Developmental Psychology I: infancy and childhood part 3.2 Flashcards
Perinatal Environment and Onset of Birth
Perinatal environment
Perinatal environment = environment surrounding birth: includes influences such as medications given to the mother during delivery, delivery practices, and the social environment shortly after the baby is born.
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The perinatal environment is important as it can affect the baby’s well-being and the course of future development.
Medications used during labor
Delivery practices (e.g. water birth, hospital vs home)
Early social surroundings
These factors can impact how smoothly the baby transitions from womb to world.
When and how does birth start?
A cascade of events triggers labor
🔑 Trigger: Around 266 days (38 weeks) after fertilization
🔬 CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) is released by the placenta, which then:
Stimulates the pituitary gland (shown in the brain diagram),
Releases oxytocin – the “let’s get this show started” hormone,
Oxytocin stimulates uterine contractions.
💡 Think of CRH as the conductor and oxytocin as the drumbeat starting the orchestra of labor.
What is the hormonal start of birth?
Hypothalamus
⤷ Releases CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone)
Anterior Pituitary (Adenohypophysis)
⤷ Responds to CRH by releasing ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic Hormone)
Adrenal Cortex (of the adrenal glands)
⤷ ACTH stimulates it to release Cortisol
Cortisol Effects:
Prepares the body for stress (e.g., energy mobilization)
Matures fetal lungs
Increases uterine sensitivity to oxytocin → triggers contractions
Other words for Pituitary gland?
/Hypothesis/adenohypoteisis
Other words for Posterior lobe of the pituitary gland?
Neurohypothesis
Birth stage 1
Dilation & Contractions
Begins with contractions every 8–10 minutes, lasting ~30s.
Progresses to more frequent, stronger contractions (every 2 minutes).
The goal: dilate cervix to ~10cm — just enough for the baby’s head.
🔑 Final part of stage 1 = transition!!!!!! — intense, rapid contractions right before pushing.
Birth stage 2
Delivery of the Baby!!
Begins once cervix is fully dilated 10 cm.
Baby’s head passes through the cervix and emerges.
Can take 30 to 90 minutes.
May involve episiotomy (small incision to prevent tearing).
Ends when baby is fully born.
Birth stage 3
Expulsion of Placenta
Quickest stage: only a few minutes.
Consists of the umbilical cord (still attached to the baby) and placenta being expelled from the mother.
🕓 Duration of labor (from onset to baby born):
1st baby: ~12 hours (or 8–14 hours)
2nd baby: ~7 hours (or 3–8 hours)
Birth Positions
Most babies rotate head-first into position. Some remain in a breech position (feet/bottom first), which can:
Compress the umbilical cord
Cause anoxia/hypoxia = oxygen deprivation
Lead to brain damage if prolonged
🏥 Often resolved with a C-section.
Complications During Delivery
Here’s a quick analogy: Imagine birth like exiting a narrow tunnel. A few things can go wrong:
Abnormal lie = Baby’s orientation blocks exit.
Intraamniotic infection = Inflammation inside the womb.
Shoulder dystocia = Baby’s shoulder gets stuck.
Umbilical cord prolapse = Cord exits before the baby, cutting oxygen.
Uterine inversion = Uterus flips inside out (very rare).
Induced labor = Medically triggered.
Vacuum or forceps delivery = Instruments used to pull baby out.
Rupture of vessels = Excessive pressure = bleeding risk.
Anoxia/hypoxia = lack of oxygen, potential for brain injury.
Newborn’s First Minutes
First Breaths and Cries
Newborns usually breathe and cry on their own.
Crying = first activation of the lungs. Like turning on an engine for the first time.
Between cries, they inhale air → fills the lungs → oxygen enters bloodstream → body “turns on” its oxygen supply.
🩷 Skin color changes from blue to pink — not because the baby is cold, but because blood is getting re-oxygenated.
Reflexes Activate
Eyes open wide, and muscles in fingers and toes start contracting and relaxing.
It’s like the body is doing a system check: “Are the lights on? Can we move limbs? Good to go.”
Immediate Post-Birth Care
Baby is cleaned, and mucus is removed from the throat to clear airways.
Head may be misshapen (cone-shape) — like clay squeezed through a narrow tube (birth canal). This shape is temporary.
Umbilical Cord
It’s cut, leaving a stub that dries and falls off within days.
Health Tests
Tests are done to assess physical condition (e.g., heart rate, breathing, muscle tone).
