Understanding Infants

Chapter 13

Infant Growth and Development

• Growth- refers to an increase in the baby’s size and weight
• Development- increase in intellectual, physical, social and emotional skills

Physical Development

• Includes:
• growth in size and weight
• ability to control and coordinate body movements
• Never in a person’s lifetime will there be a more rapid growth and physical changes than during infancy.

Growth and Proportion

• Infants will gain 1-2 pounds per month during the first six months.
• The average infant will triple in weight and grows 50% taller in the first year.
• Infant’s body is disproportional- arms and legs seem small, and head very large.
• Head makes up for 25% of their body weight.
• An adult’s head makes up for 12% of their body
• Once the head has reached its full size, the torso, arms and legs will continue to grow.

Failure to Thrive

• When an infant’s rate of growth is significantly below average.
• Growth is affected, development is often delayed as well.
• Can be caused by medical problems, poor nutrition problems in the environment, or the emotional needs are unmet

The Fontanelles

• “Soft Spot” at the top of their head.
• Middle-back of their head
• Fontanelles- the areas between the bone plates of the skull
• Allows the head to change shape through the birth canal.
• Safe to touch, although a direct blow would be dangerous
• Between the ages of 6-18 months the bones of the skull gradually grow together and the fontanelles disappear

Reflexes

• Infant’s movements are controlled by reflexes-which are automatic responses to stimulation
• some remain for life- blinking, sneezing

Reflexes

Development of the Senses

• Some senses are developed before birth.
• Vision-
• at birth babies can only focus 8-10 inches away
• can detect light and dark but cannot see all colors
• black, white, red, blue they can see
• Within a few weeks infants can track - following by sight- movement of an object.
• By 3-4 months babies develop depth perception- the ability to see 3-D objects
• By one year- vision is the same as adult.

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Development of Senses

• Hearing
• Able to hear before they are born
• recognize tone rather than what is said
• can distinguish parents/caregivers voices
• Touch
• Fully developed at birth
• comforted by touch

Development of Senses

• Taste
• Within hours of birth, they can distinguish among sweet, sour, and bitter tastes
• prefer sweet tastes
• Smell
• develops soon after birth
• prefer mother’s smell
• sensitive to smell- avoid strong odors

Motor Skills

• Abilities that depend on the controlled use of muscles
• Large/Gross Motor Skills-involve the muscles of the back, legs, shoulder or arms
• Small/Fine Motor Skills- involve muscles of the fingers, wrists or ankles
• Motor skills develop in a sequence

Motor Skills Development in Infants

Tooth Development

• The first set of teeth form under the gums while in the mother’s uterus
• Start “Teething” at about 6-10 months of age
• Usually emerge in pairs
• Lower front teeth, then the upper front teeth
• First set of teeth = baby teeth
• will experience teething pains

Intellectual Development

• Ability to think, understand, learn, remember, develop language and solve problems
• Infants have 100 billion neurons-brain connections
• Exposure to senses help build connections

How infants learn

• Watch objects they find interesting
• Group objects into simple categories
• Explore new objects
• Trial and Error

Development of Memory

• 3 day old babies can remember recurring events
• Rely on their senses to help them remember
• Examples:
• 8 week old babies start to expect feedings at certain times
• 6 month old babies can see an object by only seeing part of it

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period

• Jean Piaget is a psychologist that came up with the Sensorimotor Period to summarize a child’s development
• Stage 1: Birth to one month- Reflexes are the primary means in which the newborn learns about the world.
• Stage 2: One to four months- use their senses to sort out their environments
• Stage 3: Four to eight months- Start to use and manipulate objects.
• Stage 4: Eight to 12 months- Advanced motor skills allow them to explore and they become more aware of outside world.

Object Permanence

• The concept that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight.
• Develops between six and nine months
• Peek-a-boo

Language Development

• Infants listen to the language around them
• Start to babble at 7-8 months
• Infants will copy the sounds, speech patterns, accents and words they hear.

Emotional Development

• Children and teens will experience different emotions- love, joy, anger, jealousy and fear
• Infants don’t experience a wide range of emotions at first.
• content and distress
• Over the first year, emotions become more varied

Emotional Development

• Infants acquire the ability to recognize emotions by interacting with people.
• At 9 months, they start fearing unfamiliar people- stranger anxiety

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Key Tasks to Emotional Development

• Forming Attachments- 3-6 months infants begin to recognize and trust their caregivers
• Attachment Behavior- When an infant shows distress when their caregivers leave
• Learning to give and receive affection
• Developing Self-Esteem

Temperament

• Infants have their own temperament- general way of reacting to the world around them

Based on the following Characteristics:

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Social Development

• Close physical contact with a child- holding, bathing, cuddling and playing will help that child relate to other people.
• 6 weeks→ Begin to smile and then laugh
• Babies can recognize facial expressions and tones of voice
• Contact with other children allow them to learn and observe various behaviors

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Moral Development

• Learning right from wrong
• Explaining the reasoning behind right from wrong helps children understand what right and wrong are.

Assignment

• Create a separate presentation- name it Developmental Areas
• You will find videos depicting the following developmental areas- 2 physical, 2 social, 2 intellectual and 2 emotional
• Insert Video and explain why it fits into that developmental area

Video # 1

In this video, this child is practicing the following developmental areas:

• Social Development: She is using her words and putting them together to make a statement.

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