Infancy Flashcards
Brain development
Neonates brain is about 25% of adult’s brain, but by age 2 it is 70%
Hindbrain and midbrain mature earliest in prenatal development- basic biological functions necessary to live
overproduction of exuberance
dendritic connections between neurons multiply vastly (after birth)
Brain growth in first 2 years caused by
overproduction of exuberance
myelination
synaptic pruning
forebrain divided into
lymbic system
cerebral cortex
limbic system divided into
hypothalamus
thalamus
hippocampus
hypothalamus
monitoring and regulating our basic animal functions, including hunger, thirst, body temp, sexual desire and hormones
thalamus
receiving and transfer centre for sensory information from body to brain
hippocampus
memory transfer from STM to LTM
verebral cortex
where most brain growth occurs after birth; ability to speak and understand language, solve problems and understand concepts
LH
language and processing information in a sequential, step by step way
RH
spatial reasoning and processing information in a holistic, integrative way
Sleep
Neonates sleep for 16-17 hours a day in periods of a few hours, and are in REM half this time
By 3-4 months they sleep for longer periods (up to 6-7 hours in a row at night) and REM declines to 40%
At 6 MO, cultural practices influence
Gross motor development
Many milestones over first year (holding head up alone, rolling over, sitting alone, crawling, standing, cruising, sometimes walking)
Gross motor development in infancy result of combination of the genetic timetable, maturation of the brain, support and assistance form adults for developing the skill, and the child’s won efforts to practice the skill
cultural practices can slightly speed up or slow down the ontogenetic timetable for gross motor development in infancy, but the influence of the environment is relatively small and transient for this particular area of development.
ontogenetic
takes place due to an inborn, genetically based, individual timetable
Fine motor development
Principle milestones of fine motor development in infancy are reaching and grasping
Infants better at reaching at 1MO than 2MO
Neonates will extend arms awkwardly to objects (prereaching), a reflex that disappears within the first months of life
At 3MO, reaching reappears but is more coordinated
Grasping initially a reflex, but becomes smoother
By the end of the first year, infants are able to grasp a spoon well enough to feed themselves
By 5MO, once they reach and grasp an object (coordinating the two), they can multitask with it or transfer between hands
At 4-5MO, can only grasp objects that they cannot choke on
But by 9-12MO, they have ‘pincer grasp’ and can grasp dangerous hazards
Sensory development
Taste and touch are nearly mature at birth
Hearing mostly developed
Sight is least mature
Depth perception
ability to discern the relative distance of objects in the environment
Binocular vision
ability to combine the images of the two eyes into one image, begins to develop by 3MO
Especially important when they become mobile
intermodal perception
integration and coordination of information from the various senses
Even neonates have a rudimentary form of this
Over first years, develops further
1MO integrate touch and sight: recognise objects put in mouth but not seen before
4MO visual and auditory appeals: like puppets that jump in rhythm to music
8MO visual and auditory: match unfamiliar person’s face with correct voice when faces and voices vary on the basis of age and gender
schemes
For infants, schemes are based on sensory and motor processes but after infancy, schemes become symbolic and representational
assimilation
new information is altered to fit an existing scheme
accomodation
changing the scene to adapt to the new information
Sensorimotor
First 2 years of life
Two major cognitive achievements are the advance in sensorimotor development from reflex behaviours to intentional action and the attainment of object permanence
First 4 substages take place during first year of life
Last two substages develop in second year
Sensorimotor substages
Simple reflexes (0-1MO)
First habits and primary circular reactions (1-4MO)
Secondary circular reactions (4-8MO)
Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12MO)
Simple reflexes (0-1MO)
Reflex schemes are weighted heavily towards assimilation, because they do not adapt much in response to the environment
First habits and primary circular reactions (1-4MO)
Purposeful behaviours, less reflexes
Repeat bodily movements made initially by chance
Sucking on hands
The movement is primary because it focuses on infant’s own body, and circular because once it is discovered, it is repeated intentionally
Secondary circular reactions (4-8MO)
Same as above, but activity is in relation to external world rather than own body
e.g. kicking mobile in crib
Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12MO)
Actions begin not as accidents, but intentional goal-directed behaviour
Can now coordinate schemes
e..g moving something aside, then grasping for something else
object permanence
Infants do not have it in first year
At 4MO, when they drop something do not look for it
From 4-8MO, they will look at dropped object only briefly
Start showing object permanence at 8-12MO
Still not complete- when Piaget put object under two blankets, they only checked under one
information processing approach
Rather than viewing cognitive development as discontinuous (distinct stages), views cognitive changes as continuous (gradual and steady)
Cognitive processes remain essentially the same over time
Focus not on how mental structures and ways of thinking change with age, but on the thinking processes that exist at all ages
attention, processing and memory
Object permanence: infants draw their attention to most relevant aspects of the problem, process the results of each trial, remember the results and retrieve the results from previous trials to compare to the most recent trial
Componential approach because it involves breaking down the thinking process into its various components
attention measure
