1. The Development of Children, Seventh Edition
Cynthia Lightfoot,
Michael Cole,
and Sheila R. Cole
Chapter 4:
The First 3 Months

2. Chapter Overview Physical Growth Brain Development
Sensing the Environment
The Organization of Behavior
Temperament
Becoming Coordinated with the Social World
Summing Up the First 3 Months

3. I. Physical Growth Early growth is rapid In 12 weeks, infants
Gain about 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms)
Grow more than 4 inches (10 centimeters)
Expanding head circumference
Growing brains
Pushes against the skull
Head circumference expands

4. I. Apply – Connect – Discuss
In societies in which mothers have the option of breast- or bottle-feeding their newborns, their choice is often influenced by cultural norms and expectations.
Interview your mother and your grandmother about newborn feeding practices common in their generation. (If your mother or grandmother is not available, find another mother of the same generation.)
Ask about how newborns were fed, why women might have chosen one method over another, what their own choices were, and so forth. Compare the two women’s experiences, and assess them in light of what is now known regarding feeding practices and infants’ physical development.

5. II. Brain Development The brain at birth
Contains most of the neurons it will ever have.
Will grow four times larger by adulthood

6. Brain Development Growth in brain size as a results of:
Neuronal connections
Synaptogenesis
Myelination
Insulates axons and speeds transmission of impulses
“Use it or lose it” process

7. Cerebral Cortex Cerebral Cortex
The brain’s outermost layer and most complex system. Processing center for the perception of patterns, the execution of complex motor sequences, planning, decision making, and speech.

8. Cerebral Cortex
At birth, its circuitry is less mature than the brain stem or spinal cord.
The brain stem controls reflexes and vital functions, such as breathing.

9. Development of the Brain
Two major classes of development:
Experience-expectant process
Under genetic controls, occur in any environment
Example: evolution of visual cortex
Experience-dependent process
Initiated in response to experience
Example: work on enriched environments by Mark Rosenzweigand and his colleagues

10. II. Apply – Connect – Discuss
It is widely believed that the developing brain benefits from an enriched environment and suffers in an environment of deprivation.
Using the language and concepts presented in this section, explain what it means for an environment to be “enriched” or “deprived.”

11. III. Sensing the Environment
Newborns’ sensory systems are all functioning.
But some are more developed than others.
Example: touch and smell is more advanced compared to vision.
Methods for assessing sensory capabilities:
Overt response
Preferential looking
Habituation/Dishabituation

12. Hearing Sensitivity to phonemes
2-month-olds, can perceived distinctions used in all the world’s languages
By about 6 to 8 months of age, only the sounds made in the language(s) they hear

13. Vision Newborns are very nearsighted Newborns are able to:
scan their surroundings
perceive patterns and distinguish among forms
show a preference for faces
distinguish their mother’s face

14. Taste and Smell Responses to Sweet tastes and smells
Example: breast milk
Calming effect
Pain relief
Sour, bitter, and salty tastes
Foul odors

15. Intermodal Perception
The ability to perceive an object or event by more than one sensory system simultaneously.

16. III. Apply – Connect – Discuss
This section has introduced you to several different research methods that developmentalists use to answer questions about the newborn’s sensory systems.
Identify and briefly describe four of these methods.
Choose one or two of them to design a study addressing some facet of infant sensory capacity.

17. IV. The Organization of Behavior
Behavioral organization is important for
Interacting more effectively and adaptively with their surroundings
Increasing physical control and coordination
Smiling in response to the smiles of others
Performing deliberate actions

18. The Organization of Behavior
Reflexes
Involuntary
Building blocks for action
From Reflex to Coordinated Action
Coordination of components of behavior in smooth, integrated sequence
Feeding
“Stepping reflex”

19. From Reflexes to Coordinated Action
Explanations:
Piaget’s Theory of Developing Action
Learning Theories of Developing Action

20. Piaget’s Theory of Developing Action
According to Jean Piaget
Infants gain knowledge largely by coordinating sensory perceptions and simple motor responses.

21. Piaget’s Theory Sensorimotor Stage, Substages 1 and 2:
Substage 1: Exercising reflex schemas.
infants learn to control and coordinate inborn reflexes
Substage 2: Primary circular reactions.
accommodation first appears, with infants’ prolonging pleasant sensations arising from reflex actions

22. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

23. Learning Theories of Developing Action
According to learning theorists
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior, occurs when the infant makes associations between its behavior and events in the environment.
Gives rise to new forms of behavioral organization.

24. Learning Theories of Developing Action
Several types of learning operate in development.
Classical conditioning: previously existing behaviors come to be associated with and elicited by new stimuli.
Operant conditioning: new behaviors may come about as a result of reinforcement and punishment of behaviors

25. IV. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Suppose you have been hired by a local health clinic to lead a class on newborn behavioral organization for expecting parents.
How would you describe “behavioral organization” to these parents?
How would you explain its importance for development?
What sorts of activities or interactions would you recommend to parents for promoting the development of behavioral organization in their newborn?

26. V. Temperament Individual differences in infants Traits
Both genetic and environmental influences
Traits
Activity level
Quality of mood
Attention span

27. V. Apply – Connect – Discuss
How would you characterize your own temperament in light of the discussion above? In what ways have your temperamental characteristics influenced who you are?

28. VI. Becoming Coordinated with the Social World
Infants’ survival depends on:
Responsive caregivers
Infants’ ability to coordinate their own actions with those of caregivers
Sleeping
Feeding
Crying

29. Infants’ Sleep How often: Types of sleep
Sleeping about two-thirds of the time
Adopting adults’ sleep cycle
Influences of culture
For example, Kipsigis babies in rural Kenya
Types of sleep
Periods of sleep are relatively brief

30. Feeding Nursing Influence of culture Newborns prefer a 3-hour schedule
By 2½ months, infants have a 4-hour schedule
By 7 or 8 months, they approximate an adult schedule
Influence of culture

31. Crying Primitive means of communication The effects of infant crying:
May have evolved as a signal to promote caregiving
The effects of infant crying:
Evokes a strong emotional response in adults
Warning that something may be wrong
Certain distinctive patterns may indicate difficulties
Cultural differences

32. VI. Apply – Connect – Discuss
How would you respond to a new parent who takes an operant conditioning approach to newborn crying, believing that babies will cry more if their crying is “reinforced” by the parents’ always responding to it?

33. VII. Summing Up the First 3 Months
Developmental changes
rapid physical growth
maturation of the central nervous system
shift from reflexes to complex actions
Changes originate in biology and depend on the environment.