Lifespan Development

Module 4; Infancy
Module Learning Outcomes

Describe human development during infancy

• 4.1 Describe physical growth and development in infants and toddlers

• 4.2 Explain cognitive development in infants and toddlers

• 4.3 Explain emotional and social development during infancy

Physical Growth & Development in Infants
Learning Outcomes: Physical Growth & Development
in Infants
• 4.1 Describe physical growth and development in infants and toddlers
• 4.1.1: Summarize overall physical growth patterns during infancy
• 4.1.2: Describe the growth of the brain during infancy
• 4.1.3 Explain gross and fine motor skills in infants
• 4.1.4 Explain newborn perceptual abilities
• 4.1.5 Explain the merits of breastfeeding
• 4.1.6 Discuss the importance of nutrition to early physical growth, including nutritional
concerns for infants and toddlers such as marasmus and kwashiorkor
• 4.1.7 Describe sleep concerns for infants
• 4.1.8 Explain the vaccination debate and its consequences
Overall Physical Growth

• Birth weight & length

• Normal weight range ~ 5lb 8 oz to 8lb 13oz
• Normal length range ~ 19.5 inches
• Babies lose approx. 5% of body weight in first few days
• Normal adjustment to life outside womb- waste elimination,
feeding
• Physical proportions
• Head-to-body ratio: head comprises 25% of total length at birth
• Percentiles: 1-100
• Failure to thrive: a child born in normal ranges falls below 20 th
percentile
• Detection is key to medical intervention
Photo credit: modification of work by
Kerry Ceszyk
Physical growth, continued
• Weight:
• At 4 months old, weight typically doubles
• At one year, weight has tripled
• By age 2, weight has quadrupled.
• Length:
• Average length at 12 months ~28.5-30.5 inches
• Average length at 24 months ~33.2-35.4 inches (CDC, 2010).

Children experience rapid physical changes through infancy and early childhood.
Brain Growth- The First Two Years
• Growth
• Physical size of brain increases
• At birth, brain is 25% adult weight
• At 2-years-old, 75%
• Neural development
• Most neurons are present at birth, not fully developed
• Transient exuberance: period of prolific dendritic connections
• Myelination: myelin sheath (fatty cells) protects axons, speeds
neural transmissions
• Pruning: unused connections eliminated in favor of much-used During transient exuberance, a
connections single neuron may have
• Prefrontal cortex thousands of dendrites

• Least-developed portion of brain at birth; substantial growth

Motor Development

• Reflexes are inborn

• Some are necessary for survival
• Rooting reflex, breathing, sucking reflex
• Some signify health, development
• Moro reflex, stepping reflex, palmar grasp
• Motor development is orderly
• Follows cephalocaudal (head-down) proximodistal (center-
out) principles
• Gross Motor Skills
• Large muscle groups
• Fine Motor Skills
• Small, coordinated muscle movements This baby is working on his pincer grasp.
• Pinching, grasping
Motor & Sensory Development
• Sensation & Perception
• Sensation: interaction with sensory receptors
• Perception: interpreting information sensed
• Sensory Development
• Sight- least developed at birth
• Newborns see ~8-16 inches in front of them
• Preference for faces, unusual, interesting, exciting images
• Hearing: most developed at birth
• In the womb, babies know the sound of mother’s voice
• Touch/pain
• Physiological reactions indicate sensation of pain- circumcision
• Touch- necessary and comforting
• Taste/smell
• Ability to distinguish flavors: sweet, salty, sour, bitter (prefer sweet tastes)
• Identify mother’s smell easily
 Nutrition
• Breastfeeding- “breast is best”
• Colostrum: “liquid gold,” nutrient-dense, first days of life
• Breastmilk has iron, fats, proteins, for proper development
• Alternatives to breastfeeding
• Formula feeding may be necessary in various conditions (mother doesn’t
produce enough milk, adoptive or two-father family, mother has
communicable disease, etc.)
• Introducing solid foods
• Start simple: one at a time is best, spaced days apart to ID allergies
• Malnutrition & clean water access
• Kwashiorkor: “displaced child’s disease”- lack of sufficient nutrition Breastmilk changes in composition with a
• Marasmus: starvation from lack of calories, protein newborn’s development and needs.

