Infancy

Question 1

Infancy (what it is)

Answer 1

is a period of dramatically rapid growth.
During the first year the infant’s weight almost triples. By age 2, the fundamentals of voluntary movement, language and concept formation can be observed.
The outstanding feature of infancy is the integration of simple responses into increasingly coordinated, meaningful patterns of behaviour
Infants are far more competent than people believe, many perceptual, cognitive and social capacities, guided by genetic information, have been noted.

Question 2

Detail in Infancy

Answer 2

The development of Sensory/ Perceptual and Motor Functions.

Infants are born with an intact Sensory/Perceptual system, including a well formed brain.
Vision, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch
Motion Sensitivity, and responsiveness to internal cues (proprioception).
All these develop rapidly and appear to function at a more advanced level than the motor system. Sensations appear to be organised and represented as meaningful perceptions in the infant’s brain. Sensory and perceptual capabilities provide the basis for establishing effective interactive relationships with their caregivers.

Question 3

Sensory and perceptual development (vision and hearing)

Answer 3

Hearing provides the very earliest link between new born and the mother.

Young infants can distinguish changes in loudness, pitch, duration and location of sounds. Infants use sounds to localize objects in space without the aid of visual cues.

Vision
Infants respond to a variety of visual dimensions e.g. movement, colour, brightness, complexity, light/dark, contrast, contours, distance and depth.

Question 4

Sensory and perceptual development (taste and smell )

Answer 4

From observation, infants have the ability to differentiate among various tastes – sweet, bitter, sour and salty. Two hours after birth, infants respond differently to those tastes. Sucrose has an especially calming effect on newborns and appear to reduce pain.
Breast-fed infants are particularly sensitive to their mothers’ body odors and the mother’s odor may play an important role in stimulating early mother-infant interactions

Question 5

Touch

Answer 5

The skin is the largest sensory organ and the earliest to develop in the uterus.

Research has proven that touch plays a central role in development.

Gentle handle, including rocking, stroking and cuddling, all have soothing effects on a baby

Swaddling the practice of wrapping a baby snugly in a soft blanket.

Question 6

THE INTERCONNECTED NATURE OF SENSORY/PERCEPTUAL CAPACITIES (Touches skin)

Answer 6

Even though the sensory and perceptual capacities evolve independently, they function simultaneously, in an interconnected system to provide a variety of information about the environment. (Breast feeding).

Mother guides baby to breast, baby uses visual, tactile, olfactory and kinesthetic cues to find and grabs breast, closes eyes, opens eyes looks at mother’s face, smells the milk, tastes it, listens to mother’s comforting voice.

Question 7

Motor Development (reflexes)

Answer 7

At birth an infant’s voluntary muscle responses are poorly coordinated.
Early responses appear to be reflective meaning that a specific stimulus will evoke a particular motor response without any voluntary control or direction.
Inserting something in an infant’s mouth produces a sucking reflex.
Infant reflexes include, sucking, grasping, rooting (turning the head in the direction of the cheek that is stroked)
Motor skills develop as a result and maturation of bones, muscles and the nervous system.

Question 8

Motor development follow two fundamental directions:

Answer 8

Cephalocaudal from the head, neck and shoulders to the legs and feet.

Proximodistal from the center, including the shoulders and trunk, to the extremities, the hands and fingers.

In addition, motor behaviour shifts from being largely reflexive to being purposeful and voluntary.

Question 9

What is temperament

Answer 9

This is a theoretical construct that refers to relatively stable characteristics of response to the environment that can be observed during the first months of life (Thomas & Chess, 1980).

In 1968, Escalona focused on individual differences among infants in the permeability of the boundary between the self and the stimulus environment and the differential sensitivity of the infant to various sense modalities

Question 10

Nine temperamental qualities

Answer 10

1.Activity level,
2.Rhythmicity,
3.Approach/ withdrawal,
4.Adaptability,
5.Intensity of reaction,
6.Threshold of responsiveness,
7. Quality of mood,
8.Distractibility,
9. Attention span and persistence.

Question 11

How is temperament linked to motor system

Answer 11

These dimensions of temperament are closely linked to the sensory/motor system and to the adaptive mechanisms that infants have for orienting to and withdrawing from stimulation

Question 12

Three temperamental groupings

Answer 12

1.Easy – positive mood, regular body functions, low or moderate intensity of reaction, adaptability, positive approach rather than withdrawal from new situations
2.Slow to Warm up – Low activity level, tendency to withdraw on first exposure to new stimuli, slow to adapt, somewhat negative in mood, low intensity of reaction to situations
3.Difficult – Irregular body functions, unusually intense reactions, tendency to withdraw from new situations, slow to adapt to change, generally negative mood.

Question 13

Temperament influences

Answer 13

A child’s temperament influences the tone of interactions,
the frequency with which interactions take place,
the way others react to the child and
the way the child reacts to the reaction of others.
Highly active social children- initiate interactions and respond positively to the attention of others.
More passive inhibited children. Less likely to initiate interactions and withdraws.

