MODULE 6

INFANT AND TODDLERS

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, student should be able to:

1. Trace and describe the pre-natal developmental process

2. Identifying factors that enhance /impeded the physical development of

infants and toddlers

3. Drawing implications of the physical, cognitive and socio-emotional

development processes of infants and toddlers to child care, education and
parenting.

Overview:

Infants and toddlers are born ready to learn. They learn through cuddling with a

caregiver, listening to language, trying out sounds, stretching on the floor, reaching for objects,

tasting foods, and exploring their environments in countless ways every day.

Infant and toddler development, the physical, emotional, behavioral, and mental growth

of children from ages 0 to 36 months. The different milestones indicate each stage of infant (0 to

12 months) and toddler (12 to 36 months) development.

Topic Outline

1. Infants and Toddlers

1.1 Physical Development

1.2 Cognitive Development
1.3 Socio-emotional Development

Lesson Proper

Early in the 20th century, child development scholars began to understand that children

were not just “small adults” but individuals with unique personalities and distinct needs.
Cognitive abilities progress through four stages. According to Piaget, a sensorimotor

stage characterized the first two years of life, during which time a child also becomes aware of

the permanence of existence of objects in his or her environment.

Physical Growth and Brain Development in Infancy

Overall Physical Growth

The average newborn weighs approximately 7.5 pounds, although a healthy birth weight
for a full-term baby is considered to be between 5 pounds, 8 ounces (2,500 grams) and 8 pounds,
13 ounces (4,000 grams). The average length of a newborn is 19.5 inches, increasing to 29.5
inches by 12 months and 34.4 inches by 2 years old (WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study 2
Group, 2006).

For the first few days of life, infants typically lose about 5 percent of their body weight as

they eliminate waste and get used to feeding. This often goes unnoticed by most parents, but can

be cause for concern for those who have a smaller infant. This weight loss is temporary,

however, and is followed by a rapid period of growth. By the time an infant is 4 months old, it

usually doubles in weight, and by one year has tripled its birth weight. By age 2, the weight has

quadrupled. The average length at 12 months (one year old) typically ranges from 28.5-30.5

inches. The average length at 24 months (two years old) is around 33.2-35.4 inches (CDC, 2010).

The Brain in the First Two Years

Some of the most dramatic physical change that occurs during this period is in the

brain. At birth, the brain is about 25 percent of its adult weight, and this is not true for any other

part of the body. By age 2, it is at 75 percent of its adult weight, at 95 percent by age 6, and at

100 percent by age 7 years.

Communication within the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the brain and

spinal cord, begins with nerve cells called neurons. Neurons connect to other neurons via

networks of nerve fibers called axons and dendrites. Each neuron typically has a single axon

and numerous dendrites which are spread out like branches of a tree (some will say it looks like a

hand with fingers). The axon of each neuron reaches toward the dendrites of other neurons at

intersections called synapses, which are critical communication links within the brain. Axons

and dendrites do not touch, instead, electrical impulses in the axons cause the release of

chemicals called neurotransmitters which carry information from the axon of the sending

neuron to the dendrites of the receiving neuron.

During the next several years, dendrites, or connections between neurons, will

undergo a period of transient exuberance or temporary dramatic growth (exuberant because

it is so rapid and transient because some of it is temporary). There is a proliferation of these

dendrites during the first two years so that by age 2, a single neuron might have thousands of

dendrites. After this dramatic increase, the neural pathways that are not used will be eliminated

through a process called pruning, thereby making those that are used much stronger. It is
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thought that pruning causes the brain to function more efficiently, allowing for mastery of more

complex skills (Hutchinson, 2011). Transient exuberance occurs during the first few years of life,

and pruning continues through childhood and into adolescence in various areas of the brain. This
activity is occurring primarily in the cortex or the thin outer covering of the brain involved in

voluntary activity and thinking.

How baby brains develop

The prefrontal cortex, located behind the forehead, continues to grow and mature

throughout childhood and experiences an addition growth spurt during adolescence. It is the last

part of the brain to mature and will eventually comprise 85 percent of the brain’s

weight.

Another major change occurring in the central nervous system is the development

of myelin, a coating of fatty tissues around the axon of the neuron. Myelin helps insulate the

nerve cell and speed the rate of transmission of impulses from one cell to another.

Motor and Sensory Development

From Reflexes to Voluntary Movements

Every basic motor skill (any movement ability) develops over the first two years of life.
The sequence of motor skills first begins with reflexes. Infants are equipped with a number of
reflexes, or involuntary movements in response to stimulation, and some are necessary for
survival. These include the breathing reflex, or the need to maintain an oxygen supply (this
includes hiccups, sneezing, and thrashing reflexes), reflexes that maintain body temperature
(crying, shivering, tucking the legs close, and pushing away blankets), the sucking reflex, or
automatically sucking on objects that touch their lips, and the rooting reflex, which involves
turning toward any object that touches the cheek (which manages feeding, including the search
for a nipple).

