Physical Development in Infancy

11 Key excerpts on "Physical Development in Infancy"

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  Developmental and Educational Psychology for Teachers

  An applied approach

  • Dennis McInerney, David Putwain(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Physical and motor development: infancy to late childhood

  Introduction

  This book is concerned with human development, particularly over the years of schooling. What do we mean by human development? By human development we specifically refer to systematic, age-related changes in physical and psychological functioning. In the following two chapters we focus on physical and motor development as children grow from infancy to adulthood. Physical development refers to physical and neurological growth and motor development refers to age-related changes in motor skills. In later chapters we deal with psychological development.

  Teachers, parents, and other professionals such as paediatric doctors and nurses involved in child care and development, need to know the characteristics of physical and motor development including:

  •    when there are physical growth spurts; •    when growth slows down; •    what are the norms of physical and motor growth; •    are girls and boys, and individuals from different genetic backgrounds similar in their developmental trajectories; •    how to support optimal development and remediate slow development; •    what part diet and parenting (home background) play in development; •    how physical and motor development relates to the development of learning capacities.

  ACTIVITY POST

  Consider your physical and motor development over time. A good way to remember key elements of your physical and motor development is by looking through family photograph albums. Collate a series of photos that record your physical development, place them in a timeline, and annotate them with principles of development covered in this and the next chapter. Compare your timeline and notes with the timeline and notes of other students. What are some of the common features of development? What are some individual features?

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  Visualizing the Lifespan

  • Jennifer Tanner, Daniel Bellack, Colleen MacQuarrie(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  3 Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy: The First Two Years N ine-month-old Simone has just learned how to pull herself up. Although this may seem like a simple physical act, it actually represents much more. For her parents, the feat serves as a reminder of how fast their little girl is growing up. For researchers, it marks the successful interplay between complex muscular, skeletal, perceptual, and cognitive systems. And for Simone herself, it symbolizes a brand-new way of seeing and exploring the world. In this chapter, we will examine the physical and cognitive milestones of the first two years of life. We will explore how infants’ bodies and brains grow, as well as 83 JGI/Tom Grill/Blend Images/Corbis CHAPTER OUTLINE Physical Development 84 • Growth Patterns • The Nervous System • The Skeletal System • The Muscular System Cognitive Development 94 • Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage • Memory • Language Development All the Systems Working Together 101 • Sensation ■ Where Developmentalists Click:The Canadian Hearing Society • Perception • Health and Well-Being • Nutrition ■ Challenges in Development: Malnutrition • Sleep ■ What a Developmentalist Sees: Safe Co-sleeping ❑ Study the picture and read the opening story. ❑ Scan the Learning Objectives in each section: p. 84 ❑ p. 94 ❑ p. 101 ❑ ❑ Read the text and study all figures and visuals. Answer any questions. Analyze key features ❑ Development InSight, p. 93 ❑ Process Diagram, p. 96 ❑ Challenges in Development, p. 114 ❑ What a Developmentalist Sees, p. 115 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 92 ❑ p. 101 ❑ p. 117 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Answer What is happening in this picture? ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. CHAPTER PLANNER ✓ ✓ 83 the types of motor and language skills they develop.

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  Visualizing

  The Lifespan

  • Jennifer Tanner, Amy Warren, Daniel Bellack(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  3 Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy: The First Two Years perceptual, and cognitive systems. And for Simone herself, it symbolizes a brand-new way of seeing and exploring the world. In this chapter, we will examine the physical and cognitive milestones of the first two years of life. We will explore how infants’ bodies and brains grow, as well as N ine-month-old Simone has just learned how to pull herself up. Although this may seem like a simple physical act, it actually represents much more. For her parents, the feat serves as a reminder of how fast their little girl is growing up. For researchers, it marks a suc- cessful interplay among complex muscular, skeletal, ｪ +(*5PN (SJMM#MFOE *NBHFT$PSCJT CHAPTER OUTLINE Physical Development 78 • Growth Patterns • The Nervous System • The Skeletal System • The Muscular System Cognitive Development 88 • Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage • Memory • Language Development All the Systems Working Together 95 • Sensation ■ Where Developmentalists Click: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) • Perception • Health and Well-Being • Nutrition ■ Challenges in Development: Malnutrition • Sleep ■ What a Developmentalist Sees: Safe Cosleeping ❑ Study the picture and read the opening story. ❑ Scan the Learning Objectives in each section: p. 78 ❑ p. 88 ❑ p. 95 ❑ ❑ Read the text and study all figures and visuals. Answer any questions. Analyze key features ❑ Development InSight, p. 86 ❑ Process Diagram, p. 89 ❑ Challenges in Development, p. 105 ❑ What a Developmentalist Sees, p. 106 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 88 ❑ p. 95 ❑ p. 108 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Answer What is happening in this picture? ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. CHAPTER PLANNER ✓ ✓ 77 the types of motor and language skills they develop.

