Infancy Physical and Cognitive Development

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Janet Belskys Experiencing the Lifespan, 1e
Chapter 3 Infancy Physical and Cognitive
Development
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BRAIN BLOSSOMING AND BRAIN SCULPTING

• The Expanding Brain Basic processes responsible
  for mental growth
• Synaptogenesis making connections between
  neurons
• Mylenation Developing a fatty cover around the
  neurons
• Mylenation is not complete until the middle 20s.
• Synaptogenesis is lifelong (meaning we keep
  learning and growing till the end of life!)
• Each brain region goes through a phase of
  exuberant synaptogenesis, and then a pruning
  phase when the neurons and connections we dont
  need are lost

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BRAIN BLOSSOMING AND BRAIN SCULPTING
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BRAIN BLOSSOMING AND SCULPTING

• More Facts About Brain Pruning
• Exuberant synaptogenesis produces an incredible
  excess of connections in each brain region, and
  the timing of the pruning phase mirrors the
  growth of our abilities in real life.
• The pruning phase sets in very early in the
  visual cortex, as by age one our vision becomes
  adult.
• Pruning does not start until late childhood in
  the frontal lobes and it continues well into
  adolescence in this part of the brain responsible
  for higher reasoning and thought.

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FACTS ABOUT BRAIN PLASTICITY

• Brain Plasticity the ability of the brain to
  change and adapt to insults
• Plasticity may be at its peak early in life
  before the pruning phase sets in-meaning some
  children can make remarkable recoveries as other
  cortical regions take over for damaged segments
  of the brain
• Although after early childhood the brain becomes
  less plastic, we still can grow, develop,
  learn, and even (sometimes) compensate for
  problems such as a stroke well into our older
  years.
• Plasticity (and pruning) shows that both nature
  (our genetic capacities) and nurture
  (environmental input) interact to construct our
  brain!

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Basic Newborn States

• Eating the basis of living
• Reflexes are innate, instinctive, automatic
  activities programmed by the lower centers of the
  brain
• Sucking reflex (shown on the left) and the
  rooting reflex (shown on the right) help jump
  start eating in the early months
• Newborn reflexes such as these must be present at
  birth and then go away after about month three as
  the cortex comes on line
• As they approach age two some children become
  picky eaterswhich may be built into evolution to
  help keep busy toddler explorers from poisoning
  themselves!

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Basic Newborn States

• Breast milk A section summary
• Every public health organization recommends
  exclusive breast feeding for the first six months
  of life
• Breast feeding is correlated with a variety of
  health benefits and advantagesincluding higher
  scores on cognitive tests
• However these studies are correlational (so the
  good outcomes may also be due to other forces)
  and upper middle class moms are more likely to
  follow the six month recommendation.
• Its very hard to breast feed for months, when
  you dont have the luxury of staying home with
  your baby, and have to go back to work right
  after your childs birth to a low wage job.
• Bottom line Social support and a culture that
  supports this practice are crucial in the
  choice to breast feed a baby or not

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Malnutrition A Serious Developing World Concern

• Undernutrition a chronic lack of adequate food
• Stunting serious height retardation symptomatic
  of chronic undernutrition
• Stunting is endemic in the least developed
  regions of the world
• Stunted children may have permanent deficits in
  their physical and intellectual capacities
• Like infant mortality stunting rates are a
  barometer of a nations economic status
• Because the U.S provides low income children with
  a variety of nutrition programswhile low income
  families can be food insecurestunting in our
  country and other developed nations is very rare
  (or unknown)

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The first communication signal Crying

• Crying is vitally important at every age
  during infancy its the only way to communicate
  our needs
• Crying reaches its life peak in the first
  reflex-dominated months of life and then declines
  after month four as the cortex comes on line
• As they get older infants cry much more in
  response to environmental cues (Here comes mom!)
• Colic continual frantic crying in early infancy
• Dont blame the mother Colic is caused by an
  immature digestive system
• Colic typically totally goes away around month 4
• Colic causes new parents incredible stressbut
  luckily it is temporary!

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What quiets a young baby?