Question 14

What is attachment

Answer 14

The process through which people develop specific, positive, emotional bonds with others.

The attachment behaviour system is an organized patterns of infant signals and adult responses that lead to a protective, trusting relationship during the earliest stage of development.

One of the most significant patterns of caregiver-infant interactions in the early months is synchrony. Parent-infant dyads that show early positive attachment are characterized by interactions that are rhythmic, well-timed and mutually rewarding.
Dyads in which the caregiver is unresponsive to the infant’s signals of distress, overly intrusive when the infant is calm, or under involved, have less positive attachments.

Question 15

Evidence that an attachment has been formed

Answer 15

Infants try to maintain contact with the object of attachment.

Infants show distress when the object of attachment is absent.

Infants are more relaxed and comfortable with the object of attachment and more fretful with others.

Question 16

Types of anxiety in infants with attachment

Answer 16

Stranger Anxiety – The baby’s discomfort or tension in the presence of unfamiliar adults

Separation Anxiety – Infants expressing rage and despair when parents leave

Question 17

Patterns of attachment

Answer 17

Secure attachment- explore their environment and interact with strangers when mother is present.
After separation the babies actively greet their mothers or seek interaction. If distress occurred when mother returned it was reduced

ANXIOUS AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT
Avoids contact with mother after separation or ignore their efforts to interact
Show less distress at being alone than other babies

ANXIOUS RESISTANT ATTACHMENT
Cautious in the presence of strangers
Exploration disrupted by the caregivers departure. Angry and hard to comfort when caregiver returns.

DISORGANISED ATTACHMENT:
No consistent strategy like the other three.
They behave contrary, unpredictable ways that seem to convey feelings of extreme fear or utter confusion.

Question 18

Attachment Relevance To Later Development

Answer 18

An attachment is more than the expression of behaviour. It is an internal representation of the characteristics of a specific relationship. It provides the infant with a set of rules with which to organise information and to interpret experiences related to the relationship. The representation is a product of the infant’s efforts to maintain contact with the caregiver and the caregiver’s customary responses to those attempts. In a secure attachment the representation is based on the infant’s confidence that his attempts will be accepted.
Positive adaptive capacities
Greater resilience, self-control and curiosity.
Development of more positive friendships.

Question 19

Reactive Attachment Disorder

Answer 19

In contrast, infants who have a disorganized attachment are very hostile, aggressive preschoolers.

A new clinical diagnosis – Reactive Attachment Disorder – has been linked to serious disturbance in infant attachment.
Two expressions of this disorder have been described: Inhibited Type, in which the person is very withdrawn, hyper-vigilant in social contacts, and resistant to comfort; and Uninhibited Type, in which the person shows a lack of discrimination, being overly friendly and attaching to any new person (DeAngelis,1997)

Question 20

What does the quality of attachment formed in infancy influence

Answer 20

From a life-span perspective, the quality of attachment formed in infancy influences the formation of later relationships.

The cognitive representation one forms of an attachment relationship influences one’s expectations of an intimate partner.

Question 21

Adult love relationships characterised

Answer 21

Adult love relationships can be characterised along many of the same dimensions as infant attachments, including the desire to maintain physical contact with the loved one,

increased disclosure and responsiveness to the loved one,

the effectiveness of the loved one in providing comfort and reassurance that reduce distress, and

the element of exclusiveness or preferential response, compared to others.

Do not assume that the quality of adult love relationships or parental behaviour is determined solely by the quality of childhood attachments.

Many experiences and concepts intervene to modify the attachment representation and to expand one’s capacity to love another person after infancy

Question 22

Attachment going into Adulthood

Answer 22

Parenting relationships can also be understood as an elaboration of the attachment representation.

Adults who have experienced a secure attachment in their own infancy are more likely to be able to comfort and respond to their children.

Adults whose childhood attachments were unpredictable or even hostile are more likely to have difficulty coping successfully with infants’ needs

However, a growing body of work links the quality of early attachments with a person’s orientation to and capacity for social relationships within the context of friendships, intimate relationships and parent-child relations

Question 23

SENSORIMOTOR INTELLIGENCE AND EARLY CAUSAL SCHEMES (Primitive Causality)

Answer 23

Capacity to anticipate that certain actions will have specific effects on objects in the environment.

The chief mechanism governing the growth of intelligence in infancy is sensorimotor adaptation – infants use their reflexes to explore/ engage their environment, at the same time

They gradually alter their reflexive responses to take account of the unique properties of objects around them.

They form schemes based on perception and direct investigation of the environment.

Question 24

SENSORYMOTOR INTELIGENCE AND EARLY CAUSAL SCHEMES (Primitive Causality) - Continuation

Answer 24

The notion of sensorimotor intelligence encompasses the emergence and elaboration of simple and complex schemes for the patterns of movement and the sensory experiences that the child comes to recognize in association with specific environmental events.

According to Theory, infants form theories about how their world operates and modify them as new information is gathered.

