Psych Ch. 9
9.1 What is Lifespan Development?
→ How is an adult influenced by the child they once were?
Physical development: involves growth and changes in the body and brain, senses, motor skills, and health/wellness.
Cognitive development: involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
Psychological development: involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.
Normative approach: spreads across physical, cognitive, and psychological development. Asks “what is normal development?”
Developmental milestones: guidelines used to compare children with similar aged peers to determine approximate ages they should reach specific events
Ex. crawling, walking, writing, dressing, naming colors, speaking in sentences, starting puberty
Some milestones, like puberty, are universal. Others, like learning to read, depends on the culture and when they start schooling.
Issues in Developmental Psychology
→ focuses on how people change and that all approaches address questions of change.
→ How do genetics and environment influence development?
Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
Continuous development: views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills.
Ex. a child’s physical growth: adding inches to height year by year
Discontinuous development: belief that development takes place in unique stages, occurs at specific times or ages.
Ex. Change is more sudden, like an infant’s ability to conceive object permanence.
Is There One Course of Development or Many?
Is there one universal path of development? Or many different paths.
Stage theories hold that sequence of development is universal.
Ex. children around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence. Infants in all cultures coo before they babble.
Ex. Aché mothers carry their kids until they’re 23-25 months old to prevent them from getting injured in the forest. Once they can walk then they are give freedom to run around. They develop better motor skills than most US children of the same age by the time they are 9.
How do Nature and Nurture Influence Development?
→ Nature: biology and genetics
→ Nurture: environment and culture.
Nature v. Nurture debate seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors and how they are shaped by our environments.
9.2 Lifespan Theories
Psychosexual Theory of Development
Freud believed that personality develops during early childhood.
Also believed that during childhood if we lack proper nurturance and parenting during a developmental stage then we will become stuck in that stage.
Psychosexual development: Freud’s stages of development, says children’s pleasure seeking urges focus on different area of the body, called the erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development.
Psychosocial Theory of Development
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) took Freud’s theory and modified it to become psychosocial theory.
Psychosocial development: emphasizes the social nature of our development rather than its sexual nature.
Erikson proposed that we are motivated by a need to achieve competence in certain areas of our lives.
Trust is the basis of our development during infancy (birth -12 months)
Infants dependent upon caregivers, caregivers must be responsive to infants needs.
Toddlers (1-3 yrs), main goal is to resolve issue of autonomy vs. shame and doubt.
Ex. a 2 year old wants to pick out their outfit and dress herself. The outfits may not be appropriate for the situation, but her decisions can impact her sense of independence.
Preschool age (3-6 yrs.), capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play. Must learn to plan and achieve goals, if not they can feel guilty.
Elementary school age (7-11 yrs): Children face task of industry vs. inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves to peers and see how they measure up.
Can develop sense of pride in schoolwork, sport, and social activity or will feel inferior and inadequate.
Adolescence (12-18): children face task of identity vs. role confusion, main task is establishing a sense of self. “Who am I?”
People who are successful in this stage have a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to beliefs.
Early adulthood (19-29), concerned with intimacy v. isolation. We are ready to share our life with others after we develop sense of self.
Middle adulthood (30s-64), generativity v. stagnation; do we find our life’s work contributing to the development of others or do we have little connection with others?
Late adulthood (65-end of life), Integrity v. despair, we reflect on our lives and feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development
Stage 1: (0-1 yrs) → Trust vs. mistrust → Trust (or mistrust) that basic needs, like nourishment and affection, will be met
Stage 2: (1-3 yrs) → Autonomy vs. shame/doubt → Develop a sense of independence in many tasks.
Stage 3: (3-6 yrs.) → Initiative vs. guilt → Take initiative on some activities - may develop a guilt when unsuccessful or boundaries overstepped.
Stage 4: (7-11 yrs.) → Industry v. inferiority → Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not.
Stage 5: (12-18 yrs.) → Identity vs. confusion → Experiment with and develop identity roles.
Stage 6: (19-29 yrs.) → Intimacy vs. Isolation → Establish intimacy and relationships with others.
