Infancy

(Physical and psychological development in infancy, motor and cognitive development,

object permanence, the role of motor development in forming self-awareness,
attachment, the role of early mother-child relationship, effects of mother deprivation)

Newborn: 1-3 months

Infancy: first year
Toddler: 1-3 years

Physical development: During the infant’s first 3 months, physical growth progresses at
an astonishing pace. In just 12 short weeks, the baby will gain approximately 6 pounds
and grow more than 4 inches in length. As a consequence of the rapid development of
the brain, the circumference of the head will increase by more than an inch. In the first
year they triple their weight
 the baby’s development is evaluated by using growth charts, which depict
average values of height, weight, and other measures of growth that have been
compiled by studying large samples of normally developing infants

Brain development: (neuron=nerve cell)

 fontanels: “Soft spots,” or spaces, that separate the bones of the skull
prenatally and in early infancy.
 The brain is an enormously complex communication system of neuron
networks.
 A neuron accom plishes its basic communication task in two ways:
1. by sending information via small electrical impulses along its axon, a
branch that reaches out to connect with other brain cells, and
2. by receiving information from the axons of other cells through spiky
protrusions called dendrites
 Between the axons and dendrites of communicating neurons is a tiny gap
called a synapse  synaptogenesis: the process of synapse formation
 The central nervous system is conventionally divided into three major sec-
tions:
1. spinal cord: Bundle of nerves, is encased in the spinal bones that
extend from the base of the brain to below the waist.
2. brain stem: Controls such vital functions as breathing and sleeping, as
well as such elementary reactions as reflexive blinking and sucking.
3. cerebral cortex: The brain’s outermost layer. Processing center for the
perception of pat terns, the execution of complex motor sequences,
and planning, decision making, and speech. (very immature at birth)
 occipital lobes: vision
 temporal lobes: hearing and speech
 parietal lobes: spatial perception
 frontal lobes: control and coordination of
the other cortical areas to enable complex
forms of behavior and thought.

 experience-expectant: Processes of
brain development that seem to
anticipate experiences that are
universal in all normally developing
members of our species.
  experience-dependent: Development of neural connections that is initiated in
response to experience. Allows humans to learn from experience

 prefrontal area: part of the cortex that is located directly behind the
forehead and is important to the development of voluntary behaviors.

Newborn reflexes
(Reflex: a specific, well-integrated, automatic (involuntary) response to a specific type of
stimulation.)
 All their movements are reflexes, no intentional movements
 Disappears after 6 months
 Piaget’s theory of Developing action
Piaget referred to infancy as the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development
because during this period, the process of adaptation through which infants gain
knowledge about the world consists largely of coordinating sensory perceptions and
simple motor responses.
primary circular reaction: the term Piaget used to describe the infant’s tendency to
repeat pleasurable bodily actions for their own sake.

Substages of Sensorimotor Stage

Substage 1: Exercising reflex schemas. Piaget believed that in the first 4 to 6 weeks,
infants learn to control and coordinate the reflexes present at birth, which provide them
with their initial connection to their environment. However, these initial reflexes add
nothing new to development because they undergo very little accom modation (they are
largely unchanged). In this sense, infants seem to accomplish little more than exercising
inborn reflexes.

Substage 2: Primary circular reactions. Accommodation first appears in this sub

stage, which occurs from about 1 to 4 months of age. The first hints of new forms of
behavior are that existing reflexes are extended in time (as when infants suck be tween
feedings), or are extended to new objects (as when infants suck their thumb). Piaget
acknowledged that babies may suck their thumb as early as the first day of life (we now
know they may do so even before birth), but he believed that the thumb sucking seen
during substage 2 reflects a qualitatively new form of behavior. That is, in substage 1,
infants suck their thumb only when they accidentally touch their mouth with their hand.
During substage 2, in contrast, if a baby’s thumb falls from her mouth, the baby is likely
to bring the thumb back to her mouth so that she can suck it some more. In other words,
infants in this substage repeat pleasur able actions for their own sake. Piaget used the
term primary circular reaction to characterize such behavior. Behaviors of this type
are considered primary because the objects toward which they are directed are parts of
the baby’s own body; they are called circular because they circle back to themselves
(sucking leads to more suck ing, which leads to more sucking, and so on).
Substage 3: Reproducing Interesting events. In contrast to the first two substages,
in which infants’ actions primarily involve their own body, in the third substage, 4- to 8-
month-olds begin to direct their attention and their actions to the external world—to
objects and outcomes. This new interest in external things gives rise to a characteristic
behavior observed in infants during this substage—the repetition of actions that produce
interesting changes in the environment. For example, when babies in this substage
accidentally discover that a particular action, like squeezing a rubber toy, produces an
interesting effect, such as squeaking, they repeat the action again and again to produce
the effect. Similarly, when babies vocalize by cooing or gurgling and a caregiver
responds, they repeat the sound they made. Piaget termed these new, object-oriented
actions secondary circular reactions. They are “secondary” because they apply to
something outside the infant, in contrast to primary circular reactions, which apply to the
infant’s own body.

