[DEV] Chapter 4 Infancy

patterns of growth

1. cephalocaudal pattern

2. proximodistal pattern

cephalocaudal pattern

• sequence wherein earliest growth always occurs at the top (head) with physical growth and differentiation of features gradually working their way down from top to bottom

proximodistal pattern

• growth starts at the center of body and moves towards the extremities (center to outward)

  • trunk to hands

height and weight

• Growth is episodic, occurring in spurts

  • Growth spurts may occur in single day, alternate

the brain

• Brain: 100B nerve cells 

• Infant’s head should be protected from falls 

• 25% of their body weight

shaken baby syndrome

• brain swelling and hemorrhaging

testing

1. electroencephalogram

2. functional near-infrared spectroscopy

3. magnetoencephalography

4. functional magnetic resonance imaging

electroencephalogram

• Measure of brain’s electrical activity 

• Learn about brain development in infancy

functional near-infrared spectrscopy

• Uses very low levels of near infrared light to monitor changes in blood oxygen, to study infant’s brain activity

magnetoencephalography

• Brain-imaging machines to assess infants’ brain activity 

• Maps brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents and used to assess such perceptual and cognitive activities

frontal lobe

• voluntary movement, thinking, personality, and intentionality

occipital lobes

vision

temporal lobe

hearing, language processing, and memory

parietal lobes

• spatial location, attention, and motor control

lateralization

•  specialization of function of one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex

neuron

• nerve cell that handles information processing 

axons

• carries signal away from the cell body 

dendrites

• carry signals toward it 

myelin sheath

• layer of fat cells that encases many axons, insulates and helps signals travel faster 

terminal buttons

• release NTM into synapses which are tiny gaps between neuron fibers

myelination

• process of encasing axons with fat cells, begins prenatally and continues after birth, adolescence, and childhood 

connectivity

• creating new neural pathways 

changes in neurons

• heredity + environment influence synaptic overproduction

early experience and brain

• Child who grows up in a deprived environment may have depressed brain activity 

• Repeated experience wires the brain

neuroconstructivist view

• Brain has plasticity and development is based on context 

• biological processes and environmental conditions both influence brain development

• aligns with epigenetic view

why do we sleep?

• Necessary for survival 

• Sleep replenishes and rebuilds the brain and body 

• Restorative function

infant sleep

• 18 hours a day

• problem; nighttime waking

• lower sleep efficiency

REM sleep

• Eyes flutter beneath closed lids 

• begin their sleep with REM

• self-stimulation and brain development

shared sleeping

• Infant’s bedding provide firm support and that the crib has side rails

• shared; more night waking for mothers and marital distress, mother can roll over the baby

• common in Guatemala, China, PH

• separate: US and great Britain

• Negative; argue that bed sharing might lead to sudden infant death syndrome

sudden infant death syndrome

• Condition that occurs when infants stop breathing and die suddenly without any reason

• factors; maternal smoking and bed sharing

• place on back position

sleep and cognitive development

• Positive link between infant sleep and cognitive functioning, including memory, language, and executive function 

• brain’s linkage

nutrition

Need to have a diet that includes a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables

breast vs. bottle feeding

• Human milk or an alternative formula is the baby’s source of nutrients and energy 

• Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months 0> breastfeeding for 1 year or as long as the baby wants

outcomes for child breastfeeding

• less likelihood to 

  • develop middle ear infection

  • become overweight or obese in childhood

  • develop type 1 diabetes in childhood

  • experience sids

• breastmilk; you can get from other people, way better than formula

• breastfeeding; immune system of baby and mom

  • breastmilk changes color 

  • develops immunity

outcomes for mother breastfeeding

• Breastfeeding facilitates development of an attachment bond between mother and infant 

• Positive effects on infant and maternal  health 

• Interventions increased the incidence of breast feeding

• Mother should not breastfeed when 

  • HIV 

  • Tuberculosis 

  • Taking drugs

• physical difficulties

• those who are usually wealthier and educated are more health-conscious

  • in the PH, it’s opposite 

prelacteal feeding

• given something else other than milk

  • can’t process it yet

  • germs, bacteria

  • using am = malnourished 

  • urban city; less likely 

dynamic systems theory

• infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting 

  • Infants must perceive something in their environment that motivates them to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements

Arnold Gessell’s maturation

• Show that motor development comes about thru unfolding of a genetic plan in a fixed order within a specific time frame

tuning

• achieved through repeated cycles of action and perception of the consequences of that action 

process of adaptation

• infants modulate their movement patterns to fit a new task by exploring and selecting possible configurations

motor development is not…

• Motor development is not a passive process in which genes dictate the unfolding of a sequence of skills over time

How are motor skills developed?

