Critical And Sensitive Periods In Development Flashcards
What is physical development?
Physical development impacts on psychological functioning. Our bodies are continually changing, with these changes leading to our independence.
Body changes at puberty, menopause and old age also impat on our psychological development. For instance, they affect the way. We think and solve problems, our self esteem and our relationships with others.
What is cognitive development?
Is the development of mental abilities throughout the lifespan. Our memories, language, thinking and problem-solving abilities change throughout our lives.
What is social development?
As infants grow, they become more interested in expanding heir social network. Their network expands from their main caregivers to include a range of other people, including friends and teachers. As we get older we develop a sense of self, meaning a sense of identity, which includes gender roles, self esteem and moral standards.
What is emotional development?
The learning of types of emotions and how to deal with them throughout our lifespan.
What is maturation?
A pre-determined biological sequence of behaviours which occurs at certain ages. It involves the development of an infants muscles and brain. Being able to reach a toy, rolling over, walking, talking are all under the initial control of maturation.
What is learning?
Relatively per infant change in behaviour due to experience, and can be achieved with practice.
How does maturation and learning work together?
Babies cannot learn skills such as walking, until their brains and bodes are are physically ready (mature) t carry them out.
Although maturation is necessary Tor each motor development milestones, practice is require to become proficient at them.
What are inborn reflexes?
A Se of unleaded automatic responses to certain stimuli that babies are born with
What are developmental norms?
Indicate the average age that a certain behaviour or skill will be achieved. They are based on the mean age of a large sample. Developmental norms provide feedback on whether the infant is progressing normally in relation to the rest of the population. Comparing an infant’s progression to developmental norms can
be useful. It can alert health professionals to a situation and allow appropriate action.
Developmental norms can also cause unnecessary anxiety because the mean score does not take into account the large variations within the population. An infant who takes longer to reach one milestone may be identi ed as being ‘at risk’, although they are perfectly healthy and normal.
What are critical periods?
Critical periods in development are times of special sensitivity to certain environmental factors that can shape the individual’s capacity for future development.
What are teratogens?
Toxic substances that will affect an unborn child’s development if the unborn child is exposed to them at specific times in their development. Their effects can be tragic and cause serious life-long consequences, as seen in the case of rubella and other related birth defects.
What is a critical period for humans?
One example of a critical period for humans is the development of vision; human babies must receive exposure to light in the rst few days of life so that the sensory neurons in the retina develop. If this does not happen, the baby may be permanently visually impaired.
What are sensitive periods?
sensitive periods: best or optimal times for psychological development in certain areas, such as learning to speak in the rst years of life. These periods of maximal sensitivity are seen to begin and end more gradually than critical periods. Sensitive periods coincide with times when our brain’s nervous system is undergoing rapid growth, such as forming new synapses between neurons or equally importantly pruning neurons that have not been used or activated by the environment.
Sensitive periods allow for the possibility that, given the right circumstances, individuals can still experience psychological development, even if the individual began with deprived conditions.
What was the genie case?
In 1970, community care workers in Los Angeles rescued a 131⁄2-year- old girl, Genie, who had been raised in appalling and unimaginable conditions. She had spent much of her life in a dark isolated room, strapped to a child’s potty chair for most of the day and fed only baby food. She had virtually no contact with other people, apart from minimum contact with her parents, and was punished if she ever made any sounds. When Genie was found, she had the appearance of a six- year-old girl, was painfully thin, was barely able to walk and made hardly any sounds.
What did Genie do once care workers found her?
Genie had never learned to talk and had been deprived of social contact, including language. After she was rescued, she spent time with psychologists who both cared for her and studied her behaviour. Genie had to learn her first language at the age of 131⁄2 years. She did learn some aspects, such as vocabulary, but showed very poor understanding of grammatical rules. For instance, she would say, ‘Spot chew glove’ instead of ‘the dog named Spot chewed the glove’.
