Unit: 4 : Development during Infancy

The infancy period is characterised as;

a) The infancy period is the shortest period of whole life-span development. It start’s from
birth to two years. This is the time when fetus comes into the world from the mother’s womb
where he lives almost nine critical months.
b) Adjustment is equally important to the infant as he has to adjust with the outer
surroundings. Most of the infants complete their adjustment period in two weeks or less than
two weeks. In infants whose birth has been difficult or premature require more time for
adjustment.
c) Infancy period is a plateau in development. The growth and development which took place
during the prenatal period suddenly come to a stop with birth. Infant loses weight after birth,
is less healthy compared to what it was at the time of birth. At the end of this period infant
again starts gaining weight.
d) Bell, R.Q. et. al. (1971) suggested that infancy is a period of future prediction. We can
start some future prediction about the infant. Some activities show the prediction of
development. It is a preview of later development.
e) Infancy is considered a period full of hazards in terms of physical and psychological
adjustment. Physical adjustment to the new environment is difficult for the child.
The attitudes of the family members create more difficult situation for the infant.
Psychologically, the attitude of significant toward the infant gets crystallized.
This attitude changes from one stage to another.

A) Physical Growth and Motor Development

As already discussed infants have to make certain important adjustments after birth. They
have to make these changes quickly for their better development. If they are not able to effect
those changes, they may face some problems regarding their adjustment. Even they may
regress to a lower stage of development. There are four major adjustments during infancy
period, which are described below:
a) Temperature changes: There is a constant temperature of 100 degree F in the uterine sac,
while temperature in the hospital or home may vary from 60 to 70 degree F.
b) Breathing: When the umbilical cord is cut, infant must begin to breathe on its own.
c) Sucking and Swallowing: The infant must now get nourishment by sucking and
swallowing, instead of receiving it through the umbilical cord. These reflexes are imperfectly
developed at birth, and the infant often gets less nourishment than is needed and thus loses
weight.
d) Elimination: The infant’s organs of elimination begin to work soon after birth. Earlier, the
waste products were eliminated through the umbilical cord.
The first year of infant is characterised by rapid physical growth. A normal baby doubles its
birth weight in six months and triples it in a year. During that time, there is great expansion of
the head and chest, thus permitting development of the brain, heart, and lungs, the organs
most vital to survival. The bones, which are relatively soft at birth, begin to harden, and the
fontanelles, the soft parts of the new-born skull, begin to calcify, the small one at the back of
the head at about 3 months, the larger one in front at varying ages up to 18 months. Brain
weight also increases rapidly during infancy: by the end of the second year, the brain has
already reached 75% of its adult weight.
Growth and size depend on environmental conditions as well as genetic endowment. For
example, severe nutritional deficiency during the mother’s pregnancy and in infancy are
likely to result in an irreversible impairment of growth and intellectual development, while
overfed, fat infants are predisposed to become obese later in life. Human milk provides the
basic nutritional elements necessary for growth; however, in Western cultures supplemental
foods are generally added to the diet during the first year.
The new-born infant sleeps almost constantly, awakening only for feedings, but the number
and length of waking periods gradually increases. By the age of three months, most infants
have acquired a fairly regular schedule for sleeping, feeding, and bowel movements. By the
end of the first year, sleeping and waking hours are divided about equally.
Maturation: Maturation refers to a universal sequence of biological events in the central
nervous system that permits a psychological function to appear, assuming that the child is
physically healthy and lives in an environment containing people and objects. Maturation
cannot cause a psychological function to occur; it only sets the limits on the earliest time of
its appearance. Biological events in youth consider as maturation, when they grow between
12 to 15 years. It is an age of maturation and releases hormones from the pituitary gland
located at the brain. But environmental factors, such as the quality of nutrition during
childhood, can accelerate the emergence of puberty by several years.