💛 The Golden Hour: Skin-to-Skin + Breastfeeding
Colostrum: Thick, nutrient fluid from the mother’s breast — packed with nutrients and immune boosters.
The Golden Hour: The first 60 minutes of life, critical for bonding and early immune protection.
Skin-to-skin contact + breastfeeding during this period maximizes benefits — warmth, bonding hormones (like oxytocin), and feeding success.
birth weight
birth weight is a signal of whether internal development had enough time and resources.
What is Normal Weight?
Average: 3.2–3.4 kg
Optimal range: 3–5 kg
Too low = possible complications
Why Low Birth Weight Is a Concern
Birth weight is a key factor in postnatal survival
Babies with low weight may have underdeveloped vital organs, like lungs or the brain.
They are at greater risk of infections, temperature regulation issues, and developmental delays
What is Small-for-Gestational-Age (SGA)
📉 SGA and Pre-Term Birth
SGA = Small-for-Gestational-Age: Baby is smaller than expected for the number of weeks in the womb.
This can lead to a pre-term birth — delivery before 37 weeks.
👶 Pre-term but within normal weight = higher chance of survival and fewer complications than SGA babies.
What is the Apgar Scale?
Developed by Dr. Virginia Apgar in 1953, the Apgar Scale was a response to the fact that doctors focused mostly on mothers during delivery and often ignored the newborn’s immediate health status.
📌 Purpose: It’s a quick rating scale to evaluate a newborn’s physical condition just 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth.!!!!
The Five Vital Signs Assessed (Apgar Components)
Each component is scored from 0 to 2, for a maximum of 10:
Component: Colour (skin tone)
0: Blue or pale (cyanosis)
1: Body pink, limbs blue
2: Entirely pink
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Component: Heart rate
0: Absent
1: <100 bpm (slow)
2: >100 bpm (rapid, healthy)
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Component: Reflex irritability
0: No response
1: Grimace
2: Crying, sneezing, coughing
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Component: Muscle tone
0: Limp, flaccid
1: Weak, inactive
2: Strong, active
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Component: Respiratory effort
0: Absent
1: Slow, irregular
2: Good; strong cry
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Apgar rating scale numbers
Scoring and Interpretation
Each category gets 0, 1, or 2 points.
Total is evaluated at 1 and 5 minutes after birth.
Score 7 or higher = baby is in good health.
Score below 7 = baby might need medical attention.
Any 0 score in a category = immediate intervention needed.
A perfect score of 10 is rare.
Color of baby cyanosis apgar scale
Colour
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Skin turns blue (cyanosis) due to high levels of unoxygenated hemoglobinin cardiovascular system, pink when there are adequate levels ofoxygenated hemoglobin
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Heart rate
Pulse of>100bpm considered healthy for a newborn
Apgar scale explained:
Reflex Irritability: How a baby responds to stimulation like suction in the throat area (e.g., sneezing or coughing).
Muscle Tone: Indicates the baby’s physical activity and strength – are limbs moving actively or is the baby limp?
Respiratory Effort: Measures breathing quality; strong cry = good, weak cry or silence = concern.
Neurological Examination
Beyond the Apgar, neurological condition is examined soon after birth to detect injury or abnormal development of the nervous system.
Signs include absence of expected behaviors or reflexes.
Especially important for at-risk infants:
Preterm babies
Babies from complicated deliveries (e.g., C-section, oxygen deprivation)
Babies of mothers with certain diseases or drug use
NBAS – Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale
(Brazelton)
Used within the first two days of life to assess neurological development and response to the environment.
Takes ~30 minutes
Measures:
20 reflexes
26 behaviors, grouped into:
Interaction: e.g., eye widening, gaze following
Motor behavior: resistance when limbs are moved
Physiological control: e.g., not overreacting to light or touch
Stress response: e.g., startle reflex
🧠 Impact on parents:
Helps parents understand what calms or stimulates their baby.
Encourages stronger bonding and greater involvement.
Prechtl’s General Movements Assessment (GMA)
Developed by Einspieler & Prechtl (2005), this test evaluates nervous system function by observing spontaneous movements.
Done for babies up to ~6 months old
Babies lie on their back (supine), and their whole-body movement is assessed for 1–3 minutes.
