Psychology test 2
Stress and the brain
*Childhood trauma may create a flood of stress hormones (especially cortisol) that damage the brain and interfere with learning. Relationship between stress and brain activity partly dependent on: Age of the person Degree of stress Both too much and too little impair learning. The expression and regulation of emotions are fostered by better connections within the limbic system and between that system and other parts of the brain. With children, parental balance between arousal and reassurance is needed, again requiring speedy coordination among many parts of the brain.
Sensation
- Response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus Begins when an outer organ (eye, ear, tongue, nose, skin) meets anything that can be seen, heard, smelled tasted or touched
Neurotransmitters
A Neuron is a specialized nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information to other cells in the body. We have a fixed number of neurons, which means they do not regenerate.
Immunization
A process that stimulates the body's immune system by causing production of antibodies to defend against attack by a particular contagious disease.
injury control
Age-related dangers: Falls - more often fatal for the very young (under 24 months) Motor-vehicle deaths Peaks from ages 15-25 Early childhood: Poison Fire Drowning Injury control (harm reduction): Safety surfaces Car seats Bike helmets Safety containers for medications Pool monitoring
permanency planning
An effort by child welfare authorities to find a long-term living situation that will provide stability and support for a maltreated child. A goal is to avoid repeated changes of caregiver or school, which can be particularly harmful to the child. Foster care : A legal, publicly supported system in which a maltreated child is removed from the parents' custody and entrusted to another adult or family, which is reimbursed for expenses incurred in meeting the child's needs. Kinship care: A form of foster care in which a relative of a maltreated child, usually a grandparent, becomes the approved caregiver. Adoption: A legal proceeding in which an adult or couple unrelated to a child is granted the joys and obligations of being that child's parent(s).
Nutritional efficiencies Common food allergies in young children
An estimated 3 to 8 percent of children are allergic to a specific food. Diagnosis and treatment vary. Some allergies are outgrown. Most common is soy
Injury
Avoidable injury: In almost all families of every income, ethnicity, and nation, parents want to protect their children while fostering their growth. In every nation, more young children die from accidents than from any other specific cause. The 2- to 6-year-olds in the United States are at greater risk than slightly older children. Contrast between disease and accidental death In the United States in 2010, almost six times as many 1- to 4-year-olds died of accidents or homicide than died of cancer.
The usual order of the development of spoken language in an infant
Before birth: Language learning via brain organization and hearing; may be innate Newborn: Preference for speech sounds and mother's language; gradual selective listening Around 6 months: Ability to distinguish sounds and gestures in own language Babbling Gesture First words
Head Sparing
Biological mechanism •Protects the brain when malnutrition disrupts body growth •Brain is the last part of the body to be damaged by malnutrition
Newborn brain weight
Birthweight doubles by month four and triples by 1 year Average weight at birth: 7.5 pounds Average length: 20 inches
Brain growth
By age 2, a child's brain weighs 75 percent of its adult weight. Social understanding develops as the prefrontal cortex matures and emotional control improves. The brain reaches 90 percent of adult weight by age 6. Extensive sprouting and then pruning of dendrites has already taken place.
Allocare
Care of children by people other than the biological parents is essential for Homo sapiens survival. Universally, most newborn care is primarily maternal; sociocultural difference is evident
Obesity among young children
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the twenty-first century. As family income decreases, both malnutrition and obesity increase. Children who lived in low-SES families became less attuned to hunger and satiety signals in their bodies, and, when they grow up, eat when they are not hungry. Less exercise, more TV, fewer vegetables, more fast food, more likelihood of intergenerational overfeeding Obesity is a sign of poor nutrition. is likely to reduce immunity and later increase disease. Parents of overweight children underestimate children's weight. Some improvements have occurred in young children's diets and day-care activities.
Growth patterns
Children become slimmer as the lower body lengthens. Head size is almost the same, but arms are twice as long—evidence of proximodistal growth. From age 2 through 6, well-nourished children add almost 3 inches in height and gain about 4 1/2 pounds in weight. BMI is lower at ages 5 and 6 than any other time.
Protein calorie malnutrition
Condition in which a person does not consume sufficient food of any kind that can result in several illnesses, severe weight loss, and even death
Synchrony
Coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant
Child-directed speech
Cultural and family variation exists in child-directed speech. Infants seek the best available language teachers. Music tempo is culture-specific.
Norms
Defined standards of typical performance by which a child's development in a variety of domains can be measured
Environmental hazards
Environmental pollutants: Air: Harm young, growing brains and bodies more than older, developed ones Particular concerns for urban, low-SES children Asthma and other respiratory problems Proven harmful pollutants: Lead in the water and air Pesticides in the soil or on clothing Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic Secondhand cigarette smoke e-waste for outmoded electronic devices
Stunting
Failure of children to grow to a normal height for their age due to severe and chronic malnutrition
Infant anger
First expressed at around 6 months Is healthy response to frustration
Maturation of prefrontal cortex
Focused attention Impulsiveness Before such maturation, many young children jump from task to task; they cannot stay quiet.
Smell and Taste
Function at birth Rapidly adapt to the social world Related to family and cultural preferences May have evolutionary function
Corpus callosum
Long, thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them
Fusiform face area of brain
Makes newborn infant adept at face recognition Located on ventral surface of temporal lobe; discovered in 1992
First words
Gradual beginnings At about 1 year: Speak a few words 6-15 months: Understand 10 times more words than produced 12 months: Begin to use holophrases; recognize vocalization from universal to language-specific Naming explosion Once spoken vocabulary reaches about 50 words, it builds quickly, at a rate of 50 to 100 words per month. 21-month-olds say twice as many words as 18-month-olds.