B) Sensory and Perceptual Development

Cognition is a broad and inclusive concept that refers to the mental activities involved in the
acquisition, processing, organisation, and use of knowledge. The major processes under the
term cognition include detecting, interpreting, classifying and remembering information,
evaluating ideas, inferring principles and deducting rules imagining possibilities, generating,
and strategies, fantasizing and dreaming. At the infancy period children develop many
elements of abilities to think and to understand the world around them. Infants have
remarkably competent organisms, even on the first day of life. The new-born child is ready to
the basic sensations of our species. They can see, hear, and smell, and they are sensitive to
pain, touch, and changes in bodily position.
Infants are not only growing physically during the first 2 years of life, but also they are
growing cognitively (mentally). Every day they interact with different persons and learn
about their environment and pathways between nerve cells both within their brains, and
between their brains and bodies. Cognitive change and development is a little harder to
determine as clearly. Therefore, much about what experts know about mental and cognitive
development is based on the careful observation of developmental theories, such as Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development and Erikson’s psychosocial stages. According to Piaget’s
theory, infants interact with their environment entirely through reflexive behaviours. They do
not think about what they are going to do, but rather follow their instincts and involuntary
reactions to get what they need, such as food, air, and attention.
Piaget believed that as children begin to grow and learn about their environment through their
senses, they begin to engage in intentional, goal-directed behaviours. Jean Piaget was the
most influential developmental psychologist of the twentieth century. The work of cognition
has held centre stage in child development research since 1960. His theory of cognitive
growth and change is original, comprehensive, integrative and elegant. He recorded infant’s
and children’s spontaneous activities, and presented problems of thousands of children and
adolescents. His ideas have been the source of many research studies. In Piaget’s theory,
knowledge is assumed to have a specific goal or purpose to aid the person in adapting to the
environment. The child does not receive information passively, and thoughts are not simply
the product of teaching by others. Nor is the cognitive progress seen as primarily a product of
maturation of a brain. Knowledge is acquired and thought processes become more complex
and efficient as a consequence of the maturing child’s interactions with the world. The
individual is active, curious and inventive throughout the life cycle.
The theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and
development of human intelligence. It deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how
humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover, Piaget claims that
cognitive development is at the centre of human organism and language is contingent on
cognitive development. Piaget considered cognitive development in terms of stages. He
mentioned four stages in cognitive development, that is
a) Sensory motor stage (Birth -2years)
b) Pre operational stage (2-7 years)
c) Concrete operational stage (7-11years)
d) Formal operational stage (11-15 years).
Let us take up these stages one by one and discuss.
Sensory Motor Stage (Birth -2 years): The first stage is the sensory motor stage which lasts
from birth to about two years old. The infant uses his or her senses and motor abilities to
understand the world, beginning with reflexes and ending with complex combinations of
sensory motor skills. This stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages as given below:
i) Reflexes (birth -1 month): The child understands the environment purely through inborn
reflexes such as sucking and looking.
ii) Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): Between one and four months, the child works
on an action of his own which serves as a stimulus to which it responds with the same action,
and around and around we go.
iii) Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): The child becomes more focused on the
world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the
environment.
iv) Coordination of Secondary Reactions (8-12 months): Develop certain focuses on the
demand object. Responses become more coordinated and complex.
v) Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-24 months): Children begin a period of trial and error
experimentation during this sub-stage.
vi) Early Representational Thought: Children begin to develop symbols to represent events
or objects in the world in the final sensory motor sub-stage.

