Physical Growth/Dev in Infancy

Question 1

weight by age 2

Answer 1

~ 30lbs

Question 2

height by age 2

Answer 2

32-35” (almost 3ft)

Question 3

infant growth sequences (2)

Answer 3

1. cephalocaudal

2. proximodistal

Question 4

cephalocaudal growth (in depth)

Answer 4

• brain & skull focused (infancy = most rapid / dynamic period of brain dev. across lifespan)
• infants born with neurons, but this period is when those neurons form connections with each other
• by age 2, brain has become thickened with dendrites
• critical period for learning certain things (i.e. exposure to language)

Question 5

neural pruning

Answer 5

• occurs during cephalocaudal period
• important neural connections maintained while unimportant/redundant connections discarded
• necessary due to overproduction

Question 6

overproduction

Answer 6

infant brains have way more synaptic connections than they need

Question 7

proximodistal growth (in depth)

Answer 7

• growth that starts at body’s center (trunk) and moves away to limbs
• gross motor (large muscle) dev happens before fine motor skill dev

Question 8

assimilation

Answer 8

process of fitting new info into an existing schema

Question 9

accommodation

Answer 9

process of changing schema to make sense of new info