a diff biological clock.

• Newborns: sleep cycle differences. Tend to be much shorter, repeat 5-6 times per day sleeping/waking.

• 5-6wks: longer change where this becomes more normal

• 12-16wks: milestone where sleep becomes "normal" or adult-like. The simple two-stage cycle reorganizes into four distinct sleep stages (three NREM stages and one REM stag

Newborns

Sleep rhythms

________ - sleep cycle differences. Tend to be much shorter, repeat 5-6 times per day sleeping/waking.

5-6wks

Sleep rhythms

________ - A longer change begins where the biological clock starts shifting toward more recognizable day and night patterns.

12-16 wks

Sleep rhythms

________ - : The infant's sleep-wake cycle becomes predictable and consolidated, establishing a clearer circadian rhythm where they sleep more at night and stay awake longer during the day.

• Milestone where sleep becomes more “Adult like”

Reflex

___________ -  An automatic and stereotyped reaction to a specific stimulus. Serve an adaptive function—have a reason but sometimes not clear, but generally for survival.

• Can also be a diagnostic tool (is there a problem, absence/prolonged existence)

Rooting reflex

Palmar reflex

Moro reflex

Tonic neck reflex/fencer’s position

Stepping reflex

Diving reflex

Swimming reflex

1) Rooting reflex

Reflexes

_____________ -  stroking baby’s cheek, turning to touch to find the nipple

• What happens: Stroking the baby’s cheek or the corner of their mouth causes them to turn their head toward the touch, open their mouth, and make sucking motions.

• Why it happens: It is a vital survival instinct that helps the newborn locate a breast or bottle nipple to feed.

• When it disappears: Around 3 to 4 months of age, as feeding becomes a conscious, voluntary action rather than an automatic response

2) Palmar reflex

Reflexes

_____________ - touching palm of hand makes babies’ hands curl, lifting up like a chin up

• What happens: Placing a finger or object into the baby’s open palm causes their fingers to curl tightly around it with a surprisingly strong grip.

• Why it happens: It builds early hand strength and bonding; historically, it may have helped infant primates cling to a parent's fur.

• When it disappears: Around 5 to 6 months of age, opening the door for purposeful, voluntary reaching and grasping.

3) Moro reflex

Reflexes

_____________ - Startle– two step process where legs first throw limbs forward, arches back and stretches fingers. Then they pull arms back in and often cry.

• What happens: Triggered by a sudden loud noise, bright light, or a sensation of falling (like your head dropping back slightly). It is a two-step response: first, the baby throws their arms and legs outward, arches their back, and spreads their fingers. Second, they pull their arms back inward toward their body, often followed by crying.

• Why it happens: It acts as an early warning or "fight-or-flight" alarm system to alert caregivers to danger.

• When it disappears: Lasts around 6-7 mo(though some remnants can linger up to 6 months). Swaddling can help calm sleep disruptions caused by this reflex

4) Tonic neck reflex/fencer’s position

Reflexes

_____________ - On one side, the other arm tucks in.

• hat happens: When the baby is lying on their back and turns their head to one side, the arm on that side automatically straightens out straight away from the body, while the opposite arm bends at the elbow (resembling a fencing stance).

• Why it happens: It prevents the baby from rolling over too early and may help develop hand-eye coordination as they start looking at their outstretched hand.

• When it disappears: Around 7 months of age

5) Stepping reflex

Reflexes

_____________ - Hold baby in standing position, rocking gentle and baby will lift their feet.

• What happens: When you hold a newborn upright with their feet touching a flat, hard surface and gently rock them forward, they will lift their feet and make rhythmic, stepping-like walking motions.

• Why it happens: It is a foundational motor pattern, though it does not mean the baby can actually support their weight or walk yet.

• When it disappears: Around 2 months of age (it temporarily vanishes before returning months later as true, intentional walking).

6) Diving reflex

Reflexes

_____________ - Cold water towards the babies mouth they will close their mouth

• What happens: When cold water or a liquid stimulus hits a newborn’s face or mouth area, their body automatically slows the heart rate and causes them to snap their mouth shut and block off the airway.

• Why it happens: It is an evolutionary protective mechanism designed to prevent water inhalation.

• When it disappears: It weakens significantly over the 2mos. though parts of the autonomic response stay with us into adulthood.

7) Swimming reflex

Reflexes

_____________ - 2wks, immersing babies face in water will hold their breath and show some swimming reflex

• What happens: When an infant (typically under 6 months old) is placed face-down in water, they will instinctively make coordinated swimming or paddling movements with their arms and legs while holding their breath.

• Why it happens: An extension of intrauterine fluid adaptation.

• When it disappears: Around 2 weeks to 6 months of age.