C) Language Development
Language development is a process starting early in human life, when a person begins to
acquire language by learning it as it is spoken and by mimicry. Children’s language
development moves from simple to complex. Infants start without language. Yet by four
months of age, babies can read lips and discriminate speech sounds. The language that infants
speak is called babbling. Speech replaces gestures and babbling as the child starts
communicating his desires and ask questions during 6 months period. Speech, symbolism,
imitation of family members or others and morality are the most distinctive characteristics of
infants. After few months' time the infant use their name and personal pronouns I, me, or my.
It represents the self-awareness and self-consciousness.
Usually, language starts off as recall of simple words without associated meaning, but as
children grow, words acquire meaning, with connections between words being formed. As a
person gets older, new meanings and new associations are created and vocabulary increases
as more words are learned.
Infants use their bodies, vocal cries and other preverbal vocalisations to communicate their
wants, needs and dispositions. Even though most children begin to vocalise and eventually
verbalize at various ages and at different rates, they learn their first language without
conscious instruction from parents or caretakers. In fact research has shown that the earliest
learning begins in utero when the fetus can recognise the sounds and speech patterns of his
mother’s voice.
Language is acquired with amazing rapidity, particularly after children speak their first word,
usually sometime around the end of the first year. This can be understood during the months
of 4-8 months child language characteristics is babbling such as, ‘baba’, ‘dada’ and ‘gaga’.
At the age of 12 months, the infant first utters the understandable words such as mommy,
dog, dirty and yes. During 18 months the language transforms into two word combination
such as mommy milk, my pencil and drink juice.
There are four main components of language development in children. Each component has
its own appropriate developmental periods.
a) Phonology involves the rules about the structure and sequence of speech sounds. From
shortly after birth to around one year, the baby starts to make speech sounds. At around two
months, the baby will engage in cooing, which mostly consists of vowel sounds. At around
four months, cooing turns into babbling which is the repetitive combination of consonant and
vowel. Babies understand more than they are able to say. From 1–2 years, babies can
recognise the correct pronunciation of familiar words. Babies will also use phonological
strategies to simplify word pronunciation. Some strategies include repeating the first
consonant-vowel in a multi syllable word (‘TV’—> ‘didi’) or deleting unstressed syllables in
a multi syllable word (‘banana’—>’nana’).
b) Semantics consists of vocabulary and how concepts are expressed through words. From
birth to one year, comprehension (the language we understand) develops before production
(the language we use). There is about a 5 month lag in between the two. Babies have an
innate preference to listen to their mother’s voice. Babies can recognise familiar words and
use preverbal gestures.
From 1–2 years, vocabulary grows to several hundred words. There is a vocabulary spurt
between 18–24 months, which includes fast mapping. Fast mapping is the babies’ ability to
learn a lot of new things quickly. The majority of the babies’ new vocabulary consists of
object words (nouns) and action words (verbs). By 3–5 years, children usually have difficulty
using words correctly. Children experience many problems such as under extensions, taking a
general word and applying it specifically (for example, ‘blankie’) and overextensions, taking
a specific word and applying it too generally (example, ‘car’ for ‘van’). However, children
coin words to fill in for words not yet learned (for example, someone is a cooker rather than a
chef because a child will not know what a chef is). Children can also understand metaphors.
c) Grammar involves two parts. The first part is syntax, it refers to the rules in which words
are arranged into sentences. The second is morphology, it refers to the use of grammatical
markers (indicating tense, active or passive voice etc.). From 1–2 years, children start using
telegraphic speech, which are two word combinations
d) Pragmatics involves the rules for appropriate and effective communication. The three
skills involved in this include (i) using language for greeting, demanding etc. (ii) changing
language for talking differently depending on who it is you are talking to (iii) following rules
such as turn taking, staying on topic, etc. From birth to one year, babies can engage in joint
attention (sharing the attention of something with someone else). Babies also can engage in
turn taking activities. By 1–2 years, they can engage in conversational turn taking and topic
maintenance.

D) Emotional & Social Development

Psychosocial development is the development of a person's understanding of the environment
they are living in, and figuring out how that relates to them, their behaviour, and others. To
put it in even simpler terms, it is learning about yourself, through your surroundings and
other people.
The theory of psychosocial development is given by the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. It is
perhaps one of the best ways to understand the psychosocial development in infancy period.
He describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan and it is one of the
better theories of personality. Erikson has characterised infancy as the period during which
the child develops basic and long-lasting expectations about his world. The central idea of
Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity. Ego identity refers to
the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. According to Erikson,
our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experience and information we acquire in
our daily interactions with others. Erikson also believed that a sense of competence also
motivates behaviours and actions. Each stage is concerned with becoming competent in an
area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which he
sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the
person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. Erikson also believed in each stage, people
experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. These conflicts are
centred on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During
these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure. The
psychosocial theory include the Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust (birth to 1 years). The first stage
of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development occurs between birth and one year of age
and is the most fundamental stage in life. Because an infant is purely dependent on their
family members, the development of trust is based on the dependability and quality of the
child’s caregivers. If an infant successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure
in the world. Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting
contribute to feelings of mistrust in the children they care for. Failure to develop trust will
result in fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable. Trust and mistrust
is the main feature of infant development. A sense of trust requires a feeling of physical
comfort and a minimal amount of fear and apprehension about the future. Trust in infancy
sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to
live.
The infancy stage focuses on the infant’s basic needs, being met by the parents. If the parents
expose the child to warmth, regularly, and dependable affection, the infant’s view of the
world will be one of trust. If the parents fail to provide a secure environment and fail to meet
the child’s basic need, a sense of mistrust will result. If proper balance is achieved, the child
will develop the virtue hope, the strong beliefs that, even when things are not going well, they
will work out well in the end. Failing this, maladaptive tendency or sensory distortion may
develop and the malignant tendency of withdrawal will develop.
Others type of social behaviour
There are other types of social behaviour, which are discussed here:
a) Attachment: A new born baby in arms is the greatest feeling of motherhood. An infant
always seek love and attention from mother and he cries to be pick up , fed, and otherwise
stimulated and often as not he cries when put down. At six weeks, infant will smile at his
mother face and grasp his cloth. At this age infant can recognise their caretaker and his faces.
He needs mother’s and father’s attention towards him. This early attachment is called
‘indiscriminate’; the infant seeks stimulation rather than any particular person. The concept
of attachment is investigated by Ainsworth and her associates (1978), was defined as an
emotionally toned relationship or tie to the mother that led the infant to seek mother presence
and comfort, particularly when the infant was frightened or uncertain. This indicates that all
healthy infants have healthy and strong attachment with their caretakers and this strong
bonding provides the basis for healthy emotional and social development during later
childhood.
b) Smiling: Smiling is the means of communication for infants in early years. An early smile
of the infant is just a facial exercise of the muscles. A child first pass his smile to his mother
and this is at first bestowed indiscriminately between the mother and child. The smile is an
important influence on mother – child relationship. The mother’s responsive smile is equally
important to the child. It transforms the spontaneous smile of the infant into an exchange.
This may be called first real social interaction. The social smile appears at 7 or 8 weeks of
age, and by 3 months infants will smile almost any face. This smile is important to the
caretakers and child because it invites adult to interact with the baby and therefore contributes
to the attachment bonding.
c) Anxiety: As we all know that mother and child relation is important in infancy period. The
child first recognised his mother face and infant is aware that mother is special person at this
time; he is at once in a position to lose her. An infant around 10 months may be seen crawling
behind his mother, from one room to another room. If mother is disappearing, he may be cry
and scream, and watch every door. Even his crying and searching at different places is an
indication of attachment with the mother. The increase in attachment behaviour is considered
to be an indication of separation anxiety.
d) Fear of strangers: A second anxiety that is a direct result of the infant’s first attachment
is stranger anxiety. The child is specially attach with the mother and he can be easily upset by
the approach of an unfamiliar adult, especially if his mother is not present around. The infant
fixes his eyes on the stranger and stares, unmoving, for a short time. He is likely to cry and
show the signs of distress. Stranger anxiety disappears toward the end of the first year, as the
child comes in contact with a growing number of relatives.

