Chapter 3b

INFANCY AND TODDLERHOEED

The Birth Process

Birth is both a beginning and an end: the climax of all that has happened from the
moment of fertilization. Labour is an apt term. Birth is hard work for both mother and baby –
but work that yields a rich reward.

The uterine contractions that expel the fetus begin – typically, 266 days after
conception – as mild tightening of the uterus. A woman may have felt similar (“false”)
contractions at time during the final months of pregnancy, but she may recognize birth
contractions as the “real thing” because of their greater regularity and intensity.

Parturition – the process of uterine, cervical, and other changes that brings on
labour – typically begins about two weeks before delivery, when the balance between
progesterone and estrogen shifts. During most of gestation, progesterone keeps the uterine
muscles relaxed and the cervix firm. During parturition, sharply rising estrogen levels
stimulate the uterus to contract and the cervix to become more flexible. The timing of
parturition seems to be determined by the rate at which the placenta produces a protein
called corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which also promotes maturation of the fetal
lungs to ready them for life outside the womb.

Stages of Childbirth

Vaginal childbirth, or labor, takes place in four overlapping stages. The first stage,
the longest, typically lasts 12 hours or more for a woman having her first child. In later births
the first stage tends to be shorter. During this stage, regular and increasingly frequent
uterine contractions cause the cervix to dilate, or widen.

The second stage typically lasts about 1½ hours or less. It begins when the baby’s
head begins to move through the cervix into the vaginal canal, and it ends when the baby
emerges completely from the mother’s body. If this stage lasts longer than 2 hours, signaling
that the baby needs more help, a doctor ma grasp the baby’s head with forceps or, more
often, use vacuum extraction with a suction cup to pull it out of the mother’s body. At the
end of this stage, the baby is born; but it is still attached to the placenta in the mother’s
body by the umbilical cord, which must be cut and clamped.

During the third stage, which lasts about 5 to 30 minutes, the placenta and the
remainder of the umbilical cord are expelled from the mother. The couple of hours after
delivery constitute the fourth stage, when the mother rests in bed with her recovery is
monitored.

(Different methods of delivery )

Vaginal versus Cesarean Delivery

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 The usual method of childbirth, is vaginal delivery. Cesarean delivery is a surgical
procedure to remove the baby from the uterus by cutting through the abdomen.

The operation is commonly performed when labor progresses too slowly, when the
fetus seems to be in trouble, or when the mother is bleeding vaginally. Often a cesarean is
needed when the fetus is in the breach position (feet first) or in the transverse position
(lying crosswise in the uterus), or when its head is too big to pass through the mother’s
pelvis. Surgical deliveries are more likely when the birth involves a first baby, a large baby, or
an older mother.

Natural childbirth

Method of childbirth that seeks to prevent pain by eliminating the mother’s fear
through education about the physiology of reproduction and training in breathing and
relaxation during delivery.

Prepared childbirth: Method of childbirth that uses instruction, breathing exercises,

and social support to induce controlled physical responses to uterine contractions and
reduce fear and pain.

Medicated versus Unmedicated Delivery

Advocates of natural methods argue that use of drugs poses risks for babies and
deprives mothers of what can be an empowering and transforming experience.

Improvements in medicated delivery during the past two decades have led more
and more mothers to choose pain relief. Spinal or epidural injections have become
increasingly common as physicians have found effectively ways to relieve pain with smaller
doses of medication.

The Newborn Baby

Size and Appearance

An average newborn, or neonate, is about 20 inches long and weighs about 7½

pounds. At birth, 95 per cent of full-term babies weigh between 5½ and 10 pounds and are
between 18 and 22 inches long. Boys tend to be slightly longer and heavier than girls, and a
firstborn child is likely to weigh less at birth then laterborns.

In their first few days, neonates lose as much as 10 per cent of their body weight,
primarily because of a loss of fluids. They begin to gain weight again at about the fifth day
and are generally back to birthweight by the tenth to the fourteenth day.

New babies have distinctive features, including a large head (one-fourth the body
length) and a receding chin (which makes it easier to nurse). At first, a neonate’s head may
be long and misshapen because of the “molding” that eased its passage through the

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mother’s pelvis. This temporary molding was possible because an infant’s skull bones are not
yet fused; they will not be completely joined for 18 months. The places on the head where
the bones have not yet grown together – the soft spots, or fontanels – are covered by a
tough membrane.

