PYSC228 NOTES FOR UNIT 2 – 8
Unit 2 – Infancy
Lesson 3: Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy: the First Two Years
Learning Objectives
1. Differentiate the two primary growth patterns.
- When you’re born you weigh 3.4Kg and are 48cm long. By age 2 you’re 3x your
weight and 2x ...
unit 2 – infancy lesson 3 physical and cognitive development in infancy the first two years learning objectives 1 differentiate the two primary growth patterns when
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PYSC228 NOTES FOR UNIT 2 – 8
Unit 2 – Infancy
Lesson 3: Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy: the First Two Years
Learning Objectives
1. Differentiate the two primary growth patterns.
- When you’re born you weigh 3.4Kg and are 48cm long. By age 2 you’re 3x your
weight and 2x your height
- There are 2 major growth processes that begin prenatally
1. Cephalocaudal pattern of growth: Growth from the head downwards (head
develops first followed by what is more down)
2. Proximodistal pattern of growth: growth from the inside of the body towards the
outside (trunk of the body develops faster than the arms or the legs)
2. Discuss infant brain development, including the concepts of synaptic pruning
and plasticity.
- Given the cephalocaudal pattern of growth, the brain develops very quickly in
the 1st 2 years of life
-
- Myelination also happens to increase impulse travel rates
- Synaptic connections that are constantly activated get strengthened. Those that
don’t are discarded by synaptic pruning
- The potential for systematic change w/i a person to fit their environment is
called plasticity. The human brain is extremely plastic during infancy
3. Describe the importance of experience and sleep in brain development.
- 2 processes related to early experience and brain development
1. Experience-expectant processes: brain development that occurs based on
environmental experiences that all members of the species typically encounter. (e.g. for
normal visual and auditory development one must see light and hear sound)
2. Experience-dependent processes: brain development that occurs based on unique
environmental stimuli shared by only individuals in particular environmental
circumstances (e.g. repeated exposure to the sounds of a language helps the child create
those sounds)
- Most brain development occurs during sleep. Where infants sleep 10 – 19 hours.
But they wake up frequently most notably due to immature brain development
- Infant sleep-wake cycles are controlled by the brain-stem which needs to be
trained
- Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: sleep that aids in learning and memory
consolidation. Newborns spend 50% of sleep on REM sleep. By age 2 it’s 20-25%
,- The other category of sleep is non-REM sleep (NREM).
4. Describe the newborn reflexes and development of gross and fine motor skills.
- A reflex is a quick and simple neural pathway that involves few neurons of the
PNS
- Some reflexes are for survival while others disappear over time. They include
1) Planter grasp: flexing of the toes when applied pressure. Appears 28 wks
gestation and is integrated @ 9 mo
2) Babinski (planter response): Fanning out of toes when outside of the foot is
stimulated. Appears birth to 12-18 mo and is integrated after walking
3) Moro: shoulders pull back and fingers, elbows and wrists extend after head and
neck drop to the other hand. Appears 28 wks gestation and integrated at 5- 6 mo
4) Palmar grasp: Infants flex around the finger. Appears 10 wks gestation and
integrated 4-6 mos
5) Rooting and sucking: infant turns head with mouth open twds finger and
attempts to suck on finger. Appears 28 wks gestation, integrated 3 mos
6) Stepping or walking: alternating, rhythmical, coordinated steps. Appears 37 wks
gestation, integrated 2 mos
7) Crawling: infant pulls legs underneath abdomen and pushes forward. Appears
at birth, integrated 3-4.
8) Tonic neck: infant adopts fencer position when on the back. Appears at birth,
integrated 6-7 months.
- Gross motor skills: skills that use the large muscle groups such as those in the
legs or arms
- Fine motor skills: skills that use smaller muscle groups such as those of the
fingers and eyes
- Most newborn movements are involuntary responses to sensory stimulation. By
the end of infancy they have developed many gross and fine motor skills due to
integration of the muscular and nervous system
5. Discuss Piaget’s sensorimotor stage and associated sub-stages.
- Sensorimotor stage: Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development, in which
infants develop from reflex-driven organisms to more complex and symbolic thinkers
- From one stage to another requires assimilation and accommodation and
requires schemes (mental structures that help us organize and process information)
- Object permanence: infants develop a concept of objects that goes beyond
immediate sensory contact (remembering a hidden toy)
- Sub-stages
1. Reflexes (birth – 1 mo)
2. Habits and repetition (1 – 4 mo) doing reflexive habits without stimulation
,3. Actions with objects (4 – 8 mo) doing things with objects (e.g. Grasping)
4. Coordination of schemes and intentional behaviour (8 – 12 mo)
5. Using objects in novel ways (12 – 18 mo)
6. Symbolic thought (18 – 24 mo) e.g. think about a toy even if it’s not present. If an
infant can’t do it’s A not B error
6. Describe the development of memory and the methods used to measure
memory.
