The Newborn

and the
Infancy
Period

Aubrey-Ann L. Florencio
 DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSON

The lesson focuses on Human development from birth to end of

2nd week. Infancy stage suggests extreme helplessness limited to
the first few weeks of life where researchers have given this part
of the life span more attention since infancy period is very
sensitive because of the major adjustment with the new
environment from the mother’s womb.
 The Newborn and the Infancy Period

Infancy stage is the transition period intervening

between birth and two weeks of life. This stage is unique
for it is the earliest stage of life outside of the womb of the
mother. Infants spend a great deal of their time sleeping
and when awake are occupied with bodily sensations and
sensory experiences.
General characteristics

The neonatal period is from birth

to 2 days and infancy is from birth
up to 2 months.
 INFANCY

The transition period intervening

between birth and two weeks of
life.
Characteristics in Infancy

Understanding the characteristics of infants is an

important step for supporting children’s
development. Each period in the life span is
characterized by certain developmental
phenomena that distinguish it from the periods that
precede and follow it. Following are the five most
important characteristics in infancy:
A.Infancy is the shortest of all
developmental periods

Infancy begins with birth and ends when the

infant is approximately two weeks old, by far
shortest of all developmental periods. It is the
time when the fetus must adjust to life
outside the uterine walls of the mother where
it has lived for approximately 9 months.
 B. Infancy is a time of radical
adjustments

Birth as merely an interruption of the

developmental pattern that started at the
moment of conception. It is the graduation from
an internal to an external environment which
requires adjustments on the individual’s part.
 C. Infancy is a plateau in
development

Prenatal growth and development suddenly stop with birth.

Slight regression happens at this period, such as loss of
weight, and a tendency to be less strong and healthy than at
birth which may last for several days or a week. By the end
of infancy period, the infant’s state of development is
usually back to where it was at the time of birth.
D. Infancy is a preview of later
development

The newborn’s development provides a

clue as to what to expect later on. It is
the basis of development apparent at
birth.
E. Infancy is a hazardous period

This stage is hazardous both physically and psychologically. It is

because of the difficulties of making the necessary radical
adjustments to the totally new and different environment.
Psychological hazard happens when the attitude of significant
people towards the infant are not favorable to the infant.
–
The Neonate and the Neonatal
Scale

At birth, the normal infant is initially appraised as:

a.Pink in appearance
b.Over 100 in heart rate
c.Can grimace ( cry, cough or sneeze)
d.With active motion
e.Manifests a strong cry
These are measured at one minute after birth and five
minutes after. Depressed infants are monitored every five
minutes, subsequently with medical intervention until
condition stabilizes. The use of Apgar test is necessary to
assess the condition of an infant. It is a quick test performed
on a baby at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. The 1-minute score
determines how well the baby tolerated the birthing process.
The 5-minute score tells the health care provider how well
the baby is doing outside the mother's womb.
THE APGAR TEST
 Some Attributes that can be
observed to a Newborn:
a.Vermix Caseosa- infant is usually wrapped by a cheesy white semi
fluid substance.
b.Lanugo - hair may be visible in some areas of the body.
c.Mongolian spot- a bluish gray discoloration, is usually found on the
buttocks.
d.Milia- a whitish pinpoint spot, most often found on the suface of
the nose.
e.Anterior fontanel- The anterior fontanel of the head is soft and
open which closes as the infant get older is a prominent sign
among newborn.
-The head circumference is larger than the chest circumference at
birth up to the first year of life.

The above mentioned features disappear as the baby grows older.

 Reflexes

Reflexes are involuntary movements or actions. Some movements are

spontaneous and occur as part of the baby's normal activity. Others are
responses to certain actions. Healthcare providers check reflexes to
determine if the brain and nervous system are working well. Lack of reflex
responses in infants and their failure to disappear as the aby matures are
signs of a disorder in the nervous system. Some reflexes occur only in
specific periods of development. The following are some of the normal
reflexes seen in newborn babies:
 Moro reflex

The Moro reflex is often called a startle reflex. That’s because

it usually occurs when a baby is startled by a loud sound or
movement. In response to the sound, the baby throws back
his or her head, extends out his or her arms and legs, cries,
then pulls the arms and legs back in. A baby's own cry can
startle him or her and trigger this reflex. This reflex lasts until
the baby is about 2 months old.
Neck righting reflex

This may evoke rotation of the

body simultaneously with the
course of the movement of the
head
 Tonic neck reflex

When a baby's head is turned to one side, the

arm on that side stretches out and the opposite
arm bends up at the elbow. This is often called
the fencing position. This reflex lasts until the
baby is about 5 to 7 months old.
Suck reflex

Rooting helps the baby get ready to suck.

