Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 1 Power Point slides prepared by Leonard R. Mendola, Ph.D. Touro College

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 2 Motor, Sensory, and Perceptual Development Chapter 5 Outline Motor Development The Dynamic Systems View Reflexes Gross Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills Sensory and Perceptual Development What are Sensations and Perception? The Ecological View Vision Other Senses Intermodal Perception Perceptual-Motor Coupling

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 3 Chapter 5Preview Think about what is required for children to find their way around their environment, to play sports, or to create art. These activities require both active perception and precisely timed motor actions. Neither innate, automatic movements nor simple sensations are enough to let children do the things they do every day. How do children develop perceptual and motor abilities? In this chapter, we will focus first on the development of motor skills, then on sensory and perceptual development, and finally on the coupling of perceptual-motor skills.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 4 Motor Development The Dynamic Systems View Arnold Gesell developmentalist (1934) revealed how people develop their motor skills through observations Children develop motor skills in a fixed order and within specific time frames. Motor development comes about through the unfolding of a genetic plan or maturation.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 5 Motor Development (cont.) The Dynamic Systems Theory (continued) Infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting. Perception and action are coupled according to this theory (Smith & Breazeal, 2007; Thelen, 1995, 2001; Thelen & Smith, 1998, 2006). To develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the environment that motivates them to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements. Motor skills represent solutions to the infant’s goals.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 6 Motor Development (cont.) The Dynamic Systems Theory (continued) When infants are motivated to do something, they create a new motor behavior. The new behavior is the result of many converging factors: - development of the nervous system - the body’s physical properties and its possibilities for movement - the goal the child is motivated to reach - the environmental support for the skill

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 7 Motor Development (cont.) The Dynamic Systems Theory (continued) Mastering a motor skill requires the infant’s active efforts to coordinate several components of the skill. Infants explore and select possible solutions to the demands of a new task. Infants assemble adaptive patterns by modifying their current movement patterns.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 8 Motor Development (cont.) The Dynamic Systems Theory (continued) Universal milestones, such as crawling, reaching, and walking, are learned through the process of adaptation: Infants modulate their movement patterns to fit a new task by exploring and selecting possible configurations (Adolph & Joh, 2007, 2008; Thelen & Smith, 2006). Motor development is not a passive process in which genes dictate the unfolding of a sequence of skills over time. The infant actively puts together a skill to achieve a goal within the constraints set by the infant’s body and environment. Nature and nurture, the infant, and the environment, are all working together as part of an ever-changing system.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 9 Motor Development (cont.) Reflexes built-in reactions to stimuli govern the newborn’s movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn’s control are genetically carried survival mechanisms allow infants to respond adaptively to their environment before they have had the opportunity to learn

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 10 Motor Development (cont.) Reflexes (continued) Rooting reflex: occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched infant turns its head toward the side that was touched in an apparent effort to find something to suck Sucking reflex: occurs when newborns automatically suck an object placed in their mouths This reflex enables newborns to get nourishment before they have associated a nipple with food.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 11 Motor Development (cont.) Reflexes (continued) The Moro reflex occurs in response to a sudden, intense noise or movement When startled, the newborn arches its back, throws back its head, and flings out its arms and legs. Then the newborn rapidly closes its arms and legs. believed to be a way of grabbing for support while falling had survival value for our primate ancestors

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 12 Motor Development (cont.) Reflexes (continued) The Grasping reflex occurs when something touches infant’s palms infant responds by grasping tightly By the end of the third month, the grasping reflex diminishes, and the infant shows a more voluntary grasp.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 13 Motor Development (cont.) Reflexes (continued) Some reflexes, such as coughing, blinking, and yawning, persist and continue to be important throughout life. Other reflexes disappear several months following birth as the brain matures and voluntary control over many behaviors develops.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 14 Motor Development (cont.) Infant Reflexes

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 15 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills involve large-muscle activities moving one’s arms walking

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 16 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) The Development of Posture dynamic process linked with sensory information from: – proprioceptive cues, which tell us where we are in space in skin, joints, and muscles –vestibular organs that regulate balance and equilibrium in the inner ear –vision and hearing Newborns cannot voluntarily control their posture. Within a few weeks, infants can hold their heads erect and soon they can lift their heads while prone.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 17 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) The Development of Posture (continued) By 2 months of age, babies can sit while supported on a lap or in an infant seat. sit independently at 6 or 7 months of age standing develops gradually during the 1 st year By about 8 months of age, infants usually learn to pull themselves up and hold onto a chair, and many can stand alone by about months of age.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 18 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Learning to Walk Locomotion and postural control are closely linked, especially in walking upright (Adolph & Joh, 2007, 2008). To walk upright, the baby must be able both to balance on one leg as the other is swung forward and to shift the weight from one leg to the other. Most infants do not learn to walk until about the time of their 1 st birthday. In learning to locomote, infants learn what kinds of places and surfaces are safe for locomotion (Adolph & Joh, 2007, 2008).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 19 Motor Development (cont.) The Role of Experience in Crawling and Walking Infants’ Judgments of Whether to Go Down a Slope

