Beginnings
Physical Development: Highlights
I. Before Birth
A. Conception
B. Zygotes: fertilized eggs.
C. Embryo: the human organism from 2 weeks to 2 months of
age.
D. Fetus: the human organism from 8 weeks to birth.
E. Teratogens
F. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome:
1) occurs when pregnant mothers drink heavily
2) affects 1 in 750 children
3) small heads and distorted facial features
4) brain abnormalities
5) the leading form of mental retardation
II. Brain Development
III. Motor
Development
Cognitive Development
I. Infant Memory
A. Infantile Amnesia: the inability to remember events
experienced within the first two to three years of life.
B. Cognitive Neuroscience Approach: approach to the study
of cognitive development that links brain development with
cognitive development.
C. Explicit Memory: intentional and conscious memory,
generally of facts, names, and events.
D. Implicit Memory: unconscious recall, generally of habits
and skills; sometimes referred to as procedural memory.
II. Cognitive Development Testing
A. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development
1) Cognitive Skills
2) Language Skills
3) Motor Skills
4) Social-Emotional Behavior
5) Adaptive Behavior
B. Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment
(HOME)
Some key characteristics HOME assesses are…
1) Parental responsiveness
2) Number of books in home
3) Presence of educational playthings
C. Other Factors
1) Mentor in labeling, sorting, & comparing
2) Celebrate accomplishments
3) Avoid punishment for safe exploratory behavior
4) Stimulate language and communication
D. Social-Contextual Approach: approach to the study of
cognitive development by focusing on environmental
influences, particularly parents and other caregivers.
III. Piaget: Sensorimotor Stage
A. Sensorimotor Stage: experiencing the world through our
senses and our actions (looking, touching, tasting, etc).
This stage consists of 6 substages…
1) Reflexes (birth to about 1 month): infants begin to
exercise some control over inborn reflexes.
2) Primary Circular Reaction (about 1 to 4 months):
infants learn to repeat pleasant bodily sensations first
discovered accidentally.
3) Secondary Circular Reactions (about 4 to 8 months):
infants are interested in manipulating objects.
4) Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions
(about 8 to 12 months): infants have learned to generalize
from the past to solve new problems and exhibit complex,
goal-directed behavior.
5) Tertiary Circular Reactions (about 12 to 18 months):
infants experiment with behavior variations to get similar
results. Trial and error is used for problem solving.
6) Representational Ability (about 18 months to two years):
the capacity to mentally represent objects and experiences,
through symbols like words and numbers.
a) Dual Representation Hypothesis: proposal that children under
the age of 3 have difficulty grasping spatial relationships because of
the need to keep more than one mental representation in mind at the
same time.
B. Imitation
1) Visible Imitation: imitation with parts of one's body that
one can see.
2) Invisible Imitation: imitation with parts of one's body that
one cannot see.
C. Object Permanence: the awareness that objects continue to
exist even when not perceived.
Prior to 8 months…
If I drop my toy and I can’t see it….it is gone!
…..THIS is why peek-a-boo is so much fun!
8-12 months…
You hid my toy…I’m looking for it the last place I saw it!
After a year…
You hid my toy…I’m looking for it!
IV. Information-Processing Approach
A. Habituation: a decrease in responding with repeated
stimulation.
B. Attraction to Novelty: a demonstrated interest in a
temporally or historically new stimulus.
1.
2.
3.
C. Human Sensory Preferences: infants prefer human sights
and sounds.
D. Mother’s Scent: within days of birth, we know our mother’s
scent.
E. Cross-modal transfer: ability to use information gained by
one sense to guide another.
F. Joint Attention: an infant's response to an adult's gaze by
looking or pointing in the same direction.
Violating Expectations to
Study Object Permanence
V. Language Development During The First
Three Years of Life
A. Prelinguistic Speech: forerunner of linguistic speech;
utterance of sounds that are not words. Includes crying,
cooing, babbling, and accidental and deliberate imitations
of sounds without understanding their meaning.
B. Early Vocalizations
1) Crying: newborn’s means of communication; can signal hunger,
sleepiness, or anger.
2) Cooing: squealing, gurgling, and making vowel sounds like “ahhh.”
3) Babbling: repeating consonant-vowel strings, such as “ma-ma-ma.”
C. Recognizing Language Sounds
1) Precedes language ability and begins in the womb.
2) Fetuses’ heart rates slow when they hear familiar nursery
rhymes.
3) By 6 months, babies learn to recognize basic sounds of
their native language – phonemes.
D. Gestures
1) Conventional Social Gestures: gestures such as waving
goodbye or nodding the head to signify “yes,” taught to a
child by an adult or older child.
2) Representational Gestures: gestures that represent the
desired action directly, such as holding an empty cup to one’s
mouth to signify wanting a drink.
3) Symbolic Gestures: gestures that function much like
words and are symbolic of the desired concept, such as
blowing to mean hot or sniffing to mean flower.
