Infancy Flashcards
Definition
A baby’s frantic, continual crying during the first three months of life caused by an immature nervous system.
Colic
What is syntax?
Ways in which children combine words and phrases to form sentences
Define
Kangaroo care
Carrying a young baby in a sling close to the caregiver’s body. This technique is most useful for soothing an infant.
Centration, conservation, transformation, egocentrism and intuitive thought are all developed during which stage of Piaget’s approach to cognitive development?
Preoperational stage
Define
Insecure attachment
Deviation from the normally joyful response of being united with a primary caregiver, signaling problems in the caregiver–child relationship.
Definition
The alternating vowel and consonant sounds that babies repeat with variations of intonation and pitch and that precede the first words.
Babbling
Definition
Deviation from the normally joyful response of being united with a primary caregiver, signaling problems in the caregiver–child relationship.
Insecure attachment
Define
Babbling
The alternating vowel and consonant sounds that babies repeat with variations of intonation and pitch and that precede the first words.
Define
Language acquisition device (LAD)
Chomsky’s term for a hypothetical brain structure that enables our species to learn and produce language.
Baby Sara watches her big brother hit the dog. Based on the research in this section, Sara might first understand her brother is being “mean” (choose one) months before/at/months after age 1.
Baby Sara should pick up this idea months before age 1.
Definition
The first real smile, occurring at about 2 months of age.
Social smile
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, habits of the sensorimotor stage lasting from about 4 months of age to the baby’s first birthday, centered on exploring the external world.
Secondary circular reactions
Define
Tertiary circular reactions
In Piaget’s framework, “little-scientist” activities of the sensorimotor stage, beginning around age 1, involving flexibly exploring the properties of objects.
What is relational aggression?
Carried out indirectly through damaging or destroying the victim’s relationships
At what age does separation anxiety start to occur?
7-8 months
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, the first infant habits during the sensorimotor stage, centered on the body.
Primary circular reactions
Baby Ginny is 4 months old; baby Jamal is about 7 months old; baby Sam is 1 year old; baby David is 2 years old. Identify each child’s probable language stage by choosing from the following items: babbling; cooing; telegraphic speech; holophrases.
Baby Ginny is cooing; baby Jamal is babbling; baby Sam is speaking in holophrases (one-word stage); and baby David is using telegraphic speech.
Definition
The simplified, exaggerated, highpitched tones that adults and children use to speak to infants that function to help teach language.
Infant-directed speech (IDS)
List an example of “proximity-seeking in distress” in your own life within the past few months.
Your responses will differ, but any example you give, such as “I called Mom when that terrible thing happened at work,” should show that in a stressful situation your immediate impulse was to contact your attachment figure.
What are the four types of aggression?
Motivation:
- Proactive
- Reactive
Form
- Direct
- Relational
When do primary circular reactions develop?
Months 1 to 4
What factors influence physical development?
Nutrition
Disease
Genetics
Stress
What are the two personality styles during childhood?
Externalising tendencies
Internalising tendencies
Define
Axon
A long nerve fiber that usually conducts impulses away from the cell body of a neuron.
Define
Social smile
The first real smile, occurring at about 2 months of age.
What causes colic?
An immature nervous system that is easily overwhelmed by stimuli
Define
Strange situation
Mary Ainsworth’s procedure to measure attachment at age 1, involving planned separations and reunions with a caregiver.
Define
Secondary circular reactions
In Piaget’s framework, habits of the sensorimotor stage lasting from about 4 months of age to the baby’s first birthday, centered on exploring the external world.
What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?
A concept of Vygotsky’s theory that states that there are a range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner
True or False:
There is a relationship between childhood nutrition and self-confidence
True
Children who received higher levels of nutrients felt more self-confident than those whose nutritional intake was lower
What biological factors influence fine motor development during childhood?
Growth spurts in myelination
What are examples of tertiary circular reactions?
Exploring the various dimensions of a toy
Throwing a bottle off the high chair in different directions
Putting different kinds of food in the computer
Define
Primary circular reactions
In Piaget’s framework, the first infant habits during the sensorimotor stage, centered on the body.
Which child is more likely to be aggressive, one with internalising tendences or one with externalising?