Motor development

Motor development occurs in an orderly sequence as infants move from reflexive

reactions (e.g., sucking and rooting) to more advanced motor functioning. This development
proceeds in a cephalocaudal (from head-down) and proximodistal (from center-out) direction.
For instance, babies first learn to hold their heads up, then sit with assistance, then sit unassisted,
followed later by crawling, pulling up, cruising, and then walking. As motor skills develop, there 4
are certain developmental milestones that young children should achieve. For each milestone,
there is an average age, as well as a range of ages in which the milestone should be reached. An
example of a developmental milestone is a baby holding up its head. Babies on average are able
to hold up their head at 6 weeks old, and 90% of babies achieve this between 3 weeks and 4
months old. If a baby is not holding up his head by 4 months old, he is showing a delay. On
average, most babies sit alone at 7 months old. Sitting involves both coordination and muscle
strength, and 90% of babies achieve this milestone between 5 and 9 months old (CDC, 2018).
Gross motor skills are voluntary movements that involve the use of large muscle groups
and are typically large movements of the arms, legs, head, and torso. These skills begin to
develop first. Examples include moving to bring the chin up when lying on the stomach, moving
the chest up, rocking back and forth on hands and knees.
Fine motor skills are more exact movements of the hands and fingers and include the

ability to reach and grasp an object. These skills focus on the muscles in the fingers, toes, and
eyes, and enable coordination of small actions (e.g., grasping a toy, writing with a pencil, and

using a spoon). Newborns cannot grasp objects voluntarily but do wave their arms toward

objects of interest. At about 4 months of age, the infant is able to reach for an object, first with

both arms and within a few weeks, with only one arm. Grasping an object involves the use of the

fingers and palm, but no thumbs. Use of the thumb comes at about 9 months of age when the

infant is able to grasp an object using the forefinger and thumb (the pincer grasp). This ability

greatly enhances the ability to control and manipulate an object, and infants take great delight in

this newfound ability.

Table 1. Timeline of Developmental Milestones.

 Can hold head upright on own

~2 months
 Smiles at sound of familiar voices and follows movement with eyes

 Can raise head and chest from prone position

 Smiles at others
~3 months
 Grasps objects
 Rolls from side to back

 Babbles, laughs, and tries to imitate sounds

~4-5 months
 Begins to roll from back to side

5
~6 months  Moves objects from hand to hand

 Can sit without support

 May begin to crawl
~7-8 months
 Responds to own name
 Finds partially hidden objects

 Walks while holding on

~8-9 months  Babbles “mama” and “dada”
 Claps

 Stands alone
 Begins to walk
~11-12 months
 Says at least one word
 Can stack two blocks

 Walks independently
 Drinks from a cup
~18 months
 Says at least 15 words
 Points to body parts

~2 years  Runs and jumps

  Uses two-word sentences
 Follows simple instructions
 Begins make-believe play

Sensory Development

As infants and children grow, their senses play a vital role in encouraging and stimulating
the mind and in helping them observe their surroundings. Two terms are important to understand
when learning about the senses. The first is sensation, or the interaction of information with the
sensory receptors. The second is perception, or the process of interpreting what is sensed. It is
possible for someone to sense something without perceiving it.
Vision

What can young infants see, hear, and smell? Newborn infants’ sensory abilities are

significant, but their senses are not yet fully developed. Many of a newborn’s innate preferences

facilitate interaction with caregivers and other humans. Newborns typically cannot see further

than 8 to 16 inches away from their faces, have difficulty keeping a moving object within their

gaze, and can detect contrast more than color differences.

Hearing 6

The infant’s sense of hearing is very keen at birth. If you remember from an earlier

module, this ability to hear is evidenced as soon as the 5th month of prenatal development. In

fact, an infant can distinguish between very similar sounds as early as one month after birth and

can distinguish between a familiar and non-familiar voice even earlier. Babies who are just a few

days old prefer human voices, they will listen to voices longer than sounds that do not involve

speech (Vouloumanos & Werker, 2004), and they seem to prefer their mother’s voice over a

stranger’s voice (Mills & Melhuish, 1974).

Pain and Touch

Immediately after birth, a newborn is sensitive to touch and temperature, and is also
sensitive to pain, responding with crying and cardiovascular responses. Newborns who
are circumcised (the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis) without anesthesia experience
pain, as demonstrated by increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, decreased oxygen in the
blood, and a surge of stress hormones (United States National Library of Medicine,
2016).

