Physical Growth and Brain Development Birth to 3 years Flashcards
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Voluntary Movements
i) Development of control in head to toe pattern
b) 3-5 months
i) Raise head
c) 3-8 months
i) Roll and sit up between 3-8 months
d) 9-10 months
i) Standing position
e) 7-12 months
i) Creeping and crawling
f) 12 months
i) Walking
(1) (between 9-17 months considered normal)
g) Contribute to increased exploration and independence
i) Affect social-emotional development, relationships, regulation and cognition
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Reflexes
Critical to survival
Rooting and Sucking->ensures nourishment
Protective Reflexes->aid infants when learning to sit up
Integrated into VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS
I.e., stepping, grasping, and crawling reflexes
MUST disappear in order for Voluntary Movement to Begin
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Prehension (Grasping)
a) Proximal-distal development
i) Crude reaching at 4 months
ii) Crossing midline at 12 months
iii) Accurate reach and grasp by 13 months
iv) Ability to release not mastered until 18 months
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Brain Development
a) Depends on the formation of connections between brain cells
i) Affect by experience and environmental factors
(1) i.e. Pruning—connections that experience frequent electrical activity due to a particular experience will strengthen while others will die
Plasticity Brain activity Emotional Regulation Cerebral Cortex Head circumference
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Plasticity
i) The brain’s ability to change in response to repeated stimulation
c) Brain activity of newborn mostly confined to sub cortical structures
i) Spinal cord and brain stem
ii) Cerebellum
iii) Lower section of limbic system
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Emotional regulation
i) Upper limbic system begins to mature in 2nd 6 weeks, continuing into adulthood
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Cerebral Cortex
i) Least developed at birth
(1) Therefore, Its maturation and development depends heavily on experience and continues well into adulthood
ii) Around 6-8 months the frontal lobe exhibits more activity and is responsible for the first inklings of high cognitive function in babies
(1) Surge in memory, emotion, and general awareness->affects cognition, regulation, and socio-emotional
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Head Circumference
i) Important to measure in first year
ii) Relative advance development at birth (compared to chest circumference)
iii) Rapid period of head growth during first 3 years indicates a finite amount of timr for brain development
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Pattern of growth
More important than any single measure
a) Predictability of growth begins in the womb
6) 7-18 month bio-behavioral shift
a) Increase in mobility due to capacity to sit up and crawl and independent walking
7) Walking-9-14 months
a) Walking in toddlerhood becomes a means to an end
i) Allows for greater exploration which contributes to cognitive development
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Self-regulation
a) Is the behavior that determines the extent to which an individual will try to control the amount of stimulus they encounter
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Sensory Integration
a) Brain development to senses throughout childhood
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Sensory Modulation
a) The ability to give an appropriate, adaptive, response to sensory stimulation
i) Depends on an individual’s sensory threshold and self-regulation
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Sensory Threshold
a) The amount of sensation it takes to both attain and sustain an individual’s response to a stimulus
b) Children at the extreme ends of the continuum may have sensory processing problems that impair everyday functioning and interactions with other
i) Hyporeactive vs. Hyperreactive
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Tactile system
a) Touch, pain, pressure, temperature
b) Most mature at birth because fetus constantly receiving stimulus inside the uterus
c) Touch found to benefit social-emotional and cognitive development
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Vision System
a) Postnatal exposure to light and movement critical to development
b) Typical development will result in the brain devoting much of its space to visual processing
c) Drastically improved by 1 year, but maximum acuity not reached till 5 years
