Infancy (physical development) Flashcards
the two patterns of growth
cephalocaudal and proximodistal
the earliest growth always occur at the top–the head–with physical growth and differentiation of features
cephalocaudal pattern
____ development generally proceeds according to the cephalocaudal principle
motor
growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities
proximodistal pattern
95% of full-term newborns are ___ to ___ long and weigh between ___ and ___
18, 22 inches; 5, 10 pounds
in the first several days of life, most newborns lose ___ to ___% of their body weight before they adjust to feeding by sucking, swallowing, and digesting
5, 7
infants then grow rapidly gaining an average of ___ to ___ ounces per ___ during the first month
5, 6; week
infants ____ their birth weight by the age of ___ months and have nearly ____ it by their ____birthday
doubled; four; tripled; first
infants grow about __ inch per month during the ___ year, approximately _____ their birth length by their ____ birthday
1, first; doubling, first
growth slows considerably in the ___ year of life
second
by ___ years of age, infants average ___ to ___ inches in height, which is nearly half of their adult height
two; 32, 35
an important point about growth is that it often is not smooth and continuous but rather is ___
episodic
by the time it is born, the infant that began as a single cell is estimated to have a brain that contains approximately ____ nerve cells, or neurons
100 B
includes brain swelling and hemorrhaging hundreds of babies
shaken baby syndrome
the newborn’s brain is about what percentage of its adult weight?
25%
by their second birthday, their brain is about what percentage of its adult weight?
75%
do brain areas mature uniformly or not?
not
portion of the brain farthest from the spinal cord
forebrain
four main lobes of the brain
frontal
occipital
temporal
parietal
involved in voluntary movement, thinking, personality, and intentionality or purpose
frontal lobes
functions in vision
occipital lobes
have an active role in hearing, language processing, and memory
temporal lobes
play important roles in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control
parietal lobes
specialization of function in one hemisphere or cerebral cortex or the other
lateralization
what sort of activities involve both hemispheres
complex functions like reading and performing music
newborns show greater electrical brain activity in the ___ hemisphere when they are listening to speech sounds
left
nerve cell that handles information processing
neurons
two types of fibers extending from the neuron’s cell body
axons and dendrites
axon carries signals ___ from the cell body and dendrites carry signals ____ it
away; toward
layer of fat cells encasing and insulating axons in charge of helping electrical signal travel faster
myelin sheath
myelination is also involved in ____ to neurons and in ____
providing energy; communication
at the end of the axon are terminal buttons, what chemical do they release?
neurotransmitters
tiny gaps between neuron’s fibers
synapses
chemical interactions in the synapses do what?
they connect axons and dendrites, allowing information to pass from neuron to neuron
two ways neurons change during the first years of life
myelination and neural connectivity
what is “pruning” among neurons?
unused neurons are replaced by other pathways or disappear
when we were infants, sleep consumed _____ than it does now
more of our time
the typical new born sleeps about how many hours a day?
18 hours
newborns vary greatly in how they sleep, between how many hours do they sleep?
10-21 hours a day
sleep sessions lasted approximately ___ hours during the first few months and increased to about ___ hours from 3-7 months
3.5 hours; 10.5
sleep problems have been estimated to affect ___ to ___ percent of infants
15, 25
most common infant sleep related problem
nighttime waking
reasons for shorter duration of infant sleep
maternal depression during pregnancy
early introduction to solid foods
infant TV viewing
child care attendance
a recent study found that _____ when the infant was ___ months of age predicted the infant’s sleep patterns at ___ months of age
maternal sleep, 3, 6
a condition that that occurs when infants stop breathing, usually during the night and dies suddenly without any apparent reason
sudden infant death syndrome
researchers have found that SIDS does decrease when infants sleep in what position?
on their backs
reasons for SIDS
stress (poor sleep position, secondhand smoke, respiratory infection)
birth weight
mother’s health
most accepted critical factor in predicting whether or not an infant will develop SIDS
prone sleeping (sleeping on stomach)
there is a positive link between infant sleep and cognitive functioning, including ___, ___, and ____.
memory, language, executive function
nutritionists recommend that infants consume approximately ___ calories per day for each pound they weigh
50
developmental change at the end of the first year of life
sit independently
can chew and swallow a range of textures
learning to feed themselves
true or false? breast-fed infants have lower rates of weight gain that bottle-fed infants in childhood and adolescence
true
motor development comes about through the unfolding of a genetic plan, or ____
maturation
infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting
dynamic systems theory
how do infants develop their motor skills?
infants must perceive something in their environment that motivates them to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements
when infants are motivated to do something, they might create a ___ behavior
new motor behavior
how do infants “tune” their movements
achieved through repeated cycles of action and perception of the consequences of that action
they govern the newborn’s movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn’s control
reflexes
occurs when the infant’s cheek is stoked or the side of the mouth is touched
rooting reflex
automatically such an object placed in their mouth
sucking reflex
occurs in response to a sudden, intense noise or movement
moro reflex
occurs when something touches the infant’s palm
grasping reflex
what happens to the grasping reflex by the end of the third month
it diminishes, and the infant shows a more voluntary grasp
how many months would it take for some reflexes to disappear?
3-4 months
old views on reflexes say that they were exclusively genetic, built-in mechanisms, what is the new view
they are not automatic or completely beyond the infant’s control
involves large-muscle activities and requires postural control to develop
gross-motor skills
a dynamic process that is linked with sensory information in the skin, joints, and muscles, which tells us where we are in space; regulate balance and equilibrium
posture
months of age infants can sit independently
6 / 7 months
months of age infants learn to pull themselves up
8-9 months
months of age infants can stand alone
10-12 months
involve finely tuned movements
fine motor skills
infants grip with their whole hand
palmar grasp
grasp small objects with their thumb and forefinger
pincer grasp
a necessity for the infant to coordinate grasping
perceptual-motor coupling
occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors–the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin
sensation
the interpretation of what is sensed
perception
we directly perceive information that exists in the world around us
gibson’s ecological view
opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities
affordances
newborns can’t see small things that are far away, why is that?
the nerves and muscles and lens of the eye are still developing
the newborn’s vision is estimated to be on the well-known snellen chart
20/240
a newborn can see at ___ feet what an adult with normal vision can see at ___ feet
20 feet; 240 feet
average vision by 6 months of age?
20/40
possibly the most important visual stimuli in children’s environment in which they extract key information from
faces
within hours after they’re born, they prefer to look at faces rather than objects, but what kind of faces?
attractive faces
a concept wherein infants are more likely to distinguish between faces to which they have been exposed than faces that they have never seen before
perceptual narrowing
by __ weeks, and possibly as early as __ weeks, infants can discriminate between some colors
8; 4
by 4 months of age, they have color preferences that mirror adults’ in some cases, what are these?
saturated colors
sensory stimulation is changing but perception of the physical world remain constant
perceptual constancy
the recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object
size constancy
babies as young as __ months of age show size and shape constancy
3 months
recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation to us changes
shape constancy
at about 2 months of age, infants develop the ability to perceive that ___objects are ___
occluded; whole
might infants even perceive depth?
yes
infants ___ hear soft sounds quite as well as adults can
cannot
infants are also ___ sensitive to the pitch of a sound than adults are
less
infants are less sensitive to __ pitched sounds and are more likely to hear ___ pitched sounds
low, high
newborns can determine the general location from which a sound is coming, they’re more proficient with this by 6 months of age
localization
involves integrating information from two or more sensory modalities
intermodal perception