E. First Words
1) Linguistic Speech: verbal expression designed to convey
meaning.
2) Holophrase: single word that conveys a complete thought.
3) Passive: referring to understood vocabulary.
4) Expressive: referring to spoken vocabulary.
F. First Sentences
1) Telegraphic Speech: 2-3 words expressing one idea.
2) Competence in syntax (rules for forming sentences)
gradually increases.
G. Language Acquisition
1) Nativism: Chomsky’s theory that human beings have an
inborn capacity for language acquisition.
2) Language acquisitions device (LAD): in Chomsky’s
terminology, an inborn mechanism that enables children to
infer linguistic rules from the language they hear.
3) Hand-babbling: the gestures of deaf babies that are
repeated over and over.
4) Parentese: a slow and high-pitched method of
communication that may enhance early language learning.
Psychosocial Development
I. Foundations of Psychosocial Development
A. Personality: a relatively consistent blend of emotions,
temperament, thought, and behavior that makes each
person unique.
B. Psychosocial development: from birth to death, personality
development is intertwined with social relationships.
C. Emotions: subjective reactions to experience that are
associated with physiological and behavioral changes.
1) Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers, especially when
the primary caregiver is not present, shown by babies by
about 8 months of age.
2) Non-Organic Failure to Thrive: failure of an infant to grow
and gain weight despite adequate nutrition.
3) Separation Anxiety: distress shown by an infant when a
familiar caregiver leaves.
D. First Signs of Emotion
Crying: 4 types
1) Hunger cry: a rhythmic cry, not always associated with hunger.
2) Angry cry: a variation of the rhythmic cry in which excess air is forced
through the vocal cords.
3) Pain cry: a sudden onset of loud crying without preliminary moaning,
sometimes followed with holding the breath.
4) Frustration cry: two or three drawn-out cries, with no prolonged
breath-holding.
E. Smiling and Laughing: initially it’s involuntary, but eventually
it becomes voluntary.
F. When Do Emotions Appear?
Soon after birth, infants will exhibit contentment, interest,
and distress. Over the next 6 months, they begin to
express the 6 basic emotions…
Happiness
Surprise
Sadness
Disgust
Anger
Fear
G. Emotions Involving the Self and Others
1) Self-Conscious Emotions: emotions such as
embarrassment, empathy, and envy that require a degree
of self-awareness.
2) Self-Awareness: conscious knowledge of the self as a
distinct, identifiable being that is separate from others.
3) Self-Evaluative Emotions: emotions such as pride, guilt,
and shame that involve evaluation of one’s own thoughts and
behavior against socially appropriate thoughts and behavior.
4) Empathy: the ability to put oneself in another person’s
place and feel what that person feels.
5) Sympathy: sorrow or concern for another person’s
unfortunate situation.
6) Prosocial Behavior: any voluntary behavior intended to
help others.
7) Social Cognition: in reference to early cognitive
development, the cognitive ability to understand that others
have mental states.
H. Temperament: characteristic disposition, or style of
approaching and reacting to situations.
1) Easy: generally happy; responds well to change and
novelty.
2) Slow To Warm Up: generally mild reactions; hesitant
about new experiences.
3) Difficult: irritable; intense emotional responses.
I. Goodness of fit: Adjustment is easiest when the child’s
temperament matches the situation.
1) Physically
2) Socially
3) Culturally
J. Earliest Social Experiences: The Infant in the Family
1) The Mother’s Role
Body Contact... Harlow’s Monkeys
2) The Father’s Role
K. How Parents Shape Gender Differences
1) Gender: significance of being male or female.
2) Gender-typing: socialization process by which children,
at an early age, learn appropriate gender roles.
II. Developmental Issues in Infancy
A. Basic Trust versus Basic Mistrust: Erikson’s first stage in
psychosocial development, in which infants develop a sense
of the reliability of people and objects.
Virtue attained…
1) Hope: the belief among infants that they can fulfill their
needs and obtain their desires because the world is safe
and reliable.
Success at this stage is based on sensitive,
responsive, and consistent care.
‘Can I count on you to feed me when I’m hungry?’
B. Developing Attachments
1) Attachment: reciprocal, enduring tie between infant and
caregiver, each of whom contributes to the quality of the
relationship.
Strange Situation
A mother and infant (12 to 18 months of age) enter a room
with toys in it.
A stranger enters the room.
Mother leaves the room.
Mother returns to the room.
Mother and the stranger leave the room.
The stranger returns to the room.
Mother returns to the room again.
C. Securely Attached: child explores environment when
mother is present, cries briefly when she leaves, is happy when
mother returns, goes off and plays again.
D. Insecure Attachment…
1) Anxious/Ambivalent: child clings to mother, cries
uncontrollably when mother leaves, clings to mother once
again when she returns, yet kicks and squirms.
