Unit 3 & 4 (228)

Experience-expectant process

Brain development that occurs based on environmental experiences that all members of the species typically encounter. Normal visual development requires infants to receive light stimuli. 

Experience-dependent

Brain development that occurs based on unique environmental stimuli shared only by individuals in particularly environmental circumstances. A child in another country may find it difficult to pronounce certain English sounds because of their lack of exposure to that sound. 

Gross motor skills

A motor skill that relies on large muscles, such as those in the legs and arms. 

Fine motor skills

A motor skill that relies on smaller muscles, such as those in the finger. 

Piaget’s Sensorimotor stage

Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development, in which infants develop from reflex-driven organisms to more complex and symbolic thinkers. 

Object Permanence

The understanding that an object continues to exist even when it is not immediately present or visible. 

A-not-B error

A mistake made by children in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage as they search for a hidden object in a location where it has been repeatedly placed but is no longer hidden.

Receptive Language

Language that an infant understands but may not be able to produce. 

Expressive Language

Language that an infant can produce. 

Language Acquisition Device

A theoretical structure possesses by all humans that prewires us to learn language and grammar rules. (Noam Chomsky) 

Interactionist approach to language

A view of language learning that stresses the role of socialization.  

Vision acuity

Acuity is from a bout 20/120 to 20/240

Focal Length

The distance at which things can be clearly seen is about 18-30cm. 

Major milestones in vision

At 2 weeks old infants can discriminate between colours, by 4 months, they appear to have fully developed colour perception. 

Major milestones in hearing

Birth to 3 months: Startles to loud sounds, quiets or smiles when spoken to, recognize voices, increase/decrease sucking behaviour in response to sound. 
4 to 6 months: moves eyes in direction of sounds, responds to changes in tone of voice, notices toys that make sound, pays attention to music 
7 months to 1 year: Enjoys games like peek a boo, turns and looks in direction of sound, listens when spoken to, recognizes words for common items, begins to respond to requests 

Cerebral Cortex

The uppermost part of the brain and the center largely responsible for complex brain functions. 

Neuron

A brain or nerve cell that serves as the basic building block of the nervous system. 

Axon

A nerve fibre that typically sends electrical impulses away from the neuron’s cell body.  

Dendrite

A branching structure arising from the cell body that typically receives electrical impulses from the axons of neighbouring neurons. 

Synapse

The space between adjoining neurons, across which electrical impulses are sent from the axon of one neuron to the dendrite of another.  

Myelination

The process through which the axon of a neuron is coated with a fatty tissue, which serves as insulation and enhances speed of firing.  

Synaptic pruning

The process by which the brain removes unused synapse through redirecting nutrition, cell injury, and cell death.  

Plasticity

Changes in the brain resulting from our interactions with the environment.

REM sleep

A sleep state during which rapid and random eye movements, intense and irregular brain-wave activity, and dreaming occur. 

NREM

A sleep state during which rapid-eye-movement and dreaming do not occur, and brain-wave activity is slow and regular.  

Reflex

An involuntary response to a stimulus. 

Newborn reflex

An inborn automatic response to stimuli, which may disappear before the end of the first year of life.  

Posture

The way a person holds his or her body as a whole. 

Schema

Mental structures that help us organize and process information. 

Implicit memory

Repetition of behaviour, such as a leg movement to make an object move, that occurs automatically and without apparent conscious effort. 

Explicit memory

Repetition of a behaviour that shows a clear, observable, conscious effort to recall an event, such as when an infant imitates at a later time a behaviour seen earlier.  

Deferred imitation

The ability of 6- to 7-month-old infants to imitate an action after a delay and not in the presence of a model.

Habituation

Decreased responding to a stimulus that occurs because of continuous presentation of the stimulus. 

Dishabituation

Increased responding to a stimulus, usually because it’s novel. 

Babbling

The repeated creating of meaningless sounds that typically consist of one syllable. 

Holophrase

One-word utterances that express a complete thought or phrase. 

Telegraphic speech

The creation of short phrases that convey meaning but lack some of the parts of speech that are necessary for a full and complete sentence. 

Joint attention

The ability to direct the attention of a social partner to objects or events and, in turn, follow their attention-directing gestures, such as head-turning and pointing. 

Infant directed speech

A way of speaking to infants that is higher in pitch, simpler, and more repetitive than speech directed to adults or children. It seems to be used automatically when in the presence of an infant. 

Sensation

Physical reception of stimulation 

Perception

Interpretation of stimulus that occurs in the higher processing centres of the brain. 

Ciliary muscles

The small muscles of the eye that work to move each eyeball and change the shape of each eye’s lens. 

Cones

Neurons in the retina that respond to colour.

Visual cliff

A method used to examine infant depth perception using a patterned floor and a pane of Plexiglas over a deep drop. When infants willing crawl over the Plexiglas, it’s assumed they don’t perceive the depth. 

Vaccine

A substance that is usually injected into a person to improve immunity against a particular disease

Vaccine hesitency

A refusal or a delay in immunization participation caused by concerns about vaccines. 