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  Early Childhood Studies

  A Multidisciplinary Approach

  • Jenny Willan(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Physical development – the interplay of body and brain 67 Figure 4.1 By age six, children have a high degree of control over their limbs and delight in refining their physical skills. Source: Getty Images/Nino H. Photography Although we are all pre-programmed to develop along a typical path – like caterpillars turn-ing into butterflies – no two children follow exactly the same path, because their experiences inside and outside the womb will make their development uniquely different (Gopnik, 1999 ). Typical development is represented in charts that show approximate timings for each devel-opmental milestone, but there will always be developmental variation across any group of chil-dren. In a study of conjoined twins, Tim Spector ( 2012 ), a leading epigeneticist and neuroscientist, found that even conjoined twins who share the same genes and environment had quite different personalities and abilities. Reaching milestones ‘late’ is not usually a cause for concern, and reaching them ‘early’ is not an indicator of incipient genius. Body and brain Bodies and brains do not develop separately but interact with one another, responding to macro- and micro-environmental factors in such personal ways that every child develops into a unique individual (Shonkoff et al., 2000 ; Trevarthen, 2004 , 2005). The brain is not ‘hardwired’ but instead changes physically in response to experience. We can illustrate this neuroplasticity in the dynamic interaction between body, brain and environment by thinking about the neural networks involved in the baby’s first smile – that is, 68 the early reflex smile designed to promote bonding between newborn baby and carer. When a baby first produces this smile, most adults respond with extra attention and an answering smile, which provides a positive feedback loop in the baby’s neural network.

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  Early Childhood Studies

  Principles and Practice

  • Jane Johnston, Lindy Nahmad-Williams, Ruby Oates, Val Wood(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Today, a more sophisticated approach is recognised and while we cannot ‘reinvent ourselves’, environ- mental factors are now considered very influential on our eventual level of physical skills and development and the final definition of a person’s character. Maturation Maturation is the name given for the rate at which we develop physically. Maturation is genetically influenced. Crowley (2014: 237), for example, refers to maturation as ‘physical and psychological change unfolding according to a genetically programmed plan’, whilst Papalia et al. (2006) acknowledge the inclusion of behavioural changes and the readiness to master new abilities. Part 2 Early Years Development 102 Certain behaviours in children cannot be achieved because they are not maturationally ready – for instance, you cannot toilet train an 8-month-old, because the body has not matured sufficiently. All people pass through the same stages in maturation in a certain order. For instance, walking occurs before running. Children do not, however, mature at the same rate, due to their maturation level and their genetic make-up (Davenport, 2001: 4). The influence of maturation in physical development is a matter of some debate. Papalia et al. (2006) argue that seeing all motor development as a result of brain development is simplistic and seek to explain that it should rather be viewed as a process of continual development between the brain (maturation) and environmental factors, such as the child’s motivation to achieve a physical milestone and the opportunities it has to explore and prac- tise skills. Bertram and Pascal (2010) note that to understand development, theorists must look beyond biological explanations and realise that learning is significantly influenced by individual social and cultural experiences. Poverty Poverty has a negative effect on a child’s holistic outlook and this includes physical devel- opment.