2) Avoidant: child ignores mother while she’s there, when
she leaves, and when she returns.
3) Disorganized: child doesn’t seem to notice mother or
looks away when approaching her, alternates between
approach and avoidance.
E. Attachment Q-set (AQS)
F. Influences on Attachment
1) Parental
Level of warmth and responsiveness.
Employment and amount of separation .
2) Baby’s Temperament
G. Long-Term Effects of Attachment
Amount of independence.
Child’s expectations about social relationships.
Level of curiosity and self-confidence.
Preparation for adult intimacy.
H. Adult Attachment Interview (AAI): a semi-structured
interview that asks adults to recall and interpret feelings and
experiences related to their childhood attachments.
I. Emotional Communication with Caregivers
1) Mutual regulation: process by which infant and caregiver
communicate emotional states to each other and respond
appropriately.
2) “Still-Face” Paradigm: research method used to
measure mutual regulation in infants 2 to 9 months old.
a) Still-face: referring to the mother suddenly becoming stony-faced,
silent, and unresponsive.
b) Reunion: referring to the mother’s resumption of normal interaction
after the “still-face” episode.
3) “Still-face” paradigm: Sequence
Mother becomes stony face.
Child stops smiling and looking at mother.
Child tries to comfort self.
After still-face baby is joyous, but demanding.
4) Social Referencing: understanding an ambiguous
situation by seeking out another person’s perception of it.
III. Developmental Issues in Toddlerhood
A. The Emerging Sense of Self
B. Self-Concept: descriptive and evaluative mental picture of
one’s existence, abilities, and traits.
1) Self-Awareness: conscious knowledge of the self as a distinct,
identifiable being that is separate from others. Rouge test
2) Personal Agency: a feature of the self in which the baby realizes that
one can control external events. “I can make that move!”
3) Self-Efficacy: a sense of capability to master challenges and
achieve goals. “I’m GREAT at making it move!”
4) Self-Coherence: the sense of being a physical whole with boundaries,
within which agency resides.
C. Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt: Erikson’s second
stage in psychosocial development, in which children achieve
a balance between self-determination and control by others.
Virtue attained…
1) Will: the driving force to accomplish tasks.
a) Autonomy
A shift from external control to self-control.
Emerges from trust and self-awareness.
The Terrible Twos…
Negativism: the tendency of a toddler to shout “No!” just for
the sake of resisting authority.
b) Shame and Doubt
Help toddler recognize need for limits.
D. Moral Development
1) Socialization: development of habits, skills, values, and
motives shared by responsible, productive members of a
society.
2) Internalization: process by which children accept societal
standards of conduct as their own; fundamental to
socialization.
E. Developing Self-Regulation
1) Self-Regulation: child’s independent control of behavior
to conform to understood social expectations even when
caregiver is not present.
Depends on attentional processes.
Ability to monitor negative emotions.
F. Origins of Conscience
1) Conscience: internal standards of behavior, which usually
control one’s conduct and produce emotional discomfort when
violated.
2) Inhibitory Control: conscious, or effortful, holding back of
impulses.
Refraining because they believe it is the right thing to do…not just
self-regulation.
3) Committed Compliance
Willingly follows orders without lapses.
Shows internalization of household rules.
4) Situational Compliance
Follows orders with prompting and reminders.
IV. Contact With Other Children
A. Socialization with Siblings…
Becomes a means for understanding social relationships outside home.
Leads to constructive conflict which helps children with empathy.
1) The "Only Child" Syndrome
2) Twins
B. Sociability with Non-Siblings
Babies who spend more time with other babies tend to be more sociable.
Toddlers can learn by imitating each other…
Playing follow-the-leader
Paves the way for more complex games
V. Children of Working Parents
A. NLSY found little or no effect of maternal employment
on children’s...
Compliance
Behavioral problems
Self-esteem
Cognitive development
Academic achievement
B. Whether or not day care (schooling before age 2) is
beneficial likely depends on a number of factors…
The quality of the day care center.
The temperament and attachment styles of the child.
The household income.
Quality of parenting.
VI. Maltreatment: Abuse and Neglect
A. Maltreatment: deliberate or avoidable endangerment of a
child.
B. Abuse (general definition): action that inflicts harm.
C. Neglect (general definition): inaction that causes harm.
1) Physical Abuse: action taken to endanger a child,
involving potential bodily injury.
2) Neglect: failure to meet a child's basic needs.
3) Sexual Abuse: sexual activity involving a child and
an older person.
4) Emotional Maltreatment: action or inaction that may
cause behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental
disorders.
D. Abuse-Prevention Programs
Teach parenting skills.
Investigate reports of maltreatment.
Provide shelters and therapy.
Facilitate foster care.
E. Long-Term Effects of Maltreatment
One third of adults abused as children victimize
own children.
Sexually abused children grow up with...
Lower self-esteem
Greater risk of depression and anxiety
Risk of precocious sexual behavior