Question 25

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF OBJECTS AND CREATING CATEGORIES

Answer 25

The natural propensity for exploration, to try to make direct sensory contact with objects in their environment
Repeated looking, gazing, manipulating and examination contribute to understanding that objects have boundaries, size, weight, color, texture malleability, capacity to contain something else and capacity to occupy space.
Understanding the properties of objects is the foundation of logical thoughts
Object permanence:
Process through which infants develop the concept that objects in the environment are permanent and do not cease to exist when they are out of the reach or view.

Question 26

UNDERSTANDINGTHE NATURE OF OBJECTS AND CREATING CATEGORIES

Answer 26

As infants explore and experiment with objects, they begin to devise schemes for grouping objects together.

They modify these schemes to add new items to the category and to differentiate one category from another. Infants are capable of forming visual categories.

One of the most robust categories that appears early in infancy is the distinction between persons and objects

Question 27

Foundational Category

Answer 27

This is a foundational category that provides a basis for the emphasis on the unique role of social relationships in the process of adaptation and growth.

Categorization is a fundamental element of information processing – aiding in the storage and recall process of memory, reasoning and problem solving and in the acquisition of new information.

Question 28

Emotional Development

Answer 28

Emotional development during infancy can be understood along four dimensions:
New emotions emerge and are differentiated along dimensions of intensity
With cognitive development the child interprets events differently
Infants develop strategies for regulating emotions so that they are not overwhelmed by emotional intensity.
Emotions serve as a channel for adult-infant communication . Infants can produce a range of emotional expressions, including fear, distress, disgust, surprise, excitement, interest, joy, anger and sadness.
Parents/caregivers rely on the facial, vocal and behavioural cues related to these emotions to determine an infant’s inner state or goals.
In cycles of interaction, responsive parents also monitor changes in a baby’s affect or emotional state, to determine whether their interventions are effective.

Question 29

Continuation of emotional development

Answer 29

Babies can also recognize and discriminate the affective expressions of others through facial and auditory expressions, eg. Fear, anger, happiness, sadness and surprise.
Infants use the emotional responses of others to guide their own behaviour. They use their mothers and others as social references
The domain of emotions is a two-way channel through which infants and their caregivers establish inter-subjectivity, a state in which both partners have the same understanding and take the same meaning from a situation.
The partners are able to engage in reciprocal, rhythmic interactions; to appreciate state changes in each other and to modify their actions according to information being sent by the other
Through a shared repertoire of emotions, babies and their caregivers can understand one another and create shared meanings. Hence, emotional expression becomes a building block of trust

Question 30

THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL CRISIS (trust)

Answer 30

An appraisal of the predictability, dependability and genuineness of another person. For infants trust is an emotional and experiential state of confidence that their needs will be met and that they are valued.
Trust emerges as one person discovers that the other person is honest, understanding and dependable. As trust grows, partners take new risks by disclosing information or feelings that may lead to rejection. Relationships that survive these risks increase in trust.
Trust is more than a summary of the past; it is a faith that the relationship will weather the uncertainties of an unpredictable future. A trusting relationship links confidence based on the past with faith about the future.

Question 31

THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL CRISIS (trust) - Continuation

Answer 31

Trust is inferred from the infant’s increasing capacity to delay gratification and from the warmth and delight evident in family interactions.
The infant’s sense of trust is an emotional state that provides an undifferentiated feeling of oneness with the world.
Erikson (1978) tied the capacity for trust with the basic human strength of hope: “Hope is the enduring belief in the attainability of primal wishes, in spite of the dark urges and rages which mark the beginnings of existence and leaves at least a residue of threatening estrangement”.
Hope born in infancy provides optimism to face risks.
In life the capacity for trust and a sense of trust-worthiness gives energy to seek new solutions and the hope of resolving difficult challenges.

Question 32

THE PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISIS

Answer 32

Mistrust: During infancy, this may arise from at least three sources.
Wariness is one of the earliest infant emotions, linked to at least two infant reflexes: the startle response in reaction to loud noises and the reflex in response to sudden loss of support.

2. Babies may lack confidence in the good intentions of others – inappropriate and inconsistent caregivers’ responses and unusually harsh caregiver response/interaction in meeting infant’s needs

Babies experience the power of their own rage.

When intense feelings of anger or distress exceed the infant’s capacity for self regulation, they experience periods of disorganization and may doubt their own lovableness as they encounter the violence of their own capacity for anger

Question 33

THE CENTRAL PROCESS MUTUALITY WITH CAREGIVER

Answer 33

Mutuality refers to a relationship in which each partner modifies and regulates his or her behaviour in response to the other.

Parental sensitivity and intersubjectivity are both elements of the establishment of mutuality. Initially, mutuality is built on the consistency with which the caregiver responds appropriately to the child’s needs.
An infant influences the responses of caregivers in many ways, eg. By their irritability or soothability. An infant and a caregiver learn to regulate the amount of time that passes between the expression of a need and its satisfaction.