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  Child and Adolescent Development in Your Classroom, Chronological Approach

  • Christi Crosby Bergin, David Allen Bergin(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  ● Children develop gross and fine motor skills in a predictable sequence. ● Genes and the environment combine to drive physical development. You can speed motor development but only to a limited extent. ● Undernutrition causes stunted growth and undermines brain development. Breast milk is the best nutrition for infants and is related to improved health and higher intelligence. ● Infants may be born with low birth weight (LBW) for a variety of reasons, including mothers’ stress or drug use. LBW predicts developmental problems across childhood. These problems can be reduced by high-quality parenting. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 57 Oksana Kuzmina/Shutterstock.com Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood The term cognition refers to mental processes like thinking, problem solving, categorizing, and remembering. Cognitive development means the orderly change across age in these mental processes. In this chapter, we discuss how infants and toddlers learn and think about their world.

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  Child, Adolescent and Family Development

  • Phillip T. Slee, Marilyn Campbell, Barbara Spears(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  As noted by Adolph and Robinson any discussion of growth and development tends to focus on the organism’s progress from beginning to end and there is a paucity of research into what underpins or drives this change. Everyone understands in a general way what is meant by growth. You only have to walk into a nursery or school and see the wall charts that enable parents or teachers to assess the heights of children. Listening in on any conversation between parents and grandparents about a grandchild will also generally reveal a reference to the child’s growth at some point. The British Medical Dictionary defines growth as ‘the progressive development of a living being or part of an organism from its earliest stage to maturation includ-ing the attendant increase in size’. In the same dictionary the definition of develop-ment is ‘the series of changes by which the individual embryo becomes a mature organism’. Growth tends to have the restricted meaning of anatomical and physical change. That is, it refers to an increase in size. Its progression is mainly structural and can be measured or quantified. Development refers to an increase in complexity involv-ing both structure and function, and as such covers the emergence of psychological attributes, ideas and understanding as well as the acquisition of motor and sensory skills. In this chapter consideration will be given to the importance of the study of phys-ical growth, and the nature of infant motor development. The family life-cycle: 6 out-lines the nature of courtship and marriage. The principles of normal development Understanding developmental change is a central goal for developmental science (Adolph & Robinson 2008 , p. 527). There are no universal definitions for terms of age-related physical development stages, but following are some approximate age ranges: child (0–12) • teenager (13–19) • twentysomething (20–29) • thirtysomething (30–39) •

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  The Development of Children and Adolescents

  An Applied Perspective

  • Penny Hauser-Cram, J. Kevin Nugent, Kathleen Thies, John F. Travers(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  All these abilities combine to provide the foundation for the child’s cognitive understanding of the world of objects and people. FIGURE 5.5 The Visual Cliff In a visual cliff experiment, researchers place infants on one side of a Plexiglas surface that creates the illusion of a drop-off. Infants of crawling age will not cross the glass, an indication that they have developed depth perception. 1. What do the studies on learning to walk discussed in this section tell us about the nature of infant development? 2. How do physical and motor development differ? 3. What is the evidence for the maturational approach to infant motor development? What are the limitations of this approach? 4. What does dynamic systems theory tell us about the relationship between motor development and cognitive and emotional development? 5. How does experience influence perceptual development in infancy? C H E C K Y O U R P R O G R E S S C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C K K K K K K K K K K K K K Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O Y O U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R U R P P P P P P P P P P P P P R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O R O G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R G R E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S S S S S S S S S S S S S S C H E C K Y O U R P R O G R E S S C C O U O G S S ✓ The Developing Brain: Biology of Health [ KEY QUESTION ] 3. What role does the brain play in the rapid physical, motor, and perceptual development of the first years of life? The dramatic developments of sensory and motor skills in infants are made possible by equally dramatic changes in the brain. During the first three years of life, the brain changes rapidly in size and structure (Kagan, 2006; Nelson, 2004; Nelson et al., 2008; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). We focus here on how the brain controls body movements

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  Lifespan Development, 5th Australasian Edition, P-eBK

