Chapter 3: Infancy and

Toddlerhood

Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective

By Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French (Published 2017)
In this chapter:

 Physical development
 Growth, reflexes, sleep, nutrition
 Cognitive development
 Piaget’s theory, memory, language
 Psychosocial development
 Temperament, attachment, self-awareness
Learning objectives: Physical development
in infancy and toddlerhood
 Summarize overall physical growth during infancy
 Describe the growth of the brain during infancy
 Explain infant sleep
 Identify newborn reflexes
 Compare gross and fine motor skills
 Contrast development of the senses in newborns
 Describe the habituation procedure
 Explain the merits of breastfeeding and when to introduce
more solid foods
 Discuss the nutritional concerns of marasmus and kwashiorkor
Physical growth

 Average newborn in U.S. weighs 7.5 lbs and is 20 inches

long
 Typically lose 5% of weight soon after birth
 Birth weight doubles by 4 months, triples by 1 year
 Change in proportions – At birth, head is 25% of our
length, by adulthood it’s 20% of our length
Figure 3.1
Changes in proportions
Brain development in infancy: Neurons

 Parts of a neuron
 Cell body
 Dendrites – Receive information

 Axon – Sends information

 Myelin sheath – Insulates axon

 Synapses - Connections
Figure 3.2
Components of the neuron
Brain development in infancy: Neurons
(continued)
 Changes in neurons
 Synaptogenesis – Formation of connections
 Caused by proliferation of dendrites
 Synaptic blooming – Period of rapid neural growth
 Synaptic pruning – Reduce unused neural connections to
increase brain efficiency
 Experience determines what’s maintained and lost
 Development of myelin sheath
Parts of the brain

 Cortex
 Thin outer covering of the brain
 Involved in voluntary activity and thinking

 Two hemispheres, each divided into four lobes

 Frontal lobe – Thinking, planning, memory, and judgment
 Parietal lobe – Processing information about touch

 Occipital lobe – Processing visual information

 Temporal lobe – Processing auditory information and

language
Figure 3.3
The two hemispheres
Processes of brain maturation

 Lateralization – Different functions become localized

primarily on one side of the brain
 Neuroplasticity
 Brain’s ability to change, both physically and chemically
 Environmental stimulation
 Hormonal processes/medications

 Enhance its adaptability to environmental change

 Compensate for injury
Infant sleep

 Newborns typically sleep 16.5 hours

per day
 Polyphasic – Several sleep periods
throughout day
 About 50% of sleep time in REM stage

 Time spent in sleep and in REM

decrease with age
Sudden unexpected infant deaths

 Death of infant under 1 year old, no obvious cause

 Most common types:
 Unknown causes (due to lack of thorough investigation)
 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – Possibly caused by
brainstorm abnormalities
 Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed
Sudden unexpected infant deaths
(continued)
 About 3500 deaths per year
 Overall rate declined after 1990s “Back to Sleep”
campaign
 Rate of accidental strangulation/suffocation increased
starting in late 1990s
 Possible risks of co-sleeping?
 Cultural factors
Figure 3.5
Breakdown of sudden unexpected infant death by cause, 2013
Figure 3.6
Sudden unexpected infant death by cause, 1990-2013
Infant reflexes

 Reflexes - Involuntary movements in response to

stimulation
 Some related to feeding
 Rooting, sucking
 Some replaced by voluntary behaviors later
 Grasping, stepping
 Indicate functioning of nervous/sensory system
 Eyeblink, Babinski, Moro, tonic neck
Motor development

 Progress from reflexes to voluntary movement

 Cephalocaudal pattern (head to tail)
 Example: Gain head control before ability to walk
 Proximodistal pattern (from the center out)
 Example: Grasp with whole hand first, then fingers later
 Average age as well as range of typical ages
 Example: Average sitting age 7 months (range 5-9)
Motor skills

 Ability to move bodies and manipulate

objects
 Fine motor skills
 Muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes
 Enable coordination of small actions

 Palmar grasp (4 months) – Use fingers and

palm, but not thumb to grasp objects
 Pincer grasp (9 months) – Use thumb and
forefinger to grasp object
Motor skills (continued)

 Gross motor skills

 Large muscle groups that control our head, torso, arms, and
legs
 Larger movements

 Generally develop before fine motor skills

Sensory capacities

 Vision – Poorly developed at birth

 Newborn range of vision – 8-16 inches
 Prefer large patterns, contrasting colors

 Depth perception present by 6 months

 Experience very important for proper development

Sensory capacities (continued)

 Hearing – Almost fully developed at

birth
 Present by 7th month of prenatal
development
 “Cat in the Hat” study
 Recognize familiar voices and sounds
 Can initially differentiate between many
language sounds, but this ability
disappears*
Sensory capabilities (continued)

 Touch and pain – Fully developed at birth

 Smell and taste – Fully developed at birth
 Newborns prefer sweet tastes
 Newborns recognize and prefer their
mother’s scent
Habituation

 Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated

presentations
 Used to test cognitive and perceptual processes
 Predictive of later cognitive ability
Nutrition