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 20 Motor Development (cont.) Milestones in Gross Motor Development

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 21 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Development in the 2 nd Year more motorically skilled and mobile; motor activity during the 2 nd year vital to child’s competent development By months, toddlers can: pull a toy attached to a string use their hands and legs to climb up a number of steps By months, toddlers can: walk quickly or run stiffly for a short distance balance on their feet in a squat position while playing with objects on the floor walk backward without losing their balance stand and kick a ball without falling stand and throw a ball jump in place.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 22 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Development in the Second Year (continued) Physical fitness classes for babies range from passive fare to programs called “aerobic” because they demand crawling, tumbling, and ball skills. Pediatricians recommend that exercise for infants should not be the intense, aerobic variety. Babies cannot adequately stretch their bodies to achieve aerobic benefits.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 23 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Childhood - The preschool child no longer has to make an effort to stay upright and to move around. At 3 years of age –children enjoy simple movements, just for the sheer delight of performing these activities, such as: hopping jumping running back and forth, At 4 years of age –children have become more adventurous –scramble over low jungle gyms as they display their athletic prowess

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 24 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Childhood (continued) At 5 years of age even more adventuresome than at 4 years old not unusual for self-assured 5 year-olds to perform hair- raising stunts on practically any climbing object run hard and enjoy races with each other and their parents During Middle and Late Childhood motor development becomes much smoother and more coordinated

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 25 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Childhood (continued) During Middle and Late Childhood (continued) elementary school children can master: running climbing skipping rope swimming bicycle riding skating In gross motor skills involving large-muscle activity, boys usually outperform girls. Elementary school children should be engaged in active, rather than passive, activities.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 26 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Childhood (continued) During Middle and Late Childhood (continued) physical action essential to refine developing skills Elementary school children are far from being physically mature and they need to be active. Organized sports are one way of encouraging children to be active and to develop their motor skills.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 27 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Caring for Children Parents and Children’s Sports Participation can provide: exercise opportunities to learn how to compete self-esteem a setting for developing peer relations and friendships Sports also can bring: pressure to achieve and win physical injuries a distraction from academic work unrealistic expectations for success as an athlete (Conn & others, 2006; Latz, 2006)

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 28 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Caring for Children (continued) Parents and Children’s Sports (continued) Overly ambitious parents, coaches, and community boosters can unintentionally create a highly stressful atmosphere in children’s sports. Parents should monitor their children as they participate in sports for signs of developing stress. Parents should be sensitive to whether a particular sport is the best one for the child and whether the child can handle its competitive pressures.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 29 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Caring for Children (continued) Parents and Children’s Sports (continued) The Women’s Sports Foundation (2001) offer guidelines that can benefit both parents and coaches of children in sports: Do: make sports fun remember that the more children enjoy sports, the more they will want to play remember that it is OK for children to make mistakes show respect for the child’s sports participation convince the child that he or she is making a good effort be a positive role model for the child in sports

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 30 Motor Development (cont.) Gross Motor Skills (continued) Caring for Children (continued) Parents and Children’s Sports (continued) The Women’s Sports Foundation (2001) (continued) Don't: yell or scream at the child condemn the child for poor play or continue to bring up failures point out the child’s errors in front of others expect the child to learn something immediately expect the child to become a pro ridicule or make fun of the child compare the child to siblings or to more talented children make sports all work and no fun

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 31 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills involve finely tuned movements grasping a toy using a spoon, buttoning a shirt doing anything that requires finger dexterity

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 32 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills (continued) Infants Infants have hardly any control over fine motor skills at birth. During the 1 st 2 years of life, infants refine their reaching and grasping (Smitsman, 2004). Initially, infants move their shoulders and elbows crudely, but later they move their wrists, rotate their hands, and coordinate their thumb and forefinger. The infant’s grasping system is very flexible.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 33 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills (continued) Infants (continued) Just as infants need to exercise their gross motor skills, they also need to exercise their fine motor skills (Barrett, Davis, & Needham, 2007; Keen, 2005; Needham, 2008). Experience plays a role in reaching and grasping (Needham, 2008). Perceptual-motor coupling is necessary for the infant to coordinate grasping (Keen, 2005).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 34 Motor Development (cont.) Infants’ Use of “Sticky Mittens” to Explore Objects