Nutrition

The process of consuming carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and other elements in the form of calories, to obtain energy and regulate body functions.  

Exclusive breastfeeding

When infants receive only breast milk, whether from the breast or expressed, and no other liquids or solids including water. 

On-demand breastfeeding

Nursing a baby whenever the baby shows signs of hunger during the day and night, such as by crying or rooting, rather than according to a set schedule. 

Complementary feeding

The process of consuming other foods and liquids, along with breast milk, to meet the nutritional requirements of infants after 6 months of age. 

Colostrum

The yellowish, sticky breast milk that is secreted during the first two to three days after birth. 

Otitis media

Infection of the middle ear and a common cause of earaches. 

Lactational amenorrhea

Natural postpartum infertility that occurs when a woman is breastfeeding, and her menstrual cycle has not yet returned.  

Preterm

An infant born before 32 weeks' gestation.

Very low birth weight

Infants born weighing less than 1,500 g.  

Medical Model of infant care

A dominant set of assumptions that guide the provision of infant care in the Western part of the world. 

Graduated extinction

A variety of sleep-training techniques, where parents delay responding to their infants' cries for specified intervals of time, then 

Freud’s psychodymanic theory

Believed that individuals are passive agents whose personalities are driven by unconscious conflict between biology of survival and societal rules and regulations.

Freud’s stages of development

1. Oral - nursing, putting things in mouth

2. Anal - toilet training

3. Phallic

4. Latency & Genitalia

Erikson’s psychodynamic theory

Emphasized social interactions and de-emphasized sex. Believed that early development was acutely influenced by an infant’s social context.

Erikson’s first stages of development

1. trust vs. mistrust

2. autonomy vs. shame

Findings on temperament

Three patterns emerged from nine dimensions of behaviour: easy, difficult, and slow to warm up.

Goodness of fit

The relationship between an infant's predisposition to behave a certain way and their parents’ tendencies to respond.

Attachment theory

The perspective that the process of social, emotional, and cognitive development occurs in the context of caregiver-infant attachment. 

Separation anxiety

A set of seeking and distress behaviours that occur when the primary caregiver is removed from the immediate environment of the infant/child. 

Stranger anxiety

Distressed avoidance of a novel individual.  

Strange situation

A means of categorizing attachment styles, consisting of a series of episodes in which a mother and her child are observed together, separated, and reunited in the presence of a stranger.  

Secure attachment

flexible proximity between parent and infant and positive reunion behaviour. Infants see the caregiver as a secure base. Distress when separated, joy when reunited. 

Insecure-avoidant

insecure attachment in which infants show little or no distress upon separation and avoidant behaviour upon reunion.  

Insecure-resistant

insecure attachment where infants show very high distress when separated and mixed reactions when reunited.  

Disorganized/Disoriented attachment

insecure attachment characterized by inconsistent behaviour upon separation and reunion that shows no clear pattern. Show confused or fearful emotions, most likely to have suffered some form of maltreatment. 

Predictors of secure attachment

Mothers who are sociable and extraverted, lower on measures of depression, neuroticism, and anxiety, and a mother’s insightfulness about her infant’s internal states and motives. Marital satisfaction is another factor. Caregiver sensitivity is the central factor. 

Synchrony

The reciprocal and mutually rewarding qualities of an infant-caregiver attachment relationship. When an infant is crying because they are hungry, and the caregiver feeds them. 

Primary emotion

An emotion that is present early in life and is most likely innate. 

Secondary emotion

An emotion that emerges with the help of certain cognitive and social developments. (pride, shame, guilt, empathy) These are important because they can’t appear without an understanding of self, it plays in important role in socio-emotional development across the lifespan.  

Social referencing

Using a caregiver’s emotional cues to help understand an uncertain or ambiguous event or stimulus. It means that infants are good at reading the emotional cues of others and using that information to guide their own responses to events, and it’s the beginning of a lifelong process and feature of social development: using others’ emotional signals to understand what is meaningful within one’s society.  O

Oral fixation

A return to the oral stage later in life, shown through habits such as smoking or gum chewing, as a result of too much or too little gratification during the oral stage. 

Anal fixation

A return to the anal stage in later life, shown through obsessive personality issues, as a result of too much or too little gratification during the anal stage. 

Easy temperament

The temperament of a child who is generally cheerful and adaptable and has regular patterns of eating and sleeping. 

Temperament

Biologically based individual differences in how one responds to the environment that influences emotions, physical activity level and attention. 

Difficult temperament

Generally fussy, doesn’t respond well to new situations, and has irregular patterns of eating and sleeping. 

Slow to warm up temperament

low activity level who adjusts to new situations over time. 

Amygdala

The part of the brain that mediates emotion. 

Self-regulation

The ability to deliberately change one’s behaviour and emotion. 

Gender

A social construction of expectations that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. 

Gender differences

Cognitive and behavioural differences associated with gender. 

Sex differences

Biologically based differences between sexes. 

Social smile

In infancy, the first facial expression of pleasure, enabled by neurophysiological maturation and an increasing readiness for social interactions with caregivers. 

Self-awareness

The ability to recognize oneself as a separate being.