Chapter 3: Physical & Cognitive Development in Infants and Toddlers

What is LAD?

Hypothetical brain structure that enables us to learn and produce language

How does breast-feeding affect the mother?

Maternal physical discomfort and work demands often reduce breast-feeding length

What is the most important sign of emerging reasoning?

Means-end-behavior

What is means-end-behavior?

Performance of different action to get to a goal, around 1 year

Baillargeon disproved Piaget's insights on sensorimotor stage of newborns by claiming?

Physical reality grasped before age 1. Understanding of physical reality develops gradually.

What is synaptogenesis?

formation of new synapses

What are axons?

Conduct impulses away from the cell body

What happens in the stage of secondary circular reactions?

Exploring outside world, action-oriented schemas, 4 months

True or false: Neural loss is not critical to development.

False, is critical

True or False: Motor milestone mastery is predictive of advanced or later intelligence.

False, it is not predictive

The holophrase stage of true speech is defined as what?

First clear evidence of language, when babies use a single word to communicate a sentence or complete thought

Crying is considered what for a newborn?

First communication signal

What is infant-directed speech?

"Baby talk"

What happens in the stage of tertiary circular reactions?

"little scientists" behaviors around 1 year

Babbling starts around when for babies?

6 months

When is self-soothing encouraged for newborns?

6 months

What is social cognition?

Any skill related to understanding feelings and negotiating interpersonal interactions

Fill in the blank: Reflexes are _____ activities.

Automatic

What is myelination?

Axons surrounded by myelin sheath

What is the A-not-B error?

Babies approaching age 1 go back to the original hiding place to look for an object even though they have seen it get hidden in a second place

What are some strategies to avoid SIDS?

Back to sleep campaign, baby sleeping-basket

In terms of co-sleep, Individualistic cultures believe co-sleeping leads to what?

Behaviorists: excessive dependency. Freudian theorists: risk for sexual abuse

What happens in the stage of primary circular reactions?

Body-centered repetitive actions, 1-4 months

What are some causes of SIDS?

Brain region abnormalities, biological pre-birth problems, smothering

For motor milestones, what are the 3 growth principles?

Cephalocaudal, Proximodistal, mass-to-specific

What is undernutrition?

Chronic lack of adequate food

What is micronutrient deficiency?

Chronically inadequate level of a specific nutrient important to development and disease prevention

Continual crying after 3 months of life may signal what?

Colic

What is colic?

Continual crying during first 3 months of life caused by immature N.S

In terms of co-sleep, Collectivist cultures believe co-sleeping does what?

Crucial for healthy infant development

When does crying normally peak and decline and why?

Crying peaks at 1 month and declines around 4 months with cortex development

What are the 3 basic brain principles?

Development progresses in its own neurological time. Stimulation molds neurons. Brain continues to develop throughout life.

What is the information-processing approach?

Divides thinking into specific steps and component processes, using metaphor of computer

Piaget's sensorimotor stage says what?

During first 2 years, basics of physical reality mastered and symbolic thinking emerges

What are the basic newborn states?

Eat, sleep, cry

The cerebral cortex is the site of what?

Every conscious perception, action, and thought

What is stunting?

Excessively short stature in a child, caused by chronic lack of adequate nutrition

Who did research on depth perception in newborns?

Gibson

How is infant sleep different from adult pattern of sleep?

Infants immediate entry into REM, primary sleep stage until adolescence

Proximodistal principle is....?

Inferior to outer

Synapses are also referred to as what?

Junctions

Chomsky is best known for what?

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Mass-to-specific principle is...?

Large before small and detailed

Sleeping is considered what for a newborn?

Main newborn state

In terms of infant social cognition, at 8 months infants can do what?

Make adult-like judgments about intentions

In terms of language, social interactionists believe?

Mutual motivation to communicate drives language development

In terms of face perception, how does this play a role in newborns?

Newborn preference for faces, particularly mothers and attractive people

As the cortex of a newborn matures, their reflexes are governed by what?

Operant-conditioned, adaptive behaviors

What is habituation?

Predictable loss of interest that develops once a stimulus becomes familiar

What is the preferential-looking paradigm?

Principle that human beings are attracted to novelty and look selectively at new things

According to Skinner, children learn a language by?

Reinforcement

In Piaget's sensorimotor stage, he classified circular reactions, what are they?

Repetitive action-oriented schemas

What quiets a young baby?

Rocking, kangaroo care, skin-to-skin contact

When a baby is born its first reflexes are automatic and programmed by noncortical brain centers, what are these reflexes?

Rooting, sucking, grasping

Name 3 U.S. federal nutrition programs

SNAP, WIC, CACFP

In terms of self-soothing, what is an attachment theorists approach to self-soothing?

Sensitive responding, basic trust building, unconditional love provided

Fill in the blank: Each cortical region undergoes _____ and _____.

Synaptic pruning and neural death

In terms of self-soothing, what is a behaviorists approach to self-soothing?

Teaching not to cry, crying not reinforced, comfort not encouraged

What is the first word-combining stage in babies?

Telegraphic speech

Cephalocaudal principle is....?

Top to bottom

What are dendrites?

Transmit the impulse toward the cell body.

What is object permanence?

Understanding existence of out of sight objects

What is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)?

Unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant, often while sleeping during the first months of life

Synapses are located between what structures?

axon of one neuron and dendrites of another

What are the sleeping patterns for a baby?

~6 hours at 6 months, 12 hours at 1 year