Chapter 3: Infancy & Toddlerhood Flashcards
Average New Born
7.5-lbs
20-in
Lose 5% body weight (eliminate waste / get used to feeding)
Body proportions
Head 50% developing in womb
Birth 25%
25yrs 20%
Dendrites
Branching extensions that collect information from other neurons
Synaptogenesis
Formation of connections between neurons
Synaptic blooming
Period of rapid neural growth
First few years
Synaptic pruning
Where neural connections are reduced thereby making those that are used much stronger
Brain more efficient / mastery more complex skills
40% will be lost
Continues through childhood and into adolescence
Myelin
Coating of fatty tissues around the axon of the neuron
Insulate the nerve cell and speed the rate of transmission of impulses from one cell to another
Brain growth
Birth 1/2-lbs or 250-grams (33% of adult)
90-days 55%
1-yr 750 grams
Cortex
Thin outer covering of the brain involved in voluntary activity and thinking
Where most neural activity is occurring 
Frontal lobe (behind forehead)
Responsible primarily for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment
Parietal lobe
Extends from the middle to the back of the skull
Responsible primarily for processing information about touch
Occipital lobe
Very back of the skull
Processes visual information
Temporal lobe
Responsible for hearing and language
Lateralization
Process in which different functions become localized primarily on one side of the brain
Left & right hemispheres
Neuroplasticity
Brains ability to change, both physically and chemically, to enhance its adaptability to environmental change and compensate for injury
The brain constantly creates new neural communication routes and re-wires existing ones
Infant sleep
Newborn 16.5-hrs (polyphasic)
1-month 15-hrs
6-month 14-hrs
2yrs 10-hrs
50% REM reduced to 25-30% in childhood
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Identified when the death of a healthy infant occurs suddenly and unexpectedly, and medical and forensic investigation findings are inconclusive
Leading cause 1-12 months
Should infants be sharing the bed with parents
0-3 months more likely to die
Reflexes
Involuntary movements in response to stimulation
Examples:
Sucking - anything touching lips
Rooting - turn head when touching cheek
Grasp - fingers grip anything touching palm
Babinski - toe fanning and curl when sole is stroked from heel to toe
Moro - spread arms and legs then quickly contract limbs inward when sudden noise or head and neck loss of support
Tonic neck - lying head to one side, fencer pose
Stepping - legs move in stepping like motion when feet touch smooth surface
Cephalocaudal
Development occurs head to tail (top down)
Proximodistal
Development occurs from midline outward (center of body outward)
Motor skills
Ability to move our bodies and manipulate objects
Fine motor skills
Focus on the muscles in our fingers toes and eyes and enable coordination of small actions
Palmar grasp
Grasping an object involves the use of the fingers and palm but no thumbs
Pincer grasp
At about nine months infant is able to grasp and object using the forefinger and thumb
Gross motor skills
Focus on large muscle groups that control our head, torso, arms and legs, and involve larger movements
Vision
Newborn 8-10-inches
8-weeks 20/300 (20’ baby = 300’ adult)
3-months 20/200
1-month fixed gaze at stimulus several minutes
Fovea
Central field of vision in the retina and allows us to see short detail
Saccadic
Steplike jerky movements
Newborn’s eye vision is saccadic
No longer by 2 months
Binocular vision
Requires input from both eyes
3 months is evident
6 months depth perception
Hearing
Very keen at birth
Touch and pain
Immediately after birth,
sensitive to touch and temperature and it’s also highly sensitive to pain
responding with crying and cardiovascular response
Circumcised
Surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis
Taste and smell
Respond with different facial expressions (Suggests that certain preferences are innate)
Preference for sweet flavors
Also prefer smell of their mothers
Intermodal
Through stimulation from more than one sensory modality
Way to perceive the world
Habituation procedure
Measuring decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations
Breast milk
Ideal for newborns
Lower rates of childhood leukemia, asthma, obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, and lower risk of SIDS
At least until six months of age
Using the diet throughout the first two years
Colostrum
First breastmilk produced during pregnancy
liquid gold
Introduction of solid foods
Sit without support
Hold head up (no wobbling)
Interest in others foods
Hungry after breast-fed
Turn away when they had enough
Move food front to back
Marasmus
Starvation due to a lack of calories in protein
Kwashiorkor
Disease of the displaced child
often occurring after another child has been born and taken over breast-feeding
(Diets deficient in protein is cause)
Schema
Framework for organizing information
Assimilation
Fitting the new information into an existing schema
Example: all animals with 4 legs are “dogs”
Accommodation
Expanding the framework of knowledge to accommodate the new situation
Example: recognizing that a horse is different than a zebra
Sensorimotor stage
First stage of cognitive development 
Sensorimotor Substages
1 Reflexes - eventually become purposeful
2 primary circular reactions - repeated activity initially occurring by chance
3 Secondary circular reactions - interacts with objects by chance and repeats it
4 coordination of secondary circular reactions - planning and coordination to achieve a goal
5 Tertiary circular reactions - exploring begins
6 Beginning of representational thought - symbolic or representational thought