Stage 7: (30-64 yrs.) → Generativity vs. stagnation → Contribute to society and be part of a family
Stage 8: (65-death) → Integrity vs. despair → Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions.
Cognitive Theory of Development
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) studied childhood development
Focused on children’s cognitive growth, with distinctive stages of development.
Children develop schemata:
Concepts that are used to help us categorize and interpret information. When children reach adulthood they have a schemata for everything.
When children learn new things, they adjust their schemata through two processes:
Assimilation: take in information that is comparable to what they already know
Accommodation: when they change their schemata based on new information.
Ex. 2 yr old learned schemata for dogs because family has a lab retriever. When he sees other dogs in pictures he can identify that it’s a dog. One day he sees a sheep for the first time and identifies it as a dog because his schemata only accounts for four legged animals with fur. His mom tells him that its a sheep and not a dog, so he must accommodate his schema for dogs to include more information based on his new experiences.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs.) → World experienced through senses and actions → Object permanence, stranger anxiety
Children learn about the world through their own senses and motor behavior; touching, grabbing putting things in their mouths
Object permanence: understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists.
Also develop stranger anxiety (fear of unfamiliar people)
Preoperational (2-6 yrs.) → Use words and images to represent things, but lack logical reasoning → Pretend play, egocentrism, Language development
Children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage pretend play.
Use language but can’t understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information, go off of their own information.
Ex. Kenny and his sister get a slice of pizza. Kenny’s slice was cut into 5 pieces, and he told his sister that he got more pizza than she did, which is not true the slices were the same size.
This is conservation: idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed or added.
Also expect children to display egocentrism: a child is not able to take the perspective of others. They think that everyone sees the world through their eyes.
Ex. Kenny goes to the store to buy a present for his sister’s birthday and he gets her an Iron man toy thinking if he likes it then she will too.
Concrete Operational (7-11 yrs.) → Understand concrete events and analogies logically; perform arithmetical operations → Conservation, mathematical, transformations.
Children can think logically about concrete events, they have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory strategies. Can perform mathematical operations and understand transformations.
Reversibility: objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition.
Formal Operations (12+ yrs.) → Formal operations, utilize abstract reasoning → abstract logic, moral reasoning
Can deal with abstract ideas to problem solve, look at alternative solutions, and test them. A renewed egocentrism occurs.
Ex. a 15 year old with a small pimple on her face might think it’s huge and all anyone sees when they look at her.
Beyond Formal Operational Thought
Some research suggests that children reach cognitive milestones earlier than Piaget proposed.
Some psychologists have suggested a 5th stage, known as the postformal stage
Here, decisions are made based on situations and circumstances, logic is integrated with emotion as adults develop principles that depend on contexts.
Moral Theory of Development
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) extended upon Piaget’s work by suggesting that moral development follows a series of stages.
Ex. In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that?
Kohlberg didn’t care if your answer was yes or no, he wanted to know the reasoning behind your answer.
Stages of Moral Reasoning: An individual progresses from the capacity for pre- conventional morality to the capacity for conventional morality, and toward attaining post-conventional morality.
Level 1 - Pre-conventional morality → (stage 1): Obedience and punishment: behavior driven by avoiding punishment. (stage 2): Individual interest: behavior driven by self-interest and rewards.
Level 2 - Conventional Morality → (stage 3): Interpersonal: behavior driven by social approval. (stage 4): Authority: behavior driven by obeying authority and conforming to social order.
Level 3 - Post conventional morality → (stage 5): Social contract: behavior driven by balance of social order and individual rights. (stage 6): Universal ethics: behavior driven by internal moral principles.
Moral reasoning and moral behavior are two different things. What we say we would do in a situation vs. what we would actually do are sometimes completely different.
9.3 Stages of Development
→ Development can be broken into three areas: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.
Prenatal Development
→ Three stages: germinal, embryonic, fetal
Germinal Stage (1-2 Weeks)
Conception: occurs when a sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote.
Zygote: begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge.
