1. Physical Development Fine Motor Skills & Perception pg.108-112 Stephanie

2. Reaching & Grasping Newborns have little apparent control of their hands. At ~4months infants can successfully reach for objects. – Appears clumsy. As infants grow, their reaches have fewer movements. – More smooth and direct.

3. Reaching & Grasping Most 4 month olds just use their fingers to grab objects. By 7 or 8 months most infants use their thumbs to hold objects. At about the same time infants begins to position their hands to make grasping easier. – Infants do not need to see their hand to position it correctly

4. Reaching & Grasping 4 months old use both hands because their motions are not coordinated – Each hand seems to have a mind of its own At roughly 5 to 6 months, infants can coordinate the motions of their hands so that each hand performs different actions that serve a common goal.

5. Fine Motor Skills At 6 months, most infants experiment w/finger foods. – The can easily pick up the food but getting the food in the mouth is more difficult. Around the 1 st birthday many parents allow their children to experiment w/spoons. – First they simply play w/ the spoon – Then they learn to fill the spoon by placing it into the bowl until it is filled – By 2 years old children learn to rotate their wrist to fill the spoon as adults do.

6. Fine Motor Skills Preschoolers are able to make more precise and delicate movements to care for themselves. – 2 or 3 year olds can use zippers but not use buttons. – 3 or 4 year olds can fasten buttons and take off their clothes. – Most 5 year olds can dress and undress themselves, except for tying shoes, which is typical at age 6

7. Fine Motor Skills Greater fine motor coordination leads to improvements in writing and drawing. – 2 year olds will scribble, expressing delight in simple lines – 4 or 5 year olds are able to depict recognizable objects.

8. Handedness Handedness is the preference of one hand over the other. 90% of the people worldwide prefer to use their right hand. 10% are left handed A relatively small percentage of people are truly ambidextrous.

9. Handedness When babies reach for objects they don’t seem to prefer one hand over the other – They use their left and right hand interchangeably – 9 month olds use their left and right hand equally but by 13 months most use their right hand. – By age 2, the child’s hand preference is clear. – By age 5 children only use their non-preferred hand when their preferred hand is busy. At this time reversing handedness is very difficult.

10. Handedness Determination of handedness: – Heredity – Children with right handed parents are likely to be right handed. If a child has a parent or grandparent that is left handed, there is a possibility that they will be left handed. – Industry –Utensils and other objects favor the right hand. – Culture – Some cultures such as Islam and China forbid or look down upon the use of the left hand.

11. Smell & Taste Smell and taste are the most mature senses at birth. Newborns act positively to pleasant smells and negatively to unpleasant smells. Newborns can differentiate salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. ( Most infants seem to have a sweet tooth)

12. Smell and Taste Infants are sensitive to changes in the taste of breast milk that reflect a mother’s diet. Infants will nurse more after their mother has consumed a sweet substance such as vanilla.