Many newborns have a pinkish cast; their skin is so think that it barely covers the
capillaries through which blood flows. During the first few days, some neonates are very
hairy because some of the lanugo, a fuzzy prenatal hair, has not yet fallen off. All new babies
are covered with vernix caseosa (“cheesy varnish”), an oily protection against infection that
dries within the first few days.

Body Systems

Before birth, blood circulation, respiration, nourishment, elimination of waste, and

temperature regulation were accomplished through the mother’s body. The fetus and
mother have separate circulatory systems and separate heatbeats; the fetus’s blood is
cleansed through the umbilical cord, which carries “used” blood to the placenta and returns
a fresh supply. After birth, the baby’s circulatory system must operate on its own. A
neonate’s heartbeat is fast and irregular, and blood pressure does not stablise until about
the tenth day of life.

The fetus gets oxygen through the umbilical cord, which also carries away carbon
dioxide. A newborn needs much more oxygen than before and must now get it alone. Most
babies start to breathe as soon as they are exposed to air. If breathing has not begun within
about 5 minutes, the baby man suffer permanent brain injury caused by anoxia, lack of
oxygen. Because infants’ lungs have only one-tenth as many air sacs as adults’ do, infants
(especially those born prematurely) are susceptible to respiratory problems.

In the uterus, the fetus relies on the umbilical cord to bring food from the mother
and to carry fetal body wastes away. At birth, babies instinctively such to take in milk, and
their own gastrointestinal secretions digest it. During the first few days, infants secrete
meconium, a stringy, greenish-black waste matter formed in the fetal intestinal tract. When
the bowels and bladder are full, the sphincter muscle open automatically; a baby will not be
able to control these muscles for many months.

Three or four days after birth, about half of all babies (and a larger proportion of
babies born prematurely) develop neonatal jaundice: their skin and eyeballs look yellow.
This kind of jaundice is caused by the immaturity of the liver. Usually it is not serious, does
not need treatment, and has no long-term effects. However, because most healthy U.S.
newborns usually go home from the hospital within 48 hours or less, jaundice may go
unnoticed and lead to complications. Severe jaundice that is not monitored and treated
promptly may result in brain damage.

The layers of fat that develop during the last two months of fetal life enable healthy
full-term infants to keep their body temperature constant after birth despite changes in air
temperature. Newborn babies also maintain body temperature by increasing their activity
when air temperature drops.

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States of Arousal

Babies have an internal “clock”, which regulates their daily cycles of eating, sleeping,
and elimination, and perhaps even their moods. These periodic cycles of wakefulness, sleep,
and activity, which govern an infant’s state of arousal, or degree of alertness, seem to be
inborn and highly individual. Newborn babies average about 16 hours of sleep a day, but one
may sleep only 11 hours while another sleeps 21 hours. Changes in state are coordinated by
multiple areas of the brain and are accompanied by changes in the functioning of virtually all
body systems: heart rate and blood flow, breathing, temperature regulation, cerebral
metabolism, and the workings of the kidneys, glands, and digestive system.

Not many adults would want to “sleep like a baby”. Most new babies wake up every
two to three hours, day and night. Short stretches of sleep alternate with shorter periods of
consciousness, which are devoted mainly to feeding. Newborns have about six to eight sleep
periods, which vary between quiet and active sleep. Active sleep is probably the equivalent
of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which in adults is associated with dreaming. Active
sleep appears rhythmically in cycles of about one hour and accounts for 50 to 80 per cent of
a newborn’s total sleep time.

Parents and caregivers spend a great deal of time and energy trying to change
babies’ states – mostly by soothing a fussy infant to sleep. Although crying is usually more
distressing than serious, it is particularly important to quiet low-birthweight babies, because
quiet babies maintain their weight better. Steady stimulation is the time proven way to
soothe crying babies: by rocking or walking them, wrapping them snugly, or letting them
hear rhythmic sounds.

As infants grow, their sleep needs diminish. At about 3 months, babies grow more
wakeful in the late afternoon and early evening and start to sleep through the night. By 6
months, more than half their sleep occurs at night. The amount of REM (rapid-eye-
movement) sleep decreases steadily throughout life.

Babies’ sleep rhythms are not purely biological; they vary across cultures. In some
cultures, such as those of the Micronesian Truk and the Canadian Hare people, babies and
children have no regular sleep schedule; they fall asleep whenever they feel tired. Nor do
infants necessarily have special places to sleep. Gusii infants in Kenya fall asleep in
someone’s arms or on a caregiver’s back. In many cultures an infant sleeps in the parents’ or
mother’s bed, and this practice may continue into early childhood. Cultural variations in
feeding practices may affect sleep patterns. Many U.S. parents time the evening feeding so
as to encourage nighttime sleep. Mothers in rural Kenya allow their babies to nurse as they
please, and their 4-month-olds continue to sleep only four hours at a stretch.

Medical and Behavioural Assessment

The first few minutes, days, and weeks after birth are crucial for development. It is
important to know as soon as possible whether a baby has any problem that needs special
care.

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 The Apgar Scale: One minute after delivery, and then again five minutes after birth,
most babies are assessed using the Apgar scale. Its name, after its developer, Dr. Virginia
Apgar, helps us remember its five subsets: appearance (colour), pulse (heart rate), grimace
(reflex irritability), activity (muscle tone), and respiration (breathing). In nonwhite children,
colour is assessed by examining the inside of the mouth, the whites of the eyes, the lips,
palms, hands, and soles of the feet.

Assessing Neurological Status: The Brazelton Scale: The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioural
Assessment Scale (NBAS) is used to assess nenonates’ responsiveness to their physical and
social environment, to identify problems in neurological functioning, and to predict future
development. The test is named for its designer, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton. It assesses motor
organisation as shown by such behaviours as activity level and the ability to bring a hand to
the mouth; reflexes; state changes, such as irritability, excitability, and ability to quiet down
after being upset; attention and interactive capacities, as shown by general alertness and
response to visual and auditory stimuli; and indications of central nervous system instability,
such as tremors and changes in skin colour. The NBAS takes about 30 minutes, and scores
are based on a baby’s best performance.

Neonatal Screening for Medical Conditions: Children who inherit the enzyme disorder
phenylketonuria, or PKU, will become mentally retarded unless they are fed a special diet
beginning in the first three to six weeks of life. Screening tests administered soon after birth
can often discover such correctable defects.

Complications of Childbirth

For a small minority of babies, the passage through the birth canal is a particularly
harrowing journey. About 2 newborns in 1,000 are injured in the process. Birth trauma
(injury sustained at the time of birth) may be caused by anoxia (oxygen deprivation),
diseases or infections, or mechanical injury. Sometimes the trauma leaves permanent brain
damage, causing mental retardation, behaviour problems, or even death. A larger
proportion of infants remains in the womb too long or too briefly, or is born very small –
complications that can impair their chances of survival and well-being.

Postmaturity: Pregnant women have not gone into labor two weeks after the due
date, or forty-two weeks after the menstrual period. At that point, a baby is considered
postmature. Postmature babies tend to be long and thin, because they have kept growing in
the womb but have had an insufficient blood supply toward the end of gestation. Possibly
because the placenta has aged and become less efficient, it may provide less oxygen. The
baby’s greater size also complicates labor: the mother has to deliver a baby the size of a
normal 1-month-old.

Since postmature fetuses are at risk of brain damage or even death, doctors some
times induce labor with drugs or perform cesarean deliveries.

Prematurity and Low Birthweight: Babies born in the United States had low
birthweight, weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth. Very-low-birthweight babies, who
weigh less than 1,500 grams, accounted for 1.4 percent of births. Since low birthweight is

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the second leading cause of death in infancy, after birth defects, preventing and treating low
birthweight can greatly increase the number of babies who survive the first year of life.

Such measures as enhanced prenatal care, nutritional interventions, and

administration of drugs, bed rest, and hydration for women who go into early labor have
been tried, without success, to stem the tide of premature births.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS),
sometimes called “crib death,” is the sudden death of an infant under 1 year of age in which
the cause of death remains unexplained after a thorough investigation that includes an
autopsy.

It seems likely that SIDS most often results from a combination of factors. An
underlying biological defect may make some infants vulnerable, during a critical period in
their development, to certain contributing or triggering experiences, such as exposure to
smoke, prenatal exposure to caffeine, or sleeping on the stomach. A gene that helps
regulate heart rhythm and a defect in liver enzymes have been linked with small
percentages of SIDS cases.

Immunization for Better Health: Such once-familiar and sometimes fatal childhood
illnesses as measles, pertussis (whooping cough), and infantile paralysis (polio) are now
largely preventable, thanks to the development of vaccines that mobilize the body’s natural
defenses. Unfortunately, many children still are not adequately protected, leaving
themselves and those around them vulnerable to infection.

Early Physical Development

Principles of Development: According to the cephalocaudal principle, growth occurs

from the top down. Because the brain grows so rapidly before birth, a newborn baby’s head
is disproportionately large. The head becomes proportionately smaller as the child grows in
height and the lower parts of the body develop. Sensory and motor development proceed
according to the same principle: infants learn to use the upper parts of the body before the
lower parts. They see objects before they can control their trunk, and they learn to do many
things with their hands long before they can crawl or walk.

According to the proximodistal principle (inner to outer), growth and motor

development proceed from the center of the body outward. In the womb, the head and
trunk develop before the arms and legs, then the hand and feet, and then the fingers and
toes.

Physical Growth: Children grow faster during the first three years, especially during
the first few months, than ever again. At 5 months, the average baby boy’s birth weight has
doubled to 16 pounds, and, by 1 year, has nearly tripled to 23 pounds. This rapid growth rate
tapers off during the second and third years; a boy typically gains about 5 pounds by his
second birthday and 3½ pounds by his third.

A boy’s height typically increases by 10 inches during the first year, by almost 5
inches during the second year, and by a little more than 3 inches during the third year, to top

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37 inches. Girls follow a parallel pattern but are slightly smaller; at 3, the average girl weights
a pound less and is half an inch shorter than the average boy. As a baby grows, body shape
and proportions change too; a 3-year-old typically is slender compared with a chubby,
potbellied 1-year-old.

Teething usually beings around 3 or 4 months, when infants begin grabbing almost
everything in sight to put into their mouths; but the first tooth may not actually arrive until
sometime between 5 and 9 months of age, or even later. By the first birthday, babies
generally have six to eight teeth. By age 3, all twenty primary, or deciduous, teeth are in
place, and children can chew anything they want to.

Influences on Growth: The genes an infant inherits have a strong influences on

whether the child will be tall or short, thin or stocky, or somewhere in between. This genetic
influences interacts with such environmental influences as nutrition and living conditions,
which also affect general health and well-being. For example, Japanese American children
are taller and weigh more than children the same age in Japan, probably because of dietary
differences.

Well-fed, well-cared-for children grow taller and heavier than less well nourished
and nurtured children. They also mature sexually and attain maximum height earlier, and
their teeth erupt sooner. Today, children in many developed countries are growing taller and
maturing sexually at an earlier age than a century ago, probably because of better nutrition,
improved sanitation and medical care, and the decrease in child labour.

Nutrition

Early Feeding: Past and Present. From the beginnings of human history, babies were
breast-fed. Recognition of the benefits of breast milk has brought about breast-feeding at 6
months, and many of these supplement breast milk with formula.

Breast milk is almost always the best food for infants. The only acceptable
alternative is an iron-fortified formula based on either cow’s milk or soy protein and
containing supplemental vitamins and minerals. Because infants fed plan cow’s milk in the
early months of life may suffer from iron deficiency. Babies receive breast milk or,
alternatively, iron-fortified formula for at least the first year. Breast milk is more digestible
and more nutritious than formula and is less likely to produce allergic reactions. Human milk
is a complete source of nutrients for at least the first six months; during this time breast-fed
babies normally do not need any other food. Breast feeding prevented or minimized by
breast-feeding are diarrhea, respiratory infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis), otitis
media (an infection of the middle ear), and staphylococcal, bacterial, and urinary tract
infections. Breast-feeding seems to have benefits for visual acuity and neurological
development and also may help prevent obesity. Breast-feeding may reduce the risk of SIDS.
The more often and the longer babies are breast-fed, the better protected they are and the
better their later cognitive performance. Feeding a baby is an emotional as well as a physical
act. Warm contact with the mother’s body fosters emotional linkage between mother and
baby. Such bonding can take place through either breast-or bottle-feeding and through
many other caregiving activities, most of which can be performed by fathers as well as

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mothers. The quality of the relationship between parent and child and the provision of
abundant affection and cuddling may be more important than the feeding method.

The Brain and Reflex Behaviour

Building the Brain: The growth of the brain is fundamental to future physical,
cognitive, and emotional development. The brain at birth weighs only about 25 per cent of
its eventual adult weight of 3½ pounds. It reaches 70 per cent of that weight at 1 year and
nearly 90 per cent by age 3. By age 6, it is almost adult size; but growth and functional
development of specific parts of the brain continue into adulthood. The brain’s growth
occurs in fits and starts, and different parts of it grow rapidly at different times.

