Exam Unit #2

Question 1

What did Arnold Gesell?

Answer 1

• Influenced by their genes (biology)
• Rate that they develop depends on their nervous system
• Fixed sequences we have to go through (development on these stages)
• all internal
• Saw this as additional and had to be in harmony with the nervous system

Question 2

What is Esther Thelen?

Answer 2

• External factors
• What you see is what you do
• Active - child learns on their own
• Direct - Showing them how (parents, guardians, teachers)
• Environment exploration is deeply important to the forming of a child and their brain development

Question 3

Cephalocaudal Principle:

Answer 3

• Fancy way of saying that development proceeds from the head downward
• Fastest growth occurs at the top of the head
• Very similar to sensory & motor skills development

Head → Neck → Shoulders → Middle Trunk

Question 4

Proximodistal Pattern

Answer 4

• Growth starts at the center of the body and moves out towards extremities
• Spinal Cord develops first
• Maturation of muscular control of the trunk & arms
• Arms develop before hands; Hands & Feet before toes and fingers;
• Finger muscles are also last to develop (control shoulders and hand first)

Question 5

What is germinal period?

Answer 5

• Takes place during the first two weeks after conception.
• Includes creation of a zygote, cell division (begins during this period) and the attachment of a zygote (10-14 days after conception) to the lining of the uterus
• This process is called mitosis
• A zygote: begins as a one cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge
• After one week, the cells start to become specialized for different tasks.

Question 6

What is the embryonic Period?

Answer 6

• Occurs from 2 - 8 weeks after conception
• The rate of cell differentiation intensifies, organs begin to appear.
• Endoderm - inner layer of cells; Digestive and respiratory systems
• Ectoderm - outermost layer of cells; Nervous system
  Sensory organs
  = Amnion (layer around embryo), umbilical cord (connect to placenta), placenta (oxygen & nutrients).
  = Red blood cells and hormones cannot pass through placenta.
• Organogenesis is the name given to the process of organ formatting during the first two months of development.
• During this period high vulnerability to environmental influence.

Question 7

What is the fetal period?

Answer 7

• Lasts 7 months on average:
• Begins 2 months from conception until birth.
• Three months after conception, it is active and can begin moving its arms, legs, and can even move the head.
  -still grow, but last 2 months is when they gain the most weight

Question 8

What occurs in infancy?

Answer 8

• Reflexes such as sucking, rooting, grasping
• Adjust to sucking, digesting and swallowing they begin to grow rapidly
• It is normal for newborns to losebody weight in the first few days of being on the outside
• Year 2 - growth slows

Question 9

What occurs in early childhood?

Answer 9

• Children usually slim down during this period as the trunks of their bodies lengthen - their heads will still seem big for their bodies
• Female growth tends to have more fat tissue - male growth tends to have more muscle tissue
• Growth patterns are individualized, Two important contributors to height differences
  a) Ethnic origin
  b) Nutrition

Question 10

What occur to mid-late childhood?

Answer 10

• Period of slow consistent growth - calm before rapid growth spurts of adolescence
• Growth = 2-3 inches per year
• Body fat decreases, muscle mass and strength increases

Question 11

Puberty derterminants:

Answer 11

• Heredity (programed into our genes)
• Hormones
  a) Androgens = Male Sex Hormones; Estrogen: Female Sex Hormones
• The endocrine system (regulates all biological processes):
  a) Ensures that hormonal stimulation prompts maturation & maintains reproductive capacity.
• Weight, body fat and leptin (hormone that helps regulate energy balance)
• Weight - birth/infancy
• Can determine when puberty starts - especially for girls
• Adolescents in developed areas reach puberty earlier than those in underdeveloped areas
• Absence of parental figure, maltreatment, etc
• Males: Can occur as early as 10 years old to about 13 ½ & ends around 17 - 18
• Females: First period will occur between 9 - 15 years of age

Question 12

What are the parts of endocrine system?

Answer 12

1. endocrine glands
   - Release hormones into the bloodstream. This lets the hormones travel to the cells in other parts of the body
2. endocrine hormones
   - Help control mood, growth and development, the way our organs work, metabolism & reproduction
3. endocrine system
   - Regulates how much of each hormone is released. This can depend on levels of hormones already in the blood or on levels of other substances in the blood (like calcium).
   - Stress, Infection or changes in fluid and mineral can affect hormone levels

Question 13

What occurs in early adulthood?

