Moduel 3

Question 1

Outline the milestones of the three stages (trimesters) of prenatal development. (Table 3.1 offers a summary)

Answer 1

First Trimester wk 0-12

• period stops
• breast enlargement, peeing more often
• abnormal (cervix) thickening

Second Trimester wk 12-24

• weight gain, uterus expands
• showing
• fetal movement felt
• sex of baby determined at 13th week
• increased appetite

Third Trimester 24wk to birth

• weight gain
• breast discharge

Question 2

Understand how dominant, recessive, and sex-linked disorders occur

Answer 2

Dominant disorders are usually manifested in adulthood. Ex: Huntington’s disease a fatal affliction of the nervous system

Recessive disorders affect individuals earlier in life often leading to intellectual disabilities and/or early death.
Ex: phenylketonuria, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, red-green colourblindness (7-8% of men but only 0.5% women)

Hemophilia (blood can’t clot) and fragile-x-syndrome (can cause progressive intellectual disability) are serious sex-linked disorders that affect males far more often than females.

Question 3

Identify common trisomy errors and sex-chromosome anomalies that can affect development.

Answer 3

Trisomy:

• three copies of a specific autosome
• Abnormal numbers of chromosomes and damage to chromosome cause serious disorders such as Down syndrome (21 copy) intellectually delayed

Sex-chromosome anomalies

• may affect sexual development and certain aspects of intelligent functioning
• XXY pattern in Klinefelter’s syndrome (underdeveloped testes and low sperm count
• XO Turners syndrome (female but show stunted growth

Question 4

Identify the risks associated with teratogenic maternal diseases.

Answer 4

• Teratogens are agents that cause damage to the embryo
• organs most at risk when developing rapidly
• Some diseases contracted by the mother may cause abnormalities or diseases in the child. These include CMV (10% of babies show serious symptoms like deafness, CNS damage), HIV (can be contracted via bloodstream, in birth canal or breastmilk. Infants with this become ill in first 2 years of life), syphilis, genital herpes and gonorrhoea (these three cause genital anomalies. Herpes/Gon can cause blindness)

Question 5

Describe the potential adverse effects of drugs on prenatal development.

Answer 5

-Avoid any unnecessary drugs during pregnancy
-Prescription- thalidomide tragedy (used for morning sickness, caused malformations of the fetus)
-Tabacco low birth weight, miscarriage/stillborn
-Alcohol lower birth weights and learning and behavioural difficulties. Fetal alcohol syndrome (small, heart anomalies)
Psychotropic Drugs- heroin and methadone cause miscarriage, early death. The baby also addicted to heroin

Question 6

Describe how mutagenic, environmental, and epigenetic teratogens adversely affect prenatal development.

Answer 6

Mutagens (15-25%)
-can cause changes to DNA (chromosomal or genetic errors

Environmental agents (10%)

• can damage cells and disrupt normal cell development, and
• can interfere with cell proliferation or cell migration

Epimutagens (65%)
-cause alterations to epigenetic structures without changes to DNA such as gene silencing or expression

Question 7

Identify pre-conceptual and prenatal assessment and diagnostic procedures. (i.e. CVS & Amniocentesis)

Answer 7

• Fathers pass of 55 genetic mutations vs. a mother is only 14.
• used to identify chromosomal and genetic disorders

CVS (chronic villus sampling)
-cells extracted from placenta

Amniocentesis
-extracts amniotic fluid containing fetal cells

Fetoscopy

• involves insertion of a tiny camera into womb directly to observe fetal development
• has made fetal blood transfustions and bone marrow transplants possible

Ctd. pg 77

Question 8

Describe what happens in each of the three stages of labour.

Answer 8

Dilation and Effacement:

• the cervix opens and flattens out
• must dialare about 10cm
• early stage contractions are far appart
• active stage is 3-4cm till 8cm
• transition is last 2cm (strong contractions)

Delivery:

• when mother fully dialated she begins pushing
• baby goes trhough cervix to birth canal and out
• lasts less than an hr, 2 at most

Placental Delivery:

• afterbirth
• quite breif
• placenta and other material from uterus

Question 9

Identify and describe assessment tools are used to assess the health of a newborn.