- It is very difficult to measure memory in infants
- There are 2 kinds of memory
1. Implicit memory: repetition of a behaviour, such as leg movement to make an
object move, that occurs automatically and without apparent conscious effort
2. Explicit memory: repetition of a behaviour that shows a clear, observable,
conscious effort to recall an event such as when an infant imitates at a later time a
behaviour seen earlier
- Imitation requires infants to internalize a behaviour and then repeat it. They
need to learn deferred imitation which occurs at 6-7 months which is the ability to
imitate when there is a delay in imitation
- Infants must concentrate to remember objects
- A way to measure LTM in infants is Carolyn Rovee-Collier’s crib mobile test
1) Infants can form LTM but it’s very specific. E.g. if they learn to kick a mobile in
one room they won’t remember to do it in another room
7. Discuss language development in terms of expressive and receptive features.
- Receptive language: language that an infant understands but may not be able to
produce (comprehension)
- Expressive language: language that an infant can produce (production)
- Expression is the most complex because it requires understanding another
person’s perspective, the motor control to produce sounds and cognitive awareness of
the meaning of those sounds
- Noam Chomsky proposed that humans have an inborn language acquisition
device (LAD) which is a theoretical structure possessed by all humans that prewires us
to learn language and grammar rules, two areas are involved: Wernicke’s and Broca’s
area
- The interactionist approach is a view of language learning that stresses the role of
socialization. The more language parents use with their children increase language
acquisition
8. Describe the key features of sensory development in terms of vision, hearing,
taste, and smell.
- Sensation is the physical reception of stimulation
, - Vision: Newborns have 20/120 + 20/240 vision. Therefore very poor visual
acuity. During the 1st moth their focal length is able see their mothers face. By 1 year of
age infants can see like adults. By 2 wks infants can discriminate btw colours and by 4
mos they have fully developed colour perception b/c cones are still developing until
this point
- Hearing: Starts 3-4 months before birth when the ear is fully formed and
functional. Infants respond reflexively to soft stimuli and simple auditory signals. They
prefer sounds like those they heard in the womb. Their hearing improves btw 4-7 mos
where they move their eyes in the direction of the sound
- Taste and Smell : Infants are adapted to their mothers bodies so it’s her familiar
taste and smell that hep newborns feel secure. At 1 wk they turn away from smells they
don’t like. They have well-developed taste abilities at birth
9. Discuss the perception of depth and pain.
- Depth perception: visual cliff method. Younger infants are more likely to “fall
over the cliff” compared to older cliffs
- Pain perception: newborns feel pain contrary to popular belief. Breastfeeding is a
potent painkiller in newborns
10. Discuss the issues around infant immunization and the benefits of breastfeeding.
- Lately immunization has become an issue. There was an incorrect article about
the relationship btw autism and vaccination that caused a development of anti-vaxxers
- Breastmilk gives the child all the nutrients it needs and also contains many
factors that protect from infection, and aid in digestion and nutrient absorption. It also
prevents childhood obesity. It is also associated with cognitive benefits. It is also good
for the mother because it delays back to fertility by 6 months which is associated with
increased health benefits
- Vaccine hesitancy: delay or refusal to get vaccines b/c of concerns about it
- Approximately 14 immunizations by age 2
- Younger, less eduacated mothers are more likely to breastfeed
11. Describe the issues associated with breast milk substitutes and malnutrition.
- Less nutrition and immunity benefits. People back in the 1920s thought it would
lead to diseases. But it may be influenced by SES as well, where low-SES women may
not have the access to areas where they can breastfeed
- Malnutrition is the deficiency of nourishment (not food) to the body. The most
common cause is protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) which occurs when there is a lack
of food or a dietary imbalance
- Highest rate of malnutrition is in South Asia
- In developing countries, infants who are not breastfed are 10x more likely to die
12. Discuss the issues of infant sleep.
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