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Handout Master 11-2
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1. False. Physical growth and development show
large differences individually can culturally, but
the differences typically disappear over time.
2. True. Infants have reached half of their adult
height by age 2. If the continued to grow
throughout their life as quickly as they do in the
first two years, they would end up more than 12
feet tall.
3. True. The average infant has many more
neurons and neural connections than we do, but
about half of the neurons produced early in life
die. The neurons that survive form hundreds of
synapses.
Handout Master 11-2
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4. True. A 6-month-old is simply not ready, physically, to
walk, because bones and muscles must continue to develop.
There is some evidence that babies, given a chance to
practice their walking reflex, will walk at an earlier age-but
not as young as 6 months.
5. False. A thyroid deficiency leads to low levels of thyroxin,
which can cause very slow growth. Also, the pituitary
produces a growth hormone that stimulates the growth and
development of cells. Children who do not receive enough
growth hormone typically grow to only about 4 feet tall.
Injections of growth hormone are available, but are quite
expensive.
6. True. Healthy children who experience too much stress and
too little affection fall behind their peers in physical growth
and motor development, a phenomenon known as “failure to
thrive.” It appears that emotional trauma may inhibit the
production of pituitary growth hormone.