Cephalocaudal Principle
growth starts from the top part of the body (i.e., brain to foot)
Proximodistal Principles
growth proceed from the center of the body outward (e.g., Palm (grasping) to fingers)
First 3 years
Children grow faster during?
3-4 months
Teething usually begins around?
Age of 6
the brain is almost adult size but some parts are still continuously developing
Brain Growth Spurts
brain’s growth occurs in fits and starts
Cerebellum
(maintains balance and motor coordination) grows the fastest during the first year of life
Lateralization
specialization of the hemispheres
Left Hemisphere
concerned with language and logical thinking
Right Hemisphere
concerned with visual and spatial functions
Corpus Callosum
tough band of tissue that joins the two hemisphere which allows them to share info and coordinate commands
Occipital
smallest; concerned with visual processing
Parietal
involved with integrating sensory info from the body; movement and manipulation of objects
Temporal
interpret smells and sounds and involved in memory
Frontal Lobe
involved in high-order processes such as reasoning and problem solving
Cerebral Cortex
outer surface of the cerebrum; grows rapidly in the first few months and are mature by age 6 months
Neurons
Send and receive info in the brain
Glia or Glial Cells
nourish and protect the neurons
Axons
Sends signals to other neurons
Dendrites
Receive incoming messages
Synapses
tiny gaps which are bridged with the help of chemicals
Integration
neurons that control various groups of muscle coordinate their activities
Differentiation
each neuron takes on a specific, specialized structure and function
Cell Death
pruning of cells which is a way to calibrate the developing brain to the local environment and help it work more efficiently, beings during the prenatal period and continues after birth
Myelination
enables signals to travel faster and more smoothly by coating the neural pathways with myelin
Neuroconstructivist View
biological process and environmental conditions influences development, the brain is plastic, and the child’s cognitive development is closed linked to development of the brain
Reflex Behavior
automatic, innate response to stimulation which are controlled by the lower brain centers that govern involuntary processes
Primitive Reflexes
includes sucking, rooting, and the Moro reflex are related to instinctive needs for survival and protection or may support the early connection to the caregiver
Postural Reflexes
reactions to changes in position or balance
Locomotor Reflex
resemble voluntary movements that do not appear until months after the reflexes have disappeared
6-12 Monhs
Early reflexes Disappear during?
Moro
Extend legs, arms, and fingers, arches back, draws back head
Darwinian (Grasping)
Make strong fist
Tonic Neck
Fencer Position
Babkin
Mouth opens, eyes close, neck flexes, head tilts forward
Babinski
Toes fan out; foot twist in
Rooting
Head turns, mouth opens, sucking begins
Walking
Steplike motions
Swimming
Swimming movements
Touch
the first sense to develop, the most mature sensory system for the first several months
Sense of smell and taste
Begin to develop in the womb
Newborns strongly dislike bitter flavors
Auditory Discrimination
develops rapidly after birth
at 4 moths, infant’s brain responds preferentially to speech
Vision
is the least developed sense at birth
Evolutionary Perspective
all animals sleep and this sleep is necessary for survival (to protect themselves at night)
Restorative Perspective
sleep replenishes and rebuilds the brain and the body such as clearing out neural tissues
Plasticity Perspective
sleep is critical for brain plasticity, i.e., increases synaptic connections between neurons which is linked to improved consolidation of memories
18 hrs/ day
New Borns sleep approx?
