BRAIN MATURATION

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Height Weight Growth
The greatest height weight increases occur
during the 1st year of life, but children
continue to grow through infancy toddlerhood.
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At birth, the head is ¼ of the neonates body. By
adulthood, it is only 1/8th the size of the body.
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Nutrition in Infancy Fueling Motor Development

• Without proper nutrition, infants cannot reach
  their physical potential and also may suffer
  cognitive and social consequences.

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Underweight Children
In developing countries, the number of
underweight children under age 5 is substantial.
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Malnutrition Its Effects

• Malnutrition, the condition of having an improper
  amount and balance of nutrients produces several
  results
• --Slower growth
• --Susceptibility to disease
• --Lower IQ scores

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• Malnutrition can also cause MARASMUS, a disease
  characterized by the cessation of growth in
  infants.
• Older children are susceptible to KWASHIORKOR, a
  disease in which a child's stomach, limbs, and
  face swell with water.
• Nonorganic failure to thrive - children stop
  growing due to lack of stimulation and attention
  from parents.

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• Risks of malnutrition are greater in
  underdeveloped countries and in areas with high
  poverty rates.
• Undernutrition is more common in developed
  countries (deficiency in the diet).

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Obesity

• Weight greater than 20 percent above average for
  given height.
• Overfeeding during infancy may lead to excess fat
  cell that may predispose person to overweight.
• Obesity in babies may be associated with adult
  weight problems.
• A fat baby is not necessarily a healthy baby.

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Why Breast Milk is Better

• All essential nutrients
• Natural immunity to childhood diseases
• More easily digested
• Health advantages for mother (lower cancer)
• Emotional advantages for both mother and child
• Bonding?
• In spite of this, only half of mothers in U.S.
  Breast-feed

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Breast Milk Advantages
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Introducing Solid Foods

• Most babies can begin to eat solid foods at about
  4-6 months
• Foods are introduced gradually
• Weaning, the cessation of breast-feeding,
  frequently occurs in U.S. as early as 3 to 4
  months, while some breast-feed for 2 or 3 years.
• Experts recommend infants be breast-fed for first
  12 months of life.

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Piagets Approach to Cognitive Development

• -Who was Piaget?
• One of the most influential
• developmental theorists of the 20th century

• Carefully observed children-especially his own
  young son-and used this information to form the
  theory that human cognition develops not so much
  through traditional learning processes as through
  changes in the way children approach problems
  (believed that infants learn by doing).

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• Believed that knowledge is the product of direct
  motor behavior in infants
• Both quantity and quality of knowledge increase
• Believed that cognitive development occurs in an
  orderly and gradual fashion
• His theory is thus based on a stage approach to
  development

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Transitions
Infants do not suddenly shift between stages of
cognitive development. Instead Piaget argues that
there is a transition period in which some
behaviors reflect one stage, some the next stage
(GRADUAL change!)
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Piaget Believed That

• All children pass through a series of universal
  stages in a fixed order.
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete operations
• Formal operations

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During These Stages

• Both quantity and quality of knowledge increase.
• Focus is on the change in understanding that
  occurs as child moves through stages.
• Movement through stages occurs with physical
  maturation and experience with environment.

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Developmentalists Thoughts on Piaget

• Most developmentalists agree that Piaget's
  descriptions of how cognitive development
  proceeds during infancy are accurate.
• Piaget considered a master observer.
• Studies show that children do learn about the
  world by acting on objects in their environment.

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However, Specific Aspects of Piaget's Theory Have
Been Criticized.

• 1) some developmentalists question the stage
  concept, thinking development is more continuous.
  
• 2) Piaget's notion that development is grounded
  in activity ignores the importance of infant's
  sensory and perceptual abilities.
• 3) imitation and object permanence may occur
  earlier than Piaget suggested
• 4) some development is universal, and some
  appears to be subject to cultural variations.

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Forming the Roots of Sociability Emotions in
Infancy

• Emotions play an important role in the infants
  social and personality development.
• Across every culture, infants show similar facial
  expressions relating to basic emotions.
• Nonverbal encoding, the nonverbal expression of
  emotions is consistent across the life span.

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Does this mean that they experience emotions
though?

• Some researchers believe that if the display of
  emotion is innate, then facial expressions may
  only be a knee jerk reaction (no actual emotional
  experience).
• Most developmental researchers disagree. They
  argue that nonverbal/facial expressions by
  infants represent emotional experience.

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• STRANGER ANXIETY caution and wariness displayed
  by infants when encountering an unfamiliar
  person.
• Appears in the second half of the first year.
• Infants with more experience with strangers tend
  to show less anxiety.
• Infants tend to show less anxiety with female
  strangers and other children than males.
• The same cognitive advances that allow infants to
  respond so positively to those with whom they are
  familiar also means they are able to recognize
  people who are unfamiliar.

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SEPARATION ANXIETY distress displayed by infants
when a customary care provider departs.

