Chapter 5-7The First Two Years:

•Biosocial Development•Cognitive Development•Psychosocial Development

The Developing Person Through the Life Span

8e by Kathleen Stassen Berger

Body Changes

Body Size Average weight: double the birthweight by month 4,

triple it by age 1, much of it is fat Average height: grow 14 inches from birth to age 2 Head-Sparing

If nutrition temporarily inadequate, body stops growing but not the brain

Sleep

Average newborn sleeps 16 hours per day Ample sleep correlates with normal brain maturation, learning,

emotional regulation, academic success and psychological adjustment

Between birth and 36 months total sleep time decreases

Brain Development

Neuron- the billions of nerve cells in the central nervous system.

Cortex- the outer layers of the brain.

Axon- a fiber that extends from a neuron and transmits electrochemical impulses from that neuron to the dendrites of other neurons.

Dendrite- a fiber that extends from a neuron and receives electrochemical impulses transmitted from other neurons via their axons.

Synapse- the intersection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons.

Neurotransmitter- a brain chemical that carries information from the axon of a sending neuron to the dendrites of a receiving neuron.

Transient Exuberance

The great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites in an infant’s brain from birth to age 2

Enables neurons to connect and communicate with other neurons

This is followed by pruning where unused neurons and misconnected dendrites die

Stress and the Brain

If it produces too many stress hormones in infants, the brain will not be able to have normal stress responses.

Occurs in infants who are terrified and experience other forms of stress.

Can continue to occur when the infant is an adult

Necessary and Possible Experiences

Experience-related aspects of brain function:Experience-expectant : MUST happen for

normal brain maturation. Require basic common experiences in to develop normally (i.e. people who love them)

Experience-dependent: these happen to some infants but not all, not necessary for brain function (i.e. language baby hears)

Brain Development

Prefrontal Cortex: the last part of the brain to mature. The area for anticipation, planning, and impulse control

Shaken baby syndrome- a life-threatening injury occurring when an infant is forcefully shaken back and forth, rupturing blood vessels and breaking neural connections .

Self-righting- inborn drive to fix a developmental deficit

All people have self-righting impulses for physical and emotional imbalances.

Sensation and Perception

Sensation- The response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus.

Perception- The mental processing of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation.(i.e. “At First Sight”)

Sensation and Movement

Hearing develops during the last trimester of pregnancy and is already quite acute at birth; the most advanced of the newborn’s senses.

Vision is the least mature sense at birth. Newborns focus only on objects between 4 and 30 inches away.

Binocular vision, the ability to coordinate the two eyes to see one image, appears at 3 months.

Sensation and Movement

Gross motor skills- Physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping.

Fine motor skills- Physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin.

Gross Motor Skills

Ethnic Variations

Cultural patterns of child rearing affect, perception, and motor skills

Breastfeeding

NutritionFor every infant disease

(including SIDS), breast-feeding reduces risk and malnutrition increases it.

Breastfed babies are less likely to develop allergies, asthma, obesity, and heart disease.

As the infant gets older, the composition of breast milk adjusts to the baby’s changing nutritional needs.

Malnutrition

Protein-calorie: when not enough food of any kind is consumed

Stunting: being too short for your age due to severe and chronic malnutrition

Wasting: being very underweight due to malnutrition

Marasmus (muh-raz-muh): severe malnutrition during infancy where child stops growing, tissues waste away and then usually dies

Over 50 million children under 5 years old

Kwashiorkor (kwah-shee-awr-kawr): disease of chronic malnutrition resulting from a lack of protein during childhood where child becomes more likely to get other diseases such as measles, diarrhea and influenza

Cognitive DevelopmentFirst Two Years

Sensorimotor Intelligence

Piaget’s term for the way infants think—by using their senses and

motor skills—during the first period of cognitive development.

