Infancy Flashcards

Infancy (Chapter 4)

Social Change and Consequences for Infants

  • Historically, high infant mortality meant the main developmental task was survival.
  • Infant mortality rates decreased dramatically due to improved nutrition and infection control.
  • In the early 1960s, there was increased recognition of the consequences of poor early child development.
  • Head Start program was created in 1965.
  • Early Head Start program was created in 1995.
  • Societal changes:
    • Both parents working
    • Greater number of unmarried women
    • Increased number of teenage mothers
    • Increased substance abuse by mothers
  • Policies toward child care:
    • Lanham Act provided government support for child care during WWII.
    • Day care programs increased in the 1970s.
    • Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).
    • Dependent Care Child Credit.
    • Welfare reform efforts of late 1990s.

Infancy Stage of Human Development

  • From birth to approximately 2 years of age.
  • Hallmarks of infancy:
    • Physical growth
    • Motor development
    • Vocal development
    • Cognitive and social development
  • Rapid physical growth during the 1st year.
  • Growth and size depend on environmental conditions and genetic endowment.

Physical Growth

  • Birth weight doubles by 5 months.
  • Birth length doubles by 3-4 years of age (at 2 years old, half your adult height).
  • Red flags:
    • Large/small head size = potential cognitive deficits
    • Small height = potential genetic syndromes
  • Infant brain growth is most critical to biophysical human development.
    • At 1 year, brain is ½ the size of an adult brain.
    • Billions of neurons.
    • Proper nutrition is critical during this period of rapid brain growth.
    • Experience in the social environment is also important for brain growth.
  • Growth does not happen at the same rate all over.
    • Cephalocaudal = baby’s growth from head to the feet.
    • Proximodistal = from spine to the extremities.
  • Maturational Theory: Genetically programmed sequence.

Milestones

  • Milestones help us understand the normal or typical sequence of development.
  • 50th percentile for age.
  • Does not take into account the quality (clinical experience needed).
  • Station: posture (in sitting, standing positions).
  • Gait: movement.
  • Helps us identify those who may be at risk for a developmental delay (not a developmental disorder).
  • Those that cannot perform a task that 90% of babies can.
  • Screening recommended at 9, 18 and 24 (or 30) months (AAP).

Gross Motor

  • Involves large muscle activities; needs to be practiced.
  • Reflexes: all disappear by 6 months.
    • 1 month: turns head
    • 4 months: rolls front to back
    • 7 months: sits without support
    • 10 months: creeping well*, cruising around furniture
    • 12 months: independent steps
    • 14 months: stands without pulling up, walks well
    • 16 months: walks backwards
    • 22 months: kicks ball with demonstration
  • At 2 years a child can kick a ball, jump with two feet off the floor and throw a big ball overhand.
  • Red flags:
    • at 9 months inability to sit
    • at 18 months inability to walk independently

Fine Motor

  • Involves smaller muscle activities.
    • 2 months: holds onto rattle placed in hand
    • 3 months: batting objects
    • 5 months: reaching and grasping objects
    • 6 months: transfers hand-hand
    • 9 months: bangs two cubes together
    • 11 months: throws objects
    • 12 months: pincer grasp
    • 14 months: imitates back and forth scribble; 3 cube tower
    • 20 months: adjusting a spoon for eating
    • 22 months: closes box with lid; imitate vertical line
  • At 2 years a child can create a 6-block tower, feed themselves with a fork/spoon, remove clothing, and grasp and turn a door knob.

