Week 10 - Development through the lifespan: birth to middle childhood

cross-sectional study

compares different groups of people at different ages.

maturation

biological growth that occurs continuously over time

zygote

1-2 weeks after conception

embryo

2-8 weeks after conception

• the heart begins beating

fetus

9 weeks until birth

• sexual differentiation occurs

  • Males, who have an XY chromosome pattern, begin producing testis differentiating factor, causing the development of male sex organs.

  • If this factor is not present at this time, the same tissue develops into female genitalia by default.

genotype

blueprint for your body’s developments

your unique genetic pattern of DNA

provide a predisposition or potential for a characteristic,

phenotype

observable characteristics or traits of an organism, such as its appearance, development, and behavior. These traits are influenced by both the organism's genetic makeup (genotype) and environmental factors.

• ex

  • Genotype: Genetic factors contribute to a person's potential height.

    Environment: Nutrition, health status, and living conditions during childhood can significantly affect actual height.

disorder of sex development

errors occur in genetic replication of the sex chromosomes or in the processing of sex hormones (androgen and testosterone) and enzymes. As a result, some babies are born with physical characteristics of both genders,

fetal alcohol syndrome

Irreversible brain abnormalities caused by the mother’s consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.

babies grow in increasing differentiation, meaning …

Growth in complexity over time, with structures and functions becoming more specific for given tasks.

age of viability

By around 6 months, the fetus has developed enough that it may survive if born prematurely.

A full-term birth is typically __ weeks of prenatal

development.

37

babies’ “rooting” instinct

• a touch on the cheek causes them to turn and open their mouths mouths.

• If you touch their lips, they try to suck.

• And when they feel a touch on the back of their mouths, they swallow.

importance of babies’ rooting reflex 

These instincts are obviously helpful in ensuring that newborns are able to breastfeed immediately after birth.

babies’ grasp reflex

involves grabbing onto anything placed in the baby’s palm,

babies’ Moro reflex

a “startle” response to loud noises or the sudden loss of support: The baby throws its arms and legs outward, and then pulls them back together.

importance of babies’ grab and Moro reflexes

With these physical actions, a baby may rescue themself by clinging onto a parent.

temperament

emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity to stimulation.

why are differences in temperament evident in even the first few weeks of life

it’s biologically based

The visual system is not well developed at birth, and infants see best at a distance of around __ inches.

This happens to be about how far they are from _______________

8; their mother’s face while breastfeeding.

Baby Facial Recognition and preferential looking

• infant attraction toward the contrast between light and shadow created by human facial features

  • prefers contrast at abt 10 days

  • by 6 weeks, recognizes human-like features

baby imitation

Within 72 hours of birth, newborns imitate gestures, such as pursing their lips or sticking out their tongues ( Meltzoff & Moore, 1983 , 1989 ). Imitation may serve a purpose by connecting the newborn infant to the caregiver, helping to form social bonds.

Infant directed “parentese”

• a special way of talking to babies

  • higher pitch

  • exaggerated intonation

  • simplified vocabulary.

• Helps capture infants' attention and supports their language development

  • making it easier for them to learn and engage in conversation.

Physical growth occurs at a ____ rate in infancy, with another spurt in adolescence.

faster

After the first year, the head becomes proportionally _____

smaller

plasticity

The capacity of the brain and neurons to adapt to damage that alters them.

• ex: In one 6-year-old child, epilepsy required surgical removal of the cortex over her entire right hemisphere. Five years later, the only sign of its absence was the limited use of her left arm, and she loves math, music, and art, skills usually involving the right side of the brain

Stage theory says that in addition to continuous maturation or growth, development typically takes place as an orderly, fixed progression of stages, or discrete, qualitative “jumps” over time.

Give example in infant development to learn to walk

• Typically, 2-day-old babies spend most of their time curled in a fetal position.

• Three months later, they learn to roll over.

• At about 6 months, they are sitting up by themselves

• By 9 months, they are crawling.

• At 12 months, they can stand alone and will begin to walk by themselves.

babies seem to go through the exact same progression of different stages in a fixed sequence as they learn to walk.

developmental norms

definition: Behavioral milestone that identifies when certain behaviors usually occur in normal development.\

Normative stages include …

• motor skills (run, keep balance, use hands to eat and draw)

• language skills (gestures and communication)

• cognitive skills (learning, remembering, reasoning)

• social skills (cooperating, responding to others)

Doctors use norms to identify children that may have disruptions (such as hearing loss) or delays in their development.

no question, just know this ig

Piaget’s Constructivist Approach

emphasizes that learners actively construct their understanding of the world through experiences and interactions, rather than passively receiving information. Children as little scientists

Piaget’s Stages of Development

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

Sensorimotor Stage

all about learning to grasp and manipulate objects (a bottle, a rattle, a toy) and move through the world (to crawl, walk, and run).

As a result, they are focused on developing their sensory and motor processes to coordinate their movements and their eyes with their hands.

what behavior changes in the sensorimotor stage

object permanence

object permanence

0-2 y/o

Babies remembering objects they can no longer see in front of them.

(happens around 9 months)

preoperational stage

2-6 y/o

They are also rapidly learning language, using verbal symbols to represent concepts. However, preschoolers are still focused on what they perceive.

what is a limitation during the preoperational phase?

conservation

conservation

the principle that an object maintains the same mass, volume, or number, even if it is displaced across space

Until around age 7, the child lacks the concept of conservation and may be misled by superficial changes in appearance.

