Developmental Psychology

Chapter 4

1. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy

Patterns of Growth -CEPHALOCAUDAL PATTERN: the sequence In which the earliest growth always occurs at the top and physical growth and differentiation of features gradually working their way down from top to bottom - the eyes and brain grow faster than the lower parts -Motor development generally proceeds according to the cephalocaudal principle -PROXIMODISTAL PATTERN: the sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremeties. -Infants can control the muscles of thei trunk and arms before they control their hand and fingers Height and Weight -First several days of life, newborns los 5-7% of their body weight before they adjust to feeding by sucking, swallowing and digesting The Brain -Shaken Baby Syndrom: brain swlling and hemorrhaging -Fathers were the most often perpetrators of shaken baby syndrome, followed by child care providers and boyfriend of victims mother -PET scans are too risky due to radiation -MRI will not be accurate if the baby is wriggling around -EEG is successful to detect brains electrical activity learn about brains development in infancy Brains Development -Newborns brain is 25% of adults Mapping the Brain -Frontal Lobes: voluntary movement, think, personality and intentionality or purpose -Occipital Lobes: function in vision -Temporal Lobes: active role in hearing, language processing and memory -Parietal Lobes: important roles in registering spatial location, attention and motor control -Specialization of function in one hemisphere of cerebral cortex or the other is called LATERALIZATION -Newborns show greater electrical brain activity in left hemisphere when they listen to speech sounds

Infancy

1. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy

Changes in Neurons -Neuron: nerve cell that handles information processing -Myelin sheath: layer of fat cells, encases many axons -At the end of the axon are terminal buttons, which release chemicals called Neurotransmitters into Synapses During the first year of life: 1. Myelination process of encasing axons with fat cells, begins prenatally and continues after birth, even into adolescence 2. Connectivity among neurons increases, creating new neural pathways The more babies engage in physical activity or use language the more pathways will be strengthened

Changes in Region of the Brain - Peak of synaptic overproduction in the visual cortex occurs at about the 4 th postnatal month - Prefrontal cortex peaks at about 1 year of age (the area of the brain where higher-level thinking and self-regulation occurs) - Pace of myelination also varies in different areas of the brain - Myelination for visual path-ways occur rapidly after birth (completed in first 6 months) - Prefrontal region of frontal lobe has the most prolonged development of any brain region Early Experience and the Brain - Child who grw up in unresponsive and unstimulating environment showed considerably depressed brain activity compared with a normal child - The brain demonstrates both flexibility and resilience - What wires and rewires the brain is repeated experience SLEEP - Infants start to sleep longer at night - Infant night-waking problem has been linked to excessive parental involvement in sleep-related interactions with the infant - More time awake at night is linked to intrinsic factors such as daytime crying and fussing - There is cultural variations influence on infant sleeping patterns - Kipsigis culture in Kenya, infants sleep with mothers at night but during the day, they are strapped on mothers backthey tend to not sleep throughout the night later than American infants

Infancy

1. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy

REM Sleep -REM Sleep: eyes flutter beneath closed lids -Non-REM Sleep: type of eye movement does not occur and sleep is more quiet -REM sleep usually appears about one hour after non-REM sleep -Infants often begin their cycle with REM sleep -REM sleep provides infant with added self-stimulation since they spend less time awake than do older children -REM sleep also promote the brains development in infancy Shared Sleeping -Sleeping arrangements for newborns vary culturally -Shared Sleepingpromotes breast feeding, quicker response to babys cries, allows the mother to detect potentially dangerous breathing pauses in baby. -But it can increase risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) -African American mothers and their infants are more likely to share bed than non-Latino White mothers SIDS -Highest cause of infant death in US -Babies should sleep on their back to allow them to swallow effectively -SIDS less likely to occur in infants who use pacifies when sleeping -Low birth weight infants are more likely to die from SIDS -Infants whose siblings have died of SIDS are more likely to die -6% if infants with SLEEP APNEA (temp cessation of breathing in airway) die of SIDS -African American and Eskimo infants are more likely -SIDS is more common in lower socioeconomic groups -Passively exposed to cigarette smoke -SIDS more common if infants sleep in soft bedding -Less common when infants sleep in bedroom with fan -More often in infants with abnormal brain stem functioning involving the neurotransmitter serotonin NUTRITION -Changes from suck-and-swallowchew-and-swallow (as motor skills improve) -Need to have balanced dietary plans -Breast-feeding reduces the risk of obesity by 20%