Assessing Newborn’s Nervous System

  • Sleep-wake states provide useful information
    • Active sleep – periods with eye movement
    • Quiet sleep – periods with no eye movement
  • Unstable sleep patterns have been observed in many types of atypical brain development
  • Early sleep patterns have predicted subsequent developmental outcomes
  • Ages & Stages Questionnaires to determine if baby is developmentally delayed

Infant Mental Health

  • Field promotes healthy social and emotional development.
  • The Zero to Three Diagnostic Classification Task Force (1994).
  • Defined infant mental health as developing the capacity from birth to 3 to:
    • Experience, regulate, and express emotions.
    • Form close, secure interpersonal relationships.
    • Explore environment and learn in the context of the family, community, and cultural expectations for young children.
  • Infants are vulnerable to abuse and neglect.
  • They may withdraw from interactions and even seem to suffer from depression.
  • They can develop problems with feeding, sleeping, and behavioral regulation.
  • Problems in infant-parent relationship due to:
    • Previous pregnancy loss, postpartum depression, infant’s medical/developmental problems, parent’s drug use, abuse of infant, prolonged separations, family stress, parent’s mental illness, parent with own longstanding attachment disorder.

Infant MH Assessment/Interventions

  • AIMS – instrument for assessing emotional wellbeing of children from birth to 5 yrs. old
  • Attachment - Mastery Interaction - Social Support
  • Intervention for emotional development
    • Show admiration for baby in parents’ presence
    • Point out parent’s ability to ‘hear’ baby’/child’s cries/requests and to respond appropriately
    • Discuss role of the other parent in caregiving
    • Discuss upcoming stages of infant development
    • Comment on how proud parent must be to see baby/child doing so well

Early Intervention for Developmental Delay

  • Until 1970s, parents were encouraged to institutionalize babies with a developmental delay.
  • Intervention programs were then developed for infants with disabilities
  • Services for Infants and Toddlers with Handicapping Conditions (federal law)
  • Most communities now provide infant-stimulation or early-intervention programs
  • Parents are taught exercises and activities to do with child at home to enhance child’s development
  • Strengthening baby’s muscles enriches interaction with the environment and enhances cognitive and physical development

Biophysical Strengths & Hazards

  • Injury from accidents
  • Illness susceptibility
  • SIDS
  • Parents must take preventive measures
  • Breastfeeding
    • WHO recommends exclusively breastfeeding (EBF) for the first 6 months of life
    • Antibodies passed down from the mother provide greater protection against infections and SIDS
    • Long-term benefits against illnesses such as diabetes, leukemia, high blood pressure, asthma, etc.
    • <40% of babies aged 6 months or younger are EBF internationally

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

  • Unexpected death of an infant for which no physical cause can be found
  • Most common cause of death in first year of life – 1 in 400 babies
  • African American babies are two times more likely to die of SIDS than white babies
  • Several infant and parental risk factors
  • Believed causes: changes in infant’s airways, viral infection, sleeping on their stomach
  • The Back to Sleep Campaign – babies are safest when they sleep on their backs

Psychological Dimension: Cognitive Development & Information Processing

  • “Intelligence” Measured in multiple areas
  • Problem-solving
  • Language
  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Information Processing
  • Children increase cognitive development through learning

Cognitive Development: Problem-Solving

  • Manipulating objects to achieve a specific goal
    • 1 month: follows face
    • 5 months: turns head to look for dropped spoon
    • 7 months: finds partially hidden object
    • 10 months: uncovers toy under cloth
    • 12-18 months: do not understand invisible displacements
  • At 2 years has full object permanence (can hold an image/person in their mind, e.g., know where the cookies are kept).

How does cognitive learning occur?

  • Piaget (sensorimotor stage: birth - 2 years)
  • Through circular reactions develops from random reflexes to intentional goal-directed behavior

How do we assess learning? How babies process information?

  • Observe how long an infant will look at or fixate on something interesting and not be distracted.
    • Habituation – become uninterested in a stimulus and respond less to it after it is repeatedly presented to them.
    • Dishabituation – increased responsiveness after a change in stimulus
  • Babies pay more attention to stimuli they haven’t seen before, things they have control over, and events they didn’t expect to happen
  • Implications?
    • Those who habituate faster may be brighter at age 12.
    • 6 – 7 month old infants display categorization
    • Perhaps have an innate sense of how the world works

Cognitive Development: Language milestones

  • Representation of thoughts and ideas using culturally agreed upon arbitrary signals for the exchange of ideas.
    • Expressive – what they say
    • Receptive – ability to understand; assessed through response to a request
  • Ability to learn is innate, but environmental exposure is essential
  • Interventions for low SES kids include videos and reading
  • How should we communicate with babies?