Major Parts of the Brain: Beginning about two weeks after conception, the brain
gradually develops from a long hollow tube into a spherical mass of cells. By birth, the
growth spurt of the spinal cord and brain stem (the part of the brain responsible for such
basic bodily functions as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and the sleep-wake cycle)
has almost run its course. The cerebellum (the part of the brain that maintains balance and
motor coordination) grows fastest during the first year of life.

The two hemispheres are joined by a tough band of tissue called the corpus
callosum, which allows them to share information and coordinate commands. The corpus
callosum grows dramatically during childhood, reaching adult size by about age 10.

The regions of the cerebral cortex (the outer surface of the cerebrum) that govern
vision and hearing are mature by 6 months of age, but the areas of the frontal lobe
responsible for making mental associations, remembering and producing deliberate motor
responses remain immature for several years.

Brain Cells: The brain is composed of neurons and glial cells. Neurons, or nerve cells,
send and receive information. Glial cells support and protect the neurons.

Beginning in the second month of gestation, an estimated 250,000 immature

neurons are produced every minute through cell division (mitosis). At birth, most of the
more than 100 billion neurons in a mature brain are already formed but are not yet fully
developed. The number of neurons increases most rapidly between the twenty fifth week of
gestation and the first few months after birth. This cell proliferation is accompanied by a
dramatic growth in cell size.

The multiplication of dendrites and synaptic connections, especially during the last
two and a half months of gestation and the first six months to two years of life, accounts for
much of the brain’s growth in weight and permits the emergence of new perceptual,
cognitive, and motor abilities. Most of the neurons in the cortex, which is responsible for
complex, high-level functioning, are in place by twenty weeks of gestation, and its structure
becomes fairly well defined during the next twelve weeks. Only after birth, however, do the
cells begin to form connections that allow communication to take place.

The rapid increase in the brain’s density and weight is due largely to the formation
of dendrites, extensions of nerve cell bodies, and the synapses that link them. This

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mushrooming communications network sprouts in response to environmental stimulation
and makes possible impressive growth in every domain of development.

Early Reflexes:

Reflex behaviours are controlled by the lower brain centers that govern other
involuntary processes, such as breathing and heart rate. These are the parts of the brain
most fully myelinated at birth. Reflex behaviours play an important part in stimulating the
early development of the central nervous system and muscles.

Molding the Brain: The Role of Experience. The Brain growth spurt that begins at about the
third trimester of gestation and continues until at least the fourth year of life is important to
the development of neurological functioning smiling, babbling, crawling, walking, and talking
– all the major sensory, motor, and cognitive milestones of infancy and toddlerhood – are
made possible by the rapid development of the brain, particularly the cerebral cortex.

The brain grew in an unchangeable, genetically determined pattern. It shows that

the postnatal brain is “molded” by experience. This is so especially during the early months
of life, when the cortex is still growing rapidly and organising itself. The brain has plasticity.
Early synaptic connections, some of which depend on sensory stimulation, refine and
stabilize the brain’s genetically designed “writing”. Thus early experience can have lasting
effects on the capacity of the central nervous system to learn and store information.

We know that malnutrition can interfere with normal cognitive growth. By the same
token, early abuse or sensory impoverishment may leave an imprint on the brain.

Early emotional development, too, may depend on experience.

Early Sensory Capacities

The developing brain enables newborn infants to make fairly good sense of what
they touch, see, smell, taste, and hear; and their senses develop rapidly in the early months
of life.

Touch and Pain: Touch is the first sense to develop, and for the first several months
it is the most mature sensory system. When a newborn’s cheek is stroked near the mouth,
the baby responds by trying to find a nipple. Early signs of this rooting reflex occur two
months after conception.

Even on the firs day of life, babies can and do feel pain; and they become more
sensitive to it during the next few days.

Smell and Taste: The senses of smell and taste also begin to develop in the womb.
The flavours and odors of foods an expectant mother consumes may be transmitted to the
fetus through the amniotic fluid. After birth, a similar transmission occurs through breast
milk.

Certain taste preferences seem to be largely innate. Newborns prefer sweet tastes
to sour or bitter ones. Sweetened water calms crying newborns, whether full-term or two

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ort here weeks premature – evidence that not only the taste buds themselves (which seem
to be fairly well developed by twenty weeks of gestation), but the mechanisms that produce
this calming effect are functional before normal term.

Hearing: Hearing, too, is functional before birth. Early recognition of voices and
language heard in eth womb may lay the foundation for the relationship between parents
and child.