• Usually begins about 8 or 9 months and peaks at
  14 months.
• Starts slightly later than stranger anxiety.
• Largely attributable to the same cognitive skills
  as stranger anxiety.
• Both stranger separation anxiety represent
  important social progress! They reflect cognitive
  advances in the infant, and growing emotional and
  social bonds.

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• Universal phenomenon
• Begins at 7 or 8 months
• Peaks at about 14 months
• Declines after this time

Separation Anxiety
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• The infants first smiles are relatively
  indiscriminate (smile at anything).
• By 6-9 weeks babies exhibit the SOCIAL SMILE,
  smiling in reference to other individuals.
• By 18 months, social smiling is directed more
  toward moms and other caregivers.
• Infants are able to discriminate facial and vocal
  expressions of emotion early in infancy
  (sensitive to the emotional expressions of others
  by end of 2nd year).

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• Infants can attach to several caregivers.
• Mothers are most often the attachment figure.
• They are sensitive to their infant's needs.
• They are aware of the infant's moods.
• They provide appropriate responses.
• Attachment styles are stable from one generation
  to another.

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Attachment

• Changing societal norms and current research show
  that some infants form strong multiple
  attachments, including to their fathers.
• When stressed, infants tend to prefer their
  mothers.
• Almost all fathers do contribute to child care.
• Fathers engage in more rough-and-tumble play
  mothers spend more time feeding and nurturing.
• Over time, the specific individual that the
  infant is attached with may change.
• There are differences in attachments to mothers
  and fathers.

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Infant Interactions Developing a Working
Relationship

• Some researchers believe that the development of
  relationships occurs according to the MUTUAL
  REGULATION MODEL, which states that infants and
  parents learn to communicate emotional states to
  one another and to respond accordingly.
• Attachment is further increased by the process of
  RECIPROCAL SOCIALIZATION, by which infant's
  behaviors invite further responses from parents
  and other caregivers.

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Infants Sociability with Their Peers
Infant-Infant Interaction

• Infants react positively to the presence of other
  infants.
• They laugh, smile, and vocalize.
• They show more interest in infants than inanimate
  objects.
• By 1 year they show stronger preferences for
  familiar people than for strangers.
• 14-month-olds imitate each other.
• Infants can learn new behaviors, skills, and
  abilities from exposure to other children.

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• Erik Erikson's THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
  considers how individuals come to understand
  themselves and the meaning of others - and their
  own - behavior.
• The theory suggests that developmental change
  occurs throughout the life span in 8 distinct
  stages
• The first stage occurs in infancy, our current
  focus

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• Infancy marks the time of the TRUST-VERSUS-MISTRUS
  T STAGE (birth to 18 months) during which infants
  develop a sense of trust or mistrust, largely
  depending on how well their needs are met by
  their caretakers.
• From around 18 months to 3 years infants enter
  the AUTONOMY-VERSUS-SHAME-AND-DOUBT STAGE during
  which Erikson believed toddlers develop either
  independence and autonomy (if they are allowed
  the freedom to explore) or shame and doubt (if
  they are restricted and overprotected).
• Erikson argues that personality is largely shaped
  by infant's experiences.

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Gender Why Do Boys Wear Blue and Girls Wear Pink?

• It produces dissimilar worlds for members of each
  sex, even during infancy.
• Fathers interact more with sons than daughters
  mothers more with daughters.
• Infants wear different clothes and are given
  different toys based on gender.
• Infants' behavior is interpreted differently
  depending on gender.

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Gender effects on personality
social development

• Male infants are more active and fussier than
  females.
• By age one, infants are able to distinguish
  between males and females.
• Differences within gender are greater than those
  between genders.
• Gender differences become increasingly influenced
  by gender roles in society.

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The effects of day care on social and personality
development.

• Two-thirds of all children between 4 months and 3
  years of age spent time in non-parental child
  care.
• More than 80 of infants are cared for by people
  other than their mothers at some point during
  their first year of life.

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• A large study by the U.S. National Institute of
  Child Health Development found that
  high-quality child care outside the home produces
  only MINOR differences from home care, and may
  even enhance certain aspects of development.

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Day Care Assessing Outcomes

• Possible advantages
• Solve problems better.
• Pay greater attention to others.
• Use language more effectively.
• Play well with others.

• Possible disadvantages
• Lower attachment.
• Slower cognitive development (if mothers work
  more than 30 hours a week during first 9 months
  of life).

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Where Are Children Cared For?
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ACTIVITY LEVEL

• Ages 2 to 3 higher than any time in entire life
  span
• Boys more active than girls

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PLAY

• Sensorimotor
• Pleasure of using the senses
• Contribute to understanding of the world
• Mastery
• Mastery of new skills
• Develop and practice physical skills
• Rough-and-tumble
• Mimicry of aggression
• 3x more common among boys

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ACCIDENT RATES

• Age 1 poisoning
• Age 2- drowning
• Age 3 motor vehicle
• Ages 1 to 11 leading cause of death

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CHANCE OF ACCIDENT RATES

• Amount of adult supervision
• Safety of the play space
• Child activity level
• Ethnicity