Taste and Smell

Not only are infants sensitive to touch, but newborns can also distinguish between sour,
bitter, sweet, and salty flavors and show a preference for sweet flavors. They can distinguish
between their mother’s scent and that of others, and prefer the smell of their mothers. A newborn
placed on the mother’s chest will inch up to the mother’s breast, as it is a potent source of the
maternal odor. Even on the first day of life, infants orient to their mother’s odor and are soothed,
when crying, by their mother’s odor (Sullivan et al., 2011).
Nutrition

Good nutrition in a supportive environment is vital for an infant’s healthy growth and
development. Remember, from birth to 1 year, infants triple their weight and increase their
height by half, and this growth requires good nutrition. For the first 6 months, babies are fed
breast milk or formula. Colostrum, the milk produced during pregnancy and just after birth, has
been described as “liquid gold. Colostrum is packed with nutrients and other important
substances that help the infant build up his or her immune system.

Sleep and Health

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Infant Sleep

Infants 0 to 2 years of age sleep an average of 12.8 hours a day, although this changes
and develops gradually throughout an infant’s life. For the first three months, newborns sleep
between 14 and 17 hours a day, then they become increasingly alert for longer periods of
time. About one-half of an infant’s sleep is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and infants often
begin their sleep cycle with REM rather than non-REM sleep.

Cognitive Development in Children

In order to adapt to the evolving environment around us, humans rely on cognition, both

adapting to the environment and also transforming it. In general, all theorists studying cognitive

development address three main issues:

1. The typical course of cognitive development

2. The unique differences between individuals
3. The mechanisms of cognitive development (the way genetics and environment
combine to generate patterns of change)

Chart: Cognitive Developmental Milestones

2 months
 Pays attention to faces
 Begins to follow things with eyes and recognize people at a distance
 Begins to act bored (cries, fussy) if activity doesn't change

6 months
 Looks around at things nearby
 Brings things to mouth
 Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
 Begins to pass things from one hand to another

12 months
 Explores things in different ways like shaking, banging, throwing
 Finds hidden things easily
 Looks at the right picture or thing when it's named
 Copies gestures
 Starts to use things correctly (like drinks from a cup, brushes hair)
 Bangs two things together
 Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
  Lets things go without help
 Pokes with index (pointer) finger
 Follows simple directions like "pick up the toy"

18 months 8

 Knows what ordinary things are; for example telephone, brush, spoon
 Points to get the attention of others
 Shows interest in a doll or stuffed animal by pretending to feed
 Point to one body part
 Scribbles on his own
 Can follow 1-step verbal commands without any gestures; for example, sits when
you say "sit down"

24 months
 Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers
 Begins to sort shapes and colors
 Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books
 Plays simple make-believe games
 Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
 Might use one hand more than the other
 Follows two-step directions like, "Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet."

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). Developmental Milestones. An
electronic resource available
from: [Link]

Piaget and Sensorimotor Intelligence

How do infants connect and make sense of what they are learning? Remember that Piaget
believed that we are continuously trying to maintain cognitive equilibrium, or balance, between
what we see and what we know (Piaget, 1954). Children have much more of a challenge in
maintaining this balance because they are constantly being confronted with new situations, new
words, new objects, etc. All this new information needs to be organized, and a framework for
organizing information is referred to as a schema. Children develop schemas through the
processes of assimilation and accommodation.

Learning and Memory Abilities in Infants

Memory is central to cognitive development. Our memories form the basis for our sense
of self, guide our thoughts and decisions, influence our emotional reactions, and allow us to learn
(Bauer, 2008). It is thought that Piaget underestimated memory ability in infants (Schneider,
2015).

Language Development

Given the remarkable complexity of a language, one might expect that mastering a

language would be an especially arduous task; indeed, for those of us trying to learn a second
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language as adults, this might seem to be true. However, young children master language very

quickly with relative ease. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through
reinforcement. Noam Chomsky (1965) criticized this behaviorist approach, asserting instead that

the mechanisms underlying language acquisition are biologically determined.

Spelke & Cortelyou, 1981).

Socio-emotional Development

Emotional well-being during the early years has a powerful impact on social

relationships. Children who are emotionally healthy are better able to establish and maintain

positive relationships with adults as well as with peers. Social-emotional development is

essential to a young child’s sense of well-being. The important people in young

children’s lives help lay the foundation for a range of social-emotional skills such as:
 Self-regulation
 Empathy
 Turn-taking and sharing
 Positive relationships with adults and peers

Social-Emotional Milestones

Through early relationships and with nurturing, responsive interactions, infants and

toddlers learn ways of being in relationships, how to get their needs and wants met, and how to

identify and regulate emotions. Because these skills develop together, this area of development is

referred to as social-emotional development.

References:

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House
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Developmental Milestones. Retrieved
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toddlers.

Retrieved from
[Link]
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[Link]
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