1. Chapter 3 The first Two Years: Body and Brain Head sparing Language development Neuron/components LAD Prefrontal cortex Reflexes Shaken baby syndrome SIDS Behavioral perspective on language develop. Fine/Gross motor skills Cognitive developmental theory Assimilation/Accommodation

2. Body changes By age 2, body weight has increased to an average of 30 pounds and body length has increased to between 32 and 36 inches; half of their adult height Head-sparing is the phenomenon by which the brain continues to grow even though the body stops growing (typical in a malnourished child)

3. The newborn’s brain contains more neurons than it will ever need, 70 % are located in the cortex Each neuron consists of a single axon and many dendrites

4. Anatomy of a neuron, neuron communication Neurons communicate with each other at the synapses where the axon of one neuron meets- but does not touch-the dendrites of other neurons A neuron impulse is generated and chemicals called neurotransmitters carry information from the axon of the sending neuron across the synaptic gap to the dendrites of the receiving neuron The dendrites show an estimated fivefold increase in density within the cortex from birth until age 2 discuss frontal cortex, auditory cortex, and visual cortex

6. The phenomenon increase in neural connections over the first two years have been called transient exuberance (use it or lose it) If too many stress hormones are produced early on, cortisol is released and the developing brain becomes incapable of normal stress responses Shaken baby syndrome-babies get quiet because of broken blood vessels, broken neural connections cause lifelong arrests in development (hypervigilence, emotional irregularity) What is shaken baby syndrome? Shaken baby syndrome- when the baby is violently shaken and blood vessels erupt in the baby’s brain

7. Brain functions that require basic common experiences to grow are called experience-expectant brain functions Brain functions that depend on particular, and variable, experience in order to grow are called experience- dependent (some infants may not acquire these experiences) Early brain growth is rapid and reflects experience; each part of the brain has its own sequence for growth The last part of the brain to mature is the prefrontal cortex-plays a role in anticipation, planning, and impulse control

9. There are sensitive periods in development when specific kinds of growth are primed to occur Healthy environments can stimulate growth A key factor in reducing the childhood death rate was the development of immunization Breastmilk is a mild sedative and changes in conjunction with infant’s age, contains mother’s antioxidants and decreases SIDS

10. The motor skills At birth, sensation is apparent; perception (making sense of that stimulus) comes later because it requires experience Hearing in newborns is quite accurate, and young infants are particularly attentive to the human voice The infant’s early sensory abilities are organized for social interaction and comfort The most visible and dramatic body changes of infancy involve motor skills Reflexes are involuntary responses to stimuli Some reflexes are critical for survival: 1.breathing reflex 2.reflexes that maintain body temp (shivering, tucking in legs, pushing away blankets) 3.sucking reflex Rooting, Babinski, stepping

12. What occurs firs? Fine motor skills or gross motor skills? Gross motor skills

13. Moving and Perceiving Sensation and Perception Sensation- The response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus. Perception- The mental processing of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation. Sensory development- typically precedes intellectual and motor development.

14. Moving and Perceiving The sense of hearing develops during the last trimester of pregnancy and is already quite acute at birth; it is the most advanced of the newborn’s senses. Vision is the least mature sense at birth. – Newborns focus only on objects between 4 and 30 inches away. – Binocular vision, the ability to coordinate the two eyes to see one image, appears at 3 months. – Sensation is essential for the visual cortex to develop normally.

15. Sleeping patterns The newborn sleeps about 17 hours a day Co-sleeping may increase SIDS, reduce mother anxieties, encourage breastfeeding

16. Surviving in Good Health Preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome In 1990, about 5,000 babies died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the United States. The actual cause of SIDS is still unknown: low birthweight, heavy clothing, soft bedding, teenage parenthood, and, particularly, maternal smoking are risk factors. Putting infants to sleep on their backs reduces the risk but does not eliminate it.

17. Surviving in Good Health Adequate Nutrition For every infant disease (including SIDS), breast- feeding reduces risk and malnutrition increases it, stunting growth of body and brain. Breastfed babies are less likely to develop allergies, asthma, obesity, and heart disease. As the infant gets older, the composition of breast milk adjusts to the baby’s changing nutritional needs.

18. Let’s break down the sensorimotor period…

19. Sensorimotor Intelligence Central to Piaget’s theory is the idea that infants are active participants in their cognitive development Piaget outlined 6 stages in the development of sensorimotor intelligence 1. Stage One: Reflexes (birth-1 month) The newborn’s reflexes, such as sucking, grasping, staring, and listening, represent its only ways of gaining knowledge about the world

20. 2. Stage Two: The First Acquired Adaptations (1-4 months) This stage begins when the infant starts to adapt its reflexes to the environment and to coordinate two actions (for example, grabbing the bottle to suck it) Stages on and two are examples of primary circular reactions 3. Stage Three: An Awareness of Things (4-8 months). Infants become more responsive to people and objects in the environment as they learn to repeat specific actions that have elicited pleasing responses. 4. Stage Four: New Adaptation and Anticipation (8-12 months). Infants become more purposeful in responding to people and objects, anticipating events, and engaging in goal-directed behavior. Stage three and four are examples of secondary circular reactions

21. 5. Stage Five: New Means Through Active Experimentation (12-18 months). The little scientists become more active and creative in their exploration of, and trial-and-error experimentation with, the environment. 6. Stage Six: New Means Through Mental Combinations (18-24 months). By using mental combinations, toddlers begin to anticipate and solve simple problems without resorting to trial-and-error experimentation. This skill enables the toddler to remember better, to anticipate future events, to pretend, and to use deferred imitation. Stage five and six are examples of tertiary circular reaction.