• Milk anemia: Lack of iron from drinking cow’s milk in place of more
nutritive foods
• Clean water makes clean formula
Sleep & Health
• Infant sleep requirements
• From 0-2 years, average 12.8 hrs/day
• Newborns sleep 14-17 hrs
• SIDS: many risk factors, many unknowns
• Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID): some identified causes
• “Back to Sleep”
• Back-sleeping recommended for every sleep
• No soft bedding, blankets, potential hazards
• Co-sleeping
• Benefit of skin-to-skin contact
• Risk of child suffocation, increased risk w/ parental drug/alcohol use
• Sleep schedules
• Nighttime waking is common
• Many infants sleep 6 hrs during night by 6 months
• Not doing so does not indicate a serious problem, but individual differences
Vaccinations

• Immunizations: the debate

• Personal beliefs, opt-out programs, religious beliefs
• Need for community protection, prevent resurgence of
diseases
• Herd immunity
• 90%+ of population is vaccinated, population is protected
• Approx. 1 in 14 children isn’t vaccinated
• Outbreaks
• More frequent as fewer opt to vaccinate

Children in communities throughout the

world can benefit from immunizations and
herd immunity.
Practice Question 1

Which nutrient found in breast milk is essential to myelination?

A. Calcium
B. Iron
C. Fat
D. Proteins
Class Activity: Vaccinations

• Break into small groups to discuss vaccinations and public health.

• What is your opinion on vaccinations?
• Should they be mandatory?
• Should individuals have the opt-out choice?
• Write a resource paper, citing scholarly sources, supporting your arguments.
Cognitive Development in Infants & Toddlers
Learning Outcomes: Cognitive Development in Infants &
Toddlers
• 4.2 Explain cognitive development in infants and toddlers
• 4.2.1 Describe each of Piaget's theories and stages of sensorimotor intelligence
• 4.1.2: Describe the growth of the brain during infancy
• 4.2.2 Explain learning and memory abilities in infants and toddlers
• 4.2.3 Describe stages of language development during infancy
• 4.2.4 Compare theories of language development in toddlers
• 4.2.5 Explain the procedure, results, and implications of Hamlin and Wynn's research on
moral reasoning in infants
Cognitive Development:
Piaget & Sensorimotor Intelligence
• Schemas: mental representations used to understand the world
• Assimilation: modification of new information to fit into our existing schemas
• Accommodation: reorganizing what we know to fit new information
• Six stages of sensorimotor intelligence
• Stage 1- Reflexes (Birth- 6 weeks)
• Stage 2- Primary Circular Reactions (6 weeks- 4 mo.)
• Stage 3- Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 mo.)
• Stage 4- Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 mo.)
• Stage 5- Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 mo.)
• Stage 6- Mental Representation (18-24 mo.)
https://www.verywellmind.com/sensorimotor-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795462
• Object Permanence
• Knowledge something exists when out of sight (understanding ~8 mos/ mastery ~12-24 mos)
Learning & Memory Abilities in Infants

• Piaget underestimated infant memory ability

• Lacking in language to express memory
• Experiments: preferential looking
• Infantile amnesia
• Infants and toddlers form memories, remember them weeks, months later
• Lack of memory years later
• Encoding/ retrieval failures
• Older children, adults use linguistic retrieval methods
• Misalignment between encoding and new memory organization
Language Development

