InfancyPhysical, Cognitive and

Social emotional

What you think you’re getting What you really get . . .

Learning Goals

1. What are some of the main physical developments to look for during 0 – 2?

2. How do temperament and emotion differ in each child?

3. How do infants and toddlers learn?

Mother recovery & Time off from work

• Most full-time jobs 6 wks paid maternity leave

• For 6 wks: no driving, weight over 25 lbs, or sex

• Rare in U.S. to get paid paternity leave

• If possible, save up your PTO and use it after the 6 wks are over.

• If possible, have spouse/partner save up PTO and use after your PTO is done.

• … and there’s always unpaid leave from work.

• Physically, you may be healed, but you’ll be TIRED.

• U.S. dead last of 168 countries on paid maternity leave

• Sweden, Norway = 16 mos. Off

• Canada = 35 wks• U.S. org’s pushing for more: Moms Rising,

PaidFamilyLeave.org, Ctr for Law & Social Policy

Human Development• Muscle control is developed:

• head

• chest, trunk, shoulders,

• arms and legs

• hands and feet

Pattern of growth

• Cephalocaudal pattern -the sequence in which the greatest growth always occurs at the top—the head— with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working its way down from top to bottom.

Pattern of growth

• Proximodistal Pattern -The sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities.

Height

• 95% of full-term newborns are 18-22 inches.

• Infants grow about 1 inch per month

How long are they by 2 years?

Weight

Weight

• 95% full-term newborns weigh between 5½ and 10 pounds.

• Most newborns lose 5-7 percent of their body weight before they adjust to neonatal feeding.

• Infants gain 5-6 oz./week during the first month.• They double their birth weight by the age of 4

mos. and nearly triple their birth weight the first year.

Day 1 Day 3

3 weeks old 3 months old

23 months (nearly 2 yrs)

Brain Development

• At birth, the newborn’s brain is about 25% of its adult weight and, by the second birthday, it is about 75% of its adult weight.

• Newborns have most of the neurons they will ever have—about 100 billion.

• Most dramatic changes are the spreading connections of dendrites to each other.

Myelination• The process of encasing axons with fat cells.• Visual pathways -occurs rapidly after birth and is

completed in first 6 months.• Auditory myelination -not completed until 4-5 years

of age.• Some aspects of myelination continue into

adolescence.

Early Experiences

• The brain eliminates connections that are seldom or never used—continuing at least until 10 years of age.

• Experiences determine how connections are made.

• Before birth, genes appear to direct how the brain establishes basic wiring patterns.

• After birth, environmental experiences are important

Unrestrained neural growth

Site of neural pruning

Sleep

• Newborns sleep 16-17 hours

• By 1-month-old begin sleeping longer at night.

• Most 4-month-olds usually have moved closer to adultlike sleep patterns.

• Cultural variations in infant sleeping patterns.

REM

• A recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur.

• Infants spend about ½ of their sleep in REM sleep compared to adults 1/5.

• By 3 months the percentage of REM sleep falls to 40%, and it no longer starts their sleep cycle.

• REM sleep is thought to promote brain development

SIDS

• Sudden infant death syndrome • It is the highest cause of infant death in the U.S.

with approximately 3,000 infant deaths• Risk of SIDS is highest at 4-6 weeks of age.• Some researchers believe that an inability to

swallow effectively in the prone sleeping position is an important factor in SIDS.

• Since 1992 that infants sleep on their backs.

Risk Factors

• What are some risk factors associated with SIDS?– Low birth weight– Has respiratory infection, or just recovering

from one– A smoker in the house– Mother smoked while pregnant– Overheated room

Breast Feeding

Breast feeding vs bottle feeding• What are the benefits?

• What are the negatives?

• Preference?

Student talk

Breast pump, 1780-1820

Current model

Reflexes

• Genetically carried survival mechanisms, govern the newborn’s movements.

• They are automatic; built-in reactions to stimuli.

• Sucking, Rooting, Moro, Grasping

Grasping Reflex

Gross Motor Milestones• Birth - no appreciable coordination of the chest or arms• 1st month - lift head from a prone position• 3 months - hold chest up and use arms for support• 3-4 months - roll over• 4-5 months - support some weight with legs• 6 months - sit without support• 7-8 months - crawl and stand without support• 8 months - pull up to a standing position• 10-11 months - walk using furniture for support (cruising)• 12-13 months - walk without assistance• 13-18 months - pull a toy, climb some steps• 18-24 months - walk quickly, run stiffly, squat, kick, jump

Things to Build Core Muscles

Bumbo seat

Boppy pillow

Exersaucer

tummytime toy

The Sensorimotor Stage of Development

• Cognitive Development

• Piaget, ….birth-2 years of age.