Cognitive Development: Language milestones

  • Birth: Crying
  • 1-2 months: Cooing
  • 4 months: laughing
  • 6 months: babbling, gestures for “up”
  • 9 months: “mama” and “dada” (language specific 7 – 11 months)
  • 10 months: waves “bye-bye”
  • 12 months: first word, pointing

Cognitive Development: Language milestones

  • 15 months: can shake their head “no”; use 3-5 words
    • Holophrastic speech – 1 word means a whole sentence
    • Overextension – 1 word (e.g., “dog”) to mean an entire category (“animal”)
  • 18-24 months: pronouns (e.g., “me”), vocab of 50 words.
    • Telegraphic speech – combines 2-word phrases (noun + verb) such as “more drink”.
  • Red flags:
    • at 6 months not turning to sound/voice
    • at 9 months lack of babbling consonant sounds
    • at 24 months failure to use single words

Social/Emotional

  • 1 month: discriminates mothers voice
  • 2 months: reciprocal smiling
  • 4 months: stops crying at parents voice; spontaneous smiles
  • 6 months: stranger anxiety (fear emotion)
  • 8 months: gaze monitoring; social referencing for emotional information
  • 9 months: separation anxiety; orients to name
  • 12 months: look to strangers for cues
  • 15 months: empathy, hugs
  • 18 months: pretend play (fake emotions); more complex emotions (shame, guilt, pride)
  • 20 months: kisses with pucker
  • emotional expression in infancy predictive of sociability in adulthood

Temperament

  • Characteristic pattern in which an infant responds to and interacts with the environment (biological)
  • Nine dimensions of temperament
  • Three types of children:
    • Easy child
    • Slow to warm up
    • Difficult child
    • Behavioral Inhibition
  • Implications for adult functioning
  • Important to have the right match from the environment for each temperament (i.e., the “ goodness of fit ” )

Attachment

  • Forming a strong emotional tie to a caregiver
  • Parents/Child are biologically programmed to form a close bond (Bowlby)
  • Easier when a baby is responsive to adult because it creates a positive feedback loop
  • Implications for functioning: interpersonal skills, self -control, school performance
  • “Strange Situation” to assess attachment type

Attachment Styles

  • Secure Attachment: Use Mother as a secure base when playing
  • Insecure Avoidant: Do not use Mother as a secure base, indifferent
  • Insecure Anxious: Clingy and reluctant to explore or angry at mother

Self-Awareness

  • Sense of self as object by 18 months.
  • Active sense of self by birth
  • Task to develop a sense of self as separate from others
  • Mahler’s process of separation individuation.
  • Implications for personality assessment and practice

Self Regulation

  • At what age can baby’s obey when not in the presences of others?
  • What role does the process of self referencing play in self regulation of behavior?
  • The responses from others influences moral development, but the implication can be to avoid certain responses

Psychological strengths and hazards

  • Attachment problems
  • Failure to form an attachment loss of caregiver
  • Failure to thrive
    • Child’s weight below 5 th % for age
    • Organic – Underlying medical condition
    • Nonorganic – Psychological condition (e.g., emotional deprivation), difficult family situations

Social strengths and hazards

  • Circular Influences in the family
    • marital → parents → interactions
  • Family stress → baby’s response

Social strengths and hazards

  • Father involvement
  • Need social support
  • Maternal grandmother
  • Playing with Baby
  • Adoption and Birth Parents
  • Daycare
  • Infant Abuse
  • Appropriate environment
  • Be able to “read” what the baby needs (e.g., playing at appropriate times)
  • Practice tool: the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory