1. Physical Development and Health During the First Three Years
CHAPTER 6

2. Guideposts For Study
1. How do babies grow, and what influences their growth?
2. How and what should babies be fed?
3. How does the brain develop, and how do environmental factors affect its early growth?

3. Guideposts For Study 4. How do the senses develop during infancy?
5. What are some early milestones in motor development, and what are some influences on it?
6 How can we enhance babies' chances of survival and health?

4. Growth And Nutrition Patterns of Growth
Children grow faster during the first 3 years, especially during the first few months, than they ever will again
This rapid growth rate tapers off during the second and third years
Physical growth and development follow the maturational principles of the cephalocaudal principle and proximodistal principle.
According to the proximodistal principle (inner to outer), growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward.

5. Changes in proportions of the human body during growth

6. Growth And Nutrition Influences on Growth
Genes interact with environment, i.e. nutrition and living conditions,  general health and well-being
Well-fed, well-cared-for children grow taller and heavier than less well nourished and nurtured children
Better medical care, immunization and antibioticsbetter health
Physical growth and development follow the maturational principles of the cephalocaudal principle and proximodistal principle.
According to the proximodistal principle (inner to outer), growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward.

7. Growth And Nutrition Nourishment
Breast milk is almost always the best food for newborns and is recommended for at least the first 12 months
Parents can avoid obesity and cardiac problems in themselves and in their children by adopting a more active lifestyle for the entire family--and to breastfeed their babies
Physical growth and development follow the maturational principles of the cephalocaudal principle and proximodistal principle.
According to the proximodistal principle (inner to outer), growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward.
In some developing countries, where bottle-feeding has been promoted as the more modern method, some poor mothers dilute formula or use unclean water to make it, unwittingly endangering their babies' health and lives.
The health advantages of breast-feeding are striking during the first 2 years and even later in life . Among the illnesses prevented or minimized by breast-feeding are diarrhea, respiratory infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis), otitis media (an infection of the middle ear), and staphylococcal, bacterial, and urinary tract infections.

8. The Brain And Reflex Behavior
Building the Brain
Brain's maturation takes much longer than was previously thought
Brain growth spurts coincide with changes in cognitive behavior
Specialization of the hemispheres is called lateralization:Left—language; Right—visual-spatial

9. “Every mother who is physically able should breastfeed
“Every mother who is physically able should breastfeed.” Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons.

10. The Brain And Reflex Behavior
Myelin, a fatty insulating substance, begins about halfway through gestation in some parts of the brain and continues into adulthood in others

11. The Brain And Reflex Behavior
Early Reflexes
Myelination of sensory and motor pathways, may account for the appearance and disappearance of early reflexes
Automatic, innate response to stimulation :
primitive
locomotor
Primitive reflexes, such as sucking, rooting for the nipple, and the Moro reflex (a response to being startled or beginning to fall), are related to instinctive needs for survival and protection.
Locomotor reflexes, such as the walking and swimming reflexes, resemble voluntary movements that do not appear until months after the reflexes have disappeared

12. The Brain And Reflex Behavior
Molding the Brain: The Role of Experience
Smiling, babbling, crawling, walking, and talking are possible due to rapid development of the brain, particularly the cerebral cortex
Plasticity=modifiability of the brain
Early abuse or sensory impoverishment may leave an imprint on the brain.

13. The Brain And Reflex Behavior
Molding the Brain: The Role of Experience
Early experience can have lasting effects on emotional development and the capacity of the central nervous system to learn and store information
Sometimes corrective experience can make up for past deprivation
The age of adoption may makes a difference. Among 111 Romanian children adopted in England before age 2, those adopted before age 6 months had largely caught up physically and had made a complete cognitive recovery by age 4, as compared with a control group of English adopted children.

