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
Why would the ability to distinguish sound contrasts in all languages fade?
- Related to synaptic pruning
- You do not use it, so your brain gets ride of it
- “if you don’t use something, you’ll lose something”
Language Development
Months 2-3
- cooing, responds with smiles or cooing when spoken to
Months 4-5
- makes various vowel and
consonant sounds with cooing
Month 6
- babbles, utters phonemes of all languages
- Babble: sounds strung together, and also makes sounds like duh, buh
Months 8-9
- focuses on phonemes, rhythm, and intonation
- has receptive vocabulary of 20-30 words
- Receptive vocabulary: words they understand what they mean
Month 12
- expressive language emerges
- says single word
Month 12-18
- uses word-gesture
combinations combined with variations in
intonation
- holophrases- Baby says “Mine” while pointing
to form thought)
- Can tell if it is a statement or a question because they learn patterns of speaking
Month 18-20
- uses 2-word sentences
(telegraphic speech)
- has expressive vocabulary of 100-200 words
- bc of fast mapping
- Fast-mapping: ability to categorically link new world to real-world references
Cognitive Developments
- cognitive skill changes over the first 2 years are
consistent across environments - Piaget - Sensorimotor: infants use information from their sense and motor actions to learn about the world
- by 18-24 months: infant has the beginnings of mental representation
Substages of Piagets Sensorimotor Stage
- describes infancy intelligence as sensorimotor or based on direct, physical contact (through 5 senses)
1) Simple Reflexes (Birth - Month 1)
- automatic movements or reflexes
2) Primary Circular Reactions ) Month 1-4)
- primary circular
reactions (baby has not linked
body actions to results
outside of this body)
- reflexes get replaced with voluntary movements
- start to coordinate schemes from different senses
- Gather input from all sense to make sense of the world
3) Secondary Circular Reactions (Month 4-8)
- secondary circular
reactions (become engaged with the world through interactions w objects)
- Begin to imitate
- Understand object permeance (when you hide behind your hands in peek-a-boo, they know you are still there)
4) Coordination of Circular Reactions (Month 8-12)
- baby goes
after what they are
interested in and may
combine two schemes
(i.e. move pillow to reach
you)
- infant is capable of having a thought and carrying out a planned/goal-directed activity (ie. looking for a toy that has rolled under the couch)
5) Tertiary Circular Reactions (Month 12-18)
- tertiary reactions (trial and error)
- Infants play with objects in new ways
Ie. Grab a broom and pretend it’s a horse
6) Representational Thought (Month 18-24)
- beginning of mental
representation (solves problems using mental strategies)
- use of symbols to represent
object or events
What are the 2 emotional responses that infants exhibit?
1) Attraction
2) Withdrawal
What is attachment theory?
- view that the ability and need to form an attachment relationship early in life is a genetic characteristic of humans
4 Styles of Attachment
Secure
- mothers are sensitive to infants’ needs
- infants are less fussy and enjoy physical contact
Avoidant
- infant avoids contact with the parent and shows no
preference for the parent over other people
Ambivalent
- little exploratory behaviour
- is greatly upset when separated from the parent
- is not reassured by the
parent’s return or comfort efforts
Disorganized/Disoriented
- confused or apprehensive infant who shows contradictory
behaviour such as moving toward parent while looking away
Characteristics of people with secure attachment
○ Better emotional responsiveness
○ More likely to come from high SES families
○ More likely to come from families with married parents
-Children and parents tend to have better mental health
Affects of children that are securely attached:
○ More social
○ Less clingy and dependent
○ Less disruptive and aggressive
○ More empathetic
○ More emotionally mature
○ Well-grounded, good humans
What are the 4 qualities of empathy?
- Perspective taking
- Staying out of judgement
- Recognizing emotion
- Communicating that
What are the 2 Types of Play
Cognitive Play
- by age 2 children begin to use objects to build things (building a tower, drawing a picture)
- Realization they can use things outside of themselves
First Pretend Play
- the child uses an object for other than its purpose or pretends with an object (pretending to drink from a cup)
What is substitute pretend play?
- children begin to use objects to stand for something different (using a broom as a horse)
Types of Social Play
- from 2-6, relationships with nonsiblings become increasingly important
Solitary play (all ages)
- by yourself
Parallel play (14-18 months)
- playing side by side but not interacting
Associative play (18 months)
- Play together bUT has different ideas/goals
Ie. 1 kid builds the highest tower, while the other kid is building the longest tower
Cooperative play- 3-4 years old
- Play together with shard goals
Ie. Playing house and ascribing everyone a role
How do children learn?
Short-term
- by stories, pictures, play
Long-term
- ritual, imitation, repetition, reinforcement, games, role models
Aggression
- Physical aggression peaks at age 2 years
-Aggression: a behavior intended to harm another person or damage an object
- aggressive behaviours tends to run in families
harsh - punitive parenting is linked with aggression
- reinforcement and modelling play a key role in aggression
- between 17 and 29 months, the ratio of male to female physical aggression is consistent (5:1)
- Through play, they interact with more people and cause them to develop more and different ideas
How to reduce aggression
- build prosocial behaviour
- prosocial behaviour: behaviour intended to
help another person - becomes evident between 2-3 years
- empathy is key
Erikson - Autonomy VS. Shame and Doubt
- Secure attachment helps them to build autonomy (so they don’t doubt their abilities)
What are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s)
Abuse
- physical
-emotional
- sexual
Neglect
- physical
- emotional
Household Dysfunction
- mental illness
- mother treated violently
- substance abuse
- divorce
- incarcerated relative
What are the consequence of ACE’s
- The higher you ACE score the worse your health outcomes
- Inhibits prefrontal cortex: critical area of learning
- Changes in the brains response centre
- Changes the pleasure and reward system
- Trauma isn’t just a social thing
○ It is causing DNA level changes - Children are very sensitive to repeated stress activation
○ If children are in a constant state of fear, their ability to focus on development is restricted
Types and Prevalence of Abuse
Intimate Partner Violence (34%)
- most prevalent
Physical Abuse (20%)
- 2nd most common
Emotional Maltreatment (9%)
Sexual Abuse (3%)
- least prevalent
What is the exposure effect?
- the degree of intensity and duration of a stressor is related to the intensity of the response
What is Resilience?
- capacity to recover quickly from difficulties
- Resilience is a
○ trait: you are born with it or not
○ Process: you can be trained to be resilient
○ Outcome: you go through a set of circumstances, and the outcome is either resilience or no resilience
