Chapter 5:

Physical
Development
in Infancy

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Physical Growth
and
Development
in Infancy

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• Infant physical development is extensive
in first 2 years of life

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 Patterns of Growth and Development

• 1. Cephalocaudal pattern of development

• 2. Proximodistal pattern of development

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• Brain continues developing past
infancy:

– At birth, brain is 25% of adult weight; at

2 years of age, it is 75%.

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• EEG is used to study infant and child brain.

• We have learned timing of “growth spurts” in brain as

evidenced by increased EEG activity:
– 1 ½ to 2 years of age.
– Ages 9, 12, 15, and 18 to 20 years

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 Technology for Measuring Brain Activity in
Infancy

• EEG measures brain’s electrical activity.

• PET: Positron-emission tomography.
• MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.
fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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 Neurons and Nerve Cells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF04XPBj5uc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTRz9WL0ZC
U&feature=related

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• Neurons are brain nerve cells that
communicate through electrical and chemical
signals.

• The axons carry signals away from the cell

body and dendrites carry signals to the next
cell.

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• A layer of fat cells, the myelin sheath, encases
many axons and speeds up communication
process.

• At the end of the axons are terminal buttons

that release chemicals, neurotransmitters, into
the synapses, tiny gaps between the neurons.

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 The Neuron

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Figure 5.5
 Development of Dendritic Spreading

At birth 3 months
1 month 15 months
24 months
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Figure 5.6
• Brain Plasticity & Enrichment in Infancy

• Rat Pups

• Romanian Orphans

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Early Deprivation and Brain Activity

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• Nutrition is important as infant nearly triples
weight in 1st year.

• Low-fat, low-calorie foods and skim milk can retard

baby’s development in first 2 years of life.

• Benefits for infant from breast milk can include:

– Denser bones in childhood/adulthood.
– Reduced childhood cancers and breast cancer as
female adult.
– Improved neurological and cognitive development.
– Improved visual acuity.

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Trends in Breast Feeding

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• Mother should not breast-feed if she has
AIDS or other infectious diseases or active
tuberculosis or is taking drugs that can be
transmitted through breast milk.

• Prolonged and severe malnutrition can be

detrimental to child’s cognitive, physical,
and social development.

• Toilet training should be a positive

experience starting at around 2 years
of age or older.

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 Motor
Development

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• Dynamic systems theory of motor
development
– Motor development=active process
– Infants assemble motor skills for
perceiving and acting, as solutions to goals.
– Environment motivates infants to act.
– Perceptions help infants fine-tune
movements.
– Three factors enable new behaviors to
emerge.
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3 factors enable new behaviors to emerge

– Development of nervous system and

body’s physical capabilities.

– The goal that the child is motivated to

reach.

– The environmental support for the

necessary skills used to reach a goal.
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• Motor development begins with
reflexes:
– Sucking and rooting reflexes disappear
about 3–4 months after birth.
– Moro reflex (automatic arching of back
and wrapping of arms to center of body
when startled) disappears about
3–4 months after birth.
– Grasping reflex (infant’s hands close
around anything that touches the palms)
disappears as voluntary grasp develops.

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 Milestones in Gross Motor Development
Stand with support
Degree of motor development

Sit without support

Walk alone easily

Support some weight with legs

Stand alone easily
Roll over
Walk using furniture for support
Prone, chest up,
arms for support
Pull self to stand
Prone, lift head

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Age in months
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Figure 5.14
• Cultural variations: mothers in developing countries
treat infants differently from mothers
in developed cultures:
– Jamaican mothers:
• Regularly massage infants and stretch their
arms and legs.
• On average, their babies sit and walk alone 2–3
months earlier than US babies.

– Algonquin infants in Quebec, Canada:

• Strapped to cradleboard for 1st year.
• Sit, crawl, and walk about same time as those in
cultures raised without cradleboard.

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Fine motor skills for finely tuned activities
• Perceptual-motor coupling is necessary for
infants to coordinate grasping.

• Experienced infants look at objects longer,

reach for them more, and are more likely to
mouth the objects.

• Four-month-olds often rely on touch while

eight-month-olds rely on vision to determine
how they will grip an object.

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 Sensory and
Perceptual
Development

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• Information is transmitted through smell,
touch, hearing, taste, and vision to sensory
receptors.
• Perception is an interpretation of what is
sensed.

• Perception enables interaction with, and

adaptation to, one’s environment.

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Habituation and Dishabituation
Becoming Bored and Unbored!

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Habituation and Dishabituation

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• Newborn’s vision is about 20/600 (an object 20 feet
away appears as if it were 600 feet away).

• By the age of 6 months, vision is 20/100 or better, and

by first birthday, vision approximates that of an
adult.

• Infants gain adult-like color vision by 2 months.

• Two-month-olds scan wide areas of faces and show

preferences for target and stripped patterns.

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Visual Acuity During the First Months of Life

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How 1- and 2-Month Old Infants Scan
the Human Face

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• Infants aged 6–8 months can perceive gravity
and understand that objects can fall or roll.

• They develop depth perception as their

binocular vision develops, usually by about 3 to
4 months.

• Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk studied

development of depth perception using a
“visual cliff.”

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Examining Infant’s Depth Perception
on the Visual Cliff

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• Fetuses can hear sounds during the last 2
months of pregnancy and recognize the
mother’s voice at birth.

• Newborns:
– Show a preference for human speech.
– Are born deaf in about 1 in 1,000 cases.
– Can feel pain at birth.
– Are sensitive to taste before birth.

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• Infants develop ability to integrate information
from two or more senses—intermodal
perception.

• They learn to coordinate movements with the

perceptual information—perception-action
coupling.

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