 Breast milk considered ideal diet

 Easier to digest than formula
 Contains antibodies that reduce illness risk

 Helps moms too

 Helps uterus regain pre-pregnancy size
 Lower rates of breast/ovarian cancer, diabetes

 It’s free! (Though pumping equipment isn’t)

Challenges for breastfeeding moms

 USDHHS recommendations:
 Exclusively breastfeed for first 6 months
 Supplement diet with breast milk during first 2 years

 However, most moms stop by 6-8 weeks

 Many workplaces not supportive
 Many health care providers not supportive
Introducing solid foods

 Usually around 4-6 months old

 Start with semi-solid foods (rice/oatmeal cereal)
 Introduce one new food at a time (allergy check)
 Finger foods by 10-12 months
Types of malnutrition

 Marasmus – Starvation due to lack of

calories and protein
 Lose fat and muscle until bodies can’t
function
 Kwashiorkor – Protein-deficient diet
 Often occurs when another child starts
breastfeeding
 Loss of appetite and abdominal swelling
Malnutrition rates

 2014 – 50 million children under age 5 (World Health

Organization and UNICEF)
 1 in every 13 children in the world
 Most live in Asia (34.3 million) and Africa (13.9 million)
 Caused by:
 Severe food shortages
 Regional diets that lack certain proteins and vitamins

 Infectious diseases that inhibit appetite

Possible effects of malnutrition

 Death
 Lower IQ scores
 Behavioral and attention problems
 Early malnutrition has worst effects
Learning objectives: Cognitive development
in infancy and toddlerhood
 Compare the Piagetian concepts of schema, assimilation,
and accommodation
 List and describe the six substages of sensorimotor
intelligence
 Describe the characteristics of infant memory
 Describe components and developmental progression of
language
 Identify and compare the theories of language
Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development
 Children continuously trying to make sense of world
 Schema – Framework for organizing information
 Assimilation – Fitting new information into an existing
schema
 Accommodation – Expanding schema to incorporate new
information
Figure 3.13
Assimilation and accommodation
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

 Use sensory input and motor skills to explore world

 Reflexes (birth-1 month)
 Primary circular reactions (1-4 months) – Repeated actions
involving body
 Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months) – Repeated
actions involving objects/environment
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage (continued)

 Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12

months) – Combine actions to achieve goals
 Object permanence develops by 8 months
 Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months) – Explore world
in trial-and-error manner
 Beginning of representational thought (18-24 months) –
Can use symbols to represent ideas (pictures, words,
make-believe)
Table 3.2
Infant ages for the six substages of the sensorimotor period

Substage 1 Reflexes (0–1 month)

Substage 2 Primary Circular Reactions (1–4 months)

Substage 3 Secondary Circular Reactions (4–8 months)

Substage 4 Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8–12

months)
Substage 5 Tertiary Circular Reactions (12–18 months)

Substage 6 Beginning of Representational Thought (18–24 months)

Criticisms of Piaget’s theory

 Infants understand concepts earlier than he thought

 Experience not always required
 Possible vs. impossible events
Infant memory

 Infantile amnesia – Inability to recall memories from first

few years
 Lack of language skills?
 Lack of understanding of “self”?

 Deferred imitation – Imitation after delay

 Present by 6 months of age
 Infant memory is context-dependent
Language

 System of communication using symbols to

create meaning
 Includes oral, written, and signed
communication
Components of language

 Phoneme – Smallest unit of sound in a language

 Morpheme – Smallest unit of meaning in a language
 Semantics – Rules we use to determine meaning
 Syntax – Rules for constructing sentences
 Pragmatics – Rules for communicating
 Contextual information helps determine meaning
Language development

 2 months – cooing (vowel sounds)*

 7 months – babbling (simple syllables)*
 Gets more conversational over time*
 Add gestures, intonation, facial expression
Language development (continued)

 12 months – first word

 Holphrasic speech – One word implies entire thought
 First words differ by culture

 18 months – naming explosion

 By 2 years – putting words together
Aspects of language use

 Receptive language – What we understand

 Always more than we actually say
 First name is often recognized early

 Language errors
 Underextension – Thinking a word can be used for only that
particular object (e.g., “doggie” is the specific animal at my
house)
 Overextension – Thinking a label applies to all objects that
are similar to the original object (e.g., calling all animals
“doggie”
Infant-directed speech

 Used by adults with babies

 Exaggerated vowel and consonant sounds
 High-pitched voice
 Exaggerated facial expression
Theories of language development:
Learning theory
 We learn language through reinforcement
(Skinner) and imitation (Bandura)
 But:
 Children learn too fast for reinforcement
 Children say things they’ve never heard
before
 Language development looks similar across
cultures
Theories of language development:
Nativism
 Language is a biologically-based ability
 Chomsky – Language acquisition device
 Hard-wired knowledge of grammar in brain
 Deep structure – How an idea is represented
in universal grammar
 Surface structure – How an idea is
represented in any one language
Theories of language development:
Critical period and social pragmatics
 Critical period – Must learn language by puberty
 Environmental input is crucial
 Applies primarily to first language acquisition