22. A major cognitive accomplishment of infancy is the ability to understand that objects exist independently of one’s perception of them (object permanence), which, according to Piaget, does not develop until about 8 months (during stage four). Experiments have shown that infants as young as 4 ½ months old have some concept of object permanence.

24. Advances in scientific investigation enable researchers to better understand infant cognitive development. By using habituation and fMRI, researchers now know that the early years are the prime time for e cognitive development. Other research tools include the EEG, ERP, and PET.

26. Information Processing Information processing theory models cognition on how computers analyze data. *Two aspects of this theory as applied to human development are affordances, which are analogous to computer input, and memory, which is analogous to storage and output According to the environmental view of Eleanor and James Gibson, which of the many affordances people perceive in a given object depends on their developmental level and experiences their present needs and motivation, and their sensory awareness of what that object might be used for.

27. Researchers once believed that perception of a visual cliff was solely the result of visual maturity. However, later studies show that even 3-month-old infants notice the difference between a solid surface and an apparent drop off, as evidenced by changes in their heart rate and eye movement.

28. Two universal principles of infant perception are that they have dynamic perception, that is, that their perception is primed to focus on movement and change. Infants are also fascinated by other people (people preference).

29. Research has shown that under the right conditions infant memory is much more developed than was once believed. These conditions include (10 using situations that are similar to real life, (2) ensuring that the infant’s motivation is high, and (3) providing memory-priming retrieval cues.

30. Carolyn Rovee-Collier has shown that brief reminder sessions evoke and prolong infants’ memory of how to make a mobile move, even after intervals as long as two weeks. Still, early in life, under the best conditions, long-term storage, and retrieval of memories appear to be fragile and uncertain. They are facilitated by repetition, reminders, and active involvement of the infant.

31. Toward the end of the first year, infants can show deferred imitation of a person whose actions they had observed a day earlier. After about 6 months, infants become capable of retaining information for longer periods of time with less training or reminding. By the middle of the second ear, toddlers are able t remember and reenact more complex sequences. Infants are developing concepts rather than simply imitating behaviors. Most researchers believe there are many types of memory. For instance, implicit memory refers to memories for routines that are hidden until activated by a stimulus; explicit memory consists of memories that can be recalled on demand.

32. Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? Infants are well equipped to learn language from birth, partly due to brain readiness and partly because of their auditory experiences during the final prenatal months. Newborns show a preference for hearing speech over other sounds; they refer child-directed speech (baby talk or motherese), which is high-pitched, simplified, and repetitive speed used by adults in talking to infants. Between 6 and 9 months of age, babies begin to repeat certain syllables, a phenomenon referred to as babbling.

33. Although deaf babies begin to babble at about the same time as haring babies, they stop because they cannot hear responses. Deaf babies use about a dozen hand gestures at 10 months of age. The average baby speaks a few words at about 1 year of ages. When vocabulary reaches approximately 50 words, it suddenly begins to build rapidly, at a rate of 50 to 100 or more words a month. *This language spurt is called the naming explosion, because toddlers learn a disproportionate number of nouns, although the actual ratio of nouns to verbs shows cultural and social influences.

34. The first words, used a holophrases (one-word sentences), occur by about 1 year, the first two-word sentence at about 21 months. Grammar becomes obvious at about 21 months when infants begin using two-word combinations. Following b.F. Skinner’s theory, many behaviorists maintain that language is acquired through associations and differential reinforcement of appropriate usage. Support for this theory comes from the fact that there are wide variations in language fluency, especially when children from different cultures are compared.

35. *One longitudinal study that followed mother-infant pairs over time found that the frequency of early maternal responsiveness predicted the child’s rate of language acquisition many months later. Noam Chomsky maintains that children have an innate predisposition to learn language and the basics of what he calls a universal grammar, which occurs through a brain structure Chomsky labels the language acquisition device (LAD) Researchers agree with Chomsky that a “language trigger” is not needed because words are “expected” by the developing brain. A third, social-pragmatic theory of language proposes that social impulses foster infant language.

36. A hybrid theory based on a model called an emergentist coalition theory combines aspects of several theories. A fundamental aspect of this theory is that some aspects of language are best learned in one way at one age, others in another way at another age.