Infant Toddler Portfolio

Infant Toddler Portfolio

Victoria Pecot

Louisiana State University

Infant Toddler Portfolio
27 November 2020
 Spencer James is four months old. He has
a mother and a father in a divorced
household, in a lower-middle class
economic status. He lives in a loving
household, but the family cannot afford
Child Profile many things for Spencer that are necessary
for his development, (such as plenty of
formula and food, consistent diapers, etc.).
Spencer has no siblings, and is the first
child. He does not know any other
languages, for English is his first language.
 Physical development is crucial to a
human’s development. It is even more
important for a child’s development,
because it is when their bones and
movement skills are developing. Knowing
Physical
this, nutrition is very important in this stage.
Development
The definition, “physical development”
refers to the development of a child’s motor
skills. These are developed during infancy
and toddlerhood and are the abilities to be
able to move and control their bodies.
 In my observation I have noticed how Spencer is smaller
than the other children, even though they are the same
age. Also, even though he is small now, his weight may
be doubled in a month (at 5 months) and should become
around 15lbs. Spencer will develop baby fat soon. Muscle
tissue increases slowly starting in infancy, which is the
Physical
cause of this. Baby fat helps maintain a constant body
Development-
Body Growth temperature, which starts at 9 months. Spencer’s head
seems to be very big for his body. For a few months after
birth, an infant’s head is ¼ of the body, and the legs are
1/3. By 8 months his lower body should catch up and take
up more of the body, and by 2 years his head should be at
1/5 portion and the legs at 1/2 of the body. (Information
came from Berk, Chapter 8).
 Spencer’s heredity, nutrition, and parental affection
contribute to his physical growth. Diet and health affect
height and rate of physical growth. Spencer is smaller,
which shows the fact that his negative environment is
affecting his growth. This will result in him playing catch-
up growth, which is when his body will return to normal
growth when conditions improve. Because he is in a lower
Physical income, his mother cannot afford to pay for food that often,
which makes his body smaller, and influence his weight.
Development- However, his internal organs will be forever compromised
Influences on because of the influences on his environment from birth.
Physical His nutrition affects his weight too. Breast feeding is so
much better than formulas because they protect infants
Growth against certain infections and also prevent obesity in the
future. Breast milk also contains a certain amount of
natural nutrients that one cannot get from a bottle. Because
Spencer comes from a lower income, I doubt his mother
was able to breastfeed all the time, which is also a cause of
his growth. A parent’s love is very affective to a baby. A
baby can tell if its’ environment is not positive or
responsive, and this develops issues in growth because it
makes the child have abnormal feeding behaviors.
 A learning capacity measures how much a child is able to learn.
The two forms of learning is classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is when someone is taught to associate a
stimulus with a certain outcome to produce a certain behavior.
Operant conditioning is about punishment and reward based on
a type of behavior. These are important because the way babies
Physical
learn is through observing others and observing repeated
Development-
actions and expressions. Classical conditioning helps infants
Learning
learn what events occur together in the environment, so that
Capacities
they can get a sense of predictability in the world. In operant
conditioning, babies follow a behavior based on a stimulus in
the environment coming about. This can help in learning
punishment and rewarding. Spencer has learned this through
observing his expressions to things such as food, when he
drools.
 Motor development has to do with how we are able to move and
control our bodies. There is gross-motor development and fine-
motor development. Gross-motor development refers to crawling,
standing, and walking. Fine-motor development refers to grasping
and reaching for things. I have observed Spencer try to grab his
toys around him, and reach for them. I did not observe standing or
Physical crawling, because he is too young for that. However, this course
Development- of development will begin crawling and turn into walking. By 2
Motor years old, Spencer should be able to walk on his tiptoes, and by
Development one year he should be able to build with blocks. The physical
environment influences motor skills greatly. For example, if
Spencer has stairs in his home, he should be able to learn how to
crawl up them sooner. Objects in the everyday life influence
motor skills and can change with age. Just as little as parent
encouragement to get across the room can be an influence.
 Babies are slowly developing perception, which is the ability to organize and
interpret what we see. From now until Spencer is 7 months old, he will be
developing his sense of musical phrasing. He will soon be able to differentiate
music tones from each other, and know different tunes by 7 months old. Infants
become familiar with songs and speeds of songs, knowing that the slower ones are
more relaxing and for naptime. Spencer is able to fall asleep to a lullaby because of
this perception. He is also starting to be able to differentiate different voices from
another, and by 9 months should be trying to talk using random words. Depth
perception is something infants must learn to be able to judge the distance of
Physical objects from another. This is also when perception of ‘cliffs’ begin. At Spencer’s
age, he should have pictorial depth cues, and be able to see illusions. From 5-7
Development- months, Spencer should be able to tell separation between objects and illusions. At
Perceptual 9 months, Spencer should be able to walk across an ‘illusion’ where the floor
Development ‘drops’ and not want to cross it. Babies love colors and various things, so even
babies like Spencer will prefer a pattern that is more complex than a basic one. This
starts by 8-14 weeks old. This is because of contrast sensitivity, which will allow a
child to be able to see the light differences in a pattern. If Spencer has developed
this, he should be able to prefer the more complex pattern, because he is sensitive to
the contrast. Since Spencer is 4 months old, he is already able to remember a photo
completely, and know what a scene is supposed to look like from boundary
extension. At Spencer’s age, he should already be able to know if an object is three
dimensional or not; this is because of size constancy. This also ties in with
intermodal perception, which is the ability to make sense of what light, sounds,
odor, and tactile information are. Spencer should be able to put sights and sounds in
the same information box, with the ability to know what a sound is that is tapping
without seeing what it is. (Information came from Berk, Chapter 8).
 Certain materials in Spencer’s environment caught
my eye during the observation. These materials were
supportive in developing the physical domain. In the
Physical
observation, the children had an infant jungle. They were
Development-
grasping it, and looking through it. This helps in motor
Materials
development. However, if Spencer was four months old, I
would say that materials to help this developmental
domain would be an infant gym, to help grab the toys
hanging around, or having manipulative toys around him
to grab and play with to figure out how it works.
 NAEYC suggests that parents facilitate
and encourage constant movement of
their child to develop their motor skills.
This also allows them to explore their
Physical
world and be curious about themselves
Development-
and others (NAEYC Position Statement,
Parent
Recommendation page 11). However, in my opinion as a
recommendation, the parent should buy
or assemble some type of infant gym,
and encourage movement throughout
the house and with toys.
 I believe that Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist
and theorist would best connect with this domain.
Pavlov developed classical conditioning, a process
used to condition people and animals to react to
Physical
certain stimuli because of a learned behavior to that
Development-
Theorist stimuli. We learned about classical conditioning
when learning about learning capacities for infants
and babies. Thanks to Pavlov, we know why
Spencer drools when he sees his bottle, and why he
cries if his mom is gone.
 Spencer James is 12 months old. He has a
mother and a father in a divorced household,
in a lower-middle class economic status. He
lives in a loving household, but the family
Child Profile pt.2 cannot afford many things for Spencer that
are necessary for his development. Spencer
has no siblings, and is the first child. He does
not know any other languages, for English is
his first language.
 The term, “cognitive development” refers to
the development of how children think and
Cognitive
Development figure out concepts. This development helps
children understand and think about their
environment through problem solving.
 Piaget’s theory stems from the idea that a child’s
Cognitive
mind forms and moves through four stages in life,
Development-
Piaget’s where cognition develops. Spencer is 1 year old, so
Developmental he is currently in the sensorimotor stage. This means
Theory
that Spencer is learning about the world through his
senses. He is putting things in his mouth, looking
Ex: around at things, to figure out what is going on. This
stage will last until 2 years old.
 Unlike general concepts, information processing
theorists want to know how children think, and
exactly what different ages do when faced with a
problem. There are three mental system processes:

