1. Physical Development in Infancy & Toddlerhood (Birth to 2 years old) Chapter 5 (pGs , )
(Infants & Children)

2. Learning Objectives:
Define and give examples of gross/fine motor development
Categorize gross motor and fine motor activities for infants & toddlers
Describe appropriate brain stimulation & brain development
List & describe the 4 influences on early growth
Describe the 4 types of learning capacities
Describe and give an example of a dynamic systems theory of motor development
List the steps in fine motor reaching & grasping skills
Describe aspects of perceptual development & how it relates to early infant development

3. Motor skills development Activity
3/4/15: Do not worry about this…it was an in-class group activity that revolves around gross & fine motor milestones found on page 184 in your textbook.

4. Body Growth Age 1=50% greater in height than from birth
Grow in spurts
Gain “baby fat” until about 9 months, then get slimmer (helps maintain constant body temp.)
Girls slightly shorter and lighter than boys
Birth-2 yrs=skull growth is especially rapid b/c of large increases in the brain
First tooth=6 months old (2 yrs=20 teeth)

5. “use it or lose it" concept
Brain Development
As neurons (nerve cells that store & transmit information) form connections, stimulation becomes vital to their survival:
“use it or lose it" concept

6. Appropriate brain stimulation
Two types of brain development:
Experience-expectant brain growth
Ordinary learning experiences
“Expected” by brain to grow normally
Examples: opportunities to see & touch objects, explore the environment
Experience-dependent brain growth
Specific learning experiences
Examples: reading & writing, learning to play the violin, learning to weave
“Rushing” this can harm the brain by overwhelming it

7. Sleep PAtterns
Newborn baby=round-the-clock naps that total hrs/day
2 yr olds=total hrs of sleep/day
Most 6- to 9-month olds=2 daytime naps
18 months=1 nap
3-5 yr olds=napping subsides
Sleep moves to an adult-like night-day schedule during the first year.

8. Influences on Early Growth
Organ damage
Learning & behavior affected
Food insecurity
Growth faltering-weight, height, & head circumference is substantially below norms (failure to grow normally)
Affection & stimulation=necessary
Breastfeeding vs bottle-feeding
60% of 1 yr olds ate candy 1x/day!
3,000 US parents of 4-24 mth olds reported they routinely served them FF, pizza, candy, sugary fruit drinks, & soda
Height & weight
Genetic make up
Heredity
Nutrition
Malnutrition
Emotional Well-Being

9. Learning Capacities
Learning-change in behavior as a result of experience
Classical conditioning
Stimulus--response (a.k.a. Pavlov’s dog experiment)
Operant conditioning
Spontaneous behavior is followed by a stimulus that increases the chances that the behavior will occur again
Reinforcers/punishment
Habituation
Gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation (“over-used/bored”)
Imitation
Copying the behavior of another person

10. Motor Development Definitions:
Gross motor development-control over actions that help infants get around in the environment; large muscles (legs)
Fine motor development-smaller movements; small muscles (hands/fingers)

11. Motor Development examples
Gross motor development
crawling
standing
walking
Fine motor development
reaching
grasping

12. Handouts Share handout-Gross Motor (Supine) drawings packet
Share handout-Fine Motor (Reach) drawings packet
3/4/15:
* I will give these to you in class on 3/19/15

13. Gross and Motor Development in the First Two Years (Allyn & Bacon, 2008)

14. Motor Skills as Dynamic Systems
Dynamic systems theory of motor development-mastery of motor skills involving increasingly complex systems of action
Separate abilities blend together, each cooperating with others to produce more effective ways of exploring the environment
Examples: kicking, rocking on a fours, and reaching…all combine to become “crawling”

15. Motor Skills When a skill is first acquired, it must be refined
Motor mastery involves intense practice
Having babies sleep on their backs to prevent SIDS delays gross motor milestones of rolling, sitting, and crawling (Majnemer & Barr, 2005: Scrutton, 2005)
Article “Back is Best” (LVHN) 3/4/15: see attached supplemental article
Because of “Back To Sleep,” it is important that babies have regular exposure to tummy time
Article “Tummy Time” (LVHN) 3/4/15: see attached supplemental article

16. Fine Motor Development
Steps in Reaching and Grasping:
Palmar Grasp
newborn reflex
spontaneous grasp of adult’s finger when placed in the infant’s palm
Prereaching
poorly coordinated, primitive movements of newborns
Reaching
3-4 months old
with two hands, then one
Ulnar Grasp
clumsy grasp of the young infant, in which the fingers close against the palm
move objects from hand to hand
Pincer Grasp
the end of the 1st year
well-coordinated thumb & index finger opposition

17. Bowel and Bladder Control
Children need to be able to consistently identify the signals of a full bladder/rectum and wait for the right place to relieve themselves
This usually takes place several months after the child turns 2 years old (a.k.a. “potty training”)
Effective training techniques include:
establishing regular toileting routines
using gentle encouragement
praising children for their effort

18. Perceptual Development
Perception-the act of organizing & interpreting information via our senses through the use of hearing, vision, depth perception, and pattern perception.

19. Perceptual Development
Vision:
depended upon more than any other sense to explore the environment
Newborn
focuses & perceives color poorly
prefers large simple patterns, photos, simplified drawings of faces
2-4 months
focuses on objects & adults and has color vision by 4 mths
prefers complex drawings of the human face
prefer and more easily discriminate female faces
6 months
scanning & tracking
visual acuity is about 20/20
depth perception (ability to judge the distance of objects)-typically around the time of crawling
12 months
can detect familiar objects represented by incomplete drawings, even if two-thirds of the drawing is missing

20. Lecture Supplements Handout-Self-Feeding/Bottle: Birth to 24 months
3/4/15: I will give this to you on 3/19/15
Handout-Everyday Ways to Support Early Learning
3/4/15: see attached supplemental article

21. Homework: ITERS assignment due 3/19/15
Read Infants & Children’s chapter 6; no notes to print out
5th purple lesson plan
Complete [orange] DAP chapter 2 worksheet questions
Read DAP chapter 3 and cut out & attach sample “practices” to DAP/NOT DAP chart.