1. Janet Belsky’s Experiencing the Lifespan, 2e
Chapter 3:
Infancy: Physical and Cognitive Development
Meredyth Fellows, West Chester University of PA

2. Postpartum Depression
_______________________
 Data from three states indicate that nearly 12% of women reported being moderately depressed after they delivered their baby, and 6% reported being very depressed after delivery. In addition to directly influencing the emotional wellbeing of mothers, postpartum depression (PPD) has been shown to affect marital relationships, mother–infant bonding, and infant behavior

3. The Expanding Brain: Blossoming and Sculpting
Brain Growth Following Birth
Experiences fastest growth during infancy
Cerebral cortex comes “on-line” a few months after birth
Cerebral Cortex: outer folded mantle of brain; responsible for thinking, reasoning, perceiving, and all conscious processes
In 20 years brain volume quadruples and growth is complete.

4. The Expanding Brain Recall during fetal period neurons are formed
After birth, _______________ - proliferation of connections at the synapses
Exuberant synaptogenesis and __________
_________: formation of fatty layer encasing axons
Visual cortex myelinated by 1 year
Frontal lobes, age 20 or beyond

5. Neural Pruning and Plasticity: Interaction of Nature and Nurture
_________: the brain is “plastic” (malleable) during early childhood before pruning is complete
Following a brain injury or insult, plasticity allows other brain regions to compensate
Following childhood the brain is less plastic
Rehabilitation following a brain injury will help to compensate for the injury (e.g following a stroke).

6. Basic Newborn States: Reflexes
Instinctive, automatic responses
Present at birth; promote survival
____________________________________________________________

7. Nutrition: Breast Milk
Breast Milk: recommended for 1st six months
Protects from diseases
Correlational studies show that breast-fed babies:
are more alert during first two weeks
experience fewer gastrointestinal problems and ear infections
are more resistant to day care diseases, colds and flu
are advanced in developmental tasks as toddlers
appear to be superior in later measures of intelligence in elementary school (cautious assumption – next slide!)

8. Nutrition: Breast Milk
Breast Milk Studies: must consider 3rd variable – Social Class
Mothers from higher SES may have more opportunity to breast feed (lower SES mothers may have to work).
Health - premature babies may not have the opportunity
Health of the mother may deter breast feeding (HIV)
Social support and a culture that supports breast feeding are crucial factors in the choice to breast feed.

9. Crying: First Communication Signal
Lifetime peak at about 5 weeks
Reflex dominated before the cortex is “on-line” at 4 months
Vital to survival (responsive parenting is a must!)
_________: frantic, continual crying during first 3 months
Caused by immature digestive system
Another expert’s suggestion: immature nervous system
May contribute to parental stress, but is temporary!

10. Intervention: What Quiets a Young Baby?
Pacifier
__________
Mirrors womb
Kangaroo Care
Hold close to body in baby sling
Infant Massage
Helps to calm infants and contributes to growth in premature babies

11. Sleeping: Main Newborn State
Newborns, 18 hrs. a day
Note high % of sleep states: drowsy, quiet, and REM sleep
Unlike adult sleep cycle, newborns drop immediately into REM sleep
Newborns wake every 3-4 hours
6 months, may sleep 6 hrs. a night
1 year, 12 hrs. a night and naps during day

12. Sleep Cycles

13. Sensory and Motor Development
Hearing
In the womb, fetuses can discriminate different tones
Smell
Infants prefer smell of breast milk within the first week
Taste:
Infants stop sucking and wrinkle face in response to bitter, sour, salty tastes
Avidly suck on sweet solutions
Pain management technique - have infant suck on sweet substance

14. Focusing on Faces
Newborns prefer faces to other stimuli, especially mother’s face
Prefer attractive-looking people
Infants mimic facial expressions

15. Depth Perception: the Visual Cliff Experiment
When 8 month-old babies begin to crawl they perceive differences in depth and fear heights.
Notice survival response!
Video Joe Campos

16. Cognitive Development: Piaget
Stage Approach
Studied his children
Schemas
Assimilation
Accommodation
Adaptation

17. Cognition Sensorimotor Stage: birth to 2 Explore world through senses
_______________
Repetitive action-oriented schemas (habits)
Primary (body-centered), Secondary (environment), Tertiary (“little scientist”)
Through circular reactions, infant explores and incorporates new information into existing schemas

19. Sensorimotor Stage Stage 1: reflexes 0-1 month
Proficiency at sucking, grasping
Lack ability to deliberately grasp or suck
Stage 2: primary circular reactions 1-4 months
Repetition of pleasurable behavior which occurs by chance (involves own body)
Stage 3: secondary circular reactions 4 – 8 months
Repetition of pleasurable behavior which occurs by chance, but involves deliberate manipulation of object in environment
Stage 4: purposeful coordination of secondary schemes 8-12months
Combinations of actions (leaning and grasping) (looking, crawling, grasping)
Stage 5: tertiary circular reactions 12 – 18 months
Exploration using new or novel actions
Formation of trial and error discovery
Stage 6: mental solutions 18 – 24 months
Thinking about problems to develop solutions
Internalization of trial and error
Accompanied by language formation

20. Tracking Early Thinking: Sensorimotor Stage
_____________: repeating an action observed at an early time
Means-end behavior: about 1 yr., performing a different action to reach a goal
Flushing something down the toilet!
____________: even though a baby sees an object hidden in a 2nd hiding place, he/she goes back to the first hiding place to find it!
Classic mistake in Sensorimotor stage
Baby approaches 1 year (little-scientist stage)

21. A-not-B Error: Sensorimotor Stage-Video

22. Object-Permanence: Sensorimotor Stage
Understanding that objects exist even when we can no longer see them.
In the early Sensorimotor stage, an object does not exist unless the infant can see it!
Around 5-6 months, infants begin to look for hidden objects
About 8 months develops object-permanence (“little-scientist stage”)
Peek-a-Boo a favorite game!!

23. Sequence of Language Development
Prelinguistic Period
Crying at birth
_______(video) at 2 months
_________(video) at 6 months
Spoken Words- Video
Appears at about 10 months
Typically only a few words are known
By 18 months between 3 to 50 words
Two word utterances begin 18 to 24 months
_________(Video) appear at about 2 to 4 years

25. Language: Basic Principles
_________ language abilities outpace expressive language skills
Infant-directed speech
Higher pitched, elongated vowels, exaggerated tones
Attracts baby’s interest (heart rate deceleration evidence of baby’s interest)