• Pacifiers are very effective. Early on they can
  be the best strategy for soothing a young infant
• Swaddling works too as it mirrors conditions of
  the cozy womb.
• Infant massage helps calm babies (and adults!)
  and can help promote growth in premature babies
• Try Kangaroo care, holding the baby close to your
  body in a baby sling.
• Bottom line pick the baby up hold the baby
  close rock the child satisfy the need to suck
  even take long rides in the car, as motion puts
  babies to sleep!

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The main newborn state SLEEPING

• Newborns sleep up to 18 hours per day
• They wake up and cry every three to four hours to
  eat !
• By six months, caregivers can expect to get their
  first good nights sleep
• By age one, babies are sleeping about 12 hours
• With additional morning and afternoon naps
• By late preschool, many children give up these
  naps
• Huge amounts of REM sleep are characteristic of
  infancy and prior to adolescence, children do not
  have sleep cycles like adults.
• The sleep cycle changes in interesting ways
  throughout life!

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Sleep facts continued

• Babies (and adults) never sleep through the
  night. They learn to self-soothe or put
  themselves back to sleep.
• Periodic sleep problems are typical in early
  childhood
• Children with chronic sleep problems produce
  stressed out families.
• Stressed out families can cause children problems
  with sleep (a perfect example of a bi-directional
  influence!)

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Two controversial Issues Going In When the Baby
Cries and Co-Sleeping

• Should parents go in when a baby cries out at
  night?
• According to the behaviorists the answer is NO
  according to Bowlbys attachment theory (or
  Eriksons stage of basic trust) definitely!
• In the first few monthsit is no contest, you
  need to respond
• After that, the research suggests it may help to
  hold off a bit to get the child to learn to
  self-soothe
• Should parents and children co-sleep?
• Traditionally in our individualistic culture the
  answer was NO
• But in collectivist cultures NOT co-sleeping is
  seen as a form of child abuse
• Conclusions its a personal preference, although
  co-sleeping in early infancy may slightly
  increase the risk of SIDS

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When Sleep is Lethal SIDS (Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome)

• The unexpected death of a young baby while
  sleeping
• SIDS, while very rare, is a major cause of infant
  mortality in the developed world
• Occurs more often low birth weight and premature
  infants
• May be related to environmental conditions such
  as being exposed to household smoke (nature and
  nurture influences are involved)
• May be caused by a glitch in the developing
  nervous systemas its peak onset is at about 2 to
  5 months of age
• Putting a baby to sleep on its back (and away
  from fluffy bedding) can dramatically reduce the
  risk of this tragedy

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SENSORY AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

• How do researchers get inside young babies
  heads to determine their visual (and cognitive)
  capacities?
• Through employing the preferential looking
  paradigm (human beings are attracted to novelty)
  and habituation (once a stimulus becomes familiar
  we lose interest.
• Put a young baby on a seat, present images, and
  track the childs facial expressions and eye
  movements

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Basic Facts About Infant Vision

• Babies at birth are legally blind
• Because the visual cortex matures so quickly by
  year one, a normal infant can see like an adult.
• Newborns understand the basics of size constancy,
  .
• Visual capacities emerge when we need them but
  babies have fascinating capacities and interests
  very amazingly early in life

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Some Fascinating Facts About Face Perception

• Newborns prefer faces to other stimuli (and faces
  looking at them)
• Newborns prefer their mothers face from the
  first week of life
• Young babies prefer attractive faces!
• Evolutionarily speaking, more symmetrical (better
  looking) faces may be a tip off of a healthier
  adult
• BOTTOM LINE We are programmed to gravitate to
  the human world from birth!!

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Seeing Depth and Fearing Heights

• The visual cliff experiment an innovative
  technique for determining depth perception
• Conclusions Babies see differences in depth
  early on but only fear heights around the time
  they begin to crawl and so need this fear to
  survive

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Facts About Growth and Motor development

• From infancy to adulthood, our bodies expand to
  21 times our newborn size.
• Growth is most pronounced in infancy and early
  childhood and follows the cephalocaudal sequence
  from head to tail
• Ditto for motor milestones ( first babies lift
  their heads, then turn over, then sit, then
  stand).
• Mass to specific also characterizes motor
  development throughout childhood big
  uncoordinated movements get more steady, detailed
  and refined
• Some motor milestones can be accelerated by
  practice
• Dont get crazy if a baby is somewhat late in
  their timetable (or too excited if theyre
  early) The pace of physical development has no
  relation to later I.Q.!
• There is nothing like the joy of seeing each
  milestone emerge!