Externalising tendencies
What is the most effective method at calming babies in the first days of life?
Continuous human touch
Muriel is 1 month old, Janine is 5 months old, Ted is 1 year old, and Tania is age 3. List each child’s phase of attachment.
Muriel = preattachment; Janine = attachment in the making; Ted = clear-cut attachment: Tania = working model.
Define
Primary attachment figure
The closest person in a child’s or adult’s life.
Definition
A caregiving approach stressing the value of prolonged breast feeding, continuous “skin to skin” contact, and other strategies designed to promote intense parent-child bonding during the early years of life.
Attachment parenting
Define
Secure attachment
Ideal attachment response when a child responds with joy at being united with a primary caregiver; in adulthood, the genuine intimacy that is ideal in love relationships.
What attachment phase are babies in during the first 3 months of life?
Preattachment phase
Define
Separation anxiety
Signal of clear-cut attachment when a baby gets upset as a primary caregiver departs.
What happens to the corpus callosum during childhood?
It becomes thicker
What is reciprocal teaching?
A concept of Vygotsky’s theory involving instructional activity that takes place through dialogue between teachers and students about a topic. Teacher and student take turns being the “teacher” in leading the dialogue
What is private speech?
Speech that is spoken and directed to self
Define
REM sleep
The phase of sleep involving rapid eye movements, when the EEG looks almost like it does during waking. REM sleep decreases as infants mature.
Definition
Mary Ainsworth’s procedure to measure attachment at age 1, involving planned separations and reunions with a caregiver.
Strange situation
When does the sensorimotor stage end?
It ends with the development of language (at around 2)
What is conservation?
The knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects
What is the downside of swaddling?
It limits skin-to-skin contact between caregiver and child
When do secondary circular reactions appear?
At around 4 months of age
What areas do children draw on to determine self-esteem?
- Scholastic competence
- Behavioural conduct
- Athletic skills
- Peer likeability
- Physical appearance
Definition
An insecure attachment style characterized by a child’s intense distress when reunited with a primary caregiver after separation.
Anxious-ambivalent attachment
Define
Means-end behaviour
In Piaget’s framework, performing a different action to achieve a goal—an ability that emerges in the sensorimotor stage as babies approach age 1.
At what age does social smiles occur?
2 months
Jose, while an avid Piaget fan, has to admit that in important ways, this master theorist was wrong. Jose can legitimately make which two criticisms? (1) Cognition develops gradually, not in stages; (2) Infants understand human motivations; (3) Babies understand the basic properties of objects at birth
Cognition develops gradually rather than in distinct stages; infants understand human motivations.
Definition
Ideal attachment response when a child responds with joy at being united with a primary caregiver; in adulthood, the genuine intimacy that is ideal in love relationships.
Secure attachment
Define
Synapse
The gap between the dendrites of one neuron and the axon of another, over which impulses flow.
What did Vygotsky propose in his Sociocultural theory?
Infants are born with a few elementary mental functions (attention, sensation, perception and memory) that are eventually transformed by the culture into new and more sophisticated mental processes that he called higher mental functions.
Cognition is the results of social interactions in which the children learn through guided participation
By what age does object permanence fully emerge?
2 years
Define
Clear-cut attachment
Critical human attachment phase, from 7 months through toddlerhood, defined by separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, and needing a primary caregiver close.
What are examples of primary circular reactions?
Sucking toes/thumb
Definition
The standard Western infant calming technique of wrapping a baby tightly in a blanket or other garment.
Swaddling
What method is used to measure childhood obesity levels?
BMI
How does language mechanics change during middle childhood?
- Vocabulary continues to increase
- Mastery of grammar improves
- Understanding of syntax grows
- Certain phonemes remain troublesome
- Decoding difficulties when dependent on intonation
- More competence in pragmatics
- Increase in meta-linguistic awareness
Define
Synchrony
The reciprocal aspect of the attachment relationship, with a caregiver and infant responding emotionally to each other in a sensitive, exquisitely attuned way.
What are the differences between Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Piaget’s cognitive development theory?
During what stage is object permanence developed?