E) Hazards
As mentioned earlier, the period of infancy is the shortest period of development for a child.
In this short time there are many hazards. These hazards may be classified as physical and
psychological hazards.
1) Physical hazards: The physical hazards of infancy though of low significance, its effect
on infant can affect the entire life span of the child. Some physical hazards are given below:
a) Complication at the time of birth: If the mother has some complications at the time of
birth or delivery, chances of the child getting physically injured are high. A caesarean
birth is likely to result in anoxia, a temporary loss of oxygen to the brain. If the anoxia is
severe, brain damage will be far greater than if anoxia lasts for only a few seconds. The
more complicated the birth and the more damage there is to the brain tissue, greater will
be the effect on the infant’s postnatal life and adjustment. The use of too much medicine
at the time of birth may lead to a serious complication.
b) Multiple births: Children of multiple births are usually smaller and weaker than
singletons as a result of crowding during the pre-natal period, which inhibits fetal
movements. These infants tend to be born pre mature, which adds to their adjustment
problems.
c) Post maturity: If the size of fetus is large then at the time of birth, there may be a need
to use instruments or surgery which becomes hazardous to the infant. Critical conditions
of birth may create a hazard for the infant.
d) Pre maturity: The condition of pre maturity may at times be the cause of death of the
infant. Prematurely born infants are also especially susceptible to brain damage. Anoxia is
another problem when premature infant’s respiratory mechanism is not fully developed.
This effect may be such that it can also be long lasting.
2) Psychological hazards: Like physical hazards some psychological hazards also affect
the infancy period. Some of these are:
a) Traditional beliefs about birth: There are many traditional beliefs associated with
birth. These beliefs also affect the development of the child. For e.g. some people believe
that those children born with difficult births, have difficult life situation. Some believe
that there is some good time or event during the birth. But there is less scientific evidence
to support these beliefs.
b) Helplessness: Helplessness is another struggle for the infant in outer world. At the
time of birth infants are in hospital and under the care of many doctors and nurses. The
helplessness of the new-born is more of a psychological hazard in the case of first born
children than of later-born children.
c) Attitude of parents: The attitude of the parents may be changed at the time of birth.
There are many reasons to change this attitude toward the infant such as gender
preferences, excessive crying and difficulty in nourishment, complication at the time of
birth and unexpected arrival of twins and triplets. The mother’s attitude is more important
for the infant because infants are in direct touch with their mother.