Mitosis: cell division, fragile process and fewer than one half of all zygotes survive beyond first two weeks.
→ after five days of mitosis there are 100 cells, after 9 months there are billions.
Embryonic Stage (3-8 Weeks)
Embryo: clump of cells that has traveled down the fallopian tubes and implanted itself into uterine lining.
Placenta: structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord.
→ heart begins to beat and organs form/function. Spinal cord and brain also form.
Fetal Stage (9-40 Weeks)
Fetus is about the size of a kidney bean and begins to take on recognizable human form.
Prenatal Influences
Prenatal care: medical care during a pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and baby.
Everything in the environment affects the fetus and can have lifelong effects.
Placenta gives nourishment to baby, hence the phrase “eating for two”
Teratogen: any environmental agent, biological, chemical, or physical, that causes damage to the developing embryo or fetus.
Alcohol is an example of this, leading cause of preventable intellectual disabilities in children during pregnancy.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are a collection of birth defects associated with heavy consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.
Smoking is also a teratogen because nicotine travels through the placenta to the fetus.
Smoking while pregnant can lead to premature birth, low birth weight, still birth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Most over the counter medicines are considered teratogens.
Babies born with a heroin addiction need heroin like an adult with a heroin addiction would need it.
Critical Period: specific periods in the pregnancy when certain organs of the fetus develop.
Infancy Through Childhood
Newborn reflexes: All healthy babies are born with these, they are inborn automatic responses to particular forms of stimulation. They help the baby survive until it is capable of more complex behaviors.
Rooting reflex is baby’s response to anything touching their cheek, baby will turn its head in the direction of the object and begin to suck
Grasping reflex is present when you put your finger in a baby’s hand.
Newborns can show a preference for faces and prefer their mother’s voice over a strangers.
Physical Development
In infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, the body’s physical development is rapid. Newborns weigh between 5-10 pounds and a newborn’s weight typically doubles in six months and triples in one year.
Growth slows between 4-6 years old. During this time children gain 5-7 pounds and grow about 2-3 inches per year.
By 10 years old, average female weights 88 pounds and male weighs 85 pounds.
Previously thought that we are born with all the brain cells we would ever have, but recent research suggests that neurogenesis can continue through adulthood.
Size of brain increases rapidly, size of a 2 yr olds brain is 55% of its adult size, and by 6 yrs old the brain is about 90% of its adult size.
Motor Skills: our ability to move our bodies and manipulate objects.
Fine motor skills: focus on the muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes; enable coordination of small actions, like grasping a toy or using a spoon.
Gross motor skills: focus on large muscle groups that control our arms and legs and involve larger movements, like balancing, running, and jumping.
Developmental Milestones, Ages 2-5 yrs.
2 | Kicks a ball; walks up and down stairs | Plays alongside other children; copies adults | Points to objects when named; puts 2–4 words together in a sentence | Sorts shapes and colors; follows 2-step instructions |
3 | Climbs and runs; pedals tricycle | Takes turns; expresses many emotions; dresses self | Names familiar things; uses pronouns | Plays make believe; works toys with parts (levers, handles) |
4 | Catches balls; uses scissors | Prefers social play to solo play; knows likes and interests | Knows songs and rhymes by memory | Names colors and numbers; begins writing letters |
5 | Hops and swings; uses fork and spoon | Distinguishes real from pretend; likes to please friends | Speaks clearly; uses full sentences | Counts to 10 or higher; prints some letters and copies basic shapes |
Cognitive Development
Infants shake their head no around 6-9 months
Around 9-12 months they respond to verbal requests to do things like “wave bye” or “blow a kiss”
Object permanence starts around 8 months old.
Preschool age children understand basic time concepts and begin to use humor in stories.
Also love asking why?
Theory of Mind: children understand that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are different than their own.
They can use this skill to tease others, persuade their parents to buy them candy, or understand why a sibling might be angry,
Cognitive skills develop around ages 6-11. Thought process are more logical and they can begin to understand addition and subtraction.
Attachment
Psych Ch. 9
9.1 What is Lifespan Development?
→ How is an adult influenced by the child they once were?
Physical development: involves growth and changes in the body and brain, senses, motor skills, and health/wellness.
Cognitive development: involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
Psychological development: involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.
Normative approach: spreads across physical, cognitive, and psychological development. Asks “what is normal development?”
Developmental milestones: guidelines used to compare children with similar aged peers to determine approximate ages they should reach specific events
Ex. crawling, walking, writing, dressing, naming colors, speaking in sentences, starting puberty
Some milestones, like puberty, are universal. Others, like learning to read, depends on the culture and when they start schooling.
Issues in Developmental Psychology
→ focuses on how people change and that all approaches address questions of change.
→ How do genetics and environment influence development?
Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
Continuous development: views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills.
Ex. a child’s physical growth: adding inches to height year by year
Discontinuous development: belief that development takes place in unique stages, occurs at specific times or ages.
Ex. Change is more sudden, like an infant’s ability to conceive object permanence.
Is There One Course of Development or Many?
Is there one universal path of development? Or many different paths.
Stage theories hold that sequence of development is universal.
Ex. children around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence. Infants in all cultures coo before they babble.
Ex. Aché mothers carry their kids until they’re 23-25 months old to prevent them from getting injured in the forest. Once they can walk then they are give freedom to run around. They develop better motor skills than most US children of the same age by the time they are 9.
How do Nature and Nurture Influence Development?
→ Nature: biology and genetics
→ Nurture: environment and culture.
Nature v. Nurture debate seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors and how they are shaped by our environments.
9.2 Lifespan Theories
Psychosexual Theory of Development
Freud believed that personality develops during early childhood.
Also believed that during childhood if we lack proper nurturance and parenting during a developmental stage then we will become stuck in that stage.
Psychosexual development: Freud’s stages of development, says children’s pleasure seeking urges focus on different area of the body, called the erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development.
Psychosocial Theory of Development
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) took Freud’s theory and modified it to become psychosocial theory.
Psychosocial development: emphasizes the social nature of our development rather than its sexual nature.
Erikson proposed that we are motivated by a need to achieve competence in certain areas of our lives.
Trust is the basis of our development during infancy (birth -12 months)
Infants dependent upon caregivers, caregivers must be responsive to infants needs.
Toddlers (1-3 yrs), main goal is to resolve issue of autonomy vs. shame and doubt.
Ex. a 2 year old wants to pick out their outfit and dress herself. The outfits may not be appropriate for the situation, but her decisions can impact her sense of independence.
Preschool age (3-6 yrs.), capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play. Must learn to plan and achieve goals, if not they can feel guilty.
Elementary school age (7-11 yrs): Children face task of industry vs. inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves to peers and see how they measure up.
Can develop sense of pride in schoolwork, sport, and social activity or will feel inferior and inadequate.
Adolescence (12-18): children face task of identity vs. role confusion, main task is establishing a sense of self. “Who am I?”
People who are successful in this stage have a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to beliefs.
Early adulthood (19-29), concerned with intimacy v. isolation. We are ready to share our life with others after we develop sense of self.
Middle adulthood (30s-64), generativity v. stagnation; do we find our life’s work contributing to the development of others or do we have little connection with others?
Late adulthood (65-end of life), Integrity v. despair, we reflect on our lives and feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development
Stage 1: (0-1 yrs) → Trust vs. mistrust → Trust (or mistrust) that basic needs, like nourishment and affection, will be met
Stage 2: (1-3 yrs) → Autonomy vs. shame/doubt → Develop a sense of independence in many tasks.
Stage 3: (3-6 yrs.) → Initiative vs. guilt → Take initiative on some activities - may develop a guilt when unsuccessful or boundaries overstepped.
Stage 4: (7-11 yrs.) → Industry v. inferiority → Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not.
Stage 5: (12-18 yrs.) → Identity vs. confusion → Experiment with and develop identity roles.
Stage 6: (19-29 yrs.) → Intimacy vs. Isolation → Establish intimacy and relationships with others.