Answer 13

• Physical changes do continue but are more subtle
• Many individuals will reach a peak of muscle tone and strength in their late teens and twenties -> begin to decline in the 30’s
• Sagging chins and protruding abdomens MAY start to appear for the first time
• Muscles will have less elasticity, and aches and pains start to appear

Question 14

What occurs in middle adulthood?

Answer 14

• Individuals lose height(1/2,1/2, 2) in middle age, and many gain weight
• wrinkle (less collogen), hair thin + grey (less replacement and melantin production)
• From 30-50 men lose ½ inch in height, then another ½ inch from 50-70
• For women, height loss can be as much as 2 inches from 25-75 years of age (Bone loss in the vertebrae)
• Noticeable signs of aging become more apparent by their 40s & 50s
• Skin begins to wrinkle - loss of fat and collagen, age spots on skin exposed to the sun
• Hair thins and turns gray because of a lower replacement rate and a decline of melanin production
• Smoking, drinking and poor nutrition can also cause an increase in these signs.

Question 15

What occurs in middle adulthood (cardiovascular disease)

Answer 15

• Cardiovascular disease increases in middle age
• Level of cholesterol in blood increases
  1. LDL = “BAD” cholesterol because when too high sticks to the lining of blood vessels - hardening of the arteries
  2. HDL = “GOOD” cholesterol because cardiovascular disease decreases when HDL is high.

Middle age - increase risks of cardiovascular disease
Blood pressure rises

Question 16

What occurs in middle adulthood (strength, joints and bones)

Answer 16

• Sarcopenia - age related loss of muscle mass and strength
• Age 50 - muscle loss occurs at a rate of 1-2% per year (back of legs specifically)
  Obesity is a risk factor
• Max bone density = mid to late 30’s then there is a progressive loss of bone. (begins slowly but accelerates in the 50’s
• Women’s rate of bone loss is twice as much as men - bones break easily and are slow to recover

Question 17

What occurs in middle adulthood? (sexuality)

Answer 17

• Climacteric - term used to describe the decline in fertility
• Women go through menopause (40s and early 50s)
• Average age for the last period is 52 - varies for women
• Body changes - weight gain of lower body for some

Question 18

What occurs in late adulthood?

Answer 18

Physical Appearance:
- Changes that occur in late adulthood are more prominent
- Senses are less sensitive, reaction time slows, and there are changes to physical stamina

Circulatory System:
- Hypertension is more problematic and the likelihood of a stroke increases
- Rise in blood pressure can be linked to illness

Exercise, weight lifting, healthy diet can help in reducing risks and improving lifestyles at this stage.

Question 19

What is the difference between fine and gross motor skills?

Answer 19

Gross = larger limbs
- Skills that involve large muscle activity
ex. Walking, Crawling, Sitting independently, pulling

Fine = fingers
- Motor skills that involve finely tuned movements,
ex. Buttoning a shirt and typing

Question 20

What are some infant reflexes?

Answer 20

Rooting Reflex: Built in reaction that occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked or the side of mouth is touched to find smth to suck

Sucking Reflex: Reaction to sucking an object placed in their mouth (associated the nipple with food)

Moro Reflex: Startle response to a sudden noise or movement. When startled, a newborn will throw its head back, arch their back or fling arms & legs

Grasping Reflex: Occurs when something touches the infant’s palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly → haven’t learned to move fingers → more gross motor

Question 21

What does the frontal lobe do?

Answer 21

• Largest lobe in the central cortex and it is responsible for many of the behavioral trails (personality, motor control, ect)
• Makes sense of information about environment → use to make decisions
• Maintains connections to nearly every other part of the brain
• Provide us with working memory → keep relevant information

Question 22

What is the parietal lobe do?