Sensorimotor stage
Define
Disorganised attachment
An insecure attachment style characterized by responses such as freezing or fear when a child is reunited with the primary caregiver in the Strange Situation.
What are the three insecure attachment types seen in infants?
Avoidant
Anxious-ambivalent
Disorganised
What are the pros of Vygotsky’s theory?
- Increasingly influential in the last decade
- Growing body of research on the importance of social interaction in promoting cognitive development
- Growing body of multicultural and cross-cultural research
By what age can babies can simultaneously employ two circular reactions, using both grasping and kicking together to explore the world?
8 months
What areas of intuitive thought are developed during childhood?
- Use of primitive reasoning
- Assertiveness regarding knowledge, but unable to support the argument
- Slowly certain qualities prepare children for more sophisticated forms of reasoning
- Begin to understand the notion of functionality
- Actions, events and outcomes are related to each other in fixed patterns
- Begin to show an awareness of the concept of identity
- Certain things stay the same, regardless of changes in shape, size and appearance
Define
Object permanence
In Piaget’s framework, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when we can no longer see them, which gradually emerges during the sensorimotor stage.
Define
Little-scientist phase
The time around age 1 when babies use tertiary circular reactions to actively explore the properties of objects, experimenting with them like “scientists.’
At what age does an infant enter the transitional period called attachment in the making?
4 moths
Definition
A long nerve fiber that usually conducts impulses away from the cell body of a neuron.
Axon
Definition
The time around age 1 when babies use tertiary circular reactions to actively explore the properties of objects, experimenting with them like “scientists.’
Little-scientist phase
What are the major criticisms of Piaget’s insights into cognitive development?
- Infants grasp the basics of physical reality well before age 1.
- Infants’ understanding of physical reality develops gradually
Define
Stranger anxiety
Beginning at about 7 months of age, when a baby grows wary of people other than a primary caregiver.
Define
Myelination
Formation of a fatty layer, encasing the axons of neurons. This process, which speeds the transmission of neural impulses, continues from birth to early adulthood.
Define
Avoidant attachment
An insecure attachment style characterized by a child’s indifference to a primary caregiver at being reunited after separation.
Definition
The phase of sleep involving rapid eye movements, when the EEG looks almost like it does during waking. REM sleep decreases as infants mature.
REM sleep
Define
Holophrase
First clear evidence of language, when babies use a single word to communicate a sentence or complete thought.
What is decentering?
The ability to take multiple aspects of a situation into account
Definition
Second phase of Bowlby’s attachment sequence, when, from 4 to 7 months of age, babies slightly prefer the primary caregiver.
Attachment in the making
Define
Synaptogenesis
Forming of connections between neurons at the synapses. This process, responsible for all perceptions, actions, and thoughts, is most intense during infancy and childhood but continues throughout life.
What is pragmatics?
Aspect of language relating to communicating effectively and appropriately
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, performing a different action to achieve a goal—an ability that emerges in the sensorimotor stage as babies approach age 1.
Means-end behaviour
What are examples of secondary circular reactions?
Grabbing for toys
Batting mobiles
Pushing one’s body to activates the lights and sounds on a swing
What is scaffolding?
A concept of Vygotsky’s theory that states that the expert carefully tailors their support to the novice learner to assure their understanding. It supports learning and problem-solving that encourages independence and growth
What is the most important sign of emerging reasoning?
Mean-end behaviour
Definition
First stage of combining words in infancy, in which a baby pares down a sentence to its essential words.
Telegraphic speech
Definition
Beginning at about 7 months of age, when a baby grows wary of people other than a primary caregiver.
Stranger anxiety
What are the 8 stages of identity formation?
Definition
First clear evidence of language, when babies use a single word to communicate a sentence or complete thought.
Holophrase
When do tertiary circular reactions appear?
1 year old
Definition
An insecure attachment style characterized by a child’s indifference to a primary caregiver at being reunited after separation.
Avoidant attachment
Definition
Malleable, or capable of being changed (used to refer to neural or cognitive development).
Plastic
Define
Sensorimotor stage
Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to age 2, when babies’ agenda is to pin down the basics of physical reality.
