Infancy

What is infancy?

First 2 years of life

• develop rapidly over 730 days

What is Plato’s Nature arguement for infancy?

• everything that an adult is is already there

• capabilities, skills, personality are genetically encoded

What is Locke and James’ Nurture arguement?

• start as a blank state bombarded with information

• making sense of info by forming associations

What is the least developed and most developed senses at birth?

least - vision

most - touch and smell

What is newborn acuity and fixed focal distance?

• 20/500

• 20cm

How old does an infant acquire adult level acuity and binocular depth?

• 8 months

What hearing aspect is present at birth?

• categorical speech perception

• cochlear mature by 24 gestational weeks

• preferentially suck to hear mothers voice and native prosody

When is sound localisation accurate +-6 degrees

• 5 months

When does touch begin to develop?

• first appear along lips at 7-8 gestational weeks - cover entire body by 20 weeks

• detect object shape and texture by mouthing

• by 9 months integrate touch with vision and propioception

When does taste and smeel develop?

• present at birth

• day 1 orientation to maternal breast pad odor

• by 1 month can distinguish mother smell from stranger

When do reflexes develop?

• present at or within days of birth

• fade within 4 months and replaced by voluntary controlled movement

When do the voluntary early motor programs develop?

• head control - 6 weeks

• antigravity by 3 months

• goal directed reach- vision hand mapping stabilises

• rolling crawling cruising sequence - between 4-10 months

What emotions are present at birth - 2 months?

• two states - distress / excitement and contemptment

What emotions are present at 2-4 months?

• discrete joy and suprise appear

What emotions are present at 5-7 moths?

• anger, fear, sadness identifiable

What emotions are present at 9-12 months?

• social referencing to mother’s emotional cues

What is temperament?

• biologically based individual in reactivity and self regulation

How did thomas and chess measure temperament?

• biological regularity ( predictability and consistency of sleep eat etc)

• hedonic tone ( pleasantness or unpleasantness of a sensory experience- food, etc)

• approach/withdrawal (initial response to new situations)

• easy - 40% (regular, positive, approach)

• difficult- 10% (irregular, negative, withdrawal)

How to optimally develop temperament?

• caregiver response matches child temperament

• difficult babies need consistent, sensitive routines

What is preferential looking?

• Fantz (1960)

• infants prefer to look at face-like, high contrast patterns over scrambled faces