Infant Cognitive Development

Question 1

What are the three elements that an infant is born with?

Answer 1

Reflexes, sensory abilities, motor abilities

Question 2

What are the characteristics of reflexes and why are they important?

Answer 2

-> Some of them are adaptive (e.g., retrieving from heat), whilst some of them are not (e.g., grasping)
-> Some are replaced by voluntary motions later in life (e.g., no more rooting), whilst some will remain (sneezing)

-> Important for survival and attracting attention from caregivers (rooting, retrieving)
-> Important indications for possible neurological damages

Question 3

What are the reflexes that infants have?

Answer 3

rooting
grasping
sucking and swallowing
moroing
stepping
crawling

Question 4

Sensory capabilities that an infant has

Answer 4

Sight
Hear
Taste
Touch

Question 5

Explain the sight of infants

Answer 5

Pre-natal:
-> Already interested in face-like stimulus

Post-natal:
2 months: Full colour vision
4 months: attracted by motion
8 months: generally similar to adults
Can see objects 14 cm away
-> Interested in human-faces (smiling and familiar) than other objects.
-> Also, interested in biological movements than object movements
-> Also, prefer regular faces than scrambled faces
-> However, children with autism do not show such preferences of faces over objects.

Question 6

Explain the hearing abilities of infants

Answer 6

Preference to the mothers’ voice than other females’
Recognition of own language in 6 months

Question 7

Explain the taste abilities of infants

Answer 7

Less responsive to saltiness than adults
Preference to mothers’ breast milk than other females’

Question 8

Explain the touch abilities of infants

Answer 8

Feel pain
Feel temperature
Preference to affectionate touches (e.g., gentle stroke, skin-to-skin touch)
-> Benefits the somatosensory system (more connections) and the autonomic system (less fear)

Question 9

Stages of the motor development of infants

Answer 9

pick up their head (2 months)
roll over (2.5 months)
sit up with support (3 months)
sit without support (6 months)
stand holding on (6.5 months)
walk with support (9 months)
stand without support (10-11months)
walk without support (12 months)
walk backwards (14 months)
walk up stairs (17 months)
kick a ball (20 months)

Question 10

What are the factors that contributes to the motor development of an infant

Answer 10

physical maturity
infants in different cultural context affects the milestones of motor development (e.g., putting the child on the floor > putting a child of child seats)