Congenitally-organized behaviours

___________ - Newborn initiated activities which can be sustained over a long time. Are not elicited by a discrete, identifiable stimulus. Babies choose what they look at.

Well-ordered, stereotyped behavioural patterns present in newborns that are not tied to a single specific reflex or external trigger. These built-in patterns help infants regulate themselves and explore their environment.

• Looking

• Sucking

• Crying

  • Wolff’s 3 types + fake crying

1) Looking

Congenitally organized behaviours

___________ - Babies choose to look at faces, they like to look at faces/things that look like a face. They can see your face and can imitate behaviour (ex: sticking out tongue)

• Babies LOVE faces

• Can imitate facial expressions an hour after birth

2) Sucking

Congenitally organized behaviours

___________ - There is a reflex but its also a COG cuz there’s an adaptability aspect. Nourishment but also is soothing and related to attachment.

• Sucking is also shown prenatally, and there is variability in it.

  • Some babies show differences in eating right away (ex: eating quick versus savouring)

3) Crying

Congenitally organized behaviours

___________ - acts as a social role, brings caregiver and child closer. Babies distress negatively affects humans, while happy babies affect humans positively.

• Diagnostic tools: central nervous system issues, including from teratogens (can have atypical crying patterns); premature babies have more irritating sounding crying (which can leave them more vulnerable to abuse)

Social role: brings parents closer to stop the crying

• Dudek & Haley (2016): adults’ brain activity changes when they hear a baby crying (do better at tasks when silent condition or laughing baby then when they listen to a crying baby)

Wolff’s 3 types of crying

Congenitally organized behaviours (crying)

___________ - includes…

1. Hungry crying

2. Angry crying

3. Pain crying

4. + Fake crying

Easier to distinguish between types as they get older, Babies cry 2-3 hours a day

1) Hungry crying

Congenitally organized behaviours (Wollff’s 3 types of crying)

___________ - Similar to angry but not as much variation— starts low/soft, long gap between bursts, then gets louder and closer together

• The Sound: A highly rhythmic pattern that starts with a cry, followed by a brief period of silence, a short high-pitched inspiratory whistle, and a final brief rest before the cycle repeats.

• The Cause: Usually triggered by hunger or a basic physical need

2) Angry crying

Congenitally organized behaviours (Wollff’s 3 types of crying)

___________ - Starts slower gaps but gets larger and louder as time goes on. More variation in pitch— can be difficult to differentiate from hungry cry, but there is more air being pushed through the vocal cords, so there is more variation in the pitch

• The Sound: A variation of the basic rhythmic cry, but characterized by excess air forced through the infant's vocal cords, giving it a louder, harsher, and more demanding quality.

• The Cause: Associated with frustration or physical restriction (such as holding the infant's limbs still)

3) Pain crying

Congenitally organized behaviours (Wollff’s 3 types of crying)

___________ - Instant, sudden onset, burst is prolonged, longer periods of breath-holding

• The Sound: A sudden, explosive outburst of high-intensity, shrill crying without any preliminary fussing. It is instantly distinguished by a long period of breath-holding (apnea) immediately following the initial scream.

• The Cause: Triggered by sudden distress or physical pain (e.g., an injection or intense gas).

+Fake crying

Congenitally organized behaviours (Wollff’s 3 types of crying)

___________ - sounds exactly like hungry/angry cry but is completely social. By about 3wks, everytime they cry caregivers come– that’s how they get attention.

Touch and pain; Taddio et. al

Perceptual development

_________ - _______ JAMA – babies who had multiple blood draws already reacted with intense pain signals- they learn

• Social function of touch: touching is important for attachment, gentle stroking being good to develop babies happiness and soothe them (Harry Hawlow’s contact comfort)

  • Wire mother vs soft mother w/ baby monkeys

• Psychological function of touch: babies will have cognitive advantages with more touch

  • Mother rats who lick babies have babies who do better cognitively

• Cognitive function of touch: haptic perception

Used to believe that newborn babies (and animals) couldn’t feel pain; this was wrong

Haptic perception

Perceptual development (cognitive function of touch)

_________ - perceptual experience from active exploitation of objects by touch. – babies learn about the world via touch

Smell and taste

Perceptual development

_________ - Sense of smell becomes more acute in first few days after birth, will turn away from smells they don’t like. Taste is developed 2 hours after birth babies can distinguish sweet, salty, sour, and bitter

• Smell: Babies can smell can show if they don’t like it and improves

• Taste: Babies can distinguish between sweet, salty, bitter and salty very quick after birth- they prefer sweet.