 Social pragmatics – Focus on social aspects of language

 Language is tool to communicate and connect
 Language is tool to understand others and be understood
Brain aspects of language use

 Broca’s area – Left frontal lobe near motor cortex

 Responsible for motor aspects of language production
 Wernicke’s area – Left temporal lobe near auditory
cortex
 Responsible for understanding and creating meaning
Figure 3.21
Drawing of brain showing Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Learning objectives: Psychosocial
development in infancy and toddlerhood
 Identify styles of temperament and explore goodness-of-
fit
 Describe the early theories of attachment
 Contrast styles of attachment according to the Strange
Situation Technique
 Explain the factors that influence attachment
 Describe self-awareness, stranger wariness, and
separation anxiety
 Use Erikson’s theory to characterize psychosocial
development during infancy
Temperament

 Innate characteristics of the infant, including mood,

activity level, and emotional reactivity
 Chess and Thomas’ temperament styles
 Easy – Easily soothed, adaptable, generally positive mood
 Difficult – Reacts negatively to new situations, cries
frequently, generally negative mood
 Slow-to-warm-up – Low activity level, adjusts slowly to new
situations, often negative in mood
Temperament (continued)

 Temperament may influence social interactions

 Goodness-of-fit – How well infant and parent interaction
styles match
 Social interactions are bidirectional
Temperament vs. personality

 Temperament – How people react to environments

 Relatively stable but change with brain development
 Personality – An individual’s consistent pattern of feeling,
thinking, and behaving
 Caused by interaction of temperament and experience
 Include things like self-concept, responsibility, motivation
Infant emotions

 Shown through behaviors

 At birth: Attraction and withdrawal
 2 months: Social smile

 3-5 months: Laugh to express pleasure

 By 8 months: Fear, sadness, anger differentiated

 Anger – Response to being prevented from doing something
 Sadness – Response to absence of caregiver
 Fear – Response to absence of caregiver (separation anxiety)
or presence of stranger (stranger wariness)
Types of emotions

 Basic emotions
 Happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust
 Appear early in infancy

 Self-conscious emotions
 Envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment
 Appear between 1 and 2 years

 Require self-awareness, social understanding

Regulation of emotions

 Social referencing – Look to others for cues on how to act

 Facial expressions are important clues
 Visual cliff studies

 Emotional self-regulation – Strategies we use to control

our emotional states to attain goals
 Initially requires assistance from others
 Control improves with experience and brain maturation
Attachment

 Close bond associated with

security
 Infant-caregiver attachment is
basis for future relationships
 Influence confidence and curiosity
as toddlers
 Influence self-concept
Theories of attachment

 Freud – Infants are oral creatures

 Will become attached to mother through feeding
 Harlow disagreed
 Infant monkeys raised with wire or cloth mother
 Preferred cloth mother

 “Contact comfort” is basis for attachment

Theories of attachment (continued)

 Bowlby – Attachment important for survival

 Infant behaviors (e.g., crying) promote attachment
 Secure base – Parental presence that gives the child a sense
of safety
 Caregivers must be responsive to the child’s needs

 Caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable

interactions
Theories of attachment (continued)

 Erikson – Trust vs. mistrust

 Most important goal of infancy: Developing a basic sense of
trust in one’s caregivers
 Caregivers need to be responsive to infant’s needs

 Situations that impair responsiveness can create mistrust

 Example: Premature birth, parental stress
Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation”

 3 main elements*
 Unfamiliar environment
 Stranger present

 Mother absent

 Examine infant reactions to these things

 Also examine infant reaction to reunion (most important)
Ainsworth’s attachment styles

 Secure – Trusts caregiver

 Explores environment while caregiver present
 Engages with caregiver and possibly stranger

 Likely upset when the caregiver departs, but happy to see

caregiver return
 Ambivalent (sometimes called resistant) – Shows mistrust
through uncertainty
 Wary about the situation and stranger
 Distressed when caregiver leaves but ambivalent when
caregiver returns
Ainsworth’s attachment styles
(continued)
 Avoidant – Shows mistrust by avoiding caregiver
 Avoids or ignores caregiver
 Shows little emotion when caregiver departs or returns

 Disorganized/disoriented - Inconsistent coping

 The child may cry during the separation, but avoid
caregiver upon return
Parental behaviors and attachment
styles
 Secure – Caregiver meets child’s needs in a responsive
and appropriate manner
 Insecure ambivalent – Caregiver responds inconsistently to
child’s needs
 Insecure avoidant – Caregiver does not respond to child’s
needs
 Insecure disorganized/disoriented – Caregiver behaves
erratically or abuses child
Consequences of poor attachment

 Non-organic failure to thrive – Infants do not grow,

develop, or gain weight on schedule
 Reactive attachment disorder – Disturbed and
inappropriate attachment behavior
 But some children are resilient – Can overcome challenges
and successfully adapt
Erikson: Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

 Most important goal of toddlerhood: Developing a basic

sense of independence
 Caregivers need to be encourage appropriate
independence
 Negative reactions/restrictions will prevent independence

 May affect self-esteem and initiative later