“We learn to speak by getting reinforced for saying what we want.” “We are biologically programmed to learn language.” “Babies are passionate to communicate.” Identify the theoretical perspective reflected in each of these statements: Skinner’s operant conditioning perspective; Chomsky’s language acquisition device; a social-interactionist perspective on language.
The idea that we learn language by getting reinforced reflects Skinner’s operant conditioning perspective; Chomsky hypothesized that we are biologically programmed to acquire language; the social-interactionist perspective emphasizes the fact that babies and adults have a passion to communicate.
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, “little-scientist” activities of the sensorimotor stage, beginning around age 1, involving flexibly exploring the properties of objects.
Tertiary circular reactions
Define
Telegraphic speech
First stage of combining words in infancy, in which a baby pares down a sentence to its essential words.
What stage of Piagets approach to cognitive development is characterised by symbolic thinking?
Preoperational stage
What is social speech?
Speech directed to others and meant to be understood by that person
According to a preschooler, which of these lines contains more buttons?
Lower row because it looks longer
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when we can no longer see them, which gradually emerges during the sensorimotor stage.
Object permanence
Definition
The hormone whose production is centrally involved in bonding, nurturing, and caregiving behaviors in our species and other mammals.
Oxytocin
Define
Infant-directed speech (IDS)
The simplified, exaggerated, highpitched tones that adults and children use to speak to infants that function to help teach language.
Define
Cerebral cortex
The outer, folded mantle of the brain, responsible for thinking, reasoning, perceiving, and all conscious responses
Jasmine is adopting a 2-year-old from an orphanage in Haiti. List a few child issues Jasmine might have to deal with, and then give Jasmine a piece of good attachment news.
Caution Jasmine that her child may show problems with attention and indiscriminant friendliness and, if Jasmine is adopting a boy, have special difficulties developing a secure attachment. However, you can also say these problems should improve with loving care.
Definition
Acting to maintain physical contact or to be close to an attachment figure.
Proximity-seeking behaviour
When does a babies need to be physically close to a caregiver begin to end?
About age 3
Definition
The important transitional stage after babyhood, from roughly 1 year to 2 1/2 years of age; defined by an intense attachment to caregivers and an urgent need to become independent.
Toddlerhood
What is reactive aggression?
Acts that occur in response to being frusterated or hurt
Definition
The first phase of John Bowlby’s developmental attachment sequence, during the first three months of life, when infants show no visible signs of attachment.
Preattachment phase
Definition
An insecure attachment style characterized by responses such as freezing or fear when a child is reunited with the primary caregiver in the Strange Situation.
Disorganised attachment
A friend makes fun of adults who use baby talk. Given the information in this section, is her teasing justified?
No, your friend is wrong!!! Baby talk—or in developmental science terms, infant-directed speech (IDS)—helps promote early language.
Define
Attachment in the making
Second phase of Bowlby’s attachment sequence, when, from 4 to 7 months of age, babies slightly prefer the primary caregiver.
Definition
Signal of clear-cut attachment when a baby gets upset as a primary caregiver departs.
Separation anxiety
At what ages does babbling emerge?
6 months
What is concrete operation stage characterized by?
Active and appropriate use of logic
What is direct aggression?
Everyone can see it
How does language promote self-control?
- Helps school-age children control and regulate behaviour
- “Self-talk” used to help regulate behaviour
- Effectiveness of self-control grows as linguistic capabilities increase
Define
Anxious-ambivalent attachment
An insecure attachment style characterized by a child’s intense distress when reunited with a primary caregiver after separation.
What are the cons of Vygotsky’s theory?
- Lack of precision in conceptualization of cognitive growth
- Lack of detail on how attention and memory develop and how children’s natural cognitive capabilities unfold
Definition
Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to age 2, when babies’ agenda is to pin down the basics of physical reality.
Sensorimotor stage
Why is symbolic thinking important?
It is important for increasingly sophisticated use of language
Define
Temperament
A person’s characteristic, inborn style of dealing with the world.
True or False:
Babies never sleep continuously through the night
True
By about 6 months of age, many have the skill to become self-soothing. They put themselves back to sleep when they wake up
Define
Attachment
The powerful bond of love between a caregiver and child (or between any two individuals).