  • 4mos, they like sweet and salty. There’s individual differences in how quick/slow they eat

Vestibular sensitivity

Perceptual development

_________ - Ability to detect gravity and motion in our bodies + helps maintain body posture, develops at 5wks prenatally.

• Morro reflex shows this, it shows prenatally too. Babies with a sensitivity to this is more likely to be born in breach

  • Suggests they already have this issue prenatally and are unable to position themselves for birth)

Hearing

Perceptual development

_________ - important and is needed for speech and language. We can tell is baby reacts via Moro reflex, if they don’t react to sound can be a red flag. Should show changes in brain, physiological. Have at birth

• Fetal hearing

• Sensitivity

• Discriminative abilities

• Sound localization

Fetal hearing

Perceptual development (hearing)

__________- studies…

• Birnholz & Benacerraf (1983): play sounds for ultrasound, if fetuses would close their eyes from a loud sound. If the didn’t, many will have a hearing disability

• Wallois et al. (2013): premature babies react diff and can discriminate diff kinds of voices + genders (born early already)

• Lahav et al. (2015):

  • Premature babies in hospital; asked mothers to record 3 hours of their voice (e.g., reading); control group was hospitalized but not exposed to recordings of their mom’s voice

  • The premature babies exposed to the recordings of their mother’s voices (as opposed to just regular hospital sounds only) showed more development in their auditory cortex

• Lopez-Teijon et al. (2015):  Baby pod— intervaginal device that plays music into the womb; played Bach to babies from 14-39 weeks prenatally

  • Before music started: 45% were moving head, arms, legs, etc., 30% moving mouth/tongue, 10% sticking their tongue out

  • During music: 87% moving head, arms, legs, etc., 50% moving mouth/tongue in specific ways (open jaws and stick tongues out far). Showing reactions by 16 weeks prenatally— No responses when putting headphones on mother’s stomach

Sensitivity to sound

Perceptual development (hearing)

__________- whispers vs shouting, frequencies. Babies are sensitive to high frequencies as well as adults would be to intermediate freq.

Discriminative hearing abilities

Perceptual development (hearing)

__________- diff tones– low tones for calming, high for getting attention. Babies are sensitive to sounds important for language development– ex listen to human voices.

Sound localization

Perceptual development (hearing)

__________ - figuring out where sound comes from– babies can somewhat distinguish where sound is from but not as good as adults. More difficult

Romania 1989

__________ -   A revolution happened to overthrow the communist dictator

• 65,000+ in orphanages

• Not all orphans: Some had been given up by single mothers, given up by parents, taken away/unable to take care, parents died

• Why?: Abortion is illegal, contraception too. Many women died from illegal abortions. Hard to get healthcare as a woman. In law, you were required to have 4 children than 5– if not done you had to pay a tax (done to build an army). That’s why lots of birth, but high mortality and lots of orphanages.

Dr Elinor Ames

Romanian adoption study

_________ - developmental psychologist. Was able to say what to expect in term of cognitive, physical and social development. Sent her to orphanages to observe what went on

• When media got in– there was many children in orphanages, some got adopted in Canada

Observations - infants

Romanian adoption study

_________ - Most days they were left in their crib for extended amounts or in other cribs with people. Early deprivation not being exposed to stimulating environments (no AC or heating) or people.

There were hardly any sounds– and were not producing normal sounds of babies (cooing, babbling). Stayed on bottles longer than normal– and this only took 8min and drank fast.  Healthcare officials did not know how to help– the talking

Observations - children 2-3yrs

Romanian adoption study

_________ - Very quiet for 30min when it came to potty time. Not interacting with each other/passive.  Bathing was done with 50kids in 1hr.

Children are following orders than they’re going to go hungry or dirty– very passive. Few crying, smiling and talking.

• Potty training: had little class plastic potties; they would put the children on the potties 4 times a day for half an hour each time

  • They didn’t move around, squirm, interact with one another, etc., which is unusual compared to typical children

• Bathing routines: Attendant bathed 50 minutes in one hour

  • Noticed when she arrived that children smelled clean

  • After observing bath time, she noticed that the soap was not being rinsed off thoroughly

• Passive children, very few smiled or cried

  • 3 year old girl could say “mama” – she was brought out to Dr. Ames as the “star” child (others weren’t speaking)

Ames’ longitudinal study

Romanian adoption study

_________ - o   These 115 kids were in orphanages at least 8mos+ and under 5yrs when adopted

• Time 1: 11mos after adoption

• Time 2: 4.5yrs old

Time 1

Romanian adoption study (Ames)

_________ - 11mos after adoption

• Physical: Delays in fine motor and gross motor skills

• Cognitive: Delayed

• Social: Inhibited behaviours

Factors: Longer time at the orphanage meant worse outcomes, if kids had toys they had less delays, if there was favourites tended to have fewer delays. If kids were clean there were less delays– cleanliness and toys meant the environments were probs less deprived

• Many kids had refused solid food, or ate too much (malnutrition before). 2/3 of these kids had rocking or food related issues.

