REFLEXES A neonate is born with a number of refl exes —unlearned, involuntary responses

that occur automatically in the pres-ence of certain stimuli. Critical for survival, many of those refl
exes unfold naturally as part of an infant’s ongoing mat-uration. The rooting refl ex, for instance,
causes neonates to turn their heads toward things that touch their cheeks—such as the mother’s
nipple or a bottle. Similarly, a sucking refl exprompts infants to suck at things that touch their lips.
Among other refl exes are a gag refl ex (to clear the throat), the startle refl ex ( a series of
movements in which an infant fl ings

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES: TAKING IN THE WORLD When proud

parents peer into the eyes of their neonate, is the child able to return their gaze? Although it was
thought for some time that newborns can see only a hazy blur, most current fi ndings indicate that
neonates’ capabilities are far more impressive. Although their eyes have a limited capacity to focus
on objects that are not within a 7- to 8-inch distance from the face, neonates can follow objects
moving within their fi eld of vision. They also show the beginnings of depth perception as they react
by raising their hands when an object appears to be moving rapidly toward the face (Maurer et al.,
1999; Craighero et al., 2011). You might think that it would be hard to fi gure out just how well
neonates can see because their lack of both language and reading ability clearly prevents them from
saying what direction the E on a vision chart is facing. However, researchers have devised a number
of ingenious methods that rely on the newborn’s biological responses and innate refl exes to test
perceptual skills.

The Growing Child: Infancy

Through Middle Childhood It was during the

windy days of March that the problem in the day-care center fi rst arose. Its source: 10-month-old Russell
Ruud. Otherwise a model of decorum, Russell had somehow learned how to unzip the Velcro chin strap
to his winter hat. He would remove the hat whenever he got the urge, seemingly oblivious to the
potential health problems that might follow. But that was just the start of the real diffi culty. To the
chagrin of the teachers in the day-care center, not to speak of the children’s parents, soon other children
were following his lead, removing their own caps at will. Russell’s mother, made aware of the anarchy at
the day-care center—and the other parents’ distress over Russell’s behavior—pleaded innocent. “I never
showed Russell how to unzip the Velcro,” claimed his mother, Judith Ruud, an economist with the
Congressional Budget Offi ce in Washington, DC. “He learned by trial and error, and the other kids saw
him do it one day when they were getting dressed for an outing.” (Goleman, 1993, C10) At the age of 10
months, Russell asserted his personality, illustrating the tremendous growth that occurs in a variety
of domains during the fi rst year of life. Throughout the remainder of childhood, moving from
infancy into middle childhood and the start of adolescence around age 11 or 12, children develop
physically, socially, and cognitively in extraordinary ways. In the remainder of this module, we’ll
consider this development.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Children’s physical growth provides the most obvious sign of
development. During the fi rst year of life, children typically triple their birthweight, and their height
increases by about half. This rapid growth slows down as the child gets older—think how gigantic
adults would be if that rate of growth was constant. From age 3 to the beginning of adolescence at
around age 13, growth averages a gain of about 5 pounds and 3 inches a year (see Figure 4). The
physical changes that occur as children develop are not just a matter of increasing growth; the
relationship of the size of the various body parts to one another changes dramatically as children
age. As you can see in Figure 5, the head of a fetus (and a newborn) is disproportionately large.
However, the head soon becomes more proportional in size to the rest of the body as growth occurs

mainly in the trunk and legs (Berger, 2011). DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR:
TAKING ON THE WORLD As anyone who has seen infants smiling at the sight of their
mothers can guess, at the same time that infants grow physically and hone their perceptual abilities,
they also develop socially. The nature of a child’s early social development provides the foundation
for social relationships that will last a lifetime. Attachment, the positive emotional bond that
develops between a child and a particular individual, is the most important form of social
development that occurs during infancy. The earliest studies of attachment were carried out by
animal

Babies’ reactions to the experimental situation vary drastically, depending, according to Ainsworth,
on their degree of attachment to the mother: • Securely attached children. Children who are
securely attached employ the mother as a kind of home base; they explore independently but return
to her occasionally. When she leaves, they exhibit distress, and they go to her when she returns. •
Avoidant children. Avoidant children do not cry when the mother leaves, and they seem to avoid her
when she returns as if indifferent to her. • Ambivalent children. Ambivalent children display anxiety
before they are sepa-rated and are upset when the mother leaves, but they may show ambivalent
reactions to her return, such as seeking close contact but simultaneously hit-ting and kicking her. •
Disorganized-disoriented children. A fourth reaction is disorganized-disoriented;these children show
inconsistent and often contradictory behavior.