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 35 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills (continued) Childhood At 3 years of age –Children can build surprisingly high block towers, each block placed with intense concentration, but often not in a completely straight line. By 4 years of age –Children’s fine motor coordination is much more precise. By 5 years of age –Children’s fine motor coordination has improved further. Hand, arm, and fingers all move together under better command of the eye.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 36 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills (continued) Middle and Late Childhood Increased myelination of the central nervous system is reflected in the improvement of fine motor skills. Children can use their hands adroitly as tools. 6 year-olds can: –hammer, paste, tie shoes, and fasten clothes. By 7 years of age, children’s hands have become steadier. –At this age, children prefer a pencil to a crayon for printing, and reversal of letters is less common. –Printing becomes smaller. At 8 to 10 years of age, children can use their hands independently with more ease and precision –Children can now write rather than print words. Letter size becomes smaller and more even.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 37 Motor Development (cont.) Fine Motor Skills (continued) Middle and Late Childhood (continued) At years of age, children begin to show manipulative skills similar to the abilities of adults. The complex, intricate, and rapid movements needed to produce fine-quality crafts or to play a difficult piece on a musical instrument can be mastered. Girls usually outperform boys in fine motor skills.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 38 Sensory and Perceptual Development What are Sensations and Perceptions? Sensation occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors –the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin sensation of hearing: –occurs when waves of pulsating air are collected by outer ear and transmitted through bones of the inner ear to auditory nerve sensation of vision: –occurs as rays of light contact the eyes, become focused on the retina, and are transmitted by the optic nerve to the visual centers of the brain

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 39 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) What are Sensations and Perceptions? (continued) Perception the interpretation of what is sensed The air waves that contact the ears might be interpreted as noise or as musical sounds, for example. The physical energy transmitted to the retina of the eye might be interpreted as a particular color, pattern, or shape.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 40 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) The Ecological View Much of the research on perceptual development in infancy has been guided by the ecological view of Eleanor and James J. Gibson (E. Gibson, 1969, 1989, 2001; J. Gibson, 1966, 1979). They argue that we do not have to take bits and pieces of data from sensations and build up representations of the world in our minds. Instead, our perceptual system can select from the rich information that the environment itself provides.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 41 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) The Ecological View (continued) We directly perceive information that exists in the world around us. Perception brings us into contact with the environment in order to interact with and adapt to it. Perception is designed for action. In Gibson’s view, all objects have affordances: opportunities for interaction offered by objects that are necessary to perform activities

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 42 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Research in Child Development Studying the Newborn’s Perception Visual Preference Method –Robert Fantz (1963) was pioneer –Fantz made an important discovery that advanced the ability of researchers to investigate infants’ visual perception: infants look at different things for different lengths of time infants only 2 days old look longer at patterned stimuli, such as faces and concentric circles, than at red, white, or yellow discs Infants 2 to 3 weeks old prefer to look at patterns—a face, a piece of printed matter, or a bull’s-eye—longer than at red, yellow, or white discs

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 43 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Frantz’s Experiment on Infants’ Visual Perception

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 44 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Research in Child Development (continued) Studying the Newborn’s Perception (continued) Habituation and Dishabituation –another way that researchers have studied infant perception –Habituation: name given to decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus –Dishabituation: the recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 45 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Habituation and Dishabituation

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 46 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Research in Child Development (continued) Studying the Newborn’s Perception (continued) High-Amplitude Sucking –used to assess infant’s attention to sound –Infants are given a nonnutritive nipple to suck, and the nipple is connected to “a sound generating system”. –Each suck causes a noise to be generated and the infant learns quickly that sucking brings about this noise.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 47 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Research in Child Development (continued) Studying the Newborn’s Perception (continued) The Orienting Response –used to determine if an infant can see or hear –involves turning one’s head toward a sight or sound (Keen, 2005). Tracking –consists of eye movements that follow (track) a moving object –used to evaluate infant’s early visual ability or a startle response –can be used to determine an infant’s reaction to a noise (Bendersky & Sullivan, 2007)

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 48 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Research in Child Development (continued) Studying the Newborn’s Perception (continued) Equipment –Technology can facilitate the use of most methods for investigating the infant’s perceptual abilities: videotape high-speed computers other equipment provide clues to what the infant is perceiving- it records: - respiration - heart rate - body movement - visual fixation - sucking behavior

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 49 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision Infancy Visual Acuity and Human Faces –newborn perceives world with some order –cannot see small things that are far away –vision is estimated to be 20/600 –At birth, the nerves, muscles, and lens of the eye are still developing. –By about the 1 st birthday, the infant’s vision approximates that of an adult (Banks & Salapatek, 1983).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 50 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Visual Acuity During the First Months of Life

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 51 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Visual Acuity and Human Faces (continued) –By 3 months of age, infants: match voices to faces distinguish between male and female faces discriminate between faces of their own ethnic group and those of other ethnic groups (Kelly & others, 2007, a, b)

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 52 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) How 1 and 2 Month-Old Infants Scan the Human Face