Time 2

Romanian adoption study (Ames)

_________ - 4.5yrs of age

• Physical: still lighter and small

• Cognitive: IQ scores under 100, longer at the orphanage the lower IQ

• Social: Aggression, temper tantrums, no sense of guilt– longer its worse. Problems interacting with peers

Attachment

Romanian adoption study (Ames)

_________ -strong affectionate ties— the deep emotional bond that forms between an infant and a primary caregiver, which serves as a foundation for security, survival, and future emotional development.

Contact comfort

Romanian adoption study (Ames)

_________ - how we develop a bond with someone

• the innate pleasure and emotional security that an infant or young organism derives from physical touch and bodily warmth, independent of nourishment

• Can affect attachment.

Attachment; strange

Romanian adoption study (Ames)

_________ - includes…

________ questionnaire: At time 1, more insecure attachments. Between time 1 and time 2, issues with kids started where they weren’t able to feel a bond.

_______ situation: used after time 2– questionnaire not sensitive enough for time 2. Atypical and insecure attachment found here– they also had lower IQs and behaviour issues

Indiscriminately friendly behaviour (IF)

Romanian adoption study (Ames) - attachment

_________ - behaviour affectionate and friendly towards ALL adults. Between time 1 and time 2– they are showing friendliness to parents, but just to everyone and parents were concerned

Rutter et al. (2010)

Romanian adoption study

_________ - 324 kids, 4-6yrs at time 1 and faced long-term deprivation in the orphanages. The longer exposure, the worse the following delays:

• Deprivation Specific Psychological Patterns (DSP)

  • Quasi-autism (QA)

  • Disinhibited attachment (DA)

  • Cognitive impairment (CI)

  • Inattention/overactivity (I/O)

Deprivation Specific Psychological Patterns (DSP)

Romanian adoption study (Rutter et al. 2010)

_________ - a distinct set of behavioural and developmental responses identified in children who experienced severe early psychosocial deprivation

Causes: the deprivation itself, possible genetic factors, environments possible exacerbating it (malnutrition was ruled out). Psychosocial seems to be the primary cause.

Types:

• Quasi-autism (QA)

• Disinhibited attachment (DA)

• Cognitive impairment (CI)

• Inattention/overactivity (I/O)

Quasi-autism (QA)

Romanian adoption study (Rutter et al. 2010) - DSP

_________ - Autistic behaviours observed in some cases they faded once out the environment

Disinhibited attachment (DA)

Romanian adoption study (Rutter et al. 2010) - DSP

_________ -  similar to IF– inappropriate friendly behaviour

Cognitive impairment (CI)

Romanian adoption study (Rutter et al. 2010) - DSP

_________ - an IQ lower than 100

Inattention/overactivity (I/O)

Romanian adoption study (Rutter et al. 2010) - DSP

_________ - Difficulties concentrating, fidgety/staying still.

Overall long-term outcomes

Romanian adoption study

_________ -

• 20% overcame problems, do well

• 60% improved but still lag behind

• 20% little improvement and huge difficulties

Strange situation

Romanian adoption study (Ames) - attachment

_________ - a standardized 20-minute observational procedure developed by psychologist Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to assess the quality of attachment between infants (typically aged 9 to 30 months) and their primary caregivers

IF children

Romanian adoption study (Ames) - attachment

_________ - more likely to be favourites in the Romanian orphanages. Ended up more with behavioural problems and stress from parents

• IF & attachment?: as number of IF increased, the more likely to have an insecure attachment. If lower, they were more likely to have a secure attachment

How to determine hearing?

Perceptual development (hearing) - newborn hearing

__________- includes.,,

•   Moro reflex

• Play sound and gradually increase volume; will close eyes and turn away when it gets too loud

• Do they react/respond to quiet sounds?

• Physiological measures (changes to heart rate, blood flow)

• fMRI

• Are they showing responses to different types/volumes of sounds?

Romania 1966-1989

________ - in 1966 abortion and access to contraception was banned

•   >10,000 woman had died from illegal abortions—  Number of women who died during childhood more than doubled

• Women seeking healthcare could face accusations of trying to abort their baby and be arrested

• All women had to have 4 live births by age 40; later revised to 5 babies by age 45

• Extra tax if you had not fulfilled the quota

  A lot of people in Canada (and other countries) wanted to adopt these babies when media coverage came out in 1989

• By 1991, became much more difficult to adopt them as government limited it