The change from primary circular reactions to secondary circular reactions indicated to
Piaget that infants are beginning to realize that objects are more than an extension of
their own actions, that objects have their own, separate identities. In this substage,
however, babies still have only a rudimentary understanding of objects and space, and
their discoveries about the world seem to have an accidental quality.

Substage 4: The emergence of Intentionality. The hallmark of the fourth

sensorimotor substage, which occurs between 8 and 12 months of age, is the emergence
of the ability to engage in behaviours directed toward achieving a goal. Piaget called this
ability intentionality. He believed goal- directed behaviour to be the earliest form of
true problem solving. In Piaget’s view, then, over the course of substages 3 and 4 of
sensorimotor intelligence, infants become capable of intentional action directed at
objects and people around them, but these abilities come fully into play only when
infants can directly perceive the objects and people in question. Piaget maintained that
this is because infants lack object permanence, that is, the understanding that objects
exist even when they are out of view. Until substage 4 of sensorimotor development,
according to Piaget, infants live in a world in which objects come and go from their line
of sight, each “a mere image which reenters the void as soon as it vanishes and emerges
from it for no apparent reason”.

Substage 5: Exploring by experimenting. The fifth substage of the sensorimotor

period, tertiary circular reactions, emerges between 12 and 18 months of age and is
characterized by an ability to vary the actions of substage 4 systematically and flexibly.
This ability makes explorations of the world more complex.

Substage 6: Representation. the final stage of the sensorimotor period, between 18

and 24 months of age, is that babies begin to base their actions on internal, mental
symbols, or representations, of experience. When they can re-present the world to
themselves—that is, when they can present it to themselves over again mentally—they
can be said to be engaging in true mental actions. Representation also enables
deferred imitation, the imitation of actions observed in the past, which is of
tremendous importance to children’s learning and socialization.

Motor development
=means the physical growth and strengthening of a child’s bones, muscles, and ability to
move and touch his/her surroundings.
 1. fine motor skills are related to the development and coordination of small
muscles, such as those that move the fingers and eyes. (reaching, grasping...)
2. gross motor skills are related to the development and coordination of large
muscles, important for locomotion. (creeping, crawling...)
Motor development as self-awareness: As they have motor skills, they can use their
hands for playing, have more attention to the environment, know their body and their
abilities better. Also, they get a better self-esteem when these experiences in their
motor domains are successful.

Cognitive development
=development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual
resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of thee developed
human brain.

IDE MÉG KELL

Conceptual development
=Infants demonstrates capacities to understand the world in a more conceptual term.
Object permanence:
o =the understanding that objects continue to exit even if they cannot be seen
o According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory it emerges only
gradually, beginning at about 8 months. (4 th substage)
o Difficulties: A-not-B error: a pattern of reacting in the object permanence
task, in which the infant looks for the hidden object in location A, where the
infant had previously found the object, instead of location B, where the infant
has just observed it being hidden. // role of memory: do not remember where
it was hidden //preservation: repeating a behaviour and realizing it does not
fit the situation
Developing attention
 Phase I: Stimulus-Detection reflex. The stimulus-detection reflex signals the
baby’s initial awareness of some change in the environment. In this phase, there is a
very brief slowing and then quickening of the heart rate.

 Phase II: Stimulus Orienting. During the second phase, the baby’s attention
becomes fixed on the stimulus. The heart rate slows considerably during this period.

 Phase III: Sustained attention. In the third phase, the heart rate remains slow as
the baby cognitively processes the [Link] baby’s entire body may become still,
and it is relatively more difficult to distract the baby with a new stimulus. Sustained
attention is believed to be a voluntary state; that is, the baby purposefully controls
and focuses his or her attention on the stimulus. At this point, the baby is truly paying
attention.

 Phase IV: Attention termination. In this phase, the baby is still looking at the
object but is no longer processing its information (it takes a moment to break contact
with the stimulus). The heart rate begins to return to prestimulus levels.

Emotions
 Theory of gradual differentiation: The view that infants are born only with general
emotional reactions, that are simply negative or positive, which differentiate into
basic emotions over the first 2 years.
 Differential emotions theory: The view that basic emotions are innate and emerge in
their adult form, either at birth or on a biologically determined timetable.

Maternal depression may prove an obstacle to intersubjectivity, since mothers may be

less responsive to babies’ emotional cues and infants may disengage from stressful,
unresponsive interactions.

The Infant–Caregiver Emotional relationship

 Attachment is an emotional bond between children and their caregivers, which
begins to develop at around 7 to 9 months of age.
 Developmentalists generally cite four signs of attachment in babies and young
children:
1. They seek to be near their primary caregivers. Before the age of 7 to 8
months, few babies plan and make organized attempts to achieve contact
with their caregivers; after this age, babies often follow their caregivers
closely, for example.
2. They show distress if separated from their caregivers. Before attachment
begins, infants show little disturbance when their caregivers walk out of the
room.
3. They are happy when they are reunited with the person to whom they are
attached.
4. They orient their actions to the caregiver. When they are playing, for
example, they watch the caregiver or listen for the caregiver’s voice.
 According to Freud’s drive-reduction explanation, attachment to the mother
originates from her satisfying the infant’s need for nourishment. Experiments with
monkeys have failed to support Freud’s explanation but do support John Bowlby’s
ethological explanation, according to which attachment arises from the infant’s
coming to feel that the mother is a source of security and a safe base from which
to explore the world.
 Detachment: For Bowlby, the state of indifference toward others experienced by
children who have been separated from their caregiver for an extended time and
have not formed a new stable relationship.

 Phases of attachment:
1. The preattachment phase (birth to age 6 weeks). In the first few weeks of
life, infants remain in close contact with their caregivers and do not seem to
get upset when left alone with an unfamiliar caregiver.
2. The “attachment-in-the-making” phase (ages 6 weeks to 6 to 8
months). Infants begin to respond differently to familiar and unfamiliar
people, and by the time they are 6 or 7 months old, they start to show clear
preferences for their familiar caregivers as well as signs of wariness when
confronted with unfamiliar objects and people.
3. The “clear-cut attachment” phase (between ages 6 to 8 months and 18
to 24 months). During this period, the mother becomes a secure base from
which babies make exploratory excursions and to which they come back
every so often to renew contact before returning to their explorations. This is
also the time when children display full-blown separation anxiety,
becoming visibly upset when the mother or another caregiver leaves the
room. Once this phase of attachment is reached, it regulates the physical
 and emotional relationship between children and those to whom they are
attached.

4. The reciprocal relationship phase (ages 18 to 24 months and older). As

the child becomes more mobile and spends increasingly greater amounts of
time away from the mother, the pair enter into a more reciprocal
relationship, sharing responsibility for maintaining the equilibrium of the
attachment system. When engaged in separate activities, the mother and
the child will occasionally interrupt what they are doing to renew their
contact. Among humans, this transitional phase lasts several years.
 Bowlby believed that as a consequence of infants’ growing symbolic capacities,
parent–child attachment begins to serve as an internal working model, a mental
model that children construct as a result of their experiences and that they use to
guide their interac- tions with caregivers and others.

 Strange situation: A procedure designed to assess children’s attachment on the

basis of their use of their mother as a secure base for exploration, their reac- tions
to being left alone with a stranger and then completely alone, and their response
when they are reunited with their mother.
o secure attachment A pattern of attachment in which children play
comfortably and react positively to a stranger as long as their mother is
present. They become upset when their mother leaves and are unlikely to be
consoled by a stranger, but they calm down as soon as their mother
reappears.
o avoidant attachment The attachment pattern in which infants are indifferent
to where their mother is sitting, may or may not cry when their mother
leaves, are as likely to be comforted by strangers as by their mother, and are
indifferent when their mother returns to the room.
o resistant attachment The attachment pattern in which infants stay close to
their mother and appear anxious even when their mother is near. They
become very upset when their mother leaves but are not comforted by her
return. They simultaneously seek renewed contact with their mother and
resist their mother’s efforts to comfort them.
o disorganized attachment The insecure attachment pattern in which infants
seem to lack a coherent method for dealing with stress. They may behave in
seemingly contradictory ways, such as screaming for their mother but
moving away when she approaches. In extreme cases, they may seem
dazed.

 Parental sensitivity correlates with secure attachment, while maternal

depression, abusive or extremely insensitive caregiving, and family stressors
such as parental conflict and low Socio-Economic-Status appear to be linked to
insecure attachment patterns.
 Institutional contexts such as orphanages can negatively affect attachment, with
the extent of their impact depending on factors such as severity of deprivation,
age on leaving the institution, and the quality of the subsequent environment.