lecture 3-infancy Flashcards
milestones
- lifts head up
-rolls over
-sits propped up
-sits up without support
-stands holding on
walks holding on
stand momentarily
stands alone
walks alone
walks backward
walks up steps
kicks ball forward
Why are we interested inNewborn Reflexes?
- Inborn, automatic responses to different forms of stimulation.
- Gives a quick indication of neurological status.
- Some may be refined over time to become complex patterns of behaviour, others may drop out
some common reflexes
Babinski: fanning out of toes when foot stroked
Crawling: rhythmic moving of arms and legs when on tummy and pressure applied to soles of feet
Grasping: finger grasp when object placed in hand
Rooting: head turn with mouth open when touched on cheek
Moro: outstretched arms & arched back when startled or loss of support
Stepping: toes and foot coordinated movements when supported on a hard surface, moved forward
What can infants see?
-poor acuity: 20/600
-colour perception by 1 month
-
-Depth perception
binocular
pictorial depth
Touch
- newborn sensitive to temperature change.
- sensitivity to pain controversial (e.g., circumcision) - physiological indicators (crying, stress hormones, hard to comfort, etc) suggest pain. Not possible to assess cognitive components of pain (mirror neurons).
- Tiffany Field’s research shows positive benefits of massage for preterm infants, infants of depressed mums, infants suffered abuse, HIV infants, infants exposed to drugs (heroin babies
sound
- DeCasper’s shows newborns discriminate mum’s voice from female stranger, and discriminate familiar from novel story read by mum.
- Eimas & Jusyck show preparedness for language–NB’s ability to discriminate sounds of speech in own language from other languages at 6 months
taste
-differences in mouth chemistry make sensory experience different for infants: taste chemistry changes throughout childhood reaching adult form by early adolescence (e.g., salty fluid that would be rejected by older children and adults will be ingested by infants).
smell
- MacFarlane shows breastfed newborns discriminate, and prefer (turn toward), their mum’s scent than lactating stranger.
- Cernoch & Porter shows bottle fed infants prefer (turn toward) scent of lactating females.
Sensory Abilities: Some Brief Conclusions
It seems reasonable to suggest that sensory abilities may scaffold the development of cognitive and social competencies
Spitz (1965 WHO study—Psychotoxemia or Reactive Attachment Disorder)
37% of infants who were placed in an orphanage died within short period and almost all infants’ development were delayed. They were more vulnerable to infections, had feeding and sleeping problems.
Early Emotions: Expression
-Basic (Primary) Emotions
Anger, interest, fear, disgust, joy, sadness
-Adults reliably label infant expressions (Izard, 1993)
Expressions differ in ease of discrimination
Positive ( joy vs. interest )
Negative ( anger vs. fear )
Basic emotions thought to be innate
early emotions: recognition
-Early recognition of others’ emotions
Expressions imitated at three days
-What do they know about expressions, what is imitation?
Variations in Attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978)
-Strange Situation” elicits differing levels of distress.
-Based on infants reaction, type of
attachment between infant and caregiver
categorized as one of “three types” of attachment.
Secure
-Anxious-resistant
-Anxious-avoidant
Temperament Research
-Infants rated on 9 personality dimensions: Activity level Rhythmicity Approach/withdrawal Adaptability Emotional reactivity Responsiveness to stimuli Mood (positive or negative) Distractibility Attention span
Classified into three temperament categories:
Easy (40%)
Difficult (10%)
Slow to Warm Up (15%)
35% were unclassifiable