  • Michele Hoffnung, Robert J. Hoffnung, Kelvin L. Seifert, Abi Brooker, Sonja Ellis, Damien Riggs, Wayne Warburton, Elyse Warner(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  PART 2 THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF LIFE Views on infancy and toddlerhood — the period of development that spans the frst two years of life — have evolved dramatically over time; particularly during the past century. At one point, the newborn was thought to be a passive, empty-headed organism that perceived nothing and did nothing. In 1690, John Locke, in his famous An essay concerning human understanding, proposed that the newborn comes into the world devoid of behaviours; accumulating all mental abilities and personality through learning and experience. In 1890, American psychologist William James stated the world must appear chaotic to a naïve baby who ‘assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin and entrails all at once feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion’ (James, 1890, p. 488). These psychologists emphasised the helplessness of the newborn. New evidence has reversed these notions. In the past two decades, scientists have developed sophisticated techniques and through careful observations of infant behaviour have found infants are active, skilled and capable individuals who display many complex skills as they search and explore the environment. Fervent debate continues over questions such as: What abilities are present at the beginning of infancy? Which functions and rhythms develop throughout infancy? Which functions result from babies’ interactions with their physical and social worlds? In this chapter we will explore the complex capabilities of the infant in the frst two years of life. 4 Physical and cognitive development in the frst two years 137 5 Psychosocial development in the frst two years 192 Pdf_Folio:136

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  Child Psychology

  A Canadian Perspective

  • Alastair Younger, Scott A. Adler, Ross Vasta(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDHOOD Motor development has attracted the most attention from infant research- ers, but motor skills continue to develop during the childhood years (Gallahue & Ozmun, 1995). By their second birthday, most children have overcome their battle with gravity and balance and are able to move about and handle objects fairly ef- ficiently. Their early abilities form the basis for skills that appear between 2 and 7 years of age. Three sets of fundamental movement skills emerge: locomotor movements, manipulative movements, and stability movements. Locomotor movements include walking, running, jumping, hop- ping, skipping, and climbing. Manipulative movements include throwing, catching, kicking, striking, and dribbling. Stability movements involve body control relative to gravity, and include bending, turning, swinging, rolling, head standing, and beam walking. These fundamental skills typ- ically appear in all children and can be further refined by adolescents, who may develop exceptional skills as skaters, dancers, and gymnasts. The refinement of motor skills depends a great deal on the development of the muscles and the nerve pathways that control them, but other factors are important as well. Motor skills depend in part on sensory and perceptual skills, for example, and children acquire many of their motor skills in play, which involves social and physical interactions. Links to Related Material Here, you read about the implications of motor development for making perseverative errors. In Chapter 8, you will read about infants’ perseverative errors in the A-not-B task. An infant’s first steps are a major milestone of development. (Camille Tokerud/Getty Images) 154 Chapter 5 – Physical Development: Birth, Motor Skills, and Growth PHYSICAL GROWTH Growth is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of child development. It is continuous throughout childhood, but it does not happen uniformly.

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  Childhood and Adolescence

  Voyages in Development

  • Spencer Rathus(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. CHAPTER 5 INFANCY: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 169 MBI/Stockbroker/Alamy Black African and African American infants generally reach such motor milestones as sitting, walking, and running before European and European American infants do (Haywood & Getchell, 2014). Although genetic factors may be involved in the earlier motor de-velopment of Black African and African American infants, environ-mental factors also appear to play a role. African infants excel in areas of motor development in which they have received consider-able stimulation and practice. For example, parents in Africa and in cultures of African origin, such as Jamaica, stress the development of sitting and walking and provide infants, from birth, with experiences (including stretching and massage) that stimulate the development of these behaviors. From the second or third months, other ac-tivities are added, such as propping infants in a sitting position, bouncing them on their feet, and exercising the stepping reflex. How Do Nature and Nurture Interact to Affect Motor Development? Research with humans and other species leaves little doubt that both maturation (nature) and experience (nurture) are involved in motor development (Haywood & Getchell, 2014). Certain voluntary motor activities are not possible until the brain has matured in terms of myelination and the differentiation of the motor areas of the cortex. Although the neonate shows stepping and swimming reflexes, these be-haviors are controlled by more primitive parts of the brain. They disappear when cortical development inhibits some func-tions of the lower parts of the brain, and when they reappear, they differ in quality. Infants also need some opportunity to experiment before they can engage in milestones such as sitting up and walking. Even so, many of these advances can apparently be attributed to maturation.

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