First Two Years - Biosocial Development

Question 1

Often measurements are expressed as a __________, from 0 to 100. They indicate where an individual ranks on a particular measure.

Answer 1

percentile

Question 2

____ ______ is a biological mechanism that protects the brain when malnutrition disrupts body growth. The brain is the last part of the body to be damaged by malnutrition.

Answer 2

Head sparing

Question 3

• Body sized is measured in…
  1) “_____” an average or standard for a particular population.
  2) “_______ ________” a representative sample of, for example, North American infants.
  3) “_________” a number that is midway between 0 and 100, with ½ the children above it and ½ below it.

Answer 3

Norms

Particular population

Percentiles

Question 4

A _______ is one of billions of nerve cells in the central nervous system, especially the brain.

Answer 4

neuron

Question 5

Communication within the CNS - the brain and spinal cord - begins with nerve cells, called ________, which proliferate in the last half of the fetal life.

Answer 5

neurons

Question 6

The newborn brain has billions of neurons, about 70& of them in the ______, the brain’s six outer layers.

Answer 6

cortex

Question 7

The ______ is the outer layers of the brain in humans and other mammals. Most thinking, feeling, and sensing involves the cortex.

Answer 7

cortex

Question 8

The final part of the brain to mature is the ________ _____, the area for anticipation, planning, and impulse control.

Answer 8

prefrontal cortex

Question 9

Within and between areas of the CNS, neurons are connected to other neurons by intricate networks of nerve fibers called ______ and _________.

Answer 9

axons and dendrites

Question 10

An ____ is a fiber that extends from a neuron and transmits electrochemical impulses from that neuron to the dendrites of other neurons.

Answer 10

axon

Question 11

A _________ is a fiber that extends from a neuron and receives electrochemical impulses transmitted from other neurons via their axons.

Answer 11

dendrite

Question 12

A ________ is the intersection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons.

Answer 12

synapse

Question 13

A ___________ is a brain chemical that carries information from the axon of a sending neuron to the dendrites of a receiving neuron.

Answer 13

neurotransmitter

Question 14

The axon of one neuron meets the dendrites of other neurons at intersections called ________, which are critical communication links within the brain.

Answer 14

synapses

Question 15

The electrical impulses in axons typically cause the release of chemicals called ____________, which carry information from the axon of the sending neuron, across a ________ ____, to the dendrites of the receiving neuron.

Answer 15

neurotransmitters

synaptic gap

Question 16

Brain development is reflected in and or requires:

1) increasing ____ size
2) Qualitative changes in the brain
3) Interaction with the outside world = _______ _________.

Answer 16

head

BIOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Question 17

Early dendrite growth is called ________ _______: exuberant because it is so rapid and transient because some of it is temporary.

Answer 17

transient exuberance

Question 18

_______ _________: the great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites that develop in an infant’s brain during the first two years of life.

Answer 18

transient exuberance

Question 19

The expansive growth of dendrites is followed by _________, which when applied to brain development, is the process by which unused connections in the brain atrophy and die.

Answer 19

pruning

Question 20

__________-_________ brain functions: brain functions depend on particular variable experiences and therefore may or may not develop in a particular infant.

Answer 20

Experience-dependent brain functions.

Question 21

__________-________ brain development is variable because circumstances vary: for example, a baby’s main caregiver could be a biological or adoptive mother or father, or a grandparent. Happy and successful babies have been raised by each of those types of caregivers. All that is experience-dependent.

Answer 21

Experience-dependent

Question 22

_________-_________ brain functions require certain basic common experiences (which an infant can be expected to have) in order to develop normally.

Answer 22

Experience-expectant

Question 23

_________-________ brain development occurs because of circumstances that all human babies should have. For example, every baby needs at least one steady caregiver: without that stability the brain might not develop normal emotional responses.

Answer 23

Experience-expectant

Question 24

Sleep

• One consequence of brain maturation is the ability to sleep through the night.
• Newborns cannot do this.
• Normally, they sleep 15 to 17 hours a day, in one- to three-hour segments.
• Hours of sleep decrease rapidly with maturity: the norm per day for the first 2 months is 14 1/4 hours; the next 3 months, 13 1/4 hours; for 6 to 17 months, 12 3/4 hours.
• Sleep specifics vary not only b/c of biology (age and genes) but also b/c of the social environment.
• Full term newborns sleep more than low-birthweight babies, who are hungry every two hours.
• Babies who are fed cow’s milk and cereal sleep more soundly - easier for parents but not ideal for the baby.

-The social context also has a direct effect: If parents respond to predawn cries with food and play, babies wake up early each morning.

Answer 24

Know these

Question 25

• ______ and ______ increase markedly in the first two years.
• Babies ______ their birth weight by age 1 and add more than a ____ between birth and age 2.
• Norms for height and weight are expressed in _________, because children who are relatively big or small typically continue on that path.

Answer 25

Weight and height

triple
foot

percentiles

Question 26

_________ is the response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus.

Answer 26

Sensation

Question 27

_________ precedes perception. Then perception leads to cognition. Thus, in order to learn, babies begin by responding to every sensation that might be significant.

Answer 27

Sensation

Question 28

________ is the mental processing of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation.

Answer 28

Perception

Question 29

Perception occurs in the ______, usually as the result of a message from one of the sensing organs, such as from the eye to the visual cortex.

Answer 29

cortex

Question 30

_____ _____: the learned abilities to move some part of the body, in actions ranging from a large leap to a flicker of the eyelid. (The word motor here refers to movement of muscles.)

Answer 30

Motor skill

Question 31

______ ______ ______: physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping. (The word gross here means “big.”)

Answer 31

Gross motor skill

Question 32

• Deliberate actions that coordinate many parts of the body, producing large movements, are called ____ ______ ______.
• These skills emerge directly from reflexes and proceed in a cephalocaudal (head-down) and proximodistal (center-out) direction.
• Infants first control their heads, lifting them up to look around. Then they control their upper bodies, their arms, and finally their legs and feet.

Answer 32

gross motor skills

Question 33

There are three things that affect motor skill learning…

1) Muscle strength
2) Brain maturation
3) Practice

Answer 33

Know these

Question 34

____ _____ ______: physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin. (The word fine here means “small.”)

• The most valued fine motor skills are finger movements, enabling humans to write, draw, type, tie, and so on. Movements of the tongue, jaw, lips, and toes are fine movements as well.
• As with gross motor skills, fine motor skills are shaped by culture and opportunity.
• Each motor skill expands the baby’s cognitive awareness.

Answer 34

Fine motor skills