Normal psychomotor development

Question 1

What is primary neurulation?

Answer 1

• When the neural tube forms

Question 2

What is anencephaly?

Answer 2

• failure of anterior neural tube to fold
• Hypothalamus comes into contact with amniotic fluid
• Hole in top of head

Question 3

What is myelomeningocoele?

Answer 3

• Post tube defect
• Worst type of spina bifida
• Higher up, we can get hydrocephalus, whereas at the bottom we can get paralysis of the legs

Question 4

What is holoprosencephaly?

Answer 4

• Prosencephalon (forebrain of embryo) fails to develop into two hemispheres
• Normally the forebrain is formed and the face begins to develop in the 5th and 6th weeks
• When it fails to divide into two hemispheres, it causes defects in the development of the face and in brain structure and function
• In less severe cases, babies are born with normal or near-normal brain development and facial deformities that may affect the eyes, nose and upper lip

Question 5

What is the organisation of the cortex?

Answer 5

• arranged into 6 layers, each with specific arrangements of cells for its specific function
• Microgyria is when areas of brain only have 4 layers instead of 6

Question 6

How does neurodevelopment progress?

Answer 6

• Synapses achieve max density at 6-12 months after birth
• At birth the cerebral cortex is primitive, neurons are poorly connected
• Physical growth of nervous system - myelination of nerves and an increase in the number of connections between cells
• Myelination progresses - nervous control of various functions improve. continues throughout childhood

Question 7

What influences are there on development?

Answer 7

• Biological - inherited characteristics, antenatal and perinatal history, general health, vision and hearing
• Environmental - opportunities such as sensitive and supporting parenting and education, threats such as social and economic deprivation, experience and encouragement
• Hereditary determines potential, and environmental determines the extent to which they reach the potential

Question 8

What are the 6 development scales?

Answer 8

• gross motor - walking, running
• Fine motor
• Vision
• Speech
• Hearing
• Social - feeding, dressing etc

Question 9

How do gross motor skills develop?

Answer 9

• Babies arent mobile, but strart to develop it as they grow
• Reflex head turn to enable feeding
• As they get stronger they can lift their heads up and hold it straight to stop flopping
• 6-8 months they can sit alone
• By 12 months they can walk
• 12-18 moths they can walk to run and kick a ball
• Can start to go up and downstairs

Question 10

What are the variations in normal motor skills?

Answer 10

• Crawl/stand/walk = 83% of people
• Stand/walk = 6%
• Bottom shuffling = 9% (start to walk slightly later)
• Creeping-rolling = 1%

Question 11

How does fine motor and vision progress?

Answer 11

• Fine motor skills are related to vision - cant do anything if you cant see
• Start off being able to track things
• Then able to reach for things
• By 9 months they can pincer grasp neatly
• Just over 1 they can stack bricks
• 19 months - 4-6 bricks
• 2 can copy a line, then progressively get better

Question 12

What are the different stages of gripping?

Answer 12

• Rake at 4 months
• Inferior pincer grasp at 7 months
• fine pincer grasp at 9-12 months

Question 13

When do primitive reflexes start to disappear?

Answer 13

3 months

Question 14

How do speech and hearing skills develop?

Answer 14

• At first can be alerted by a bell
• Then start to learn to seach for sounds
• 8 months = mama/dada
• 9 months = can understand the word no
• 12 months - 3-5 word vocab, follows one-step command with gesture
• 14 months - follows one-step command without gesture
• 2 yrs - 50-word vocab
• 2.5 yrs - gives first and last names
• 3 yrs - 250 word vocab

Question 15

How do social skills develop?

Answer 15

• Newborn can regard face
• 6wks - spontaneous social smile
• 7months - stranger anxiety - plays peekaboo
• 12 months - drinks from cup
• 15-18 months - uses spoon, spills a little
• 2 yrs - wash and dry hands
• 3 yrs - uses spoon well
• 5 yrs - dresses without assistance

Question 16

What scales are dependent on each other?

Answer 16

• Fine motor on gross motor
• Gross motor on vision
• Social on vision
• Hearing on gross motor

Question 17

What is developmental delay?

Answer 17

Failure to acquire a particular developmental skill at an age when 95% of peers have done so

Question 18

When do we screen children?

Answer 18

• Newborn
• 6 weeks
• 6-9 months
• 18 months
• 3 years

Question 19

How do we look for causes of developmental problems?

Answer 19

• Chromosomes
• Genetic referral
• MRI
• Audiology
• Opthalmology
• Thyroid function