Infancy

1. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy

Breast Vs. Bottle Feeding Breast feeding has shown to be more beneficial for infants: -Infants have fewer gastrointestinal infections -Have fewer lower respiratory tract infections -Reduces the risk of allergies in children -Protects against wheezing in babies -Less likely to develop middle ear infection -Less likely to have Atopic dermatitis chronic inflammation of skin and linked to lower risk of skin rashes -Less likely to become overweight or obese in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood -Less likely to experience SIDS Breast feeding has shown to be beneficial for mothers: -Lower incidence of breast cancer in women -Reduction in ovarian cancer -Small reduction in Type 2 diabetes -Lower incidence of metabolic syndrome -Breast-feeding Mother-infant relationship bond is not supported by research Mothers should not breast feed if: -She has HIV -Other infectious diseases -Active tuberculosis -Taking drugs which are unsafe for infant - There are no psychological differences between breast fed and bottle fed infants

Infancy

1. Physical Growth and Development in Infancy

Malnutrition in Infancy Marasmus: caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency and results in a wasting away of body tissues in the infants first year -Infant becomes grossly underweight and their muscles atrophy Kwashiorkor: sever protein deficiency: 1-3 yrs old. -Appear to be well fed but childrens abdomen and feet swell with water -Although not fatal, but they are detrimental to physical, cognitive and social development -Perform worse on tests of attention and memory -Standard nutritional care combined with psychosocial intervention reduced negative effects of malnutrition on 6-24 months cognitive development -Children who have been given nutritious supplements (during when they were a fetus-1 year old) were more active, involved, and helpful, less anxious and happier.

Infancy

2. Motor Development
Dynamic Systems View Arnold Gesell (Developmentalist) discovered that infants and children develop rolling, sitting, standing and other motor skills in fixed order and within specific time frames Maturation (but later studies showed that sequences of developmental milestones is not as fixed as Fesell indicated) Dynamic Systems Theory: -Infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting -Perception and action are coupled according to this theory -To develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the environment that motivates them to act and use their perceptions to fine tune their movements -Motor skills represent solutions to infants goals

How is motor skill developed? -Infants are motivated to do something, the might create a new motor behavior -Environment support their skill
Example: babies learn to walk only when maturation of nervous system allows them to control certain leg muscles, when their legs have grown enough to support their weight and when they want to move. 1. Infant is motivated by new challenge 2. Infant tunes these movements to make them smoother and more effective 3. Tuning is achieved through repeated cycles of action and perception of the consequences of that action Motor development is not a passive process in which genes dictate the unfolding of a sequence of skills over time Infant actively puts together a skill to achieve a goal within the constraints set by the infants body and environment

Infancy

2. Motor Development
REFLEXES Reflexes are built-in reactions to stimuli; they govern the newborns movements, which are automotive and beyond the newborns control. -Genetically carried survival mechanisms Rooting Reflex occurs when the infants cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched. Sucking Reflex occurs when newborns automatically suck an object placed in their mouth. Moro Reflex occurs in response to a sudden, intense noise or movement (when startled, newborn arches its back, throws head backward).grabbing for support Rooting and Moro Reflex disappear when the infant is 3-4 months old. Grasping Reflex occurs when something touches the infants palms. GROSS MOTOR SKILLS Development of Posture -Posture is more than just holding still and straight, linked with sensory information in the skin, joints, and muscles etc

Learning to Walk -Locomotion and postural control are closely linked (walking upright) -3-day old infants adapted their stepping pattern to visual input -With experience, both crawlers and walkers learned to avoid the risky sloped where they would fall, integrating perceptual information with development of new motor behavior

Infancy

2. Motor Development
First Year: Motor Development Milestones and Variations See p129 Figure 4.15 -Motor accomplishments of first year bring increasing independence -Initiate interaction with others Second Year Development -Become more motorically skilled and mobile -Vital to childs competent development -Caregivers in some cultures handle babies vigorously and this might advance motor development -Massage and stretching their infant during daily bath has shown to help motor development FINE MOTOR SKILLS FINELY TUNED MOVEMENTS -infants refine how to grasp and reach which marks significant achievement in infants ability to interact with their surroundings 1. Palmer Grasp: grips with whole hand 2. Pincer Grip: grasp small objects with thumb and forefinger Vision lets infants preshape their hands as they reach for an object Experience plays a role in reaching and grasping

