DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCH Brain is both flexible & resilient
Chapter 4: Physical Dev’t in Infancy Sleep:
Patterns of Growth: Typical newborns sleep 18 hours a day
Infants vary in their preferred times for sleeping
Cephalocaudal Pattern – sequence in which the
Most common infant sleep related problem is night
earliest growth always occurs from the top
walking
downward.
Consistently linked to excessive parental
Proximodistal Pattern – sequence in which
involvement in sleep-related interactions with
growth starts in the center of the body moves
their infant
toward the extremities.
REM Sleep: eyes flutter beneath closed lids
Height & Weight: Sleep cycle begins with REM sleep in infants
May provide infants with added self-
Average North American newborn is 20 inches
stimulation
long, 7 ½ pounds
REM sleep may also promote brain
At 2 years of age, infants weigh 26-32 pounds
development
and are half their adult height
We do not know whether infants dream or
The Brain: not
Shared sleeping:
Contains approx. 100 billion neurons at birth
Varies from culture to culture
Extensive brain development continues after
American Academy of Pediatrics discourages shared
birth, through infancy, and later
sleeping
Head should be protected
Potential benefits:
Shaken baby syndrome: Brain swelling
Promotes breast feeding & a quicker response
& hemorrhaging from child abuse
to crying
trauma
Allows mother to detect potentially dangerous
breathing pauses in baby
The Brain’s Development
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome): infants stop
At birth, the brain is 25% of its adult weight,
breathing & die without apparent cause
at 2 years of age, it is 75% of its adult
Highest cause of infant death in US annually
weight
Highest risk is 2-4 months
Mapping the Brain
Many other risk factors associated with SIDS
4 Lobes
Lateralization Nurtrition:
Left brained vs. Right brained
Nutritional needs & eating behavior
Changes in neurons
50 calories per day for each pound they weigh
Continued Myelination
Fruits & veggies by end of 1st year
Greater connectivity & new neural
pathways Poor dietary patterns lead to increasing rates of
overweight & obese infants
Changes in Regions of the Brain
Breastfeeding reduces risk of obesity
Dramatic “Blooming & Pruning” of synapses
in the visual, Breast vs bottle feeding
Early experience of the Brain Concensus: breastfeeding is better
Depressed brain activity has been found in Breastfeeding throughout the first year
children who grow up in a deprived Malnutrition in Infancy
environment Early warning can cause malnutrition
Repeated experience wires (and rewires)
the brain
Two life threatening conditions resulting from Development in the first Year:
malnutrition: Some milestones & variations
Marasmus: a severe protein-calorie deficiency Some milestones vary by as much as 2 to 4
resulting in a wasting away of body tissues months
Kwashiorkor: a severe protein-calorie deficiency Experience can modify the onset of the motor
that causes the abdomen & feet to swell with accomplishments
water Development in the second year:
Severe and lengthy malnutrition is detrimental to Toddlers become more skilled & mobile
physical, cognitive, and social development By 13-18 months toddlers can pull a toy or
climb stairs
18-24 months can walk, balance, kick a ball
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT: Fine motor skills: finely tuned movement
Using spoon, buttoning a shirt, reaching,
Arnold Gesell (1943)
grasping
Genetic Plan: Malnutrition
Palmer grasp: grasping with the whole hand
The dynamic systems view
Pincer grip: gripping thumb and forefinger
Esther Thelen (90s onwards)
Perceptual: motor coupling is necessary for
Infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and
infants to coordinate grasping
acting
Motor skills represent solution to goals SENSORY & PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT:
Development is an active process in which nature
What are sensation & perception?