Heart rate declines when a new stimulus is presented and gradually rises as habituation takes place
Infants suck on a pacifier more frequently when a new stimulus is presented and gradually decline in their sucking rate with habituation
attention
Over first year, takes less and less time for habituation to occur
When presented with a visual stimulus, neonates may take several minutes before they show signs of habituation
By 4-5MO, 10 seconds
By 7-8MO, only few seconds
Because infants become more efficient at perceiving and processing a stimulus
Infants vary in rates of habituation, which remain stable over time
Infants who habituate slowly seem to get stuck on the stimulus and cannot disengage from it
Speed of habituation predicts memory ability on other tasks in infancy, as well as later performance on intelligence tests
In second half of first year, joint attention (social, notice what important people around them are paying attention to, and will look or point in the same direction)
Less likely to look in direction of an adult if adults eyes were closed
Learn words by observing what another person is doing or looking at when they use a word, and do same
Memory
STM and LTM develop during first year
STM development shown by object permanence
Number of locations infants can remember and search to look for a hidden object increases sharply in the second half of the first year (STM)
6 MO remembered a learned kick one week later, whereas 2 MO did not (LTM)
When researcher made mobile move, infants recognised clue and began kicking up to a month later, even though they had been unable to recall the memory before being prompted (recognition memory, recall memory)
The older the infant was, the more effective the prompting
From infancy onwards, recognition comes easier to us than recall
infantile amnesia
may be caused by hippocampus adding many neurons in early years, interfering with existing memory circuits, so that LTM cannot be formed until the production of neurons in the hippocampus declines in early childhood
Bayley scales
Gesell constructed four sub scales: motor skills, language use, adaptive behaviour and personal-social behaviour (like using a spoon)
Following IQ model, he combined a developmental quotient (DQ) as an overall measure of infants’ developmental progress
Bayley Scale of infant Development (Bayley III) by Nancy Bayley continued
Bayley III can assess development from
3MO-3.5YO
Bayley 3 main scales
Cognitive scale: mental abilities such as attention and exploration (6MO= whether baby looks at pictures in book, 23-25= can baby match similar pictures)
Language scale: use and understanding of language (17-19MO: can child identify objects in a picture, 38-42MO: can child name four colours)
Motor scale: fine and gross motor abilities (sitting alone for 30secs at 6MO, hopping twice on one foot at 38-42MO)
Information processing appraiches to infant assessment
Habituation to predict later intelligence
‘short lookers’ habituate quickly, ‘long lookers’ take more time
The shorter the habituation time, the more efficient the infant’s information processing abilities
Short lookers tend to have higher IQ later
Also identifies developmental problems
More reliable than Bayley scales
2MO Language
cooing
4-10MO language
babbling
8-10MO language
first gestures (bye bye)
10-12MO language
comprehension of words and simple sentences
12MO language
first spoken word
dimensions of temperament
activity level attention span emotionality soothability sociability adaptability quality of mood
easy babies
mood generally positive, adapted well to new situations and generally moderate rather than extreme in emotional reactions, 40%
difficult babies
did not adapt well, moods intensely negative, 10%
slow to warm up babies
low activity level, reacted negatively to new situations, fewer positive or negative emotional extremes than other babies, 15%
Goodness of fit
(Thomas and Chess): children develop best if there is a good fit between the temperament of the child and environmental demands
primary emotions
most basic emotions we share with animals (anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness), evident within first year
secondary emotions
require social learning (embarrassment, shame, guilt)
AKA sociomoral emotions (infants not born knowing but rather learnt from social environment)
distress, interest and pleasure differentiate in first month of life to
Distress becomes anger, sadness and gear
Interest becomes surprise
Pleasure becomes happiness
emotions
When mum is depressed, 2-3MO show sadness
Fear develops by 6MO (stranger anxiety)
Surprise evident halfway through first year
First social smile appears at 2-3MO
First laugh is about a month after smile
Emotional contagion
at few days old, neonates cry when they hear another neonate cry
Dicriminate so they only cry in response to human neonate
emotional perception
Initially better at perceiving emotions by hearing than by seeing (auditory more developed)
By 2-3MO can discriminate between happy, sad and angry faces
Still face paradigm: by age 2-3MO if parents show no emotion for a time, baby responds with distress, meaning they rely on others emotions to respond to their own
Able to match auditory and visual emotion after 7MO
Social referencing: over the first year, process of becoming more adept at observing others’ emotional responses to ambiguous and uncertain situations and using that information to shape one’s own emotional responses
At 9-10MO, will play with a toy only if mum shows positive emotion in relation to it
Development of humour related to social referencing: develops in second half of first year, when parents laughed at unexpected event, baby does too
erikson’s thoery
trust vs mistrust
When infants have a caregiver who provides for them in nourishment and love, they develop a basic trust in their social world
Developing trust in infancy provides a strong foundation for all future social development, whereas developing mistrust is likely to be problematic in future
bowlby’s attachment theory
If the primary caregiver is sensitive and responsive in caring for the infant, the infant will learn that others too can be trusted in social relationships
