Unit 2 - Lesson 6 (Sensory and Motor) Flashcards
What are the 2 types of motor skills?
Gross motor and fine motor skills
What is gross motor skills?
- Skills that involve large muscle activity
- Milestone that demonstrate growth in an infant
ex. Walking, Crawling, Sitting independently, pulling themselves up, standing
What is fine motor skills?
- Motor skills that involve finely tuned movements, such as:
- Buttoning a shirt, typing, any task the requires finger dexterity
How does culture influence development?
If a caregiver provides their baby with physical guidance by handling them in special ways, their child is more likely to develop motor skills earlier.
For example, Jamaican mothers expect their babies to sit and walk alone 2-3 months earlier than English mothers
What are reflexes?
- An action performed without conscious thought!
- Newborns are born with basic reflexes which allow them to respond to their environment before they’ve had the opportunity to learn
- These “reflexes” lead to the development of gross motor skills that they learn.
What reflexes are we born with?
Rooting Reflex: Built in reaction that occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked or side of mouth is touched. In turn, the infant moves their head to the side they were touched in an effort to find something to suck
Sucking Reflex: Reaction to sucking an object placed in their mouth. This enables them to get nourishment before its associated the nipple with food
Moro Reflex: Startle response to a sudden noise or movement. When startled, a newborn will throw its head back, arch their back or fling arms & legs
Grasping Reflex: Occurs when something touches the infant’s palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly
How is posture developed?
- after reflexes
- Posture is the foundation for the development of additional motor skills
Hold Heads Erect → Lift head → can sit while on a lap or seat → sit independently → stand → pull themselves up → stand alone
How is walking developed?
- after posture
- Technically, neural pathways that control leg alternation are there from a really early age.
- First, we need to discover the safe places and surfaces
And … we actually need to fall so that we can judge where to walk and how to navigate - Once we walk, we are introduced to so many
more things which takes our development to a whole new level
What is the dynamic system theory?
(proposed by Esther Thellen)
- To develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the environment that motivates them to move and act.
- Motor skills represent pathways to the infant’s goals
- When they are motivated, they create a new motor behaviour which then prompts them to explore solutions to the new task and finding one that works / helps them reach the goal
- Not influenced by genes and specific stages rather experiences!
How is sight developed?
- Sight is an example of a sense that takes time to develop.
- Over the first few months, babies may have uncoordinated eye movements and they are born with the ability to focus only at close range.
- Focus will continue to improve over the first 2 to 3 years of life.
- Newborns can detect light and dark but cannot detect all colours.
How is hearing developed?
- The sense of sound is the responsibility of the ears
- During pregnancy, many mothers find that the baby kicks or jumps in response to loud noises
- Hearing is a sense that is fully developed in newborns.
The sense of sound also changes with age - The responsibility of the ears is two-fold. The first responsibility is hearing and the other is maintaining balance.
Fluid and small hair in the inner ear stimulate the auditory nerve, and this helps the brain to maintain balance - As an individual ages, structures inside of the ear start to change and their functions decline. The ability to pick up sounds decrease
- The individual might find that they have problems maintaining their balance when they move from sitting to standing, and from standing to walking.
How is smell and taste developed?
- The senses of smell and taste work together
- Research shows that newborns have a strong sense of smell
- Many newborns prefer the smell of their own mother
- The sense of taste is developed when the baby is born as well
- Babies tend to prefer sweet tastes over sour or bitter tastes (can get addicted)
The number of taste buds in our mouths decreases as we age - The sense of smell can also decrease after the age of 70
- This can be related to a loss of nerve endings and less mucus production in the nose
- Mucus helps odors to stay in the nose long enough to be detected by the nerve endings
How is touch developed?
- The sense of touch makes us aware of pain, temperature, pressure, vibration, and body position
- The brain is responsible for interpreting the type and amount of touch sensation
- With aging, sensations might be changed or reduced
These changes can occur because of decrease blood flow to the nerve endings or to the spinal cord or brain
Relationship between aging and nervous system?
- The nervous system is the body’s central control centre and controls the body’s movements, senses, thoughts and memories
- As the body ages, the brain, reflexes and nervous system go through natural changes
- The brain and spinal cord loose and have shrinking nerve cells and lose volume
- The effects of age on reflexes can vary from person to person
- Most adults, by late adulthood, notice a gradual reduction in their response time to spontaneous events
