Download Infancy & Childhood: Physical Development PowerPoint

Infancy & Childhood
Modules 45 & 46:
Physical Development
Infant Abilities
• Infants are born with immature visual system
– can detect movement and large objects
• Other senses function well on day 1
– will orient to sounds
– turn away from unpleasant odors
– prefer sweet to sour tastes
• Senses are keenly attuned to people, helping the
infant quickly learn to differentiate between the
mother and other humans.
• Born with a number of reflex behaviors
Newborn and APGAR Readings
• Watch “Testing Competency In a Newborn”
– Video #13 from Worth’s Digital Media Archive DVD
(2 min)
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•
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A = Activity or Muscle Tone
P = Pulse (100 beats per minute)
G = Grimace (sneeze & cough to suction of nose & mouth)
A = Appearance (normal skin color)
R = Respiration (cry & breath regularly)
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Infant Reflexes
• Reflex is an automatic, unlearned response
• Rooting—turning the head and opening the mouth in the
direction of a touch on the cheek. Child is looking for
nourishment.
• Sucking—sucking rhythmically in response to oral
stimulation
• Grasping—curling the fingers around an object
• Babinski—fanning and curling toes when foot is stroked
• Moro—throwing the arms out, arching the back and
bringing the arms together as if to hold onto something (in
response to loud noise or sudden change in position of the
head)
• Swimming – if submerged, infants hold breath and pump
arms & legs
Reflexes in the Newborn
• Watch “Reflexes in the Newborn” (2 min)
– Video #14 from Worth’s Digital Media Archive DVD
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Physical Development
in Infancy and
Childhood
Infant, Toddler, Child
• Infant: First year
• Toddler: From about 1 year to 3 years of age
• Child: Span between toddler and teen
Infancy and
Childhood:
The Developing Brain
Neural Development
• At birth, the newborn’s brain is 25% of its adult weight; its birth
weight, by contrast, is 5% of its eventual adult weight
• By the end of infancy a baby’s brain will be 75% of its adult weight
but their body and height will be about 20%
• Newborns enter the world with an estimated 23 billion neurons. After
birth, the brain continues to develop rapidly.
• The number of dendrites increases dramatically during the first two
years of life.
• From 3 to 6, front lobes show rapid growth (rational planning)
• Association Areas (thinking, memory & language) last areas to
develop
• The axons of many neurons acquire myelin, the white, fatty covering
that increases a neuron’s communication speed.
• Pruning Process - As time goes on, neurons not used are eliminated
or rewired (Use it or Lose it)
Neural Development
Pruning Synaptic Connections
• By age 6, the child’s brain is about 95 percent
of its adult size
• Although overall brain size doesn’t change
during childhood and adolescence, dramatic
changes in the number of interconnections
occur
• Unused dendrites, synaptic connections, and
neurons are discarded (Use it or Lose it)
Infancy and
Childhood:
Motor Development
Maturation
• Orderly sequence of biological growth
• Maturation (Nature) sets the basic course of
development: Experience (Nurture) adjusts it.
Motor Development
• Includes all physical skills and muscular
coordination
• The basic sequence of motor skill
development during infancy is universal,
but the average ages can be a little
deceptive.
• Each infant has his or her own genetically
programmed timetable of physical
maturation and developmental readiness to
master different motor skills.
Motor Development
• Play “Baby Body
Sense” (11:00)
– Segment #24 from
Scientific American
Frontiers DVD
Infant Memory
• Infantile Amnesia – inability
to remember events from
before our 3rd birthday
• Hippocampus & Frontal
Lobes not fully mature until
adolescence
• Brain does show ability to
process & store memories
before age 3
– Carolyn Rovee-Collier
mobile experiment with
infants demonstrates this
(2 min)