Movements should be:
Complex
Variable
Frequent
Two specific abnormal general movement patterns have been found to reliably predict cerebral palsy:
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A persistent pattern of “cramp-synchronised” general movements (movements are rigid, not smooth and fluent)
If movements are monotonous or rigid, it may indicate neurological impairment, such as cerebral palsy.
Two Warning Signs of Neurological Disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy)
Cramp-synchronized movements:
Rigid, not smooth or flowing
Suggests nervous system dysfunction
Lack of fidgety movements (3–5 months):
Normally expected: small, smooth, variable movements of trunk, neck, limbs
Their absence signals a red flag
cerebral palsy
Assesses functionality of the nervous system in newborns to specifically detect symptoms of cerebral palsy (a group of disorders marked by a reduced ability to move and maintain balance and posture)
Neonatal conditions and capacities
Newborns (neonates) are in a fragile state and entirely dependent on adults to survive. They’re transitioning from the safe, controlled prenatal environment to an external world full of stimuli — so their first tasks are about basic survival
Interoceptive Orientation
means the baby is mostly tuned into its own internal bodily sensations — like hunger, tiredness, pain — rather than focusing on the outside world.
Newborns must quickly master several states essential for life:
Breathe immediately: Oxygen is needed for neurons to survive. Without it, neural damage (and death) can begin rapidly.
Temperature control: Babies lose heat faster than adults due to high surface area and immature regulation. After a few days, thermoregulation stabilizes.
Sleep: Newborns sleep 16–20 hours/day, cycling through 3–4 hour periods of sleep and 20-minute feeds.
Differentiated states: Babies show evolving states like:
Deep sleep
Light sleep
Drowsiness
Alert inactivity
Alert activity
Crying
These states reflect growing neurological differentiation.
🧬 Neonatal Capacities
Even though helpless, newborns aren’t entirely passive — they come equipped with basic survival tools (capacities).
🤝 Classification of Capacities:
1. Systems for Transmitting Information
😭 Crying
A reflex response to discomfort — it’s not intentional, but it gets adult attention.
Types of crying:
Basic: Low intensity, rhythmic (e.g., hunger)
Anger: More intense
Pain: Sudden onset, long vocalization
Attention/frustration: Variable
Acts like a natural alarm system.
😊 Emotions
Subjective responses linked to internal states and reactions to the environment. Emotions are subjective reactions, associated with physiological and behavioural changes. Basic emotions appear in the first months:
Early emotions include:
Joy
Sadness
Anger
Fear
Surprise
Disgust
Dislike
Interest
These basic emotions have protective value — e.g., fear protects from danger.
😌 Emotional Development Timeline
First are Non self-concious emotions”!!!!
Age: Birth
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Pleasure, interest, discomfort, early surprise
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Age: 2 months
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Social smile — first social emotional response
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Age: 3 - 4 moths
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Sadness and annoyance
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Age: 4 - 6 moths
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Anger, surprise, joy
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Age: 7 moths
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Fear (requires attachment development; stranger anxiety emerges)
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Second are Self-conscious emotions!!!!
Age: 11 - 12 moths
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Shyness and embarrassment
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Age: 24 months
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Pride
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Age: 3 - 4 years
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Guilt and envy
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Age: 5–6 years
Emotional/Expressive Capacity: Insecurity, humility, confidence
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What is important about the self-concsoius emotions?
🔺 Self-conscious emotions (shame, pride, guilt, etc.) require social interaction — they won’t develop without a social environment.
Systems for Acting: Reflexes
⚡ Inborn Reflexes
Automatic, involuntary actions in response to stimuli.
Present from birth — e.g., eye-blink to puff of air.
Help caregivers bond (e.g., rooting/sucking reflex makes breastfeeding easier).
✅ Some are survival reflexes — like breathing and sucking — they’re crucial.
🧠 Primitive Reflexes
👶 Primitive reflexes are leftover from evolution — not directly useful but still part of the early neural system.
Examples:
Babinski reflex: Toes fan out when sole is stroked. No obvious benefit.
Developmental Role:
Normally disappear after a few months as:
Cerebral cortex matures
Voluntary motor control develops
Their disappearance is a positive sign of healthy brain development.
⚠️ If primitive reflexes remain active in adults, it may indicate neurological damage.
🌬 Survival Reflexes
🔹 Breathing Reflex
Repetitive inhalation and exhalation begins before the umbilical cord is cut – it’s as if the body says: “Don’t wait! Oxygen is needed now.”
Related Reflexes:
Sneeze: like a janitor, clearing out irritants in the nasal passages.
