Chapter Five: The First Two Years: Biosocial Development

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Chapter Five The First Two Years Biosocial
Development

• Monitoring growth and protecting health are
  critical from birth throughout the growing years.
  In early infancy growth is so fast and
  vulnerability so great that medical checkups
  should occur monthly to spot signs of trouble but
  also to guide parents who can best defend the
  child against illness and injury
• The average North American weights a little more
  than 7 pounds and measures about 20 inches in
  length.
• During the first days of life, newborns lose
  between 5 and 10 percent of their birth weight.
  By the fourth month of life their have regained
  and even doubled. The weight gain in the early
  months is fat, which changes to muscle and bone
  growth by eight months. By 24 months most
  children weight almost 30 pounds and measure
  about 30 inches in height.
• An infants body is disproportional to their head
  size. Their heads are one-fourth of their total
  length compared to one-fifth at one year and
  one-eighth in adulthood.
• Developmental Milestone

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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the sudden and
  unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant,
  whose death remains unexplained after the
  performance of an adequate postmortem
  investigation including (1) an autopsy, (2)
  investigation of the scene and circumstances of
  the death and (3) exploration of the medical
  history of the infant and family.
• In a typical situation parents check on their
  supposedly sleeping infant to find him or her
  dead. This is the worse tragedy parents can face,
  a tragedy which leaves them with a sadness and a
  feeling of vulnerability that lasts throughout
  their lives. Since medicine can not tell them why
  their baby died, they blame themselves and often
  other innocent people. Their lives and those
  around them are changed forever.

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SIDS Statistics

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Neurons Neurons are highly specialized cells
that transmit impulses within animals to cause a
change in a muscle or glandular cell. The cell
body of a neuron, called the soma, contains the
cell nucleus and the majority of the cytoplasmic
inclusions and organelles. Dendrites, extend to
other neurons and form the interface where
impulses are transmitted from neuron to neuron.
The axon, is transmits impulses to neurons
downstream in the signal chain. Axons branch into
smaller extensions at their terminal end and
eventually create synapses with the target cell
(neuron, muscle cell, etc.).

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The Human Brain

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Neonatal Primitive Reflexes

• BABINSKI. Baby's foot is stroked from heel toward
  the toes. The big toe should lift up, while the
  others fan out. Absence of reflex may suggest
  immaturity of the CNS, defective spinal chord, or
  other problems. Reflex may be seen up to age one,
  then reaction will be reversed with the toes
  curling downward.
• BABKIN. When both of baby's palms are pressed,
  her eyes will close, mouth will open and her head
  will turn to one side. Absence of this reflex or
  if it reappears after vanishing around 3-4 mos.,
  it may signify a malfunctioning CNS
• DOLL'S EYE While manually turning baby's head,
  his eyes will stay fixed, instead of moving with
  the head. While normally vanishing around one
  month of age, if it reappears later, there may be
  damage to the CNS.
• PALMAR GRASP. By pressing just one of baby's
  palms, fingers should grasp the object. Absence
  or weakness of this reflex could reflect an
  injured spinal chord or depressed CNS.

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Neonatal Primitive Reflexes cont

• STEPPING. Holding baby upright with feet touching
  a solid surface and moving him forward should
  elicit stepping movements. After 3-4 months, this
  reflex should vanish. If it reappears, there may
  be an injury of the upper spinal chord.
• ROOTING When baby's cheek is stroked at the
  corner of her mouth, her head will turn toward
  finger and she will make sucking motions. If
  this reflex doesn't vanish in 3-4 months, the CNS
  may be malfunctioning.
• SUCKING. A finger or nipple placed in baby's
  mouth will elicit rhythmical sucking. Depressed
  sucking may be due to medication given during
  childbirth.
• WITHDRAWAL . A pin prick to the sole of baby's
  foot will make baby's knee and foot flex.
  Absence of this reflex could indicate a damaged
  sciatic nerve.

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During the First Two Months

• Babies will typically
• lift head when held at your shoulder
• turn head from side to side when lying on stomach
  
• lift and turn the head when lying on its back
• turn head toward bright colors and lights
• turn toward the sound of a human voice
• recognize bottle or breast
• respond to a shaken rattle or bell
• see clearly objects that are about 10" away from
  their faces
• prefer frequencies of the human voice
• like looking at faces
• respond to rocking and changes of position

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By Four Months Accomplishments may include

• smiling back at you
• cooing and babbling
• quieting down in anticipation of being lifted or
  when spoken to or held
• following a moving object or person with his eyes
  
• attempting or demonstrating the ability to grasp
  or maneuver objects
• communicating hunger, fear, and discomfort
  (through crying and/or facial expression)
• reacting to "peek-a-boo" games
• ceasing to cry when you enter the room
• recognizing familiar faces and objects
• simultaneously using both hands to accomplish
  desired effects
• sitting with support
• holding head up well

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By six Months Accomplishments may include

• rolling over
• lifting head and shoulders while lying on
  stomach
• playing with toes
• recognizing own name
• imitating sounds and possibly including syllables
  such as ma, mu, da, and di in babbles
• biting and chewing
• moving toys from one hand to another
• shaking a rattle
• pulling up to a sitting position if you grasp her
  hands
• imitating your familiar actions
• laughing and squealing or screaming, if angry or
  annoyed
• smiling at own image in a mirror
• sitting in a high chair
• bouncing while in a standing position
• opening his mouth to be spoon-fed

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Sensory and Perceptual Capacities

• Sensation is the response of a sensory system
  when it detects a stimulus.
• Perception is the mental processing of sensory
  information.
• Vision
• Vision is the least developed of the senses,
  with distance vision particularly blurry.
  Newborns focus on objects between 4 and 30
  inches. Their vision is about 20/400. By age
  six months the infants vision is about 20/40 and
  20/20 by 12 months.
• Hearing
• Compared to vision, hearing at birth is already
  quite sensitive. Studies suggest that newborns
  can distinguish their mothers voices from the
  voices of other women soon after birth
• Habituation is the process of becoming familiar
  with a particular stimulus that it no longer
  elicits the physiological responses it it when it
  was originally experienced.
• Hearing Loss
• Otitis Media
• Taste, Smell, and Touch

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Malnutrition

• Malnutrition is the term is used to refer to a
  number of diseases, each with a specific cause
  related to one or more nutrients (for example,
  protein, iodine or calcium) and each
  characterized by cellular imbalance between the
  supply of nutrients and energy on the one hand,
  and the body's demand for them to ensure growth,
  maintenance, and specific functions, on the
  other.
• An estimated 174 million under-five children in
  the developing world are malnourished as
  indicated by low weight for age, and 230 million
  are stunted. Malnutrition results in poor
  physical and cognitive development as well as
  lower resistance to illness. It is now recognized
  that 6.6 million out of 12.2 million deaths among
  children under-five - or 54 of young child
  mortality in developing countries - is associated
  with malnutrition.

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Malnutrition cont

• Malnutrition includes undernutrition, in which
  nutrients are undersupplied, and over nutrition,
  in which nutrients are oversupplied.
• Undernutrition can result from inadequate intake
  malabsorption abnormal systemic loss of
  nutrients due to diarrhea, hemorrhage, renal
  failure, or excessive sweating infection or
  addiction to drugs.
• Over nutrition can result from overeating
  insufficient exercise over prescription of
  therapeutic diets, including parenteral
  nutrition excess intake of vitamins,
  particularly pyridoxine (vitamin B6), niacin, and
  vitamins A and D and excess intake of trace
  minerals.