• Coordinate sensations with physical movements and actions.

Sub-stages

1. Simple reflexes2. First habits and primary circular reactions3. Secondary circular reactions4. Coordination of secondary circular

reactions5. Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and

curiosity6. Internalization of schemes

Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

• Infants’ main task is to coordinate their sensory impression with their motor activity.

• Some of Piaget’s explanations are debated.– Many of today’s researchers believe that

• Piaget wasn’t specific enough about how infants learn about their world

• infants are far more competent than he envisioned.

Memory in Infancy

• Memory is a central feature of cognitive development that involves the retention of information over time.

• Most adults cannot remember anything from the first 2 years of life, a phenomenon referred to as infant amnesia.

Individual Differences in Intelligence

• Infant cognitive development has been studied primarily through the use of developmental scales or infant intelligence tests.

• Infant developmental scales are less verbal, contain more perceptual motor items, and include measures of social interaction

Effectiveness of Infant Intelligence Tests

• Tests assess effects of malnutrition, drugs, maternal deprivation, and environmental stimulation on infant development –mixed results in predicting later intelligence

• Specific aspects of infant intelligence are related to specific aspects of childhood intelligence, as in the areas of language and perceptual motor skills.

How Language Develops

• Crying- present at birth, can signal distress.

• Cooing – first occurs at about 1-2 months, heard as oo sounds (coo, boo, etc.)

• Babbling – first occurs in the middle of the first year and includes a string of consonant-vowel combinations

• Gestures – first occurs about 12 months of age, seen as showing, pointing, (waving, nodding, showing empty bottle, pointing to dog, etc.)

First Words• A child’s first words include those that name:– Important people (dada) -Body parts (eye)– Familiar animals (kitty) -Clothes (hat)– Vehicles (car) -Household items (keys)– Toys (ball) -Greeting terms (bye)– Food (milk)

• First words of babies 50 years ago and today.

• One theory --- they stand for an entire sentence in the infant’s mind.

• The holophrase hypothesis states that a single word can be used to imply a complete sentence.

Telegraphic speech Identification: “See doggie”Location: “Book there”Repetition: “More milk”Nonexistence: “Thing all gone”Negation: “Not cow”Possession: “My puppy”Attribution: “Big car”Agent-action: “Mama work”Action-direct object: “Kiss you”Action-indirect object: “Give Papa”Action-instrument: “Cut knife”Question: “Where ball?”

Biological Foundations of Language

• The strongest evidence for the biological basis of language is that children all over the world reach language milestones at about the same time developmentally, and in about the same order.

• Occurs despite vast variation in the language input they receive (in some cultures, adults do not talk to children under 1 year).

• There is also no other convincing way to explain how quickly children learn language than through biological foundations.

Biological Prewiring• Linguist Noam Chomsky believes humans are

biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time, in a certain way.

• He states children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD)—a biological endowment that enables them to detect certain language categories, such as phonology, syntax, and semantics.

• The LAD is a theoretical construct that flows from evidence about the biological basis of language.

The Importance of the Environment

• Most children are bathed in language from a very early age.

• We need exposure to language to acquire competent language skills.

• Children from a variety of cultures acquire their native language without explicit teaching

• Mothers who used a higher level of language when interacting with infants had infants with markedly higher vocabularies.

Critical Period for Language Development?

• Brain becomes increasingly specialized during childhood

• Erik Lenneberg (1967) children must acquire language during the age span of brain specialization (complete by puberty)

• Critical period: birth- age 3

• The “Sensitive Period”: The Case of Genie

• Video clip

Emotions

• Emotion is a feeling, or affect, that can involve physiological arousal, conscious experience, and behavioral expression.

• An important aspect of emotional development is emotional regulation.

• Example: infants’ soothing themselves by sucking

Affect in Parent-Child Relationships

• Emotions are the first language with which parents and infants communicate.

• The initial aspects of infant attachment to parents are based on emotion-linked interchanges, as when an infant cries and the caregiver responds.

• By the end of the first year, a mother’s facial expression— smiling or fearful—influences whether an infant will explore an unfamiliar environment.

• When children hear their parents quarreling, they often react with distress.