• ex: A stack of pennies is the same even if spread out across a table

Preschool children also believe that others know, think, and feel the same way they do, called _____

egocentrism

• ex: Preoperational preschoolers have not developed the ability to perceive things from another person’s viewpoint.

concrete operational stage

7-12 y/o

entering grade school, they receive some training in learning to think logically. But while they are able to learn concrete concepts like arithmetic, they are still limited in their reasoning.

formal operational stage

12+ y/o

characterized by reasoning on a logical or hypothetical level. Before this stage, children use trial and error to solve problems; with formal operations, they can use logical methods like experimentation.

theory of mind

The child’s conception of what he or she and others know, and that these can differ.

new studies using looking times showed that infants as young as 5 months thought the hidden object was still there.

car experiment

zone of proximal development

Children’s readiness to learn the next step from what they already know.

This zone is the range between what the child can already do and what he or she is ready to accomplish.

• ex: once a child can count, he or she is ready to learn about zero. This

attatchment

A deep, emotional bond that an infant develops with its caregiver.

Harlow's Wire Mother Experiment

Harlow's wire mother experiment involved separating infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers and providing them with two surrogate mothers: one made of wire that dispensed milk and another covered in soft cloth that provided no food. The results showed that the infants overwhelmingly preferred the cloth mother for comfort, only going to the wire mother for nourishment, highlighting the importance of emotional contact comfort in attachment

contact comfort

The need for touch as a primary drive in monkeys and humans.

What biological hormone is linked to mother–infant bonding?

Oxytocin — higher maternal oxytocin before and after birth predicts stronger attachment.

Name four maternal behaviours that indicate attachment.

Focused gaze on the baby; positive energy; constant affectionate touch; use of “motherese” speech.

How does paternal biology change with close contact to children?

Fathers who have close daily contact (≈3+ hours/day) show decreased testosterone levels over time.

sensitive period

A developmental window (about 6–24 months) when attachment relationships form more readily.

Who proposed the attachment theory and the idea of a sensitive period?

John Bowlby

What behavioural changes in infants coincide with the sensitive period?

Increased approach to familiar caregivers and avoidance of unfamiliar adults; emergence of stranger anxiety around 12 months.

stranger anxiety

Fear reaction to unfamiliar adults that typically appears around 12 months.

What is separation anxiety and why does it occur?

Distress when separated from parent; reflects improving memory and object permanence and is a normal developmental stage.

the Strange Situation

Ainsworth’s laboratory procedure observing infant reactions to caregiver leaving, a stranger’s presence, and caregiver return to assess attachment.

secure attatchment

which the child seems happy with the parent present, distressed when the parent leaves, and delighted by the parent’s return.

What happens when secure attachment is disrupted?

Some babies learn they cannot rely upon the caregiver and act this out in the strange situation task mentioned earlier by showing insecure attachment

avoidance attatchment

little to no distress on parent departure, little or no visible response to caregiver’s return

ambivalent/anxious attatchment

Clinging before separation occurs, Distressed on separation, not easily comforted

assimilation

Incorporating new information into an existing schema without changing the schema.

accomodation

Adjusting or changing an existing schema (or creating a new one) when new information cannot be assimilated.

equilibration

The process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to achieve stable understanding; disequilibrium triggers accommodation.

A study that follows a person through different ages as he or she develops is called a(n) __________ study.

A. cross-sectional

B. longitudinal

C. cohort

D. experimental

A

The longest stage of prenatal development is the ________ stage.

A. zygote

B. fetus

C. embryo

D. newborn

B

In a study of visual preferences, researchers presented newborns with head-shaped forms that depicted a properly featured face, a scrambled face, or a blank, featureless face.

The infants’ visual tracking behavior indicated:

A. a preference for the scrambled face.

B. a preference for the properly featured face.

C. no preferences among the three stimuli.

D. a preference for the blank, featureless face.

B

4. After a child’s pet kitten runs away, his parents buy him a puppy. The child finds out that puppies are different from kittens and then acts differently with the puppy. This best illustrates Piaget’s concept of:

A. assimilation.

B. accommodation.

C. egocentrism.

D. conservation.

B

A child who is reading a book upstairs calls to his mother who is downstairs, “Mommy, what is this a picture of?” This illustrates that the child is:

A. egocentric.

B. concrete operational.

C. experiencing separation anxiety.

D. babbling.

A

6. A child returns from Halloween trick-or-treating andpromptly dumps a bag of candy in a pile on the kitchen table. She then spreads it out at and it looks like more, but she knows it is the same amount of candy. You can conclude she:

A. is in the preoperational stage of development.

B. is no longer egocentric in her thinking.

C. has a good understanding of conservation of mass.

D. is at least 7 years old.

C

In a classic series of experiments on attachment by Harlow, newborn monkeys were placed in cages that contained “surrogate mothers.” How did the monkeys react to these “moms”?

A. They developed as normally as if they were with their real mothers.

B. They became attached to the one that provided milk.

C. They became attached to the one that was soft and cuddly.

D. They became attached to both kinds of “mothers.”

C

In the context of parent–child relationships, attachment refers to:

A. a deep emotional bond between infant and primary caretaker.

B. the fondness that a child sometimes has for inanimate objects like “blankies.”

C. clinging behavior that is characteristic of insecure relationships.

D. an instinctive tendency for babies to follow their mothers.

A

How do children with secure attachment behave in the strange situation procedure when their mother returns after leaving them earlier?

A. They are indifferent.

B. They actively ignore her.

C. They react with anger.

D. They appear delighted.

D