When the roof of the baby's mouth is touched,
the baby will start to suck. This reflex doesn't
start until about the 32nd week of pregnancy
and is not fully developed
Physical Growth

The first area of development to consider is physical

development, which occurs in several important
ways. Obviously, children grow in size and weight. As
time goes on, they also become better able to move
themselves around and to manipulate objects.
Changes in bodily proportions with age
 Perceptual Skills

The neonate is sensitive to brightness. His visual images are likely to be

blurred because of failure of the lens to focus on the object.
Infants’ perceptual skills are at work during every waking moment. For
example, those skills can be observed when an infant gazes into a caregiver’s
eyes or distinguishes between familiar and unfamiliar people. Infants use
perception to distinguish features of the environment, such as height, depth,
and color. “ The human infant is recognized today as ‘perceptually
competent’; determining just how the senses function in infancy helps to
specify the perceptual world of babies” (Bornstein 2005, 284).
– The intra-sensory coordination to sounds and sights is likely to be
present. Able to determine where the location of the sound is.
– Infants are can determining certain tastes such that they will suck faster
and longer stimuli that are sweet than those with other tastes.
– They can differentiate odors & refuse to focus their face on unpleasant
smells. Breastfed infants can identify the smell of their mother’s feeding
pad in a week time
– Infants are sensitive to variety of tactile stimuli, even to thermal
stimulation. Their body heat is actively responsive to a sudden drop in
room temperature, which may explain why they easily get irritated.
– Infants have extremely high tolerance and insensitive to pain.
 Motor Development

Motor behavior enables infants to move and thereby

attain different and varied perspectives on the environment.
Through touching, grasping, and manual manipulation,
infants experience a sense of agency and learn about the
features of people, objects, and the environment.
This follows the cephalocaudal & proximodistal law
of development direction.
a. Reaching prehensil pattern – the infant’s first
distinct motor activity in which voluntary and
permanent motor process involving visual, factual,
and kinesthetic stimuli, which may be distinguished
from the grasp reflex.
At 2 months, the infant can:

–Hold head erects in mid-position.

–Turn from side back.
At 3 months, the infant can:

–Hold head erects and steady.

–Open or close hand loosely.
–Hold object put in hand
 At 5 months, the infant can:

– Balance head well when sitting.

– Sit with slight support.
– Pull feet up to mouth when supine.
– Grasp objects with whole hand (Rt. or Lt.).
– Hold one object while looking at another
 At 6 months, the infant can:

– Sit alone briefly.

– Turn completely over (abdomen to abdomen ).
– Lift chest and upper abdomen when prone.
– Hold own bottle.
At 7 months, the infant can:

–Sit alone.
–Hold cup.
–Imitate simple acts of others.
At 8 months, the infant can:

–Sit alone steadily.

–Drink from cup with assistance.
–Eat finger food that can be held in
one hand.
 At 9 months, the infant can:

–Rise to sitting position alone.

–Crawl (i.e., pull body while in prone position).
–Hold one bottle with good hand-mouth
coordination
 At 10 months, the infant can:

–Creep well (use hands and legs).

–Walk but with help.
–Bring the hands together.
At 11 months, the infant can:

–Walk holding on furniture.

–Stand erect with minimal support
 At 12 months, the infant can:

– Stand-alone for variable length of time.

– Site down from standing position alone.
– Walk in few steps with help or alone (hands held at
shoulder height for balance).
– Pick up small bits of food and transfers them to his
mouth
 Emotional Development

The newborn infant expresses his emotion just through

cry for hunger, pain or discomfort sensation. Infant cries
as a mode of expressing diverse emotions they feel from
hunger, pain, or anger and smile may occur in response to
a dynamic range of sights and sounds. Emotions are
unstable, where it is rapidly changes from crying to
laughter. Affection for or love family members appears.
a.By 10 months, he expresses several beginning
recognizable emotions, such as anger, sadness,
pleasure, jealousy, anxiety and affection.
b. By 12 months of age, these emotions are
clearly distinguishable.
 Language Development