Definition
In Bowlby’s theory, the mental representation of a caregiver allowing children over age 3 to be physically apart from that primary attachment figure.
Working model
Definition
A perspective on understanding cognition that divides thinking into specific steps and component processes, much like a computer.
Information-processing approach
Definition
The reciprocal aspect of the attachment relationship, with a caregiver and infant responding emotionally to each other in a sensitive, exquisitely attuned way.
Synchrony
Define
A-not-B error
In Piaget’s framework, a classic mistake made by infants in the sensorimotor stage, whereby babies approaching age 1 go back to the original hiding place to look for an object even though they have seen it get hidden in different place.
What is symbolic thinking?
The ability to use symbols, words or objects to represent something that is not physically present
How do you measure inhibition?
Perform an action that contradicts immediate tendencies
What is reversability?
Understanding the process of transforming a stimulus can be reversed, returning back to it original form
Define
Plastic
Malleable, or capable of being changed (used to refer to neural or cognitive development).
At what ages does cooing begin?
2 months
Definition
The rules and word-arranging systems that every human language employs to communicate meaning.
Grammar
Define
Social-interactionist perspective
An approach to language development that emphasizes its social function, specifically that babies and adults have a mutual passion to communicate.
Your cousin is the primary caregiver of her 1-year-old son. On a recent visit to her house, you notice that the baby shows no emotion when his mother leaves the room, and—more important—seems indifferent when she returns. How might you classify this child’s attachment?
The child has an avoidant attachment.
Definition
Critical human attachment phase, from 7 months through toddlerhood, defined by separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, and needing a primary caregiver close.
Clear-cut attachment
Definition
Chomsky’s term for a hypothetical brain structure that enables our species to learn and produce language.
Language acquisition device (LAD)
Definition
The powerful bond of love between a caregiver and child (or between any two individuals).
Attachment
Definition
Forming of connections between neurons at the synapses. This process, responsible for all perceptions, actions, and thoughts, is most intense during infancy and childhood but continues throughout life.
Synaptogenesis
Define
Working model
In Bowlby’s theory, the mental representation of a caregiver allowing children over age 3 to be physically apart from that primary attachment figure.
What is cooperative learning?
A concept of Vygotsky’s theory involving small groups of student, with different levels of ability, using learning activities to improve their understanding of a topic
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, a classic mistake made by infants in the sensorimotor stage, whereby babies approaching age 1 go back to the original hiding place to look for an object even though they have seen it get hidden in different place.
A-not-B error
What are the functions of the frontal lobe?
Executive functions such as thinking, planning, organizing, and problem-solving, emotions, behavioural control and personality
Definition
A baby’s checking back and monitoring a caregiver for cues as to how to behave while exploring; linked to clear-cut attachment.
Social referencing
Definition
An approach to language development that emphasizes its social function, specifically that babies and adults have a mutual passion to communicate.
Social-interactionist perspective
At what age doe telegraphic speech (“me juice”) begin?
18 months
Define
Proximity-seeking behaviour
Acting to maintain physical contact or to be close to an attachment figure.
Define
Self-soothing
Children’s ability, usually beginning at about 6 months of age, to put themselves back to sleep when they wake up during the night.
You are working at a child-care center, and you notice Darien repeatedly opening and closing a cabinet door. Then Jai comes over and pulls open the door. You decide to latch it. Jai—undeterred—pulls on the door and, when it doesn’t open, begins jiggling the latch. And then he looks up, very pleased, as he manages to figure out how to open the latch. Finally, you give up and decide to play a game with Sam. You hide a stuffed bear in a toy box while Sam watches. Then Sam throws open the lid of the box and scoops out the bear. Link the appropriate Piagetian term to each child’s behavior: circular reaction; object permanence; means–end behavior.
Circular reaction = Darien; means–end behavior = Jai; object permanence = Sam.
What are the different stores information passes through to form a memory according to the Information Processing approach?
- Sensory store
- Working memory store
- Long-term store
Definition
The outer, folded mantle of the brain, responsible for thinking, reasoning, perceiving, and all conscious responses
Cerebral cortex
Define
Grammar
The rules and word-arranging systems that every human language employs to communicate meaning.