Infancy

3. Sensory and Perceptual Development

WHAT ARE SENSATION AND PERCEPTION? Sensation: information interacts with sensory receptors. vs Perception: interpretation of what is sensed. ECOLOGICAL VIEW Gibsons Ecological View: -We directly perceive information that exists in the world around us -View is called ecological because it connects perceptual capabilities to information available in the world of perceiver -Perception brings us into contact with environment to interact and adapt to it -Perception is designed for action Gibsons view: -Objects have AFFORDANCES (opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities What affordances can infants/ children detect and use? -Infants combined perception and action to adapt to the demands of the task -More experienced crawlers and walkers perceived that a slope AFFORDS the possibility for not only faster locomotion, but also for falling How can we study newborns perception? (Visual Preference Method)Robert Fantz -Infants look longer at patterned stimuli (faces and concentric circles) 2 day old -Infants preferred patterns (face, bulls eye) 2-3 weeks old -Studied whether infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of time they attend to different stimuli-VISUAL PREFERENCE METHOD Habituation vs Dishabituation: -If the infant decreases its response to stimulus after several presentations, it indicates no longer interested -Habituation to decrease responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of stimulus -Dishabituation recovery of a habituated resonse after change in stimulation

Infancy

3. Sensory and Perceptual Development

VISUAL PEREPTION Visual Acuity and Human Faces -Newborns cant see small things that are far away, only when they are about 1 year old would they have the same vision as adults -So infants match voices to faces; distinguish between male and female faces, discriminate between faces of their own ethnic group -They change the way they gather information

Color Vision -infants color vision improves -4 months: prefer saturated colors
Perceptual Constancy -Sensory stimulation is changing but perception of the physical world remains constant -If infants do not develop perceptual constancy, each time they see something in different distance or orientation, they may perceive it as different objects Size Constancy: object remains the same even though the retinal image of object changes as you move toward or away from object Shape Constancy: recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation to us changes (looking at object in different views) 3 month old: has shape constancy but not shape constancy for irregularly shaped objects. Perception of Occluded Objects First two month of postnatal development, infants dont perceive occluded objects as complete, instead only perceiving what is visible. 2 months of age: infants develop perception of occluded objects as whole

-learning, experience, and self-directed exploration via eye movement play key roles in the development of perceptual completion in young infants
In the study, infants were more likely to accurately predict the moving object when it disappeared gradually rather than abruptly.

Infancy

3. Sensory and Perceptual Development

Depth Perception -We do know that infants develop the ability to use binocular cues to depth by about 3-4 months of age OTHER SENSES Hearing -Fetus can hear but also that is has a remarkable ability to learn even before birth -Fetus recognizes mothers voice What kind of changes in hearing take place during infancy? 1. Loudness: infants cant heart soft sounds 2. Pitch: infants are less sensitive to pitch. Infants are less sensitive to low-pitched sounds and are more likely to hear high-pitched sounds 3. Localization: even newborns can determine the general location from where a sound is coming from Touch and Pain - Newborns respond to touche - Newborns also feel pain but show amazing resilience Smell - Can differentiate odors Taste - Sensitivity to taste might be present even before birth

Infancy

3. Sensory and Perceptual Development

INTERMODAL PERCEPTION -Integrating information from two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing -Exploratory forms of intermodal perception exist even in newborns -Forms of intermodal perception become sharpened with experience in first year of life -Babies are born with some innate abilities to perceive relations among sensory modalities and their intermodal abilities develop considerably through experiences

NATURE, NURTURE, AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Nature proponents Nativists -Gibsons ecological view: perception is direct and evolved over time to allow the detection of size and shape constancy -But Gibsons is not ENTIRELY nativist Learning and experience Empiricists -Piagets constructivist view PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR COUPLING -Gibson: discover how perception guides action -ActionPerception -Babies continually coordinate their movements with perceptual information to learn how to maintain balance -They are motivated to move by what they perceive -Action educated perception -Locomoting in environment teaches babies about how objects and people look from different perspectives

Infancy