5.2 The Infant

5.2 The Infant

1. Rapid Growth

   • Infants grow rapidly in first few months
     • Occurs in growth spurts
     • Soft cartilage harden into bony material

2. Newborn Capabilities

   • Reflexes
     • Survival
       • adaptive value
     • Primitive
       • not clearly useful
       • Typically disappear
         • Higher centers of the cerebral cortex develop to make voluntary motor behaviors possible
     • Absence is indicative of nervous system problems
   • Behavioral States
     • Infants need some time to establish a predictable sleeping pattern
       • Spend half their sleeping hours in REM
         • Associated with brain maturation and plasticity

3. Physical Behavior

   • Locomotor Development
     • Developmental Norm
       • average age of mastery
     • Early motor development follows:
       • Proximodistal Principle
         • Activities involving the trunk are mastered before activities with arms and legs
         • Master gross motor skills before fine motor skills
       • Cephalocaudal principle
         • Lift heads before control trunk to sit
       • Orthogenetic Principle
         • Differentiated and integrative motor responses more evident in older infants
     • Crawling
       • around 10 months; less babies crawl now than before
     • Walking
       • Stepping reflex disappears as infants need a more mature nervous system to walk
         • Big heads, short legs
       • Might start to walk and regress to crawling
         • Easier
   • Grasping & Reaching
     • Ulnar Grasp
       • press palm and outer fingers together
       • Bend elbow
         • Pincer Grasp
           • involving only the thumb and (fore)finger
   • Motor Skills as Dynamic Action Systems
     • Infants in 1st year spend a lot of time in rhythmic stereotypies
       • infants moving their bodies in repetitive ways 
       • Occurs shortly before a new skill has been learned
     • Dynamic Systems Theory
       • Use sensory feedback to modify their motor behavior in adaptive ways
         • Falling allows infants to discover which surfaces are safe and unsafe
       • Self-organizing behavior
         • Nature and nurture inseperable
           • Different motor skills present different challenges to learn from; not generalizable

4. Health and wellness

   • Babies less than 750 g die within 1st year
     • Leading cause: congenital malformations
   • Immunizations protect infants from diseases
   • Health during infancy starts with prenatal care and prevents potential congenital anomalies and premature birth