• development of nervous system 

• body’s physical properties and its possibilities for movement 

  • walking if fat or big baby

• child's motivation to reach a goal 

• environmental support for the skill

reflexes

• Built-in reactions to stimuli

• Govern newborn’s movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn’s control 

• Genetically carried survival mechanisms 

types of reflexes

1. rooting

2. sucking

3. moro

4. grasping

rooting reflex

• infant’s cheek is stroked and infant turns its head toward the side that was touched 

sucking reflex

• newborns automatically suck an object placed in their mouth 

• nourishment

moro reflex

• occurs in response to a sudden, intense noise or movement 

• Newborn arches its back, throws back its head and flings out its arms and legs

grasping reflex

• when something touches the infant’s palms, grasping tightly 

gross motor skills

large-muscle activities

posture

• Require postural control

• Dynamic process that is linked with sensory information in the skin, joints, and muscles -> tell us where we are, regulate balance and equilibrium and in vision and hearing 

walking

• Combination of strength and balance required to improve their walking skills 

• Walking allows infant to gain contact with objects that were previously out of reach and to initiate interaction with parents, promoting dev

[the first year] motor development milestones

• Grasping, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking 

• Timing depends 

development in second year

• Motorically skilled and mobile

• Vital to child’s competent development and few restrictions 

• Recommend against structured exercise classes for babies 

• Infants often reach motor milestones earlier than infants whose caregivers haven’t provided these activities

• Swaddling: slight delays in motor development

fine motor skills

finely tuned movements

fine motor movements

• Palmar grasp; whole hand 

• Pincer grip; grasp small objects with thumb and forefinger 

• Flexible 

perceptual-motor coupling

•  necessary for infant to coordinate grasping 

• Dynamics system approach: explore how people assemble motor behaviors for perceiving and acting, discover how perception guides action and vice versa

sensation

•  when information interacts with sensory receptors

perception

• interpretation of what is sensed 

ecological view

• Perceptual system can select from information of the environment 

• perceive information that exists in the world around us 

  • Connects perceptual capabilities to information available in the world of the perceiver 

affordances

• opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities 

visual acuity

•  20/240 on the Snellen chart 

• Faces are important because they extract key information from other’s faces

visual human faces

• infants…

  • Match voices to faces

  • Distinguish between male and female faces

  • Discriminate between faces of their own ethnic group 

perceptual narrowing

•  infants are more likely to distinguish faces to which they have been exposed than faces that they have never seen before

color vision

improves over time

perceptual constancy

• Sensory stimulation is changing but perception of the physical world remains constant 

size constancy

• recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object

shape constancy

• recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation changes 

perception of occluded objects

• Infants don’t perceive occluded objects as complete

• 2 months: Develop the ability to perceive that occluded objects are whole

• experience via eye movements contribute

depth perception

Choosing instead to remain on the shallow side, an indication that they could perceive depth

hearing

• Fetus can hear but also learn and remember even before birth

• Can recognize mother’s voice

[hearing] loudness

• cannot hear soft sounds at birth 

[hearing] pitch

• less sensitive to pitch than adults are

[[hearing] localization

more proficient at localizing sounds or origin at 6 months

touch and pain

Newborns respond to touch -> rooting reflex

• Pain matrix; consist of areas located in thalamus, somatosensory cortex, and amygdala

smell

• Newborns can differentiate odors

taste

• Sensitivity to taste is present before birth

• Prenatally through amniotic fluid and in breast milk

intermodal perception

• Involves integrating information from two or more sensory modalities 

methods to study infant perception

1. visual preference method

2. habituation

3. dishabituation

4. high amplitude sucking

5. orienting response

6. eye tracking

visual preference method

determine where infants can distinguish one stimulus for another by seeing length of the time they attend to different stimuli

habituation

1.  decreased responsiveness to stimulus after repeated presentations of h stimulus

dishabituation

recovery of habituated persons fear change in stimulation

high amplitude sucking

causes an infant's attention to sound

orienting response

involves turning one's head toward a sight or sound

eye tracking

measuring eye movements that follow a moving object

nativists

• Nature proponents

  • Ability to perceive a world in a competent, organized way is inborn 

empiricists

•  emphasize learning 

gibsons

• infant perception is what information is available in the environment and how infants learn to generate, differentiate, and discriminate the information