Hiccups: possibly a “training module” for learning to control the diaphragm, the muscle under your lungs that drives breathing (Whitehead et al., 2019).
🔹 Sucking Reflex
Triggered when an object (like a nipple or finger) touches the mouth – enables feeding.
Related Reflexes:
Swallowing Reflex: allows liquid to move safely to the stomach.
Spitting up Reflex: regurgitates food if there’s too much (a safety overflow mechanism).
Rooting Reflex: when the cheek is touched, the baby turns its head toward the stimulus, helping find the breast/bottle. This fades after a few weeks.
🔹 Eyeblink Reflex
The eyes automatically shut when bright light or a foreign object approaches.
Related Reflex:
Pupillary Reflex: pupils constrict in bright light and dilate in dim light, helping the baby adapt to different environments. Protects vision and improves sight in varying lighting.
🦴 Primitive Reflexes
These are “evolutionary leftovers” – automatic movements seen in newborns that usually fade as the brain matures.
🔹 Babinski Reflex
When the foot is stroked, toes fan out (instead of curling).
Involves the pyramidal tract – a nerve highway between the brain and spine that develops later. Persistence of this reflex beyond 12 months may suggest neurological issues.
🔹 Stepping Reflex
Holding a baby upright with feet on a surface leads to walking-like steps.
Disappears by 8 weeks, unless reinforced. Early presence + eventual disappearance = normal development.
🔹 Swimming Reflex
Baby stretches arms and legs when held horizontally – like a doggy paddle.
Also shows up in water, including breath-holding. Fades around 4-6 months.
🔹 Palmar Grasping Reflex
Touching the palm causes baby to grip tightly – sometimes strong enough to lift their own body!
Disappears by 3–4 months, replaced by voluntary grasping.
🔹 Moro Reflex
Sudden change (like loud noise or shifting position) causes the baby to fling out arms, arch back, then retract.
Think of it like a “Whoa!” reflex.
Disappears by 4–6 months. Persistence or absence can suggest atypical neurological development.
Swaddling mimics the womb and helps calm this reflex.
🔹 Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR or Magnus Tonic Reflex)
When the head turns to one side, limbs on that side extend, and limbs on the other side flex – kind of like a fencing pose.
Disappears by 3–6 months; important for hand-eye coordination development.
🔹 Glabellar Reflex
Tapping between eyebrows causes blinking.
Repeated tapping usually leads to habituation (less blinking).
If it persists into adulthood, it may signal conditions like Parkinson’s or dementia.
👶 Neonatal Conditions and Capacities: Systems for Receiving Information
🖐 Touch
Earliest developing sense, already active in the womb.
Touch sensitivity increases right after birth – similar to how a phone’s fingerprint sensor gets more accurate after setup.
By the end of year one, babies can recognize familiar objects using touch alone – even with just one hand. That’s tactile memory at work.
👃 Smell
Acute at birth, and gets stronger fast.
Neonates prefer pleasant smells (e.g., vanilla > rotten eggs).
They can distinguish their mother’s scent from that of other women – like recognizing a “brand” by its unique fragrance.
👅 Taste
Fetuses respond to flavors in the amniotic fluid – especially if the mother consumes garlic or sweet substances.
Newborns prefer sweet (they suck harder for it) and can already distinguish sweet, sour, bitter, and salty within 2 hours of birth.
Their taste system is like a basic flavor profile detector already tuned to survival: sweet = calories, bitter = potential toxins.
👂 Hearing
Functional even before birth – fetuses can hear sounds a few months before delivery.!!!!!
Neonates are less sensitive than adults but can still tell apart:
Volume (loud vs soft),
Direction (where sound is coming from),
Frequency (pitch).
They are especially tuned to speech, and even more to their mother’s voice, which they recognize immediately. Like being programmed to find the “home frequency” on a radio.
👁 Sight
Least developed sense at birth – like a low-res webcam that slowly gets upgraded.!!!!!!!
Limited visual acuity and accommodation (focusing ability).
Can see brightness and some color discrimination starts at 2 months, once cones (color-detecting cells) are fully functioning.
Newborns are able to track moving objects to some degree.
🎢 Vestibular Sensitivity (Balance + Motion Perception)
Babies respond to position and movement (you’ll see this in how they settle when rocked).
When vestibular (balance) and visual information conflict, they trust vision more. This tells us visual input is becoming dominant early in sensory integration.