Impulsiveness and preservation
Impulsiveness and perseveration are opposite manifestations of the same underlying cause: immaturity of the prefrontal cortex. perseveration - opposite of impulsiveness; unable to quit one thought or action Are we there yet??? No young child is perfect at regulating attention; impulsiveness and perseveration are evident in every 2-year-old.
self righting
Infants have an inborn drive to remedy deficits . It is the patterns, not the moments, of neglect or maltreatment that harm the brain. Understanding development as dynamic and interactive means helping caregivers from the start, not waiting until destructive patterns are established. Inborn drive to fix a developmental deficit All people have self-righting impulses for physical and emotional imbalances.
Attachment
Involves lasting emotional bond that one person has with another Begins to form in early infancy and influences a person's close relationships throughout life Overtakes synchrony Demonstrated through proximity-seeking and contact-maintaining
Babbling
Involves repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, which begins when babies are between 6 and 9 months old Is experience-expectant Begins to sound like native language around 12 months
Perception
Mental processing of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation
Brain development
Most neurons are created before birth, at a peak production rate of 250,000 new cells per minute mid-pregnancy In infancy, the human brain has billions of neurons.
Seeing
Newborns focus between 4 and 30 inches away Binocular vision - ability to focus the two eyes in a coordinated manner in order to see one image.
Percentile
Number that indicates rank compared to other similar people of the same age •Percentiles range from zero to 100
stress and the brain
Overabundance of stress hormones damages later brain functioning Infants need protection
Pain and Temperature
Pain and temperature are often connected to touch. Some people assume that even the fetus can feel pain. Others say that the sense of pain does not mature until months or years later.
Self-awareness
Person's realization that he or she is a distinct individual whose body, mind, and actions are separate from those of other people Pride, shame and guilt are not experienced until social awareness develops Pride, shame and guilt develop near end of second year
Gross Motor skills
Physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping
Fine Motor Skills
Physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin Shaped by culture and opportunity Caregiving and culture matter. Reflexes become skills if they are practiced and encouraged.
Infants need stimulation
Playing, allowing varied sensations, and encouraging movement necessary for brain connections
Levels of injury prevention
Primary prevention - Actions that change overall background conditions to prevent some unwanted event or circumstance, such as injury, disease, or abuse. Secondary prevention - Actions that avert harm in a high-risk situation, such as stopping a car before it hits a pedestrian or installing traffic lights at dangerous intersections Tertiary prevention (golden hour) - Actions, such as immediate and effective medical treatment, that are taken after an adverse event (such as illness, injury, or abuse) occurs and that are aimed at reducing the harm or preventing disability.
Preventing maltreatment
Primary prevention: Focus on macrosystem and exoystem; stable neighborhood, family cohesion, decreasing financial instability, family isolation, and teenage parenthood Secondary prevention: Focus on identifying and intervening; insecure attachment Tertiary prevention: Focus on limiting harm after maltreatment
Object permanence
Realization that objects or people continue to exist when they are no longer in sight
Social referencing
Seeking emotional responses or information from other people Observing someone else's expressions and reactions and using the other person as a social reference Utilizing referencing in constant and selective
Stranger wariness
Seen as infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close First noticeable at 9 months
Touch
Sense of touch is acute in infants . Although all newborns respond to being securely held, soon they prefer specific, touches.
Wasting
Tendency for children to be severely underweight for their age as a result of malnutrition
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Situation in which a seemingly healthy infant, usually between 2 and 6 months old, suddenly stops breathing and dies unexpectedly while asleep. Beal: Studied SIDS death in South Australia and concluded factors related to increased risk: -Sleeping position (Back is best!) -Maternal smoking -Bedding type
Neurological control advances
Sleep becomes more regular. Emotions become more nuanced and responsive. Temper tantrums subside. Uncontrollable laughter and tears are less common.
Sleep
Sleep specifics vary because of biology and the social environment. Newborns sleep about 15-17 hours a day, in one- to three-hour segments. Transitional sleep - dozing, half-waking sleep Newborns' sleep is primarily active sleep - often dozing, able to awaken if someone rouses them, but also able to go back to sleep quickly if they wake up, cry, and are comforted. Newborns have a high proportion of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, with flickering eyes, rapid brain waves and dreaming About 50% of sleep is REM
Developing Cortez
Some areas of the cortex, such as those devoted to the basic senses, mature relatively early. • The last part of the brain to mature is the prefrontal cortex, the area for anticipation, planning, and impulse control. •The infant's cortex consists of four to six thin layers of tissue that cover the brain. It contains virtually all the neurons that make conscious thought possible.
Lateralization
Specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa.
Separation anxiety
Tears, dismay, or anger occur when a familiar caregiver leaves. If it remains strong after age 3, it may be considered an emotional disorder.
Maturation of prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex is very limited in infancy and continues to develop at least until early adulthood. Between ages 2 and 6, neurological increases are especially notable in the areas of the cortex, where planning, thinking, social awareness, and language occur. Neurological immaturity is another reason adults need to prevent childhood injury.
Myelination
The process by which axons become coated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron Primary reason for faster thinking is new and extensive myelination.
Dynamic Systems Underlying Motor Skills
Three interacting elements underlying motor skills -Perceived with interacting senses By 6 months infant coordinate the senses Muscle strength Brain maturation Practice The entire package of sensations and motor skills furthers three goals. -Social interaction -Comfort -Learning
Shaken baby syndrome
is a life-threatening injury that occurs when an infant is forcefully shaken back and forth. This motion ruptures blood vessels in the brain and breaks neural connections
Holophrase
recognize vocalization from universal to language-specific
pruning
unused connections atrophy and die
Transient Exuberance
•Early dendrite growth is called transient exuberance: exuberant because it is so rapid and transient because some of it is temporary.