Begins at birth andends at about 24 months

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget’s first stage involving Sensorimotor Intelligencesubdivided into six stages grouped into pairs:

Primary Circular ReactionsStage One (birth – 1 month)

Stage Two (1 – 4 months)Secondary Circular Reactions

Stage Three (4 – 8 months)Stage Four (8 – 12 months)

Tertiary Circular ReactionsStage 5 (12 – 18 months)Stage 6 (18 – 24 months)

Primary Circular Reactions

The first of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligenceInvolves the infant’s responses to its bodyStage 1: (Birth – 1 month)stage of reflexes (i.e. sucking, grasping, staring, listening)Stage 2: (1 – 4 months)stage of first habits

Adaptation & Accommodation

Secondary Circular Reactions

The second type of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence

Involves the infant’s responses to objects and peopleStage 3: (4 – 8 months)Making interesting sights last: responding to people and objects(i.e. clap hands when told)

Stage 4: (8 – 12 months)new adaptation and anticipation(i.e. putting dad’s hands together in order to make him start playing patty-cake)

Secondary Circular Reactions

Stage 4 new adaptation and anticipation…means to an endGoal Directed Behaviors1. enhanced awareness of cause and effect2. Memory for actions already completed3. Understanding other’s intentions

These coincide with new motor skills(i.e. crawling, grabbing)

Secondary Circular Reactions

Object permanence: the realization that objects (including people) still exist when they can no longer be seen, touched, or hear.

Secondary Circular Reactions

Separation Anxiety:

An infant’s distress when a familiar caregiver leaves, most obvious between 9 and 14 months

Tertiary Circular Reactions

The third type of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence

Most creative, first with action then with ideasStage 5: (12 – 18 months)New means through active experimentation“little scientist” using trial & error

Stage 6: (18 – 24 months)New means through mental combinations(i.e. considering before acting)

Deferred Imitation: when infants copy behavior they noticed hours or days earlier

Piaget and Modern Research

HabituationThe process of getting used to an object or

event through repeated exposure to it

Evidence of habituation is loss of interest

By using habituation and then introducing a new stimulus, we can find more of what babies know and learn

Information Processing

Information-processing Theory Modeled on computer functioning Information-processing theorists believe that a

step-by-step description of the mechanisms of thought adds insight to our understanding of cognition at every age.

Contrast with Piaget’s stagesadvances occur faster

AffordancesMemory

Affordances

The environment affords opportunities for interactions with what is perceived based on

o sensory awareness o motivationo development o past experiences

Affordances

The visual cliff was designed to provide the illusion of a sudden drop-off between one horizontal surface and another.

Mothers were able to urge their 6-month-olds to wiggle forward over the “cliff”, but 10-month-olds fearfully refused.

Memory

Early MemoryAccording to classic developmental

theory, infants store no memories in their first year.

Developmentalists now agree that very young infants can remember if the following conditions are met: Experimental conditions are similar to

real life. Motivation is high. Special measures aid memory

retrieval.

Language: The Universal Sequence

Child-directed speech: the high-pitched, simplified, and repetitive way adults speak to infants (called baby talk)

Babbling: the extended repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins when babies are between 6 and 9 months oldAt about 1 year, babies speak a few words.Spoken vocabulary increases gradually (about one or two new words a week).Holophrase- A single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought.

All new talkers say names and utter holophrases.

First Words

Naming explosion- A sudden increase in an infant’s vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age.

Psychosocial DevelopmentFirst Two Years

Emotional Development

Smiling and Laughing Social smile (6 weeks): Evoked by viewing human

faces Laughter (3 to 4 months): Often associated with

curiosity Anger

First expressions at around 6 months Healthy response to frustration

Sadness Indicates withdrawal and is accompanied by increased production of cortisol Stressful experience for infants

Emotional Development

Fear: Emerges at about 9 months in response to people, things, or situationsStranger wariness:

Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close

Separation anxiety: Tears, dismay, or anger when a familiar

caregiver leaves. If it remains strong after age 3, it may be

considered an emotional disorder.

Emotional Development

Toddlers’ Emotions

Anger and fear become less frequent and more focused

Laughing and crying become louder and more discriminating

New emotions appear: pride, shame, embarrassment, guilt

Require an awareness of other peopleEmerge from family interactions,

influenced by the culture

Emotional Development

Self-awareness The realization that one’s body, mind, and actions

are separate from those of other people.

First 4 months: Infants have no sense of self; may see themselves as part of their caregiver

5 months: Begin to develop an awareness of themselves as separate from their mothers.

Emotional Development

Mirror RecognitionClassic experiment (M.

Lewis & Brooks, 1978) Babies aged 9–24 months

looked into a mirror after a dot of rouge had been put on their noses.

None of those younger than 12 months old reacted as if they knew the mark was on them.

15- to 24-month-olds showed self-awareness by touching their own noses with curiosity.