Stage 7: (30-64 yrs.) → Generativity vs. stagnation → Contribute to society and be part of a family
Stage 8: (65-death) → Integrity vs. despair → Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions.
Cognitive Theory of Development
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) studied childhood development
Focused on children’s cognitive growth, with distinctive stages of development.
Children develop schemata:
Concepts that are used to help us categorize and interpret information. When children reach adulthood they have a schemata for everything.
When children learn new things, they adjust their schemata through two processes:
Assimilation: take in information that is comparable to what they already know
Accommodation: when they change their schemata based on new information.
Ex. 2 yr old learned schemata for dogs because family has a lab retriever. When he sees other dogs in pictures he can identify that it’s a dog. One day he sees a sheep for the first time and identifies it as a dog because his schemata only accounts for four legged animals with fur. His mom tells him that its a sheep and not a dog, so he must accommodate his schema for dogs to include more information based on his new experiences.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs.) → World experienced through senses and actions → Object permanence, stranger anxiety
Children learn about the world through their own senses and motor behavior; touching, grabbing putting things in their mouths
Object permanence: understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists.
Also develop stranger anxiety (fear of unfamiliar people)
Preoperational (2-6 yrs.) → Use words and images to represent things, but lack logical reasoning → Pretend play, egocentrism, Language development
Children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage pretend play.
Use language but can’t understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information, go off of their own information.
Ex. Kenny and his sister get a slice of pizza. Kenny’s slice was cut into 5 pieces, and he told his sister that he got more pizza than she did, which is not true the slices were the same size.
This is conservation: idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed or added.
Also expect children to display egocentrism: a child is not able to take the perspective of others. They think that everyone sees the world through their eyes.
Ex. Kenny goes to the store to buy a present for his sister’s birthday and he gets her an Iron man toy thinking if he likes it then she will too.
Concrete Operational (7-11 yrs.) → Understand concrete events and analogies logically; perform arithmetical operations → Conservation, mathematical, transformations.
Children can think logically about concrete events, they have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory strategies. Can perform mathematical operations and understand transformations.
Reversibility: objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition.
Formal Operations (12+ yrs.) → Formal operations, utilize abstract reasoning → abstract logic, moral reasoning
Can deal with abstract ideas to problem solve, look at alternative solutions, and test them. A renewed egocentrism occurs.
Ex. a 15 year old with a small pimple on her face might think it’s huge and all anyone sees when they look at her.
Beyond Formal Operational Thought
Some research suggests that children reach cognitive milestones earlier than Piaget proposed.
Some psychologists have suggested a 5th stage, known as the postformal stage
Here, decisions are made based on situations and circumstances, logic is integrated with emotion as adults develop principles that depend on contexts.
Moral Theory of Development
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) extended upon Piaget’s work by suggesting that moral development follows a series of stages.
Ex. In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that?
Kohlberg didn’t care if your answer was yes or no, he wanted to know the reasoning behind your answer.
Stages of Moral Reasoning: An individual progresses from the capacity for pre- conventional morality to the capacity for conventional morality, and toward attaining post-conventional morality.
Level 1 - Pre-conventional morality → (stage 1): Obedience and punishment: behavior driven by avoiding punishment. (stage 2): Individual interest: behavior driven by self-interest and rewards.
Level 2 - Conventional Morality → (stage 3): Interpersonal: behavior driven by social approval. (stage 4): Authority: behavior driven by obeying authority and conforming to social order.
Level 3 - Post conventional morality → (stage 5): Social contract: behavior driven by balance of social order and individual rights. (stage 6): Universal ethics: behavior driven by internal moral principles.
Moral reasoning and moral behavior are two different things. What we say we would do in a situation vs. what we would actually do are sometimes completely different.
9.3 Stages of Development
→ Development can be broken into three areas: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.
Prenatal Development
→ Three stages: germinal, embryonic, fetal
Germinal Stage (1-2 Weeks)
Conception: occurs when a sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote.
Zygote: begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge.