Answer 9

• Apgar scale to assess a neonate’s health immediately after birth (0/1/2 on categories like heart rate, colour and muscle tone)
• New tandem mass spectrometry tests rare metabolic disorders
• the Brazelton Neonatal Bahavioural Assesment Scale to track a newborns development over the first two week reflexes, muscle tone, alertness cuddliness

Question 10

Define low birth weight and identify risks associated it.

Answer 10

newborn weight below 2500g (2.5kg)

Risks:
lower levels of responsiveness at birth
-respiratory distress syndrome. poorly developed lings cause serious breathing difficulties
-neurodevelopmental issues such as motor and sensory impairment, lower intelligence, more problems in school
-higher rate of learning disabilities than normal-weight peers (only in boys)

Question 11

Define the following terms: synaptogenesis, neuroplasticity, myelinization

Answer 11

Synaptogenesis
-the process of synapse development

Neuroplasticity
-the ability of the brain to reorganize its neural structures and functioning in response to experiences

Myelinization
-a process in neuronal development in which sheaths made a substance called myelin gradually cover individual axons and electrically insulate them from one another to improve the conductivity of the nerve

Question 12

Define circadian rhythm and how it affects infants

Answer 12

A circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

Neonates sleep much of the time and move through a series of states of consciousness in a cycle that lasts about two hours

Most infants move from deep sleep to lighter sleep then to alert wakefullness then fussing. When their fed they get drossy and back to deep sleep. Repeat every 2hrs,

By 8wks they start to sleep through 2-3 2hr cycles without waking.

6months they sleep 13hrs more predictably

Question 13

Describe how infants’ reflexes change

Answer 13

Adaptive reflexes

• reflexes that help newborn survive. Some adaptive relexes presist throughout life.
• include such essential responses as rotting (turning head to side to search for boob) sucking (newborns automatically start sucking on an object that enters its mouth)

Primitive reflexes

• reflexes controlled by ‘primitive’ parts of the brain that disappear during the first year of life
• include the Moro (startle) and Babunski reflexes (curl toes in when foot is stroked), which disappear within a few months.

Question 14

Outline how infants’ bodies change and the typical pattern of motor skill development in the first two years. – see table 4.1 for milestones.

Answer 14

Bones
Increase in length of bones increase in phone number for example wrist bones separate bone hardening called ossification occurs motor development depends on ossification

Muscles
Bodies full muscle fibres present at birth although fibres are initially small and have high ratio of water to muscle And height porportion of fat

Lungs and heart
Lungs grow more rapidly become more efficient and an increase strength of heart muscles give two year olds greater stamina

Motor skills
Local motor skills age one month stepping reflex age 4 rolls over sits up with support page 7 sets without support and crawls age 10 Pulls self up and walks grasping furniture age 13 walks backwards sideways runs age 19 walks up and downstairs

Non-locomotor skills each one month let’s head slightly age 2 lifts head up to 90° each for holds had a wrecked well in sitting position age 10 squats and stoops age 13 rolls bolt adult claps age 19 jump with both feet off the ground

Question 15

Discuss the health issues of infants. (Esp nutrition, immunizations, and SIDS)

Answer 15

Nutrition
Breast-feeding is substantially superior nutritionally to bottlefeeding for six months or more. Older mothers and immigrants are more likely to breast-feed for longer as well as western province Canadians. Breast-feeding has many benefits such as more rapid weight and size gain less likely to suffer from problems like diarrhoea Gastroenteritis bronchitis and ear infections and colic. Stimulate better immune system function. By six months infants are ready for solid foods which should include iron fortified infant single grain cereal followed by puréed fruits vegetables and finally beat or meat substitutes

Malnutrition
Macro nutrient Mal nutrition results from a diet that contains too few calories and it’s the worlds leading cause of death in children under the age of five they can suffer permanent neurological damage suffer from parasitic infections that lead to chronic diarrhoea some infants don’t contain almost enough calories but not enough protein which can lead to kwashiorkor. Some infants have poorly developed sucking reflex

Immunization
Recommended to start vaccines at two months vaccines for influenza start at age 6 and others start at the first birthday

Sudden infant death syndrome
The sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant we do not know the underlying cause but some factors have been shown to reduce risk a safe sleep environment for instants placing the baby on his back when he sleeps eliminating quilts duvets and pillows avoiding laying the baby on soft surfaces have a baby sleep in a crib avoid bed sharing and have a smoke free environment during pregnancy

Question 16

Identify health issues and outcomes related to preterm, low-birth-weight infants and post-term infants.

