Infancy

Physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development in

infancy
 Physical Development
1. Growth and Changes in Body Proportions
Weight and Height: Newborns typically weigh around 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg) and
measure about 20 inches (50 cm).
• Infants double their birth weight by 4-6 months and triple it by their first birthday.
• Growth slows after the first year but remains steady.
Cephalocaudal & Proximodistal Patterns:
• Cephalocaudal pattern: Growth starts from the head and moves downward (e.g., the
head develops faster than the rest of the body).
• Proximodistal pattern: Growth starts at the body’s centre and moves outward (e.g.,
infants gain control of their trunk before their hands and fingers).
2. Brain development
Neuronal Changes: At birth, infants have almost all the neurons they
will ever have, but neural connections (synapses) increase.
• Myelination (the coating of nerve fibres) enhances brain efficiency,
especially in motor and sensory areas.
• Lateralization: Brain functions become specialized in the left and right
hemispheres. The left hemisphere is associated with language, while
the right is linked to spatial and nonverbal skills.
3. Motor Development
• Reflexes: Newborns exhibit automatic reflexes, such as sucking,
rooting, Moro (startle), and grasping.
• Gross Motor Skills (large muscle movements): Rolling over (~3
months), sitting (~6 months), crawling (~8-10 months), standing (~12
months), and walking (~12-15 months).
• Fine Motor Skills (small muscle movements): Initially, infants use the
palmar grasp (whole hand), then develop the pincer grasp (thumb
and forefinger) around 9-12 months.
 Cognitive Development
• Object Permanence- Understanding that objects exist even when out
of sight (develops around 8 months).
• Learning through Senses & Actions -Infants explore the world
through looking, touching, sucking, and grasping.
• Imitation & Memory- By the end of infancy, babies can remember
and imitate actions.
• Language Development- From cooing (6-8 weeks) to babbling (4-6
months) and first words (around 12 months).
Socio-Emotional Development
• Attachment (Bowlby & Ainsworth)- Secure or insecure attachments form
based on caregiver responsiveness.
• Emotional Expressions- Infants display basic emotions (happiness, anger,
sadness, fear).
• Social smiles emerge by 6-8 weeks.
• Stranger Anxiety & Separation Anxiety- Fear of strangers (6-8 months) and
distress when separated from caregivers (peaks around 12-18 months).
• Social Referencing: Infants look to caregivers for emotional cues in unfamiliar
situations.
• Temperament : Infants show different temperamental styles-easy, difficult, or
slow-to-warm-up.
 Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
• John Bowlby (1969, 1988) developed the Attachment Theory to
explain how early relationships between infants and caregivers shape
emotional development, social behaviour, and future relationships.
• He believed that attachment is an innate biological system that
ensures the survival of infants by keeping them close to caregivers.
 Harry Harlow’s Monkey
Experiments (1958) - The Need

for Comfort & Security
Maternal surrogates: Food versus comfort
 For his experiments, Harlow (1958) separated infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers.
 He then constructed two surrogate ‘mothers’ for the infants: one surrogate made out of
metal but that provided milk through an artificial nipple, and the other surrogate covered
in soft, fluffy material but that didn’t offer food.
• The first surrogate delivered food but provided no comfort; the second did not deliver
food, but the rhesus infants were able to cuddle with it.
• When both surrogates were placed in the infants’ cages, Harlow found the surrogates
satisfied different needs of the rhesus infants.
• The wire surrogate satisfied the infants’ primary need for food.
• However, when Harlow made a loud noise to frighten the rhesus infants, they ran to the
second, fluffy surrogate for comfort.
Fascinating Findings & Their Implications

• The results from Harlow’s experiments suggest that the

role of the primary caregiver is not limited to
satisfying infants’ primary drives.
• Primary drives ensure a creature’s survival, such as the
need for food or water. Harlow suggests that there is
another drive, ‘contact comfort,’ which the fluffy
surrogate satisfied.
 Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
Experiment (1978) -Identifying Attachment
Styles
• In this experiment, infants were observed in a series of interactions
involving their caregivers, a stranger, and brief periods of separation.
• To explore how infants form emotional bonds with their caregivers and
how they respond to separation and reunion. This study was crucial in
identifying different attachment styles in children.
Ainsworth wanted to investigate:
How infants react when separated from their caregiver (stress
response).
How they behave when reunited (comfort-seeking or avoidance).
How they interact with a stranger in the absence and presence of the
caregiver.
The procedure involves a series of eight episodes lasting
approximately 3 minutes each, whereby a mother, child,
and stranger are introduced, separated, and reunited.
Key Findings
1.Secure attachment
The child feels comfortable exploring when the caregiver is present and
shows distress when the caregiver leaves. A child with secure attachment is
easily soothed when the caregiver returns.
2.Insecure–avoidant attachment
The child is indifferent to the caregiver’s presence and avoids them upon
return, indicating an emotional disconnection.
3.Insecure–ambivalent/resistant attachment
The child is anxious before separation and shows ambivalence or resistance
to the caregiver upon their return.
Later, a fourth style, disorganized attachment, was added by other
researchers (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). These children display a mix
of behaviours that indicate confusion or fear toward their caregivers.
The 4 Stages of Attachment
1.Pre-attachment (birth to 6 weeks): Infants show no
particular attachment to a specific caregiver but engage in
behaviours such as crying or smiling to prompt caregiving
responses.
2.Attachment-in-the-making (6 weeks to 6–8
months): Infants begin to show preferences for their primary
caregiver but don’t protest when separated from them.
3.Clear-cut attachment (6–8 months to 18–24
months): Infants become more attached to their primary
caregiver and may show separation anxiety when they leave.
4.Formation of a reciprocal relationship (18–24 months and
beyond): Children grow and become more independent and
understand that the caregiver will return. This understanding
results in decreasing levels of anxiety during separations.