1. The Development of Children, Seventh Edition
Cynthia Lightfoot,
Michael Cole,
and Sheila R. Cole
Chapter 5:
Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy

2. Chapter Overview Physical Growth Brain Development Motor Development
Cognitive Development: The Great Debate
Conceptual Development
The Growth of Attention and Memory
Implications

3. I. Physical Growth During the first year, babies:
Triple in weight
Grow about 10 inches
Changes in body proportions
Head to legs ratio
Gender differences

4. Body Proportions

5. I. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Provide some concrete examples of how socioeconomic status may affect infants’ physical growth.

6. II. Brain Development Increased myelination of neurons
Development of prefrontal cortex
Growth of language-related areas
Increased synchrony among the brain areas

7. Brain and Behavior As a result, More systematic problem solving
Voluntary control of behavior
Acquisition of language

8. Brain and Experience Effects of prolonged deprivation
Example: studies of Romanian orphans
Effects of lack of experience
Experience-expectant
Experience-dependent

9. II. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Review the four central issues of developmental science that were discussed in Chapter 1.
How does current knowledge of infant brain development shed light on these issues?

10. III. Motor Development Fine Motor Skills Gross Motor Skills
Increased ability to explore environment

11. Fine Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills: Reaching and grasping
Involve the development and coordination of small muscles
Reaching and grasping
Manual dexterity

12. Reaching and Grasping

13. Fine Motor Skills By age 2, feed and dress themselves turn book pages
cut paper
string beads
stack blocks

14. Gross Motor Skills Gross Motor Skills:
Involve the large muscles of the body and make locomotion possible

15. Progression of Locomotion

16. Gross Motor Skills Crawling Walking By 8 to 9 months
Wariness of heights
Walking
Cultural variations

17. Control Elimination Maturation of sensory pathways Cultural Influences
From reflex to control
Must learn to associate sensory signals with need to eliminate.
When to “hold it”
Cultural Influences

18. III. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Imagine two children – one an early walker, walking well at 9 months of age, the other a late walker, walking well at 15 months. Suppose both children live in the same neighborhood or village and have parents with similar resources and with similar child-rearing practices and beliefs.
Explain how the difference in onset of walking may have significant implications for each child’s development.

19. IV. Cognitive Development: The Great Debate
When does conceptual understanding begins?
Piaget’s explanation
Other developmentalists’ explanation

20. Piaget’s Explanation Piaget’s Stage Theory
Sensorimotor intelligence at birth
Representational thinking begins around 18 months

21. Piaget’s Stage of Sensorimotor Development
Acquisition of knowledge
Motor actions
Directed at environment
Guided by senses

22. Sensorimotor Substages
Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions
4 to 8 months
Repeating actions that involve objects
Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions
8 to 12 months
Displaying intentionality, engaging in goal-directed behavior

23. Sensorimotor Substages
Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions
12 to 18 months
Deliberately varying their actions, thus experimenting
Substage 6: Beginning of Symbolic Representation
18 to 24 months
Basing their actions on representations
Important for problem solving, symbolic play, deferred imitation, and the use of language

24. Sensorimotor Development
Cross cultural studies
Piaget’s observations have been widely replicated around the world.
Challenges
-Both to the theory and methods in the past two decades

25. IV. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Imagine that you have been hired by a company to develop a line of toys appropriate to the ongoing sensorimotor development of infants through age 2.
Prepare a presentation of some of your ideas for products, including arguments for how your products will appeal to infants at the various substages of sensorimotor development.

26. V. Conceptual Development
Object Permanence
The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
Two Explanations of Conceptual Development
Piaget
Alternative Perspective

27. Alternative Approaches
Measuring Object Permanence
Violation of Expectations Methods
Dynamic Systems Approach
Role of Experience

28. Alternative Research Methods
Violation of Expectations Method
Habituate babies to a particular event and then present two variants of the event – one that is “possible” under normal circumstances, and one that is “impossible.”
Study results
Capable of representation as young as 2 ½ months

29. Alternative Approaches
Dynamic Systems Approach
Cognitive development in infancy involves not a shift from sensorimotor to conceptual intelligence but growing abilities to coordinate all the various systems involved in sensorimotor and conceptual intelligence.

30. Alternative Approaches
Role of Experience
Preference for “novel” objects
Preference for “familiar” objects

31. Understanding Other Properties of the Physical World
Initial grasp of various physical laws as young as 3 months
Violation of expectations method
Example: law of gravity

32. Reasoning about Objects
Challenges to Piaget’s view of cognitive development
Counting
Cause-Effect Relationships
Categorization

33. Reasoning about Objects: Categorization
Changes in categorization abilities
Improved perceptual abilities
Changes in both perceptual features and conceptual categories

34. V. Apply – Connect – Discuss
Design an experiment to test whether infants understand the difference between “natural” objects (trees, fish, people, etc.), and “artificial” objects (cars, watches, buildings, etc.).

35. VI. The Growth of Attention and Memory
Significance of attention and memory
Each plays a role in previously discussed developments
Attention
Memory

36. The Process of Attention
Four distinct phases:
Stimulus-Detection Reflex
Stimulus Orienting
Sustained Attention
Attention Termination
Distinguished by changes in heart rate

37. Attention Processing information takes time Simple vs. complex stimuli
Younger children need more time to process
Simple vs. complex stimuli

38. Memory Development of procedural memory
Time to forget procedure
2 months: 1-2 days
6 months: 2 weeks
Longer if visual reminder
Shift from relying on implicit memory to explicit memory

39. Memory Implicit Memory: Explicit Memory:
Recognizing what has been experienced before
Explicit Memory:
Recalling absent objects and events without a reminder

40. VI. Apply – Connect – Discuss
In what ways might changes in the brain contribute to the development of attention and memory during infancy?

41. VII. Implications
During this brief period, infants undergo enormous physical and cognitive changes with astonishing implications for future development.
Brain development
Physical development
Cognitive development