Object permanence
Understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists
Stranger anxiety
Fear of unfamiliar people
Infantile amnesia
Inability to recall memories from the first few years of life
 language
System of communication that uses symbols in a regular way to create meaning
Phoneme
Smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in a language
Differed imitation
Imitation of actions after a time delay
Morpheme
String of one or more phonemes that makes up the smallest units of meaning in a language
Re = do again
Est = maximum
Semantics
Set of rules were used to obtain meaning from morphemes 
Syntax
Set of rules of a language by which we construct sentences
Pragmatics
How we communicate effectively and appropriately with others
Contextual information
Information surrounding language (To help us interpret)
Cooing
One syllable combination of a consonant and a vowel sound
Babbling
Intentional vocalizations that like specific meaning and comprise a consonant – vowel repeat a sequence ma-ma-ma, da-da-da
Receptive language
Infant understanding more than he or she can say
Holophrasic speech
One word expressions
Underextension
When a child learns that a word stands for an object may initially think that the word can be used for only that particular object
Overextension
When a child may think that a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object
Telegraphic speech/text message speech
When unnecessary words are not used
“Give baby ball”
Infant-directed speech
Involves exaggerating the vowel and consonant sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and delivering the phrase with great facial expression
Language acquisition device
Chomsky
Brain contains universal grammar that underlies all human language
Language develops as long as the infant is exposed to it
Deep structure
Chomsky
How the idea is represented in the fundamental universal grammar that is common to all languages
End of lecture you will remember a lot of the deep structure
Surface structure
Chomsky
How the idea is expressed in any one language
Exact words that the instructor used to communicate the ideas
Broca’s area
Area in front of the left hemisphere near the motor cortex,
responsible for language production
Wernickes’s area
Area of the brain next to the auditory cortex,
responsible for language comprehension
Critical period
Time in which learning can easily occur, for language
Language
Skinner & Bandura
Skinner - language development occurs through the principles of learning, including association and reinforcement
Bandura - importance of observation and imitation of others in learning language
Temperament
Innate characteristics of the infant, including mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity, noticeable soon after birth
Three general types of temperament
Easy child - Easy to adapt, remains calm, usually positive
Difficult child - Reacts negatively to new situations, trouble adapting, negative mood, cries frequently
Slow to warm up child - no activity level, add just loading continue situations, often negative mode
Some children combination of two or more
Goodness-of-fit
Child and caregiver’s styles match and communication and interaction can flow
Parenting is bi-directional
Parents affect their children, children influence their parents
Personality
Defined as an individual’s consistent pattern of feeling, thinking, and behaving
is the result of the continuous interplay between biological disposition and experience
Stranger wariness
Fear associated with the presence of a Stranger
Separation anxiety
Departure of significant others
Basic emotions
Interest, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness and disgust
Self-conscious emotions
Envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment
Social referencing
Process whereby infants seek out information from others to clarify a situation and then use that information to act
Facial expressions from parents
Emotional self regulation
Refers to strategies we used to control our emotional states so that we can attain goals
Young infants need help of caregivers
Self-awareness
Realization that you are separate from others
Attachment
A close bond with a caregiver from which the infant derives a sense of security
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Infants are oral creatures who obtain pleasure from sucking and mouthing objects
Infant will become attached to a person or object that provides this pleasure
Contact comfort
Infant’s need for physical closeness and touching
Harlow’s research - contact comfort is believed to be the foundation for attachment
Secure base
Parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as a child explores the surroundings
Bowlby’s concept of attachment theory - infant must form this bond with a primary caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development
The strange situation technique
Conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for his or her parent
Mary Ainsworth
Secure attachment style
Ambivalent/resistant AT
Avoidant AT
Disorganized/disoriented AT
65% securely attached (US)
Nonorganic failure to thrive
Diagnosis for an infant who does not grow, develop, or gain weight on schedule and there is no known medical explanation for this failure
Due to severe deprivation of parental attachment
Reactive attachment disorder
Developmental delays, especially in cognitive and language areas
Due to experiencing neglectful situations and also displaying markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate attachment behavior
Resiliency
Being able to overcome challenges and successfully adapt
Parentese
Infant directed talk