• Infant and adult affective communicative capacities make possible coordinated, bidirectional infant-adult interactions.

Crying

• Babies have at least three types of cries:– Basic cry is a rhythmic pattern usually consisting of a

cry followed by a brief silence, then a short inspiratory high-pitched whistle, followed by a rest prior to another cry.

– Anger cry is a variation of the basic cry with more excess air forced through the vocal cords.

– Pain cry differs from other cries, as it suddenly appears without preliminary moaning and followed by an extended period of breath holding.

Question:

• Should parents respond to crying?

Smiling• Two types of smiling can be distinguished:

– A reflexive smile does not occur in response to external stimuli, rather during irregular patterns of sleep.

– A social smile occurs in response to an external stimulus, usually a face. It does not occur until 2-3 months of age.

Social Referencing

• Social referencing involves “reading” emotional cues in others to determine how to act in a particular situation.

• helps infants to interpret ambiguous situations more accurately (e.g. stranger encounter)

• After age 2, infants become better at social referencing, often “checking” with their mothers before they act.

• Short video clip

Temperament

• Temperament is an individual’s behavioral style and characteristic way of emotional response.

• Stable characteristic of newborns, which comes to be shaped and modified by later experiences.

• As a child becomes older, behavior indicators of temperament are more difficult to spot.

Thomas and Chess’s

3 Types of Children• An easy child… generally in a positive mood, quickly

establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences.

• A difficult child… tends to react negatively and cry frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept new experiences.

• A slow-to-warm-up child… has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, shows low adaptability, and displays a low intensity of mood.

Goodness of Fit

• - -the match between a child’s temperament and environmental demands the child must cope with.

• - - may be important to the child’s adjustment.

• A lack of fit between the child’s temperament and strong environmental demands may produce adjustment problems for the child.

Parenting and Temperaments• Management strategies that worked with the

first child might not be as effective with the second child, and new problems might arise…

• Temperament experts Sanson & Rothbart conclude that attention to and respect for individuality can help with temperamental variations in children

Trust

• According to Erik Erikson, the first year of life is characterized by the trust-versus-mistrust stage of development.

• Infants learn trust when they are cared for in a consistent, warm manner.

• If the infant is not well fed and kept warm on a consistent basis, a sense of mistrust will develop.

• Trust vs. mistrust arises again at each successive stage of development

Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt

• Autonomy builds on the infant’s developing mental and motor abilities.

• Infants feel pride in their new accomplishments (such as climbing, pushing, pulling, etc.).

• They want to do everything themselves, and it is important for parents to recognize the motivation of toddlers to do what they are capable of doing at their own pace.

• When parents consistently overprotect or criticize toddlers, children develop an excessive sense of shame and doubt about their ability to control themselves and their world.

• Important implications for the development of independence and identity during adolescence.

Attachment

• Attachment is a close emotional bond between the infant and the caregiver.

• Secure attachment clip: Strange Situation

Attachment

• Secure babies use their caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment.

• Insecure avoidant babies show insecurity by avoiding their caregiver.

• Insecure resistant babies may cling to the caregiver then resist her by fighting against the closeness, by kicking or pushing away.

• Insecure disorganized babies are disorganized and disoriented, appearing dazed, confused, and fearful.

Caregivers

• Caregivers of securely attached babies are sensitive to their signals and are consistently available to respond to their infants’ needs.

• Caregivers of avoidant babies tend to be unavailable or rejecting, tending not to respond to their babies’ signals and having little physical contact with them.

• Caregivers of resistant babies sometimes respond to their babies’ need and sometimes do not.

• Caregivers of disorganized babies often neglect or physically abuse their babies, and sometimes these caregivers suffer from depression.

Maternal and Paternal Infant Caregiving

• Fathers have the ability to act sensitively and responsively with their infants as mothers do.

• Maternal interactions usually center around child- care activities.

• Paternal interactions are more likely to include play.• Fathers engage in more rough-and-tumble play,

while mothers’ play is less physical.

• In stressful circumstances, infants show a stronger attachment to their mother.

Reciprocal Socialization• Reciprocal socialization is bidirectional;

children socialize parents just as parents socialize children.

• The behaviors of parents and infants involve substantial interconnection, mutual regulation, and synchronization.

• Scaffolding is parental behavior that supports children’s efforts, allows them to be more skillful than on their own

Learning Goals

1. What are some of the main physical developments to look for during 0 – 2?

2. How do temperament and emotion differ in each child?

3. How do infants and toddlers learn?