Cognitive Sensory register, short-term memory store, and the

Development- long-term memory store. This is basically a way of
Information explaining how information goes through our brains.
Processing
Attention of information has already started in
Spencer, and he is able to remember more complex
things about certain items. Things are starting to be
able to enter into his long-term memory, which will
fully form by the time he is 2 years old.
 Children’s language development develops
rapidly from birth to childhood. They are able
to learn a few languages if taught, because of

Cognitive the brain’s plasticity. This was observed with

Development- Spencer, because I noticed him trying to say a
Language few words here and there that he could see
Development
around the room. By the time children are 2
years old, their vocabulary should expand from
50-250 words, and they should be able to
combine two words.
 Jean Piaget was a psychologist who was best
known for his theory of cognitive
development. He would best go with this
Cognitive domain because of his connection to the stages
Development- of development and an infant’s sensorimotor
Theorist
stage. Thanks to Piaget, I can clearly see why
Spencer would be reaching for things, and
putting things in his mouth- to explore the
environment.
 Overall, physical development, cognitive development,
and emotional and social development are key
developments to an infant’s life. As we could see in the
observation, these developments are important to a
child’s growing. High-quality care should strive to

Conclusion nurture these developments in the best developmentally

appropriate ways studied. Parents should encourage
their children to go the extra mile in developing these
domains, and strive for the child’s best. This
observation allowed me to see these children act out
some of these domains, and I was able to see what was
happening and why in these.
References
Berk, L. & Meyers, A. (2016). Infants and Children: Prenatal Through
Middle School (7th ed.). Pearson.
Bredekamp, S. & Copple, C. (2009). Developmentally Appropriate
Practice (3rd ed.). NAEYC.
Gibson, E. (n.d.). Perception. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from
http://www.aldenhampsychology.com/perception.html
Says:, M., Says:, A., Says:, I., Says:, P., Says:, W. (2020, May 22). The
Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved October 21, 2020,
from https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/piagetstheory/