• Phonemes are basic units of speech, which make morphemes, the smallest meaningful units of
speech
• When a child starts vocalizing, they produce all phonemes
• With specialization, only native phonemes are easy to reproduce
• Stages of language development:
• Stage 1: Reflexive Communication
• Stage 2: Reflexive communication; interest in others
• Stage 3: Intentional communication
• Stage 4: First words
• Stage 5: Simple sentences (two words)
• Stage 6: Sentences of three or more words
• Stage 7: Complex sentences; has conversations
This 8-month old baby boy is likely
babbling and gesturing to communicate
 Language Development, cont.
• Intentional vocalizations: gurgling, cooing, learn conversational cadences
• Babbling, gesturing: syllable repetition, gesturing, sign language
• Babies understand more language than they can produce
• Holophrasic speech: partial words convey thoughts
• People close to the child often interpret correctly
• Underextension: a word may only be used for one specific think
• Example: “Mommy” is my mother, so I shout for her in the grocery store when I am lost
• Overextension is more common- generalizing
• First words, cultural influences
• Nouns, verbs, relationships- parts of speech vary by language & culture
• Vocabulary growth spurt/ naming explosion: rapid vocabulary expansion
• Many new words are nouns; child can name things around them & in the world
• Two-word sentences, telegraphic speech: Lacks complete grammar, yet conveys meaning (like text messages)
• Child-directed speech: captures children’s attention, articulates sounds
Theories of Language Development

• Nativism- Noam Chomsky

• Language Acquisition Device- innate ability to learn language, understand conventions and
syntax
• Children learn language through exposure, can learn any language
• Critical periods- during these times learning is most important
• Behaviorism- B.F. Skinner
• Language is taught through reinforcement
• Social Pragmatics- Tomasello & Hermann
• Communication develops from need to communicate, join social world
• All have components of truth and help explain language learning
Moral Reasoning in Infants

• Kohllberg
• Methodology relies on asking questions to determine moral justification
• Infants & toddlers can’t communicate this with limited vocabulary
• Hamlin & Wynn devised experiments to test babies’ morality

• Hamlin & Wynn experiments: the bottom line

• Children refer prosocial behavior
• Prefer others like themselves
How do we know what this little one is
• Do children have just world belief and revenge motives? thinking? Perhaps preferential looking or
reaching can lend insight into infant
morality.
Practice Question 2

Why is the stage of rapid vocabulary growth in toddlerhood often called the “naming
explosion?”
A. The child learns mostly people’s names in his/her expanding vocabulary.
B. Words the child adds to their repertoire are mostly nouns: people, places, and things.
C. Pronouns are an important part of vocabulary growth, as children learn how to properly
refer to other people.
D. The child usually enters pre-school programs at this age and revels in reciting names of
classmates.
Class Activity: Earliest memories

• Childhood memories are ephemeral, but some have lasting impact. Think of your earliest
childhood memory and try to describe it in as much detail as possible.
• Note the retrieval cues you used and recall anything you can about your surroundings at the
time the memory occurred.
• Share your memories in small groups and discuss any commonalities between your earliest
memories.
Emotional & Social Development During Infancy
Learning Outcomes: Emotional & Social Development
During Infancy
• 4.3 Explain emotional and social development during infancy
• 4.3.1 Describe self-awareness, stranger wariness, and separation anxiety
• 4.3.2 Contrast styles of attachment
• 4.3.3 Describe temperament and the goodness-of-fit model
• 4.3.4 Use Erikson’s theory to characterize psychosocial development during infancy
Emotional Development

• Attraction & withdrawal

• Social smiling- appears ~2 months, laughter at 3-5 months
• Displeasure- frustration is normal, sadness can indicate withdrawal
• Stranger wariness- appears ~6-15 months
• Indicator of memory- familiar and unfamiliar
• Separation anxiety
• Shows cognitive development: “where has my caregiver gone?”
• Peaks around 8-10 months, declines later w/ healthy attachment
• Emotional regulation
• Co-regulation: parents help manage amount of stimuli, soothe and comfort A parent may help this child regulate
his/her emotions by soothing the child or
removing extra stimulus.
Self-awareness

• Self-awareness: “I, me, my, etc.”