14. Early Sensory Capacities
Touch and Pain
Touch seems to be the first sense to develop
Pain experienced during the neonatal period may sensitize an infant to later pain, perhaps by affecting the neural pathways that process painful stimuli

15. Can you…
Describe important features of early brain development?
Explain the functions of reflex behaviors and why some drop out during the early months?
Discuss how early experience affects brain development?

16. Early Sensory Capacities
Smell and Taste
A preference for pleasant odors seems to be learned in utero and during the first few days after birth
Preference for the fragrance of the mother's breast may be a survival mechanism
Newborns' rejection of bitter tastes is probably another survival mechanism, since many bitter substances are toxic

17. Early Sensory Capacities
Hearing
Hearing is functional before birth
Auditory discrimination develops rapidly after birth
Hearing is a key to language development so hearing impairments should be identified as early as possible

18. Early Sensory Capacities
Sight
Vision is the least developed sense at birth
Vision becomes more acute during the first year, reaching the 20/20 level by about the sixth month
Binocular vision=using both eyes to focus, perception of depth and distance at 4 or 5 months

19. Motor Development Milestones of Motor Development
Babies first learn simple skills and then combine them into increasingly complex systems of action
Humans begin to walk later than other species, possibly because babies' heavy heads and short legs make balance difficult
Denver Developmental Screening Test measures gross motor skills (those using large muscles), such as rolling over and catching a ball, and fine motor skills (using small muscles), such as grasping a rattle and copying a circle. It also assesses language development (for example, knowing the definitions of words) and personality and social development (such as smiling spontaneously and dressing without help).

20. Motor Development How Motor Development Occurs: Maturation in Context
According to Thelen, normal babies develop the same skills in the same order because they are built approximately the same way and have similar physical challenges and needs
Denver Developmental Screening Test measures gross motor skills (those using large muscles), such as rolling over and catching a ball, and fine motor skills (using small muscles), such as grasping a rattle and copying a circle. It also assesses language development (for example, knowing the definitions of words) and personality and social development (such as smiling spontaneously and dressing without help).

21. Motor Development Motor Development and Perception
Not until babies can get around by themselves do they learn from experience, or from a caregiver's warnings, that a steep dropoff can be dangerous
Denver Developmental Screening Test measures gross motor skills (those using large muscles), such as rolling over and catching a ball, and fine motor skills (using small muscles), such as grasping a rattle and copying a circle. It also assesses language development (for example, knowing the definitions of words) and personality and social development (such as smiling spontaneously and dressing without help).

22. Motor Development Cultural Influences on Motor Development
Chances to explore their surroundings motor development likely to be normal
Some cultures actively encourage early development of motor skills
African babies tend to be more advanced than U.S. and European infants in sitting, walking, and running.

23. Motor Development Training Motor Skills Experimentally
Gesell concluded that children perform certain activities when they are ready, and training gives no advantage
Findings do not indicate whether changes in the brain or in muscle strength, or both, are involved in motor development; but they do suggest the interaction of biology and environment
African babies tend to be more advanced than U.S. and European infants in sitting, walking, and running.

24. Is it advisable to try to teach babies skills such as walking before they develop them on their own?

25. Health Reducing Infant Mortality
In recent decades, survival rates have improved in all regions of the world
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Birth defects (congenital abnormalities) were the leading cause of infant deaths in the United States in 1998
Black infants are most likely to die of disorders related to low birthweight--nearly four times as likely as white babies. SIDS is the second leading cause of death for American Indian babies.

26. Health Immunization for Better Health
One reason some parents hesitate to immunize their children is fear that vaccines (especially pertussis vaccine) may cause brain damage
Black infants are most likely to die of disorders related to low birthweight--nearly four times as likely as white babies. SIDS is the second leading cause of death for American Indian babies.

27. Who should be primarily responsible for ensuring that children are immunized: parents, community agencies, or government?

28. Can you…
Summarize trends in infant mortality, and
explain why black infants are less likely to
survive than white infants?
Discuss risk factors, causes, and prevention of
sudden infant death syndrome?
Explain why full immunization of all infants and
preschoolers is important?