Non-REM Sleep
No eye movement and sleep is more quiet
Rapid Eye Movement (REM Sleep)
the eyes flutter beneath the closed lids
Denver Developmental Screening Test
used to chart progress between ages 1 month and 6 years and to identify children who are not developing normally
First Month
Infants can turn their Head from side to side
Grasping Reflex
Second-Third Month
Babies can life their heads
Can grasp moderate sized things until they will be able to grasp one thing using right hand and transfer it to their left hand
Babies can now hold their head still to find out whether the object is moving
They can already match the voice to faces
Distinguish female and male
Discriminate between faces of their own ethnic group and those of other groups
Size constancy
Infants develop the ability to perceive that occluded objects are whole
Fourth Monoth
Babies can keep their heads erect while being held or supported in a sitting position
Can now roll-over, accidentally
Begin to reach objects
Sixth Month
Babies cannot sit without support
Can start creeping or crawling
Could successfully reach for objects in the dark faster than they could in the light
They can now localize or detect sounds from their origins
Seventh Month
Pincer Grasps could already manifest
Can start standing
Can now sit independently
Eighth Month
Babies can assume sitting position without help
Infants can now learn to pull themselves up and hold on to a chair
Tenth Month
They can now stand alone
Eleventh Month
Babies can let go and stand alone well
Thirteenth Month
Toddlers can now pull a toy attached to a string and use their hands and legs to climb stairs
Eighteenth to Twenty-Fourth Month
Toddlers can now walk quickly, run, and balance on their feet in a squatting position
Crawling
helps babies learn to judge distances and perceive depth
Social Refrencing
– babies learn to look at caregivers for clues as to whether a situation is secure or frightening
Sensory Perception
enable infants to learn about themselves and their environment so they can make better judgements about how to navigate in it
Visual Guidance
the use of eyes to guide the movements of the hands
Depth Perception
the ability to perceive objects and surfaces in three dimensions
Kinetic Cues
produced by movement of the object or the observer or both
Haptic Perception
ability to acquire information by handling objects rather than just looking at them
Posture
dynamic process that is linked with sensory information in the skin, joints, and muscles which tell us where we are in space
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
an object remains the same shape even though its orientation changes
Gibson’s Ecological View
we directly perceive info that exists in the world around us
Affordance
opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities
Thelen’s Dynamic Systems Theory
Behavior emerges in the movement from the self-organization of multiple components
Classical Conditioning
a person learns to make a reflex, or involuntary, response to a stimulus that originally did not bring about the response
Extinction
if the conditioned learning is not reinforced by repeated association
Operant Conditioning
focuses on the consequences of behaviors and how they affect the likelihood of the behavior occurring again
Intelligent Behavior
presumed to be goal-oriented, meaning it exists for the purposes of attaining a goal
IQ Tests
consists of questions or tasks that are supposed to show how much of the measured abilities a person has by comparing that person’s performance with norms
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development
developmental test designed to assess children from 1 month to 3 ½ years
Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)
trained observers interview the primary caregiver and rate on a yes-or-no checklist the intellectual stimulation and support observed in a child’s home
Early Intervention
systematic process of planning and providing therapeutic and educational services for families that need help in meeting infants’, toddlers’, and pre-school children’s developmental needs
Sensorimotor Stage
The first stage of Jean Piaget’s cognitive development
Circular Reactions
an infant learns to reproduce events originally discovered by chance
Schemes
occurs when children use their existing schemes to deal with new information
Accomodation
occurs when children adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account
Organization
grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into higher-order system
Disquilibrium
cognitive conflict
Equlibrium
children shift from one stage of thought to the next
Use of Reflexes (Birth to 1 Month)
Exercise their inborn reflexes and gain some control over them
Practice their reflexes and control them (e.g., sucking whenever they want to)
Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 Months)
Repeat pleasurable behaviors that first occur by chance
Begin to coordinate sensory information and grasp objects
They turn towards the sounds
Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 Months)
Repeat actions that brings interesting results Learns about causality
Coordination of Secondary Schemes (8-12 months)
Coordinate previously learned schemes and use previously learned behaviors to attain their goals
Can anticipate events
Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)
Purposefully vary their actions to see results
Actively explore the world
Trial and error in solving problems
Mental Combinations
Can think about events and anticipate consequences without always resorting action
Can use symbols such as gestures and words, and can pretend
Transition to Pre-operational stage
Learns about numbers
Representational Ability
the ability to mentally represent objects and actions in memory, largely through symbols such as words, numbers, and mental picture
Deferred Imitation
Piaget believed that children under 18 months could not engage in
Deferred Imitation
Reproduction of an observed behavior after the passage of time
Children lacked the ability to retain mental representations
Object Permanence
the realization that something continues to exist when out of sight
Dual Representation Hypothesis
proposal that children under age of 3 have difficulty grasping spatial relationships because of the need to keep more than one mental representation in mind at the same time