• Develops around 15-24 months
• Understanding of self as an object
• “Rouge test” or mirror test: does the baby touch their own nose or the mirror?
• Rochat’s stages
• Differentiation: self vs. non-self awareness (from birth)
• Situation: Imitation, reaching for objects away from self (by 2 months)
• Identification: Self-referential language, pass rogue test (by 2 years)
• (Later stages:)
• Permanence: One’s sense of self persists through time & space
• Self-awareness/ meta-self-awareness: Third-person perspective
Attachment
• Emotional needs vs. physical needs- Harlow’s monkey test
• Comfort over sustenance
• Ainsworth’s strange situation test- tested attachment styles w/ reactions
• Four main types of attachment:
• Secure (~65% of babies): parent serves as secure base of exploration
• Insecure- avoidant: toddler reacts to parent like a stranger; unresponsive to parent, slow to show
positive feelings
• Insecure- resistant/ambivalent: clings to parent when they leave, reject affectionate attempts on
caregiver return
• Does not explore the new environment
• Disorganized
• Lease secure attachment; often unpredictable parental behavior, may be from abuse
• Child has not learned emotional regulation from this model
Psychosocial Development

• Temperament: Chess & Thomas- 9 • From these dimensions, 4 main categories:

dimensions • Easy babies (40%): overall positive disposition
• Activity level • Slow-to-warm (15%): relatively calm, slow to adapt,
• Rhythmicity or Regularity withdraw from new situations
• Approach-Withdrawal • difficult babies (10%): negative moods, slow to
• Adaptability adapt to new situations
• Responsiveness • Undifferentiated (35%): combination/variety of
dispositional factors
• Reaction Intensity
• Mood Quality • Goodness-of-fit model
• Distractibility • Children’s adjustment largely depends on how well
• Persistence & Attention Span their environment is suited to meet their needs
• Parenting/communication style matches
Erikson’s stages- Infants & Toddlers
• Trust vs. mistrust
• Resolution: Learning the world is a safe place
• Unresolved: The world is an untrustworthy or dangerous place
• Autonomy vs. shame & doubt
• Resolution: Taking initiative and trying to do things one’s self is
desirable
• Unresolved: One’s autonomy is thwarted and discouraged. The child
learns to doubt their instincts and feel shame at taking initiative

Discovery and experimentation are vital parts of

learning autonomy
Practice Question 3

Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation” test was designed to test what construct?

A. Self- awareness
B. Moral development
C. Object permanence
D. Attachment style
Practice Question 4

Which of the following statements regarding temperament is TRUE?

A. An undifferentiated temperament is fairly common, and means a child does not neatly fit
into one category.
B. Undifferentiated temperament means a child’s temperament is disorganized and likely
stems from abusive parental relationships.
C. An easy baby never displays negative emotion.
D. A slow-to-warm baby becomes an easy baby under the right conditions of nurturing and
attachment.
Quick Review
• What are Piaget's theories and stages of sensorimotor intelligence?
• How does the brain grow during infancy?
• What learning and memory abilities do infants and toddlers display?
• How does language develop in stages during infancy?
• What are the major theories of language development in toddlers, and how do they compare and contrast?
• How did Hamlin and Wynn conduct their research on moral reasoning in infants, what were their results,
and what did their research reveal?
• What role do self-awareness, stranger wariness, and separation anxiety in infancy?
• What styles of attachment did Ainsworth describe and test, and how do they compare?
• How do a child’s temperament and the goodness-of-fit model for parenting relate?
• How did Erikson characterize psychosocial development during infancy?
Quick Review - continued
• What are Piaget's theories and stages of sensorimotor intelligence?
• How does the brain grow during infancy?
• What learning and memory abilities do infants and toddlers display?
• How does language develop in stages during infancy?
• What are the major theories of language development in toddlers, and how do they compare and contrast?
• How did Hamlin and Wynn conduct their research on moral reasoning in infants, what were their results,
and what did their research reveal?
• What role do self-awareness, stranger wariness, and separation anxiety in infancy?
• What styles of attachment did Ainsworth describe and test, and how do they compare?
• How do a child’s temperament and the goodness-of-fit model for parenting relate?
• How did Erikson characterize psychosocial development during infancy?