Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years

Children's Developmental Progress

Ajay Sharma, Helen Cockerill, Lucy Sanctuary

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000459517
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Infermieristica pediatrica

This new edition of a classic text is the go-to reference for anyone concerned with the developmental progress of pre-school children. It provides the knowledge required for understanding children's developmental progress with age and within each developmental domain.

Including new sections on atypical development for each of the core domains of development and additional material on the development of attention and self-regulation, this fifth edition integrates findings from the latest research throughout. An updated companion website is available at www.routledge.com/cw/sharma, which includes the following additional learning material: an interactive timeline of the key developmental domains; introductions to theory with links to further reading; research summaries; video clips demonstrating practical assessment skills; downloadable resources including pictures to support examination of verbal and non-verbal development, and tips to facilitate and promote development.

Fully aligned with current child development philosophies and practices, Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years: Children's Developmental Progress is designed to support the wider group of practitioners – including those from health professions, social work and early years – that are now required to take steps for promoting children's development as part of their assessment and management plans.

Section 1

Illustrated charts of children’s developmental progress

The newborn baby

DOI: 10.4324/9781003057154-1

Mother and newborn

The newborn comes to this world with a rich repertoire of motor and perceptual skills acquired in utero. These skills promote the formation of a mother–infant dyad and lay the foundation of a reciprocal relationship that becomes the primary source of nurture and stimulation – essential ingredients for the infant’s developing brain.

Alertness and responsiveness

During the first few days of life, there is enormous variability in babies’ behaviour depending on their maturity and physical condition and their state of alertness, drowsiness, hunger or satiation. In this period, most infants have long periods of sleep interspersed with short periods when they are awake. The duration of wakefulness lengthens gradually and includes periods of fretfulness, crying and calmness. The baby’s responsiveness depends on the state of sleep or wakefulness (Brazelton and Nugent 1995).

Social interaction

Within a few days of birth, infants interact with their carers through eye contact, spontaneous or imitative facial gestures (protruding their tongue or pouting their mouth) and changes in their sleep-wakefulness state. They show recognition of their mother by becoming more relaxed, settled and happy. Positive interactions between the infant and the mother strengthen the emotional ties between them.

Sensory: Touch, smell and taste

Babies are particularly sensitive to touch on the mouth, face, hands, soles and abdomen. Stroking, rubbing and skin-to-skin contact is the human equivalent to licking in other primates. There is evidence that skin-to-skin contact between the newborn and the mother in the immediate postpartum period may positively affect breastfeeding success and maternal blood pressure and cortisol levels.

Newborn infants recognise the mother by her smell, and it guides them to turn towards her. They show a positive response (tongue protrusion, lip-smacking, lip sucking) to a sweetened solution – it also calms them and reduces their heart rate; they purse their lips in disgust after being given a sour solution.

Sensory: Hearing and vision

Babies are sensitive to light and sound at birth. From birth onwards, or within a few days, they turn their eyes towards a large and diffuse light source, such as a window, and close their eyes to sudden bright light. Infants show a preference for looking at faces or patterns. Visual acuity is poor at birth (20/200); they can focus on an object or face at about 30 centimetres. Once fixation is obtained, infants usually turn their eyes to slowly follow a moving face – they seem to be able to see what they need to see. The visual acuity improves rapidly, reaching adult values of 20/20 by the end of the first year.

Infants can hear sounds in the last few months of pregnancy; they recognise the mother’s voice and their native language from soon after birth. The startle reaction to sudden loud sounds is present shortly after birth. Sometimes, they turn their eyes towards a nearby source of a continuous sound, such as a voiced ‘ah-ah’ or a bell and, at other times, they become still, as if straining to listen.

Posture and large movements

At birth, due to weak muscles, movements are mainly limited to arms and legs. The muscle tone is increased in the limbs and decreased in trunk and neck – when pulled to sitting, marked head lag is present, and in a supported sitting position, the back is curved, and the head falls forward.

• When lying on the back (supine), arms and legs are kept partially flexed. However, babies born after breech presentation tend to keep their legs extended.
• When the in...