and nurture work together as part of an ever-
changing system Sensation: occurs when information interacts with
How does a motor skill developed according to this sensory receptors (eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, skin)
theory? Perception: interpretation of what is sensed
Converging factors: Perception varies; does not mean right or
1. Development of Nervous syetem wrong
2. Body’s physical properties Ecological view: we diretly perceive information
3. Possibilities for movement that exists in the world around us
4. The goal the child is motivated to reach Affordances: opportunities for interaction
5. Environmental support for the skill offered by objects that fir within our capabilities
Reflexes: build-in reactions to stimuli; autonomic to perform activities
and inborn
Rooting reflex: walking, standing, movement of Visual Perception:
hands Visual act & human faces:
Sucking: thumb-sucking, breastfeeding Newborn’s vision is about 20/20 but 20/40 by 6
Moro reflex: Stretching of the arms months of age
Grasping reflex: Paghawak Infants show an interest in human faces after
Some reflexes continue throughout life; others birth
disappear several months after birth Spend more time working at the mother’s
Gross motor skills: large muscle activities face than a stranger’s face as early as 12
Development of posture: hours after being born
Posture: a dynamic process linked with A 2 month old scans much more of the face
sensory information in the skin, joints & more than 1 month old
muscles, which tell us where we are in Color vision
space Depth perception: Eleanor Gibson & Richard Walk
Learning to walk: studied development of depth perception using a
Occurs about the time of their first birthday “visual cliff”
Infants 6-12 months old can distinguish depth Organization: groupings isolated behaviors &
Nature, nurture, and the development of infants thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly
visual perception functioning cognitive system
Other Senses: Processes of Development:
Hearing: Equilibration: explanation of cognitive shift
Fetuses can hear & learn sounds during the last (qualitative) from 1 stage thought to next
2 months of pregnancy Disequilibrium: cognitive conflict motivation for
Touch & Pain: change
Newborns do respond to touch and can also Equilibrium: resolve conflict through assimilation
feel pain and accommodation to reach new balance
Smell:
Newborns can differentiate odors
Varies
Taste:
Sensitivity to taste may be present at birth
Intermodal perception: ability to integrate
information from 2 or more sensory modalities
Perceptual-motor Coupling: perception & action are
coupled
Action educates perception
Sensorimotor stage:
Object permanence:
CHAPTER 5: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
Understanding that objects still exist when not
Piaget’s Theory of Infant Development: seen, heard, or touched
One of infants most important accomplishment
Infants construct their own knowledge (learn on
Acquired in stages
their own)
Causality & violation of expectations testing
Own way to understand the world
Unifying story of how biology & experience sculpt
cognitive development
Conditioning:
Our physical bodies enable us to adapt to the world,
so does we build mental structures B.F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning
Consequence of the behavior produce changes
in the probability if the behavior’s occurrence
Cognitive process
Attention:
Schemes: actions or mental representations Sustained Attention: Learn & remember
that organize knowledge characteristics of the stimulus as it becomes familiar
Assimilation & accommodation (3 months y/o, within 5 to 10 seconds)
Assimilation: Using existing schemes to deal
with new information or experience
Accomodation: adjusting schemes to fit Habituation: decreased responsiveness after
new information and experience repeated presentations of the stimulus
Dishabituation: increase in responsiveness after a Perceptual Categorization: similar perceptual
change in stimulation features of objects
Language Development:
The focusing of mental resources on select
information A form of communication: spoken, written, or
signed – that is based on a system of symbol
First year or life is dominated by an orientation Infinite generativity: ability to produce an endless
or investigate process (locating& understanding number of meaningful sentences using a finite set
“what & where”) of words and rules
Joint attention: process that occurs when
Memory:
Central feature of cognitive development that
involves the retention of information over time
Implicit Memory: memory without conscious
recollection skills & routine procedures that are
automatically performed
Explicit Memory: memory facts & experiences that
individuals consciously know and can state (2nd half
of their 1st year)
Infantile/childhood amnesia
Imitation:
Automatic response to a stimulus
Deferred imitation: imitation that occurs after a
delay of hours/days
Watching someone perform an act and then
performing that action at a later date
Common gestures:
1. Extending the arm to show caregiver
something infant is holding
Concepts: Ideas about categories represent or said
another way