Answer 22

I = IMPORTANT
E = ENVIRONMENT
T = TOUCH
A = ATTENTION
L = LOBE -> OCCIPITAL

• Senses to focus our attention on important things in environment
• Interprets our sense of touch and monitors the relative position of body and its limbs
• Receives signals from occipital lobe, reflects location of objects

Left and right halves

Question 23

What does the temporal lobe do?

Answer 23

E= EMOTION
M = MEMORY
R = RECOGNITIZE
L = LANGUAGE

• Houses memories, emotions and language comprehensions
• Contains hippocampus, primary auditory cortex and Wernicke’s area
• Key to recognize objects, places and people

Question 24

What does the occipital lobe do?

Answer 24

• Decodes visual signals
  Visual information come from retina
• Information relays through occipital lobe or parietal lobe to determine response based on motion

Question 25

What does the broca area do?

Answer 25

bro-Ca
- Necessary for production and coordination of speech
- Only found in dominant left hemisphere (for most people)

Question 26

What does the wernicke area do?

Answer 26

• W= WRITING
• Allows us to comprehend language, both writing and speaking

Question 27

What is brain plasticity?

Answer 27

Brain’s ability to change, reorganize or grow neural networks; involving functional change due to learning

Question 28

Problem of brain plasticity:

Answer 28

Brain plasticity can be problematic when it allows changes caused by substance use, disease, or trauma (ex; PTSD)

Question 29

What is synaptic pruning?

Answer 29

Meaning removal of excess synapses → get rid of ones that are not strong enough
Synapse meaning structure that allow neuron to pass eclectic signals to another neuron

Average adult only has half the # of synapses a child has:
As we gain new experiences, some connections are strengthened while others are eliminated → synaptic pruning

Question 30

How does sight develop?

Answer 30

• Sight is an example of a sense that takes time to develop.
• Over the first few months, babies may have uncoordinated eye movements with the ability to focus only at close range
• Focus will continue to improve over the first 2 to 3 years of life.
• Newborns can detect light and dark but cannot detect all colours.

Question 31

How does hearing develop?

Answer 31

• baby kicks or jumps in response to loud noises (in pregnancy)
• Hearing is a sense that is fully developed in newborns
• The sense of sound also changes with age
  1. responsibilities is hearing and maintaining balance
• Fluid and small hair in the inner ear stimulate the auditory nerve, and this helps the brain to maintain balance
• As an individual ages, structures inside of the ear start to change and their functions decline
• The ability to pick up sounds decreases
• The individual might find that they have problems maintaining their balance

Question 32

What occurs in sight as you age?

Answer 32

• By the time an individual reaches the age of 60, their pupils may decrease to about one-third of the size they were when they were 20
• The pupils might also react more slowly in response to darkness and bright light
• The sharpness of vision declines with age and the most common problem is difficulty focusing the eyes on close-up objects
• With age, it is also more difficult to tell colours apart

Question 33

How does smell and taste develop?

Answer 33

• The senses of smell and taste work together
• newborns have a strong sense of smell (prefer the smell of mother)
• The sense of taste is developed when born
• Babies tend to prefer sweet tastes over sour or bitter tastes
• The number of taste buds in our mouths decreases as we age
• The sense of smell can also decrease after the age of 70.
• This can be related to a loss of nerve endings and less mucus production in the nose
• Mucus helps odors to stay in the nose

Question 34

How does touch develop?

Answer 34

• The sense of touch makes us aware of pain, temperature, pressure, vibration, and body position
• With aging, sensations might be changed or reduced
• These changes can occur because of decrease blood flow to the nerve endings or to the spinal cord or brain

Question 35

What is compensation?

Answer 35

• If a person loses one sensory modality, other senses can compensate and take over
• Teaching ways to adapt, modify, or change the method to perform the task
• Compensation involves the brain’s ability to recruit other neurons in other regions of the nervous system

Question 36

What is adaptive plasticity?

Answer 36

1. To enable adjustment to experience;
2. To compensate for lost function;
3. Maximize remaining functions in the event of brain damage

Question 37

What cause change physically in late adulthood?

Answer 37

Genetic programming theories of aging - a built in timeline to the reproduction of cells we all have - think of it like an automatic self-destruct button. Once activated there’s no stopping it.

Wear-and-tear theories of aging - mechanical functions. The body simply stops working efficiency as people age