Answer 16

Infants born before 37 weeks gestation may not have adaptive reflexes such as sucking and swallowing that are sufficiently developed to enable them to survive. Infants born preterm or with low birth weight move more slowly through all the developmental milestones. By age 2 or 3, the physically normal preterm baby will catch up with his peers

Question 17

Identify the milestones of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Answer 17

Infants use information from senses and motor actions to learn about the world. They begin with a small repertoire of basic schemes from which she moves toward symbolic representation in a series of six sub stages. The milestones of this stage include primary secondary and tertiary circular reactions as well as object permanence, means end behaviour and deferred imitation.

Stage 1: 0-1 month, REFLEXES
-tied to immediate present. Respond to whatever is available. Forgets one encounter to the next.

Stage 2: 1-4months, PRIMARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS

• repetitive actions organizes around baby’s own body
• coordinations between looking and listening, reaching and looking, teaching and sucking

Stage 3: 4-8months, SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS

• repetitive actions oriented around external objects
• baby coos and mom smiles

Stage 4: 8-12 months, COORDINATIONS OF SECONDARY SCHEMES

• understands casual conversation
• means end behaviour: purposeful behaviour carries out in pursuit of a specific goal

Stage 5: 12-18 months, TERTIARY CIRCULAR SCHEMES
-deliberate experimentation with variations of previous actions

Stage 6: 18-24 months, BEGINNING OF MENTAL REPRESENTATION

• development of use of symbols to represent object or events. Child knows that object and symbol are not the same.
• a child that knows there are cookies in the jar can figure out how to get one

Question 18

Define object permanence, object concept and object individuation

Answer 18

Object Permanence
-the understanding that objects continue to exist when they can’t be seen (2 months)

Object concept
-an infants understanding of the nature of objects and how they behave

Object individuation

• infant realizes that an object seen once is the same object They currently see
• the process by which an infant differentiates and recognizes distinct objects based on their mental images of objects in the environment

Question 19

Describe the kinds of ways infants can learn.

Answer 19

Within the first few weeks of life, babies are able to learn through classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observing models. (Think smothering by the breast or pacifier activated lullaby) By 14 months they recognize the difference between successful and unsuccessful modelled behaviours and are more likely to imitate models they view as competent.

Question 20

Describe how categorical understanding changes over the first two years.

Answer 20

From an early age, infants use categories to organize info. The sophistication of how these categories and an understanding of how they relate to each other, increases over the first two years of life.

A 7 month old views furniture and animals as different categories but not dogs and birds. 12month olds understand both categories but don’t know that dogs are birds are nested within the superordinate category of animal. This isn’t learned till about 2years with full understanding at 5 years

Schematic learning - organization of experiences into expectations called schemas which enable infants to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar stimuli

Question 21

Describe memory function in the first two years.

Answer 21

3&4 month old infants show signs of remembering specific experiences over periods of as long as a few days or a week, a sign that they must have some form of internal representation we’ll before Piaget supposed.

Mobile and string. 3 month olds can remember for a week, 6 month olds for longer than 2 weeks

Question 22

Describe how the environment influences language development

Answer 22

• Adults talk differently to babies than preschoolers. High pitches infant directed speech helps infants learn language by attracting their attention to simple repetitive and expanded expressions that adults use. (If kid says mom sock adult repeats yes this is mommy’s sock. This is recasting)
• The amount of verbal interaction that takes place between infants and mature speakers is another influence. If a parent talks and reads more to their kid the child will talk sooner and have a larger vocab.
• Poverty is associated with language development as well

Question 23

Briefly explain how Freud’s and Erikson’s views of personality development in the first two years differ.

