CHAPTER 3

Physical & Cognitive Development In Infancy

Principles of Physical Growth

Cephalocaudal Principle
Growth patterns are from the head down

Proximodistal Principle
Development proceeds from the center of the body outward

Principle of Hierarchical Integration

Simple skills develop separately & independently but later are integrated into more complex skills

Principle of Independence of Systems

Different body systems grow at different rates

Brazelton Assessment Scale

Used to determine infants neurological & behavioral responses to their environment
27 Categories of responses that measure: Interactions with others Motor behavior Physiological control Response to stress

The Reflexes
Reflex
Blinking Babinski Grasping Moro (Startle)

Stimulation
Flash of light, puff of air Stroke sole of foot Touch palms of hands Sudden stimulation (e.g. loud noise or being dropped) Cheek stroked or side of mouth touched Object touches mouth Put face down in in water Lower feet onto flat surface

Response
Closes both eyes Fans out toes, twists foot Grasps tightly

Developmental Pattern
Permanent

Rooting

Sucking Swimming Stepping

Disappears after 9 months to 1 year Weakens after 3 months, disappears after 1 year Startles, arches back, Disappears after 3 4 months throws head back, flings out arms & legs then rapidly closes Turns head, opens Disappears after 3 4 months mouth, begins sucking Sucks automatically Disappears after 3 4 months Makes swimming movements Moves feet as if to walk Disappears after 6 7 months Disappears after 3 4 months

Physical Development
Growth of the Body
Average height & normal height are not the same thing

Nutrition & Growth

Typical 2-month-old has 40% of 2-monthbodys energy devoted to growth Must consume large number of calories relative to body weight Approx. 50 calories per pound Adult needs 15 20 calories per pound

Developing Nervous System

Neuron Dendrites, Cell Body, Axon, Terminal Buttons, Synapse, Neurotransmitters Brain Hemispheres, Corpus Callosum, Frontal Cortex

The Developing Brain & Nervous System

The Neuron
Basic component of the Nervous System

Number
Between 100 & 200 Billion at birth Growth rate: 250,000 per minute Synaptic pruning

Myelin
Fatty tissue covering the axon Associated with critical periods

Emerging Brain Structures

Neural Plate
Flat structure that develops in the zygote about 3 weeks after conception At 4 weeks it folds to form neural tube that becomes brain & spinal cord

Myelin
Fatty wrap around axon that speeds up neural transmission Begins at about 4 months

Synaptic Pruning
Synapses begin disappearing

Language Processing
Cortex in left hemisphere specializes in language processing early in life, probably by birth

Brain Development
Plasticity
The Degree that the brain is modified by experience

Sensitive Period
A time in development when the organism is susceptible to environmental influences in relating to some particular facet of development

Influence on the Environment

Greater stimulation produces greater growth

Neural Plasticity
Extent to Which the Brain is Organized is Flexible
The brain like office building with rooms designed to be used to meet different needs of the company

Neurons are created and begin migrating throughout cortex

Biochemical paths pull them A neuron can end up anywhere There are no specific genetic instructions Brain construction similar in everyone Experience changes specifics

Rhythms of Living
Sleep & Wakefulness
Sleeps 16 18 hours per day Sleep is in fits & starts

REM Sleep
Brain waves are different than adults REM sleep in infants is not associated with dreaming

Nutrition & Motor Development

Malnutrition
Having an improper amount & balance of nutrients Has negative results Slower growth rate Lower IQ Kwashiorkor Marasmus

Obesity
Weight greater than 20% above the average for a given height

Physical Development
Breast Feeding insures proper nourishment
Advantages to breast feeding: 1. immune advantages from mothers antibodies 2. less prone to diarrhea & constipation 3. make transition to solid foods more easily 4. breast milk cant be contaminated 5. formula-fed infants more prone to allergies formula-

Malnutrition
1 in 3 Children Worldwide Under Age 5 Malnourished about 20% U.S. children get inadequate iron, & 10% go to bed hungry Malnourished develop slower than peers Especially damaging during infancy Lower IQ, more easily distracted, shorter attention span, inattentive, tire more easily

Early Motor Skills

Motor Skills
Coordinated Movements of Muscles & Limbs Locomote: Moving about in the world Fine motor skills: Grasping, holding, & manipulating objects

Stepping
Transfer of weight from one foot to another Component skills must be mastered

Perceptual Factors
Need to judge whether surface is suitable for movement

Locomotion: The Dynamic Systems Theory

Motor development involves many distinct skills that are organized & reorganized over time to meet the demands of specific tasks Posture & Balance are fundamental to walking Growth of legs & muscles are important to maintain upright posture

Coordinating Skills
Differentiation: Mastery of component skills Integration: Combining them in the proper sequence into a coherent, working whole Learning to walk demands orchestration of many specific skills