According to Eric Lenneberg, the roots of language are found in the infant’s
crying, cooing, and eventually in his babbling.
Language development begins before birth. Towards the end of pregnancy, a
fetus begins to hear sounds and speech coming from outside the mother's
body. Infants are acutely attuned to the human voice and prefer it to other
sounds. In particular they prefer the higher pitch characteristic of female
voices. They also are very attentive to the human face, especially when the
face is talking. Although crying is a child's primary means of communication
at birth, language immediately begins to develop via repetition and imitation.
Between birth and three months of age,
most infants acquire the following
abilities:
– seem to recognize their mother's voice
– quiet down or smile when spoken to
– turn toward familiar voices and sounds
– make sounds indicating pleasure
– cry differently to express different needs
– grunt, chuckle, whimper, and gurgle
– begin to coo (repeating the same sounds frequently) in response to voices
– make vowel-like sounds such as "ooh" and "ah"
 Between three and six months,
most infants can do the following:
– turn their head toward a speaker
– watch a speaker's mouth movements
– respond to changes in a tone of voice
– make louder sounds including screeches
– vocalize excitement, pleasure, and displeasure
– cry differently out of pain or hunger
– laugh, squeal, and sigh
– sputter loudly and blow bubbles
– shape their mouths to change sounds
– vocalize different sounds for different needs
– communicate desires with gestures
– babble for attention
– mimic sounds, inflections, and gestures
– make many new sounds, including "p," "b," and "m," that may
sound almost speech-like
– The sounds and babblings of this stage of language development
are identical in babies throughout the world, even among those
who are profoundly deaf. Thus all babies are born with the
capacity to learn any language. Social interaction determines
which language they eventually learn.
 Six to 12 months is a crucial age for receptive language
development. Between six and nine months babies
begin to do the following:
– search for sources of sound
– listen intently to speech and other sounds
– take an active interest in conversation even if it is not directed at them
– recognize "dada," "mama," "bye-bye"
– consistently respond to their names
– respond appropriately to friendly and angry tones
– express their moods by sound and body language
– play with sounds
– make long, more varied sounds
– babble random combinations of consonants and vowels.
– babble in singsong with as many as 12 different sounds
– experiment with pitch, intonation, and volume
– use their tongues to change sounds
– repeat syllables
– imitate intonation and speech sounds
 Between nine and 12 months babies
may begin to do the following:

– listen when spoken to

– recognize words for common objects and names of family members
– respond to simple requests
– understand "no"
– understand gestures
– associate voices and names with people
– know their own names
– babble both short and long groups of sounds and two-to-three-syllable repeated sounds (The babble begins to have
characteristic sounds of their native language.)
– use sounds other than crying to get attention
– use "mama" and "dada" for any person
– shout and scream
– repeat sounds
– use most consonant and vowel sounds
– practice inflections
– engage in much vocal play
Referene: http://www.healthofchildren.com/L/Language-Development.html
Social and Moral Development

From the moment baby arrives in the world, he is

learning social and moral skills by observing his surroundings
and deciding what feels good to him. These skill sets are
rudimentary at birth, but they develop rapidly through the
course of baby's first year of life. Parents are a critical element
in helping baby develop these important life lessons.
Moral development is the process of defining the difference between
right and wrong. Baby is not born with these intuitions, though.
According to AskDrSears.com, a baby does not have the capacity to
understand morals outside of how he relates to what feels right and
wrong to him. For example, an infant quickly learns that hungry is
"wrong" because his belly hurts when he's hungry. Likewise, he learns
that being held and comforted is "right" because it feels good to him,
as opposed to the scary feeling of being left alone in his crib. Later in
life, his moral development shifts from self to others.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, baby's first three months
include important skills such as the development of a social smile, becoming
more communicative and expressive with face and body, enjoying playing with
people and beginning to imitate some movements and expressions. By 4 to 7
months, baby can respond to expressions of emotions, such as your smile or
frown, and enjoys social play. Between the ages of 8 and 12 months, baby's
social development starts to include emotions like shyness around strangers,
sadness or crying when a parent leaves and testing parental response. Baby is
also beginning to prefer specific people and toys and likes imitating people
during play.
 SOCIAL AND MORAL
DEVELOPMENT

-Preconventional Stage according to Lawrence

Kohlberg- characterized by obedience to
being righteous on objects and events in
order to avoid the punishment of pain,
anxiety and prohibition of independence.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

-Erik Erikson believes that emotional development in

infants is at level of the “TRUST vs. MISTRUST.” Bridges
characterizes the kind of emotions in newborn as marked
by general excitement.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

-Jean Piaget considers the cognitive

development of infant as being at the
‘SENSORIMOTOR STAGE”