What stage of Piaget’s approach to cognitive development is someone aged 8-12 years likely to be in?
Concrete operational
Definition
A branching fiber that receives information and conducts impulses toward the cell body of a neuron.
Dendrite
Definition
Carrying a young baby in a sling close to the caregiver’s body. This technique is most useful for soothing an infant.
Kangaroo care
What factors influence childhood obesity?
Social factors - reduced time to prepare nutritious meals, increased portion sizes, easy access to low lost calories dense foods (i.e. junk food)
Technology - reduced exercise?
Epigenetics
Define
Toddlerhood
The important transitional stage after babyhood, from roughly 1 year to 2 1/2 years of age; defined by an intense attachment to caregivers and an urgent need to become independent.
Define
Social referencing
A baby’s checking back and monitoring a caregiver for cues as to how to behave while exploring; linked to clear-cut attachment.
What are the key concepts involved in language development during childhood?
Syntax
Pragmatics
Private speech
Social speech
Match term to the correct definition: (1) social referencing; (2) working model; (3) synchrony; (4) Strange Situation.
a) A researcher measures a child’s attachment at age 1 in a series of separations and reunions with the mother.
b) A toddler keeps looking back at the parent while exploring at a playground.
c) An elementary school child keeps an image of her parent in mind to calm herself when she gets on the school bus in the morning.
d) A mother and baby relate to each other as if they are totally in tune.
(1) b; (2) c; (3) d; (4) a
What stage of Piaget’s approach to cognitive development are 2-7 year olds usually in?
Preoperational stage
Define
Attachment parenting
A caregiving approach stressing the value of prolonged breast feeding, continuous “skin to skin” contact, and other strategies designed to promote intense parent-child bonding during the early years of life.
Definition
The gap between the dendrites of one neuron and the axon of another, over which impulses flow.
Synapse
At what age does holophrases (such as “ja” for juice) begin?
12 months
What are the key concepts of Vygotsky’s theory?
Zone of proximal development
Scaffolding
Cooperative learning
Reciprocal teaching
Definition
Children’s ability, usually beginning at about 6 months of age, to put themselves back to sleep when they wake up during the night.
Self-soothing
Define
Preattachment phase
The first phase of John Bowlby’s developmental attachment sequence, during the first three months of life, when infants show no visible signs of attachment.
Define
Dendrite
A branching fiber that receives information and conducts impulses toward the cell body of a neuron.
Definition
Formation of a fatty layer, encasing the axons of neurons. This process, which speeds the transmission of neural impulses, continues from birth to early adulthood.
Myelination
By what age do children stop making the A-not-B error?
1 year
Manuel is arguing for the validity of attachment theory as spelled out by Bowlby and Ainsworth. Manuel should say (pick one, neither, or both): Infants around the world get attached to a primary caregiver at roughly the same age/a child’s attachment status as of age 1 never changes.
Manuel should say: Infants around the world get attached to a primary caregiver at roughly the same age.
Define
Swaddling
The standard Western infant calming technique of wrapping a baby tightly in a blanket or other garment.
Define
Circular reactions
In Piaget’s framework, repetitive action-oriented schemas (or habits) characteristic of babies during the sensorimotor stage.
Define
Colic
A baby’s frantic, continual crying during the first three months of life caused by an immature nervous system.
Definition
A person’s characteristic, inborn style of dealing with the world.
Temperament
Definition
In Piaget’s framework, repetitive action-oriented schemas (or habits) characteristic of babies during the sensorimotor stage.
Circular reactions
Reversibility and decentering are developed during which phase of Piaget’s model?
Concrete operational
What is centration?
Being able to concentration on one aspect of an object/situation (obvious elements in sight) while ignoring others
Definition
The closest person in a child’s or adult’s life.
Primary attachment figure
Define
Oxytocin
The hormone whose production is centrally involved in bonding, nurturing, and caregiving behaviors in our species and other mammals.
What is proactive aggression?
Acts that are actively instigated to achieve a goal
Define
Information-processing approach
A perspective on understanding cognition that divides thinking into specific steps and component processes, much like a computer.
