Week 3 - Infants (A) - Growth Flashcards
discuss major changes in infancy, such as growth (4)
- Cephalocaudal principle - top to bottom growth
- Proximodistal principle - Centre to extremities
- A child’s weight doubles in the first 5 months of life and triples by the end of the first year.
-While the average child is around 50 centimetres long at birth and weighs 3.5 kilograms, by the end of the first year, an infant weighs on average 10 kilograms and is around 75 centimetres tall.
describe infants’ motor development
describe how infants learn, remember and conceptualise
describe the nature of language and how it develops in infancy
discuss the development of emotions and personality in infancy
describe the development of attachment in infancy
summarise and evaluate Piaget’s theory of infant development.
Overproduction (exuberance)
A burst in the production of dendritic connections between neurons
Myelination
Myelination refers to the process of the growth of the myelin sheath around the axon of a neuron.
synaptic pruning
a process in brain development, in which dendritic connections that are used become stronger and faster, and those that are unused wither away.
Developmental Plasticity
how adaptable the developing brain is to the environment (also to overcome damage)
discuss major changes in infancy, such as the brain (4)
-Developmental Plasticity
-synaptic pruning
-Myelination
-Overproduction (exuberance)
-At birth, the brain is one-third the size of the adult brain; after birth, the brain resumes its explosive growth. Initially, the brain increases in volume by 1% per day, and by 3 months has increased 64%
discuss major changes in infancy, such as sleep patterns (4)
-Neonates or newborns generally sleep for an average of 16 to 17 hours per day, but they vary a lot in how much each individual actually sleeps. The range is between 10 and 20 hours.
-often in short sleeps of two to three hours per sleep
-One of the tasks that infants in these early stages are doing, is adapting to the 24 hour light and day cycles of day and night.
-Sleeping-related problems during infancy are common, affecting somewhere between 15% and 35% of children
cephalocaudal principle
principle of biological development that growth tends to begin at the top, with the head, and then proceeds downwards to the rest of the body
proximodistal principle
principle of biological development that growth proceeds from the middle of the body outwards
At birth, the brain is one-third the size of the adult brain; after birth the rate of growth is…
The brain increases in volume by 1% per day, and by 3 months has increased 64%
How many brain cells in the average infant brain
100-200 billion brain cells
The cerebellum (part of the hindbrain) coordinates____and is the ____growing part of the brain____(extent of growth) in the infant’s first ____ days
muscles and movement, and is the fastest growing part of the brain after birth, doubling its size in the infant’s first 90 days
The hindbrain and midbrain mature ______ and perform _____________. They keep your _________
earliest
the basic biological functions necessary to life
lungs breathing, your heart beating and your bodily movements balanced.
The forebrain is divided into two main parts:
the limbic system and the cerebral cortex.
Structures of the limbic system include:
hypothalamus, thalamus and the hippocampus
hypothalamus is ________, about the size of _________, and plays a key role in monitoring and regulating our _________
small
a peanut
basic animal functions, including hunger, thirst, body temperature, sexual desire and hormonal levels.
The thalamus acts as a:
receiving and transfer centre for sensory information from the body to the rest of the brain.
The hippocampus is crucial in______. It is the part of the brain with the ________ growth initially, increasing ______ in the first ____ days of life
crucial in memory, especially the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory.
slowest
only 47%
90
cerebral cortex
outer portion of the brain, containing four regions with distinct functions
The cerebral cortex accounts for what percentage of total brain weight?
85%
The cerebral cortex is the basis of our distinctively human abilities, including the ability to (3)
speak and understand language,
to solve complex problems and
to think in terms of concepts, ideas and symbols.
Corpus callosum connects:
the left and right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex
lateralisation
specialisation of functions in the two hemispheres of the brain
The right hemisphere is specialised for… (2)
spatial reasoning and
for processing information in a holistic, integrative way.
In general, the left hemisphere is…
specialised for language and for
processing information in a sequential, step-by-step way
The cerebral cortex is also _____ in that each hemisphere has ____ regions or lobes with distinct functions
specialised
four
The temporal lobes at the lower side of each hemisphere are involved in
processing auditory information, including understanding spoken language.
The parietal lobes above the temporal lobes process
information from bodily sensations.
The frontal lobes behind the forehead are the centre of the most advanced human brain processes, including (2)
producing spoken language, and
planning for the future and making decisions.
The occipital lobes at the rear of each hemisphere
process visual information.
By 3-4 months old, REM sleep has declined to about:
40%
When infants are 2–4 months of age, they are at highest risk of
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
death within the first year of life due to unknown reasons, with no apparent illness or disorder
Risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (5)
- sleeping stomach-down instead of flat on the back
- low birth weight and low Apgar score
- having a mother who smoked during pregnancy or was around smoke during infancy
- soft bedding, including sleeping on a sofa
- Sleeping in an overheated room or wearing two or more layers of clothing during sleep (most SIDS deaths take place in autumn and winter)
custom complex
distinctive cultural pattern of behaviour that reflects underlying cultural beliefs
marasmus
disease in which the body wastes away from lack of nutrients
gross motor development
development of motor abilities including balance and posture as well as whole-body movements such as crawling
fine motor development
development of motor abilities involving finely tuned movements of the hands such as grasping and manipulating objects
ontogenetic growth
takes place due to an inborn, genetically based, individual timetable
During the first year of life, fine motor skills (reaching and grasping) make _________ progress.
considerable
Gintermodal perception
integration and coordination of information from the various senses
