Development in Infancy Flashcards
Development in Infancy
- Infancy – begins at birth ends around the second birthday
- When compared to the other parts of the lifespan infancy is characterised by more (rapid) growth and more discontinuity
- The developmental changes in infancy are the most predictable of the lifespan, both in timing and nature
Touch
Reflexes are present prenatally and responsive to touch, so the newborn’s acute touch and pain sensitivities are no surprise
Smell
Newborns olfactory (smell) sensitivity is highly acute. They can distinguish the smell of their own mother’s milk from that of other nursing mothers
Taste
Foetuses have a keen sense of taste and swallow more amniotic fluid if it is sweetened; after birth, a preference for sweet flavours remains
Hearing
Foetuses have acute hearing. At birth there is temporary decline owing to fluid in the inner ear, but this is usually clears in a few days. One-month-olds can distinguish fine sound contrasts such as ‘bah’ versus ‘pah’
Vision
The newborn’s visual organs and muscles are immature, precluding gaze control and focus. Visual acuity reaches the adult (20/20) level at age 6 months
Survival: Breathing Reflex
Repetitive inhalation and expiration
Permanent, although become partly voluntary
Provides oxygen and expels carbon dioxide
Survival: Rooting Reflex
Turning of cheek in direction of touch
Weakens and disappears by 6 months
Orients child to breast or bottle
Survival: Sucking Reflex
Strong sucking motions with throat, mouth, and tongue
Gradually comes under voluntary control
Allows child to drink
Survival Swallowing Reflex
Swallowing motions in throat
Permanent, although become partly voluntary
Allows child to take in food and avoid choking
Primitive: Micro Reflex
- In response to loud noises, child throws arms outward, arches back, then brings arms together as if to hold something
- Arm movements and arching disappear by 6 months but startle reaction persists for life
- Indicates normal development of nervous system
Primitive: Grasping Reflex
- Curling fingers around any small object put into palm
- Disappears by 3 months; voluntary grasping appears by about 6 months
- Indicates normal development of nervous system
Primitive: Stepping Reflex
- If held upright, infant lifts leg as if to step
- Disappears by 8 weeks, but later if practiced
- Indicates normal development of nervous system
Motor Development in Infancy: Motor Skills
Motor skills – voluntary movements of the body or parts of the body
Motor skills: Gross motor skills
o Gross motor skills – movement of large muscles of arms, legs and torso
Motor skills: Fine motor skills
o Fine motor skills – movement of small muscles such as fingers, toes
Motor development follows 2 trends
1) Cephalocaudal
o Cephalocaudal (head to tail) REMEMBER THIS
Motor development follows 2 trends
2) Proximodistal
o Proximodistal (near to far)
Fun fact
Aboriginal babies reach milestones much quicker than anglo saxon babies
Cognitive Development in Infancy
- Broader definition of thinking (or cognition)
o No language
o Non-verbal signs of thinking (e.g. redirecting gaze, change in heart rate) - Cognitive development is continuous process, that starts in infancy, not something that emerges suddenly later in life
o Visual thinking
o Object perception
o Anticipation of visual events
o Depth perception (& social referencing): visual cliff experiment
Assessment of Piaget’s theory
- New research indicates that infants display cognitive understandings at a much earlier age than Piaget suggested
o May confuse lack of motor skills with cognitive limitations
o Memory limitations impact on performance - These findings do not contradict the order of development as suggested by Piaget
- New research suggests more continuity than change in cognitive development
Psychosocial Development in Infancy
- Babies are born with a large repertoire of social-perceptual skills (e.g. detecting animacy, gaze following, social referencing, understanding others’ intentions and goals)
- They adapt their behaviour according to social cues given by trusted others: visual cliff experiment
- They are extremely reactive to social interaction and their behaviours are shaped by social feedback they receive: still face experiment
- They soon realise they and other people are separate beings with different perspectives, ones that can be shared: shopping card experiment
Attachment
- Harlow’s monkey experiments
- Strong and enduring emotional bond that develops between an infant and a caregiver during the infant’s first years of life
- Characterised by reciprocal affection and a shared desire to maintain physical and emotional closeness
- Basis for forming internal working models
Bowlby: Pre-attachment
0 to 2 months
Generalised sociability; indiscriminate social responsiveness
Bowlby: Attachment in the making
3 to 7 months
Maturation of readiness for attachment through visual face recognition, person permanence, stranger weariness etc.
Bowlby: Clear-cut attachment
8 to 24 months
Differential proximity seeking, separation protest, clinging to attachment target(s) more than to other people
Bowlby: Goal-directed partnership
2 years onwards
Relationships are mutual: child is sensitive to parent’s needs
Three Patterns of Attachment
o Secure attachment (65-70%)
o Anxious-resistant (10%) -
o Anxious-avoidant (20%) –
Additional category of attachment
o Disorganised-disoriented attachment: indicates the greatest degree of insecurity
• The children do not have a strategy to deal with problems