Mitosis: cell division, fragile process and fewer than one half of all zygotes survive beyond first two weeks.
→ after five days of mitosis there are 100 cells, after 9 months there are billions.
Embryonic Stage (3-8 Weeks)
Embryo: clump of cells that has traveled down the fallopian tubes and implanted itself into uterine lining.
Placenta: structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord.
→ heart begins to beat and organs form/function. Spinal cord and brain also form.
Fetal Stage (9-40 Weeks)
Fetus is about the size of a kidney bean and begins to take on recognizable human form.
Prenatal Influences
Prenatal care: medical care during a pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and baby.
Everything in the environment affects the fetus and can have lifelong effects.
Placenta gives nourishment to baby, hence the phrase “eating for two”
Teratogen: any environmental agent, biological, chemical, or physical, that causes damage to the developing embryo or fetus.
Alcohol is an example of this, leading cause of preventable intellectual disabilities in children during pregnancy.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are a collection of birth defects associated with heavy consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.
Smoking is also a teratogen because nicotine travels through the placenta to the fetus.
Smoking while pregnant can lead to premature birth, low birth weight, still birth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Most over the counter medicines are considered teratogens.
Babies born with a heroin addiction need heroin like an adult with a heroin addiction would need it.
Critical Period: specific periods in the pregnancy when certain organs of the fetus develop.
Infancy Through Childhood
Newborn reflexes: All healthy babies are born with these, they are inborn automatic responses to particular forms of stimulation. They help the baby survive until it is capable of more complex behaviors.
Rooting reflex is baby’s response to anything touching their cheek, baby will turn its head in the direction of the object and begin to suck
Grasping reflex is present when you put your finger in a baby’s hand.
Newborns can show a preference for faces and prefer their mother’s voice over a strangers.
Physical Development
In infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, the body’s physical development is rapid. Newborns weigh between 5-10 pounds and a newborn’s weight typically doubles in six months and triples in one year.
Growth slows between 4-6 years old. During this time children gain 5-7 pounds and grow about 2-3 inches per year.
By 10 years old, average female weights 88 pounds and male weighs 85 pounds.
Previously thought that we are born with all the brain cells we would ever have, but recent research suggests that neurogenesis can continue through adulthood.
Size of brain increases rapidly, size of a 2 yr olds brain is 55% of its adult size, and by 6 yrs old the brain is about 90% of its adult size.
Motor Skills: our ability to move our bodies and manipulate objects.
Fine motor skills: focus on the muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes; enable coordination of small actions, like grasping a toy or using a spoon.
Gross motor skills: focus on large muscle groups that control our arms and legs and involve larger movements, like balancing, running, and jumping.
Developmental Milestones, Ages 2-5 yrs.
2 | Kicks a ball; walks up and down stairs | Plays alongside other children; copies adults | Points to objects when named; puts 2–4 words together in a sentence | Sorts shapes and colors; follows 2-step instructions |
3 | Climbs and runs; pedals tricycle | Takes turns; expresses many emotions; dresses self | Names familiar things; uses pronouns | Plays make believe; works toys with parts (levers, handles) |
4 | Catches balls; uses scissors | Prefers social play to solo play; knows likes and interests | Knows songs and rhymes by memory | Names colors and numbers; begins writing letters |
5 | Hops and swings; uses fork and spoon | Distinguishes real from pretend; likes to please friends | Speaks clearly; uses full sentences | Counts to 10 or higher; prints some letters and copies basic shapes |
Cognitive Development
Infants shake their head no around 6-9 months
Around 9-12 months they respond to verbal requests to do things like “wave bye” or “blow a kiss”
Object permanence starts around 8 months old.
Preschool age children understand basic time concepts and begin to use humor in stories.
Also love asking why?
Theory of Mind: children understand that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are different than their own.
They can use this skill to tease others, persuade their parents to buy them candy, or understand why a sibling might be angry,
Cognitive skills develop around ages 6-11. Thought process are more logical and they can begin to understand addition and subtraction.
Attachment