Sight: Vision is the least developed sense at birth. The eyes of newborns are smaller
than those of adults, the retinal structures are incomplete, and the optic nerve is under
developed. Newborns blink at bright lights.

Vision becomes more acute during the first year, reaching the 20/20 level by about
the six moths. Binocular vision – the use of both eyes to focus, allowing perception of depth
and distance – usually does not develop until 4 or 5 months.

Motor Development: Babies do not have to be taught such basic motor skills as
grasping, crawling, and walking. They just need room to move and freedom to see what they
can do. When the central nervous system, muscles, and bones are ready and the
environment offers the right opportunities for exploration and practice, babies keep
surprising the adults around them with new abilities.

During the second year, children begin to climb stairs one at a time, putting one foot
after another on the same step; later they will alternate feet. Walking down stairs comes
later. In their second year, toddlers run and jump. By age 3½, most children can balance
briefly on one foot and begin to hop.

How Motor Development Occurs: maturation in Context

The sequence just described was traditionally thought to be genetically programmed

– a largely automatic, preordained series of steps directed by the maturing brain. Today,
many development al scientists consider this view too simplistic. Instead, according to Esther
Thelen, motor development is a continuous process of interaction between baby and
environment.

Thelen points to the walking reflex: stepping movements a neonate makes when
held upright with the feet touching a surface. This behaviour usually disappears by the
fourth month. Not until the latter part of the first year, when a baby is getting ready to walk,
do such movements appear again. The usual explanation is a shift to cortical control; an
older baby’s deliberate walking is seen as a new skill that reflects the brain’s development.
But, Thelen observes, a newborn’s stepping involves the same kinds of movement s the
neonate makes while lying down and kicking.

Infant and environment form an interconnected system, and development has

interacting causes. According to Thelen, normal babies develop the same skills in the same
order because they are built approximately the same way and have similar physical
challenges and needs. Thus they eventually discover that walking is more efficient than
crawling in most situations.

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 Motor Development and Perception: Sensory perceptions allow infants to learn
about their environment so they can navigate in it. Motor experience sharpens and modifies
their perceptions of what will happen if they move in a certain way. They “perceive in order
to act, and …. act in order to perceive”. This bidirectional connection between perception
and action gives infants much useful information about themselves and their world.

Infants begin reaching for and grasping objects at about 4 to 5 months; by 5½

months, they can adapt their reach to moving or spinning objects. Piaget and other
researchers long believed that reaching depended on visual guidance: the use of the eyes to
guide the movement of the hands (or other parts of the body). Now, research has found that
infants in that age group can use other sensory cues to reach for an object. They can locate
an unseen rattle by its sound, and they can reach for a glowing object in the dark, even
though they cannot see their hands. They also can reach for an object based only on their
memory of its location. Slightly older infants, 5 to 7½ months old, can grasp a moving,
fluorescent object in the dark – a feat that requires awareness, not only of how their own
hands move, but also of the object’s path and speed, so as to anticipate the likely point of
contact.

Depth perception, the ability to perceive objects and surfaces three-dimensionally,

depends on several kinds of cues that affect the image of an object on the retina of the eye.
These cues involve not only binocular coordination (both eyes working together), present by
about 5 months, but also motor control. Kinetic cues are changes in an image with
movement either of the object or of the observer. To find out which is moving, a baby might
hold his or her head still for a moment, an ability that is well established by about 3 months.

Sometime between 5 and 7 months, babies respond to such cues as relative six and
differences in texture and shading. To judge depth from these cues, babies depend on haptic
perception, the ability to acquire information by handling objects rather than just looking at
them. Haptic perception comes only after babies develop enough eye-hand coordination to
reach for objects and grasp them.

Eleanor and James Gibson’s Ecological Theory: Crawling and, later, walking require
infants to continually perceive, or size up, the “fit”, or affordance between their won
physical attributes and capabilities (such as arm and leg length, endurance, and strength)
and the characteristics of the environment.

Perceptual learning occurs through a growing ability to detect and distinguish, or

differentiate, the many features of a rich sensory environment. It is this ability that permits
infants and toddlers to recognize affordances, and this awareness is necessary to
successfully negotiate a terrain.

With experience, babies become better able to gauge the environment in which they
move and to adapt their locomotion accordingly.

Cultural Influences on Motor Development: Although motor development follows

a virtually universal sequence, its pace does seem to respond to certain contextual factors. A
normal rate of development in one culture may not be in another.

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Some cultures actively encourage early development of motor skills.

On the other hand, some cultures discourage early motor development.

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