Motor Development Flashcards
1
Q
What is natural familiarity?
A
- stimuli infants experience often in their lives
2
Q
What is lab induced familiarity?
A
- familiarize infant to a new stimulus by first exposing them to it for a brief amount of time
3
Q
What determines if an infant will choose familiarity or novelty in the lab?
A
- length of exposure time to an initial stimulus determines whether an infant will show a familiarity or novelty preference
- short exposure = familiarity preference
- long/repeated exposure = novelty preference
4
Q
What is intermodal perception?
A
- the coordinated perception of a singular object or event through 2 or more sensory systems
- often vision and at least one other sensory modality
- intermodal perception is present very early on
5
Q
Do infants have intermodal perception for vision and touch at birth?
A
- yes, ability to combine visual information with touch is present from birth
- newborns looked longer at pacifier they sucked on
6
Q
Do infants have intermodal perception for vision and sound at birth?
A
- no
- 4 months
- infants can integrate visual and auditory information
- important for language development because children need to understand that speech sounds are linked with a moving mouth
- 4 month olds looked longer at person playing peekaboo than drums
7
Q
What are reflexes?
A
- innate, involuntary actions that occur in response to a particular stimulation
- reflexes are adaptive
- function of some is unclear
8
Q
What are some reflexes?
A
- grasping
- rooting (turn head in direction of stimulus)
- sucking
- stepping
- tonic neck reflex (when head turned one way, their arm on that side extends and the arm and knee on the other side bend
9
Q
When do reflexes disappear?
A
- 2 months
- some don’t like coughing, sneezing, blinking, withdrawing from pain
- absent reflexes or reflexes that persist for too long can mean the infant has neurological problems
10
Q
What are motor milestones?
A
- major motor developmental tasks of a period
- happen in sequence, rarely out of order
- huge individual variation in the ages these milestones are achieved
11
Q
What are the motor milestones in infancy?
A
- 0-1 month: prone, lift head
- 2-4 months: prone, chest up, uses arms for support
- 2-5 months: rolls over
- 3-6 months: supports some weight with legs
- 4-8 months: sits without support
- 5-10 months: stands with support
- 6-10 months: pulls self to stand
- 7-13 months: walks using furniture for support
- 9-14 months: stands alone easily
- 11-15 months: walks alone easily
12
Q
What about crawling?
A
- babies begin crawling at 7-8 months
- different crawling styles
- it is not a motor milestone
- many healthy babies never crawl and skip right to walking
13
Q
Why do some babies skip crawling?
A
- upper body or core weakness (lack the strength)
- hypersensitive to the textures of the floor
- insufficient opportunity
14
Q
Cultural differences in motor milestones
A
- average ages of milestones are based on WEIRD samples, but most infants in the world are not
- only 15% of the world’s population is WEIRD
- cultural practices lead to individual differences in when motor milestones are achieved
15
Q
Why are there cross cultural differences in how long 5 month olds can sit independently?
A
- related to where infants’ are placed to sit
- little postural support (ground, adult furniture) vs lots of postural support (child furniture, being held)
- earlier independent sitting in countries where infants spent more time in places with less postural support
- later independent sitting in countries where infants spent more time in places with lots of postural support