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 53 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Color Vision –By 8 weeks, infants can discriminate some colors (Kelly, Borchert, & Teller, 1997). –By 4 months, they have color preferences. –Changes in vision reflect maturation.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 54 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Color Vision (continued) –Early experience is essential for the normal development of the ability to use the cues to depth and distance that come from binocular vision. –Binocular vision: combines into one image –Newborns do not have binocular vision; it develops at about 3 to 4 months of age (Slater, Field, & Hernandez-Reif, 2007).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 55 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Perceiving Patterns –Infants look at different things for different lengths of time (Fantz, 1963). –2-3 month-old infants prefer to look at patterned displays rather than non-patterned displays. For example: prefer to look at a normal human face rather than one with scrambled features prefer to look at a bulls-eye target or black-and-white stripes rather than a plain circle

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 56 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Perceptual Constancy –sensory stimulation is changing, but perception of physical world remains constant –allows the infant to perceive its world as stable –size constancy and shape constancy

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 57 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Size Constancy –recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes Shape Constancy –recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation to us changes

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 58 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Depth Perception –recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes –Gibson and Walk (1960) explored whether young children perceive depth using the visual cliff.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 59 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Examining Infants’ Depth Perception on the Visual Cliff

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 60 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Infancy (continued) Visual Expectations –Infants develop expectations about future events in their world by the time they are 3 months of age. –As infants develop, their experiences with objects help them to understand physical laws.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 61 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Vision (continued) Childhood Visual Expectations –At 3 to 4 years old: children become increasingly efficient at detecting the boundaries between colors (such as red and orange) (Gibson, 1969) –At 4 or 5 years old: most children’s eye muscles are developed enough for them to move their eyes efficiently across a series of letters many preschool children are farsighted: unable to see close up as well as they can see far away by 1 st grade, most children can focus their eyes and sustain their attention effectively on close-up objects

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 62 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Hearing The Fetus, Infant, and Child During the last 2 months of pregnancy, the fetus can hear sounds; newborns are sensitive to the sounds of human speech. Hearing changes in infancy involve a sound’s loudness, pitch, and localization. Infants cannot hear soft sounds well and are less sensitive than adults are to pitch: the perception of the frequency of a sound

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 63 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Hearing in the Womb

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 64 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Hearing (continued) The Fetus, Infant, and Child (continued) Newborns show a preference for certain sounds: (Saffran, Werker, & Werner, 2006). –recording of their mother’s voice to the voice of an unfamiliar woman –mother’s native language to a foreign language –classical music of Beethoven to rock music of Aerosmith (Flohr & others, 2001) Changes during infancy involve a sound’s loudness, pitch, and localization. Newborns are especially sensitive to the sounds of human speech (Hollich & Houston, 2007).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 65 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Hearing (continued) The Fetus, Infant, and Child (continued) Babies are born into the world prepared to respond to the sounds of any human language. In the 2 nd half of the 1 st year of life, infants become “native listeners”- especially attuned to the sounds of their native language (Jusczyk, 2002).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 66 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Hearing (continued) The Fetus, Infant, and Child (continued) About 1 in 1,000 newborns are deaf (Mason & Hermann, 1998). Hearing aids or surgery can improve hearing (Davids & others, 2007). 1/3 of all U.S. children from birth-3 years of age have 3 or more episodes of otitis media, a middle-ear infection that can impair hearing temporarily (Renouf, 2007; Viastos, Hajiioannou, & Houlakis, 2007). The infection can develop into a more chronic condition in which the middle ear becomes filled with fluid; this can seriously impair hearing.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 67 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Other Senses Touch and Pain –Touch Newborns respond to touch. –Pain Newborns can feel pain. Smell and Taste –Newborns can differentiate odors. Taste –Sensitivity to taste might be present before birth.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 68 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Newborn’s Preference for the Smell of Their Mother’s Breast Pad

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 69 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Newborns’ Facial Responses to Basic Tastes

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 70 Sensory and Perceptual Development (cont.) Intermodal Perception –Involves integrating information from 2 or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing. Crude exploratory forms of intermodal perception exist in newborns. These exploratory forms of intermodal perception become sharpened with experience in the first year of life (Banks, 2005; Hollich, Newman, & Jusczyk, 2005). Babies are born into the world with some innate abilities to perceive relations among sensory modalities, but their intermodal abilities improve considerably through experience (Bahrick & Hollich, 2008).

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 71 Perceptual-Motor Coupling Perceptual and motor development do not occur in isolation from one another; instead, they are coupled. Babies coordinate their movements with perceptual information to learn how to maintain balance, reach for objects in place, and move across various surfaces. Action educates perception. Perceptual and motor development do not occur in isolation from each other but instead, are coupled.

Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 72 E-LEARNING TOOLS To help you master the material in this chapter, visit the Online Learning Center for Child Development, twelfth edition at: