CHD2220 TEST 2 CH 2 5 6 7 CH 5 Perceptual and Physical Development in Infancy Home From the moment of first human contact the newborn begins to sense the physical presence of caregivers and to react physically to caregiving behaviors The quality of the transactions between infants and their caregivers affect the quality of perceptual and motor development Physical Growth First 2 years Changes in Height and Weight Infants grow faster in the first two years than in any later period including adolescence Babies grow in spurts rather than in an even progression If a mother s breast milk is inadequate a baby will not gain adequate weight Changes in Body Proportions Changes in infant body proportions progress according to the two fundamental principles of physical growth cephalocaudal and proximodisal The head and upper body growing before the lower body characterize the cephalocaudal principle of physical growth An example of cephalocaudal physical growth can be seen through a fetus head being the length of the body only 8 weeks after conception The body growing from the center outward characterizes the proximodisal principle of physical growth This principle reverses just before puberty when the hands and feet grow rapidly before other parts of the body mature Childproofing the Environment Childproofing requires progressive adjustment and elaboration synchronized to the rapidly increasing ability of the infant and toddler to defeat the protective hardware employed by caregivers You begin childproofing once your baby begins to crawl creep walk and run Nutrition in Infancy development Breast feeding vs formula has positive effects on long term cognitive intellectual Breast feeding offers distinct immunological benefit that formula cannot duplicate This immunological protection is transmitted to the infant in the colostrum a thin yellowish fluid secreted by the breasts for several days before milk is produced Colostrum hydrates the baby as well as gives the baby the moms immunity allow it to fight infections this is important since neonates have weak immune systems Breast feeding is tied to reduction in SIDS reduction in childhood obesity and ADHD It also reduces the amount of respiratory infections cutting the amount in Breast feeding mothers return more quickly to their pre pregnancy weight have lower rates of breast and ovarian cancer than non breast feeding mothers CHD2220 TEST 2 CH 2 5 6 7 American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusively breast feeding for the first 6 months of life and continuing to after solid foods are introduced Formula s are made of modified cows milk and are acceptable for replacing breast feeding they just will not have as strong of an impact on the advancement of an infant s development However formula removes important proteins needed for babies Combining breast feeding with formula is not recommended it cause the neonate to experience an upset stomach Development of the Brain Structure of the Brain prenatal stage of development Plasticity of the Brain Nerve cell production stops just before birth yet the structure of the brain continues to evolve through the first 10 years of life Genetic influences primarily drive the formation of the brains architecture in the Plasticity of the brain refers to the brains ability to adapt Plasticity allows us to survive with a brain because it reconnects to other parts of the brain allowing the brain to have resilience Allows the brain to have the ability to reprogram itself to keep the brain safe if injury occurs it is highest in young children Perceptual Development How Perception is studied The Visual Preference Method Robert Fantz study of infant s stimuli fixation The study revealed that infants preferred organized and patterned stimuli to disorganized arrays of lines Electroencephalography The measurement and interpretation of electrical activity in the brain This study shows how verbal stimulation of infants directly modulates brain activity during a perceptual task Habituation dishabituation procedure The more an infant is exposed to a certain stimulus over time the intensity of responding decreases If a change is made and there is no altered behavior then it shows that the infant did not recognize the change was made High amplitude sucking technique An increase of sucking activates a device generating a visual or auditory stimulus If the infant likes the stimulus it keeps sucking it stops if it does not like the stimulus CHD2220 TEST 2 CH 2 5 6 7 Development of Visual Perceptions I The Structures of the Eye Since the retina and the fovea are not mature at birth infant s visual acuity or sharpness of vision is quite low about 20 500 or 20 600 Acuity improves during the first few months and achieves adult like levels by 6 months The first few weeks of life the infant learns to use it ciliary muscles to focus light waves reflected off objects at varying distances towards the fovea Its ability to use the ciliary muscles is not adult like until three months of age II Visual Perception and the Brain The sub cortex regulates the infant s ability to fixate on a single object skip from one object to another and reflex actions like blinking of the eye By 2 3 months old the cortex takes over the sub cortex in regulating the infant s visual perception These cortical functions are divided up into separate regulation processes One stream of processes deals with where the object is another who or what the object is and the last deals with the infant attempting to interact with these objects Assessing the progression of the infant s perceptual skills can be done through the Visual Evoked Potential Test VEP What this test does is record electrical impulses that are generated from the infant s response to stimuli III Tracking Moving objects in space Infant s aren t able to jump from one object to another until the end of the second month and are not efficient at it until 3 4 months An infant is able to look at objects with smooth tracking versus saccadic eye movements by two months old Piaget demonstrated that by 4 months old an infant is able to demonstrate object permanence Meaning the infant was able to search for objects even when other objects briefly blocked them out IV Object Perception Scanning Object Contours Neonates are only attracted to the external contours of objects after 1 month infants are able to be attracted to internal features only if there is increased movement By the 2nd month the infant is able to
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