The Developing Person
Through the Life Span 8e
by Kathleen Stassen Berger
Chapter 5- The First Two Years:
Biosocial Development
Body Changes
Body Size

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Average weight: double the birthweight by
month 4, triple it by age 1, much of it is fat
Average height: grow 14 inches from birth to
age 2
These numbers are norms, an
average measurement.
Sleep

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Average newborn sleeps 16
hours per day
Specifics vary due to age,
characteristics, and social
environment
Ample sleep correlates with
normal brain maturation,
learning, emotional
regulation, academic success
and psychological adjustment
Sleep

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
REM Sleep: Rapid eye movement sleep,
dreaming, rapid brain waves
Slow-wave sleep: quiet sleep, increases at 34 months
Co-sleeping: custom of parents and children
sleeping in same room, more common in
Asia, Africa and Latin America than in
Western cultures
Brain Development
Stress and the Brain

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If it produces too many stress
hormones in infants, the brain
will not be able to have normal
stress responses.
Occurs in infants who are
terrified and experience other
forms of stress.
Can continue to occur when
the infant is an adult
Necessary and Possible
Experiences
Stimulation is vital when the brain is growing
rapidly.
 Experience-expectant: require basic
common experiences in to develop normally
(i.e. people who love them)
 Experience-dependent: these happen to
some infants but not all, not necessary for
brain function (i.e. language baby hears)
Sensation and Movement


Sensation- The response of a sensory
system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when
it detects a stimulus.
Perception- The mental processing of
sensory information when the brain interprets
a sensation.
**Sensory development typically precedes
intellectual and motor development**
Sound and Vision
Hearing develops during the last trimester of
pregnancy and is already quite acute at birth

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The most advanced of the newborn’s senses.
Vision is the least mature sense at birth.

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Visual acuity
Binocular vision
Depth perception
Sensation and Movement

Gross motor skills- Physical abilities involving
large body movements, such as walking and
jumping.

Fine motor skills- Physical
abilities involving small body
movements, especially of the
hands and fingers, such as
drawing and picking up a coin.
Gross Motor Skills
Ethnic Variations


Gene differences in different ethnic groups
Cultural patterns of child rearing affect
sensation, perception, and motor skills
Influences on Early Growth
Heredity
 Nutrition


Breast v. Bottle Feeding
Malnutrition
 Emotional Well-Being


Problems can cause nonorganic failure
to thrive
Surviving in Good Health
Nutrition

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For every infant disease (including
SIDS), breast-feeding reduces risk
and malnutrition increases it.
Breastfed babies are less likely to
develop allergies, asthma, obesity,
and heart disease.
As the infant gets older, the
composition of breast milk adjusts to
the baby’s changing nutritional needs.
Malnutrition

Protein-calorie: when not enough food of
any kind is consumed

Stunting: being too short for your age due to
severe and chronic malnutrition

Wasting: being very underweight due to
malnutrition
Malnutrition

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Marasmus: severe malnutrition during
infancy where child stops growing, tissues
waste away and then usually dies
Kwashiorkor: disease of chronic malnutrition
during childhood where child becomes more
likely to get other diseases such as measles,
diarrhea and influenza