Childhood
Development
Developmental Psychology
Examines how people are continually
developing
Nature and nurture
Continuity and stages
Stability and change
Childhood
Physical Development
The Competent Newborn
Babies are born with
a remarkable set of
survival instincts
Rooting
Tonguing, swallowing,
and breathing
crying
The Competent Newborn
We are born with
preferences
Sound of mother’s
voice
Face like images
Objects 8 to 12 inches
away
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
 Brain development
 Neural connections
enable us to walk,
talk, and remember
 Rapid growth from
3 to 6
 Association areas
develop last
At birth
3 months
15 months
Cortical Neurons
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
 Motor development
 The motor
development
sequence is
universal
 There are individual
differences in
timing
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
 Motor development
 Maturation: brain
development that
enables motor skills
at a certain age
Maturation and Infant
Memory
 Infantile
amnesia:
conscious
memories seldom
predate 3 years
old
 Memory
processes
information to
allow learning