Social Impulses

Emotional Self-regulation Directly connected to maturation of the cortex

(anterior cingulate gyrus)

Particular people begin to arouse specific emotions Toddlers get angry when teased by an older

sibling or react with fear when entering the doctor’s office.

Memory triggers specific emotions based on previous experiences.

Stress

Hypothalamus Regulates various bodily functions and hormone

production May grow more slowly if an infant is often stressed

Abuse (form of chronic stress) Potential long-term effects on a child’s emotional

development Excessive stress in infants must be prevented

Temperament

Temperament• Inborn differences between one person and another in

emotions, activity, and self-regulation• Temperament is epigenetic, originating in the genes

but affected by child-rearing practices

4 categories of temperament Easy (40%) Difficult (10%) Slow to warm up (15%) Hard to classify (35%)

Additional findings:Parenting practices are crucial, temperament can

change or be changed

Goodness of Fit

A similarity of temperament and values that produces a smooth interaction between an individual and his or her social context includes family, school, and community.

With a good fit parents of difficult babies build a close supportive

relationship parents of exuberant, curious infants learn to protect

them from harm parents of slow-to-warm-up toddlers give them time

to adjust

Proximal and Distal Parenting

Proximal parenting Caregiving practices that involve being physically

close to the baby, with frequent holding and touchingDistal parenting

Caregiving practices that involve remaining distant from the baby, providing toys, food, and face-to-face communication with minimal holding and touching

Synchrony

A coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant

Synchrony in the first few months Becomes more frequent

and more elaborate Helps infants learn to read

others’ emotions and to develop the skills of social interaction

Synchrony usually begins with parents imitating infants

When Synchrony Disappears

Experiments using the still-face techniqueAn experimental practice in which an adult keeps his or

her face unmoving and expressionless in face-to-face interaction with an infant Babies are very upset by the still face and show

signs of stress

Conclusions: A parent’s responsiveness to an infant aids psychological and biological developmentInfants’ brains need social interaction to develop to their fullest

Secure and Insecure Attachment

1. Secure attachment: An infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver.

2. Insecure-avoidant attachment: An infant avoids connection with the caregiver, as when the infant seems not to care about the caregiver’s presence, departure, or return.

3. Insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment: An infant’s anxiety and uncertainty are evident, as when the infant becomes very upset at separation from the caregiver and both resists and seeks contact on reunion.

4. Disorganized attachment: A type of attachment that is marked by an infant’s inconsistent reactions to the caregiver’s departure and return.

Measuring Attachment

Strange Situation A laboratory procedure for measuring attachment by

evoking infants’ reactions to the stress of various adults’ comings and goings in an unfamiliar playroom.

Key behaviors to observe: Exploration of the toys. A secure toddler plays happily. Reaction to the caregiver’s departure. A secure toddler

misses the caregiver. Reaction to the caregiver’s return. A secure toddler

welcomes the caregiver’s reappearance.

Measuring Attachment

Measuring Attachment

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud: Oral and Anal Stages Oral stage (first year): The mouth is the young infant’s

primary source of gratification Anal stage (second year): Infant’s main pleasure comes

fromthe anus (e.g. sensual pleasure of bowel movements andthe psychological pleasure of controlling them)

Potential conflicts: Oral fixation: If denied the infant urge to suck, may

become an adult who is stuck (fixated) at the oral stage (e.g. eats,

drinks, chews, bites, or talks excessively) Anal personality: Overly strict or premature toilet training

may result in an adult with an unusually strong need for control, regularity and cleanliness

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

Erikson: Trust and AutonomyTrust versus mistrust

Infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place where their basic needs are met

Autonomy versus shame and doubt Toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense

of self-rule over their actions and bodiesEarly problems can create an adult who is

suspicious and pessimistic (mistrusting) or who is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy)

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

BehaviorismParents mold an infant’s emotions and personality

through reinforcement and punishmentSocial learning

The acquisition of behavior patterns by observing the behavior of others

Demonstrated in the classic Bobo Doll study by Bandura

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

Cognitive TheoryWorking model: a set of assumptions

used to organize perceptions and experiences

The child’s interpretation of early experiences is more important than the experiences themselves.

New working models can be developed based on new experiences or reinterpretation of previous experiences.

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

EthnotheoryA theory that underlies the values and

practices of a culture but is not usually apparent to the people within the culture.