Infancy & Toddlerhood (0-2) Flashcards
Physical Changes in the Brain
- 2 yr olds have larger heads’ (to hold almost full size brain)
- Synaptogenesis: new synapses/ pathways being created
○ Synaptic pruning: If it is not used, the rest will be put away - Neuroplasticity - brains ability to recognize neural pathways
○ them figuring out what neural pathways make sense, which ones they need and which ones they don’t - Myelinization - development of myelin is most dramatic in 1st year of life (continue into adolescence)
How much do infants grow in their 1st year?
- 25-30cm
- triple their body weight
- 2 hormones that aid in growth process:
1) Human growth hormone (growth everywhere but CNS)
2) thyroid stimulating hormone (growth in CNS)
Physical Changes between 2-3 Years
Gross Motor (2-3 Years)
- Runs easily
- Climbs on furniture unaided
- Hauls and shoves obstacles and toys
Fine Motor (2-3 Years)
- Picks up small objects
- Throws small ball while standing
○ Starting to combine motor skills together (ie. Stand and throw)
Children’s Growth
Motor
- Children need to master motor skills to engage in the world
- kids with higher motor
activity levels can control/inhibit behaviours allowing successful task
achievement
Linear
- Children’s motor level increases linearly with age
Obesity
- Toddlers eat sufficient food but not regular meals
- Toddlers are constantly moving - burn calories quicker
- 1/4 of children are obese - the way you start life determines the trajectory of your life
Adaptive VS. Primitive Reflexes
Adaptive
- Designed to support survival
- Ie. Sucking
- some adaptive reflexes persist throughout life
Primitive
- these reflexes disappear by about 6 months of age
3 Types of Reflexes
- Rooting
- a soft touch on the cheek
will make an infant turn
toward the touch and
open the mouth
- disappears by 3 months - Babinski
- stroking the sole of the
foot causes the infants
toes to fan out and up
- disappears by 12 months
- Indicator of normal neurological development - Moro
- sudden noise or loss of
support causes the infant
to arch back and throw arms and legs out and then bring them back in
- disappears after 4-5 months
- Helps the baby cling to the mother In case of being dropped
Why is data like this: “by 8 weeks, babies will begin to sleep through the night” harmful?
- if baby is not sleeping through the night after 8 weeks, mothers begin to think there is a problem with their baby
What do babies cries mean?
- basic cry signals hunger: rhythmic pattern
- anger cry: louder and more intense
- pain cry: abrupt onset
- attention to crying in the first 3 months leads to less crying later
○ More likely to create a secure attachment
○ Babies know that they don’t need to cry all the time because they know that when they cry, its effective
Stages of Motor Development
Month 1
- locomotor: stepping reflex
- non-locomotor: lifts head slightly and follows objects with eyes
- manipulative: holds object if place in hand
Month 2-3
- locomotor -
non-locomotor: lifts head up to 90 degrees when lying on stomach
- manipulative: begins to swipe at objects in sight (can swipe but cant grab it)
- practitioners recommend tummy time at this stage bc it helps to develop neck strength
Month 4-6
- locomotor: rolls over, sits with support, moves on hands and knees (creeps)
- non-locomotor: holds head erect while in sitting position
- manipulative: reaches for and grasps objects
Month 7-9
- ocomotor: sits without support, crawls
- non-locomotor:
- manipulative: transfer objects from one hand to the other
Month 10-12
- locomotor: pulls self up and walks grasping furniture then walks alone
- non-locomotor: squats and stoops, plays patty cake
manipulative : shows some signs of hand preference,
grasps a spoon but has poor aim when moving to mouth
Month 13-18
- locomotor: walks backwards, sideways and runs (14-20 mos)
- non-locomotor: Rolls ball, claps
- manipulative skills: stacks two blocks and puts objects
into small container and dumps them out
- Teaching cause and effect: if I put blocks in a container and then flip the container, they understand that the block will fall out
Month 19-24
- locomotor: walks up and down stairs (2 feet per step)
- non-locomotor: jumps with both feet off ground
- manipulative: uses spoon to feed self, stacks 4-10 blocks
Universal
- virtually all children follow the same sequence of motor development
- developmentally delayed children follow at a slower pace
Female Vs Male Development
Female
- are ahead in motor skills (esp manipulative)
Male
- have more developmental delays
- typically more active
- these differences are not just due to sexual characteristic
- Is it the result of the context in which they are growing???
- Differences in parent practices and the way parents behave with each gender
○ Ie. Parents may give their daughters dolls to play with, while the give their sons soccer balls to play with
Why is breast best?
- breastmilk is the best form of infant nutrition
- exclusive breastfeeding should be done for the
first 4-6 months and continued until the 2 years of age - breastfed babies are less likely to suffer from
common illnesses: stimulates better
immune functioning - mother-infant social interactions seem to be
identical if formula-fed babies are given the
same maternal attention - The act of breastfeeding does not create the bond, it is the time and proximity to each other
Narratives of Breastfeeding
Natural
- breastfeeding is natural and it does not hurt
Pain
- the reality is that it can be painful for the first 2 weeks with the pain then subsiding
Why doesn’t public health want to tell women about breastfeeding related pain?
- They don’t want to discourage women from breastfeeding
- Don’t want to discourage women from not having additional children
- Worries that mothers will switch to formula
Sensory Changes
Vision/Hearing
- poor at first but develops
rapidly
(time is needed to build neural pathways between eyes and brain)
- newborns hear nearly as well as adults
- ability to hear is evident by month 7
- infants can locate the
direction of some sounds at birth
Touch/Motion
- best developed of all sense (why they want to touch everything)
Smell/Taste
- newborns react different to each basic taste at birth
Perceptual Skills
Looking
- babies scan for dark/light contrasts (infants prefer their mothers face)
Listening
- by 1 month they can discriminate between single syllables
- at 6 months two syllable words
- by 3 months, they recognize the sound regardless of who says it
- at 6 months infants can distinguish sound contrasts in any language
- by 1year old, this ability fades and is limited to the sound contrast of their
native language