Fine Motor Skills

Reaching & Grasping
4 Months Can Reach for Objects requires hand-eye & individual finger coordination 6 Months Coordinates Both Hands 1 Year Can Generally Feed Self

Handedness
90% Worldwide Right Handed Young babies have no preference 13 months handedness Genetics Major Role in Handedness

Perception
Sight
Eye, optic nerve, occipital area of brain relatively well-developed at birth Visual acuity Smallest pattern that can be distinguished dependably; clarity of vision Newborns respond to light & can track moving objects with the eyes

Depth
Visual Cliff At 1 months placing on deep side of cliff heart rate decelerates Deceleration occurs when something interesting occurs Notices difference between sides of cliff Retinal disparity: Difference between left & right eye images Used to judge depth cues Infants use visual cues and sound to judge depth

Color
Cones Neurons specialized in the eye for color Perceive few colors Newborns can differentiate blue from gray & red from green, not yellow from green or yellow from red

Perception
Process by which the brain receives, selects, modifies, & organizes sensory information
Smell & Taste
Infants respond positively to pleasant smells Infants have highly developed sense of taste Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami

Touch & Pain

Nervous system can transmit pain Behavior in response to pain-provoking stimuli suggests they experience pain

Hearing
Hearing is best in range of human speech By 4 months can recognize own name Infants can distinguish different pitches

Development of the Senses

Visual Perception
Neonate can see only about 1 foot Minutes after birth shows preferences for certain stimuli Within a few hours prefers mothers face

Auditory Perception
Able to hear prior to birth Prefers mothers voice

Smell & Taste

Strong sense of smell & taste

Pain & Touch

Painful stimuli produce physical & emotional responses

The Senses in General

An Infant sees only about 1 foot but can perceive depth. It sees shapes and prefers novel images. It recognizes faces and prefers attractive faces over those not attractive. An Infant is able to hear from at least the 6th month in utero. It can identify its mothers voice as well as its own voice. It recognizes the sound of another infant/child who is in distress.

Piagets Theories
Basic Principles of Cognitive Development
Assimilation: when new experiences are incorporated into existing schemes; e.g. grasping one thing extends to others Accommodation: when schemes are modified based on experience; learns some things are too heavy to lift Equilibration & Stages of Cognitive Development: recognition of schemes to return to a state of balance Assimilation & accommodation usually in balance Schemes sometimes need to be adjusted to new experiences When balance is upset, disequilibrium occurs and there is a need to change

Information Processing
Attention
Process that determines which sensory information receives additional cognitive processing Orienting response: fixation on a stimulus & changes in heart rate & brain activity Habituation: diminished response to a stimulus as it becomes familiar

Learning
Classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus produces a response that was originally produced by another stimulus Infants learn that a stimulus is a signal for what will happen next Infants form expectations about what will happen in their environment Operant conditioning: focus is on relation between consequences of behavior & the likelihood the behavior will occur Imitation: watching others to see how they behave

Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Thinking
Sensorymotor Stage: birth 2 years Birth - 1 month Exercises reflexes 1 - 4 months Primary circular reactions: Accidentally produces pleasing event involving body & try to recreate it 4 8 months Secondary circular reactions: New actions repeated with objects 8 12 months intentional behaviors engaged in 12 18 months Tertiary circular reactions: Repeats old schemes with new objects trying to understand why different objects give different outcomes 18 24 months Symbolic usage crowning achievement of sensorymotor stage

Language
Road to Speech
Perceiving speech: Babies can distinguish speech sounds Can hear the entire range of phonemes in all languages By 8th month can recognize sound patterns that are heard repeatedly Can recognize stressed syllables & sounds in native language Infant-directed speech (motherese) helps infants perceive the sounds fundamental to their language

Steps to Speech
Earliest sounds: Cooing Vowel-like sounds (o-o-o-o or a-h-h-h) Babbling Speechlike sounds that have no meaning (dah or bah)

First Words +
Language Thats Understood
First words have a structure borrowed from advanced babbling Generally consists of vowel pairs repeated Mama or dada

Referential style
Vocabularies that are dominated by words that are names of objects, persons, or actions

Expressive style
Vocabularies that include some names but also many social phrases used like single words (Go away, Whatd you want? & I want it)

First Words +
Fast Mapping of Words
Childs ability to connect new words to referents so rapidly that he cannot consider all possible meanings for the new word Joint attention Parents label objects & children rely on adults behavior to interpret the words they hear

Labeling
Rules children use to learn new words with unfamiliar word in the presence of objects already known and some not known, unfamiliar word refers to objects not known A name refers to the whole object & to all objects of the same type If an object already has a name & another name, the new name denotes a subcategory of the original name Given many similar category members, a word applied consistently to only one of them is a proper noun