Developmental Psychology
Infancy and Childhood
How do brain and motor skills
develop?
Good News
• While in the womb, you produce almost ¼
million brain cells per minute.
Bad News
• That is basically all you are ever going to
develop.
The Brain and Infancy
• Although the brain
does not develop
many new cells,
the existing cells
begin to work more
efficiently- forming
more complex
neural networks.
Maturation
• Biological growth
processes that enable
orderly changes in
behavior, relatively
uninfluenced by
experience.
• To a certain extent we
all maturate similarly,
but the time can vary
depending on the
person.
Motor Development
• Sequence is the same- but once again
timing varies.
• First learn to roll over, sit up unsupported,
crawl, walk etc…
Walking
• Walking- in US 25% learn by 11 months,
50% within a week of 1st birthday, 90% by
15 months.
• Varies by culture- if the culture
emphasizes walking then babies can walk
at younger ages (NURTURE).
• But identical twins tend to learn to walk on
the same day (NATURE).
Toilet Training
• NO MATTER WHAT,
THE BABY NEEDS THE
PHYSICAL
MATURATION TO HOLD
HIS OR HER BLADDER
OR BOWEL
MOVEMENTS BEFORE
TOILET TRAINING.
• NO TRAINING WILL
WORK IF THE CHILD IS
NOT PHYSICALLY
READY.
Cognitive Development
• This field is Dominated by
a man named Jean Piaget.
• He was developing IQ
tests and noticed that
many children got the
same answers wrong.
• Thought to himself,
“maybe these kids are not
stupid, but instead think
differently than adults.”
Piaget’s important concepts
• Children are active thinkers, always trying
to make sense of the world.
• To make sense of the world, they develop
schemas.
• Schema- a concept or framework that
organizes and interprets information.
Piaget’s important concepts
• Assimilation- interpreting one’s new
experiences into one’s existing schemas.
•Accommodation- adapting one’s
current understandings (schemas) to
incorporate new information.
Cognition
All mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing and
remembering.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational
Sensorimotor Stage
• The Sensorimotor
Stage is from
approximately birth to
2 years of age.
• Babies take in the
world purely through
their senses- looking,
hearing, touching,
tasting and grasping.
Sensorimotor Stage
• At 4 to 8 months of
age, your child will
learn that she can
make things move by
banging them and
shaking them.
(Example--shaking a
rattle, banging on
toys, banging on tray
of high chair)
Sensorimotor Stage
• Between 12 and 18 months your
child will be able to represent hidden
objects in her mind (Object
Permanence). In other words, she
will be able to “see” objects even
when they are out of sight.
• Before Object Permanence- what is
out of sight, is gone from the universe
forever.
Sensorimotor Stage
• At 18 to 24 months of age, a child
will begin to use images to stand for
objects. In other words, a physical
object can represent something else.
Symbols represent objects or events
in one’s own environment.
Sensorimotor Stage
• This ability is called mediation and is
very important in a child’s development
because it means the child can think
about more than just the objects that are
around her; she can think about the
whole world.
Preoperational Stage
• The Preoperational Stage is
from approximately 2 to 7
years of age.
Preoperational Stage
• At the early
part of this
stage, a child
will develop
the ability to
use symbols.
Preoperational Stage
• Between the ages of 3 and 4,
your child will be able to apply this
ability to symbolize with objects,
to people (names represent
people).
Preoperational Stage
• By the end of this stage, the child
will understand the concept of
conservation.
Preoperational Stage
• Children in the
preoperational
stage are
egocentric (the
inability to take on
another’s point of
view).
Concrete Operational Stage
• 7-11 years old
• Understand concept of
conservation.
• Can think logically, use analogies,
and perform mathematical
transformations (5+9 is the same
as 9-5) also known as reversibility.
Formal Operational Stage
• We can reason abstractly.
If John is in school, then Mary is in school. John is in school. What can you
say about Mary?
God is love.
Love is Blind
Stevie Wonder is Blind.
Stevie Wonder is
god.