Answer 23

Freud suggested that individual differences in personality originated in the nursing and weaning practices of infants mothers.

Erickson emphasized the role of both mothers and fathers as well as other adults in the infant’s environment, in providing for all the infant’s needs, by talking to him, comforting him, etc. Thereby instilling a sense of trust concerning the social world.

Question 24

Identify the four phases of attachment and the behaviours associated with them.

Answer 24

Bowlby:
Phase 1) Nonfocused orienting and signalling (birth-3motnhs)
-indiscriminate aiming of attachment behaviours toward anyone within reach

Phase 2) Focus on one or more figures (3-6months)
-direct their come here signals to few people, generally those they know

Phase 3) Secure base behaviour (6-24 months)

• signalling the presence of a clear attachment
• follow/cling to caregivers they think of as safe bases

Phase 4) Internal model (24months-beyond)

• an internal current and future close relationships
• can think of how an anticipated action might affect the bonds they share with their caregivers

Question 25

Define the 4 attachment behaviours described by Ainsworth (Secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized).

Answer 25

Securely Attached:

• infants separate easily and greet mothers positively when they return
• seeks proximity when stressed
• uses parent as safe base for exploration

Insecure/Avoidant:

• avoid contant with mothers es[ecially at reunion
• shows no preference for the parent over other people

Insecure/Ambivalent:

• are upset at separation but do not greet others positively at the reunion
• shows little exploratory behaviour

Insecure/Disorganized/Disoriented:
-display confused, contradictory patters such as moving toward the mother while looking elsewhere

Question 26

Describe what variables might affect a parent’s ability to establish an attachment relationship with an infant.

Answer 26

Emotional Responsivness:

• is the parent emotionally available to form an attachment
• of parent is economically or emotionally distressed by their own problems they might not thunk of kid
• contingent responsiveness- being sensitive to childs verbal and nonverbal cues and responding appropriately

Marital Status

• parents who are married have infants more likely to be a secure attachment
• married parents tend to have more education and less likely to be poor
• babies exposed to parent arguments are more likely to be emotionally withdrawn

Mental Health

• -depression diminishes mothers capabilities of responding to babies cues
• babies more likely to have insecure attachment
• higher risk of emotional problems or developing mental illness themselves

Question 27

Summarize the research on the long-term consequences of attachment quality.

Answer 27

Securely Attached infants are:

• more sociable, more positive in behaviour towards friends and siblings, less clingy, and dependent of teachers, less aggressive, less disruptive, more empathetic/emotionally mature
• They’re more socially secure, more intimate friendships, leaders, high self-esteem, better grades
• secure attachment means as a mother you are more attentive to child

Insecurely Attachemed Infants are:

• less positive supportive friendships
• become sexually active earlier, practice riskier sex
• if you had insecure attachment your ore likely to view infant as a negative
• lack confidence in parenting

Question 28

Understand the difference between the subjective and objective self, and how it develops in infancy

Answer 28

Subjective Self: an infants awareness that he is a separate person who endures through time and space and can act on the environment. “I exsist”. Mom and dad exist when out of sight.

Objective categorical Self: the toddlers understanding that she is defined by various categories such as gender, or qualities such as shyness. She is an object of the world. Self-recognition/awareness test: red dot on the nose in from of the mirror test. Few 9-12 month old will reach for their own nose, but most 21month olds will.

Question 29

Define emotional self

Answer 29

2-3 months

• identify emotion expressed in others faces
• better at familiar faces
• adults can distinguish a baby’s facial expressions for anger, sadness

5-7months

• can ‘read’ one channel at a time, wither facial expression or vocal expression.
• unfamiliar faces
• wider variety of emotions: happy , surprised, angry, fearful interested, sad
• babies have fearful expressions

1 year
-perception of others emotions guides their behaviour

Question 30

Define joint attention

Answer 30

When two people are focusing their attention on an abject and each is aware that the other is attending to that same object.