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Travel Has Its Downside

• It changes the caregiver child relationship
• Parents see the baby as a person with a mind of
  its own and the need to discipline begins
• It requires baby-proofing the house
• Look at life from the perspective of the baby and
  take steps to get rid of what could be dangerous
• Anticipate problems and stay one step ahead of
  the developing child !
• Brainstorm about how to satisfy the babys
  essential passion to explore, and at the same
  time keep the child safe
• Bottom line Fit the environment to the child!

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Cognition

• Piagets Sensorimotor Stage
• Lasts from Birth to age 2 (ends with language)
• Infants are growing mentally by manipulating
  objects and physically exploring
• Exploration (and getting into everything) is
  vital to learning about the world!
• Circular Reactions Habits that pin down reality
• Babies must repeat and repeat the same thing in
  order to understand the physical properties of
  this new planet
• primary circular reactions (body centered habits)
• Secondary circular reactions (habits centered on
  exploring the outside world)
• tertiary circular reactions (little scientist
  behaviors) The toddler flexibly experiments
  with objects to see how they behave (eg gets into
  everything!)

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Two Basic Sensory Motor Milestones/Achievements

• Means-end behavior understanding you need to
  do something different to get to a specific goal
  ( example, taking off a wrapper, to get to the
  candy pushing the buttons on the TV to get the
  DVD to emerge pulling the lever to get the
  toilet to flush)
• Object Permanence Understanding that objects
  exist when you dont see them
• At the beginning of life life is a series of
  disappearing pictures. If you dont see it, it
  doesnt exist
• Around month five or six, infants begin to look
  for hidden objects
• As the object concept is developing (at around 8
  months to a year) peekaboo becomes an all-time
  favorite game
• Infants this age make the A not B error (Hide an
  object in one place several times, then in
  another while the baby is watching and she will
  look in the original place!)
• MEANS-END BEHAVIOR AND OBJECT PERMANENCE MAKE
  SENSE OF THE MYSTERIOUS PASSIONS TODDERS HAVE!!

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Critiques of Piaget (And Another Perspective)

• Babies may understand the basic properties of
  objects far younger than Piaget believed
• By using techniques such as preferential looking
  and setting up physically impossible situations
  even very young babies look surprised (showing
  they get the idea this cannot occur!)
• The understanding of physical reality emerges
  gradually, not as Piaget believed, in unitary,
  qualitatively different stages.
• Using the model of a computer, information
  processing theorists track the more gradual,
  linear way we really learn
• BOTTOM LINE PIAGET WAS A GENIUS AT MAKING SENSE
  OF INFANT LIFE, BUT SOME OF HIS BASIC CONCEPTS
  WERE NOT QUITE RIGHT!

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LANGUAGE BASIC PRINCIPLES

• The ability to make sense of an infinite number
  of sentences is what makes us different from
  other species
• This biologically programmed ability to
  understand different sentences and automatically
  develop the rules of language (grammar) is
  called the LAD (or language Acquisition Device)
• The specific language we learn is dependent on
  nurture-the place where we grow up
• Babies (and adults) have a passion to
  communicatewhich defines the social
  interactionist perspective on this uniquely
  human skill!

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MILESTONES IN DEVELOPING LANGUAGE

• This is the progression to speaking, but babies
  can understand what adults are communicating far
  earlier than they can articulate words

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CONNECTING VIA INFANT DIRECTED SPEECH

• In every culture adults and older children speak
  to babies in a characteristic baby talk-like
  way
• This simplified exaggerated way of talking
  (called infant directed speech) may seem babyish,
  but it actually is adaptivehelping babies
  distinguish sounds and the breaks between words.
• Infants selectively attend to and pay attention
  to infant directed speech from a very young age