Development in Infancy to Early Childhood

1. DEVELOPMENT IN
INFANCY TO EARLY
CHILDHOOD
Courtney SImmelink

2. Development of the Brain and the Nervous System:
Synaptogenesis  Synaptic pruning  Myelinization 
Reticular Formation
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
 Medulla and midbrain are developed
at birth
 Years one and two cortex develops

3.  Reflexes:
 Adaptive Reflexes:
 Sucking reflex
 Rooting reflex
 Stepping reflex
 Primitive Reflexes:
 Moro Reflex
 Babinski Reflex
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

4.  Behavioral States:
 States of Consciousness
 Deep sleep  lighter sleep  alert wakefulness  fussing
 Colic:
 Intense bouts of crying (3+ hours per day)
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

5. Motor Development
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.
Age
(Months)
Locomotor Skills Nonlocomotor Skills Manipulative Skills
1 Stepping reflex Lifts head slightly; follows slowly
moving objects with eyes
Holds object if placed in hand
2-3 Lifts head up to 90- degree angle
when lying on stomach
Begins to swipe at objects in sight
4-6 Rolls over; Sits with
support; moves on hands
and knees
Holds head erect while in sitting
position
Reaches for and grasps objects
7-9 Sits without support;
crawls
Transfer objects from one hand to the other
10-12 Pulls self up and walks
grasping furniture; then
walks alone
Squats and stoops; plays patty cake Shows some signs of hand preference; grasps a
spoon across palm but has poor aim when moving
food to mouth
13-18 Walks backwards,
sideways; runs
Rolls ball to adult; claps Stacks two blocks; puts objects into small
container and dumps them out
19-24 Walks up and down stairs,
two feet per step
Jumps with both feet off the ground Uses spoon to feed self; stacks 4 to 10 blocks
Note. Retrieved from Lifespan Development, Boyd, Johnson & Bee, 2009

6. Health and Wellness:
 Research says breastfeeding should be sole source of
nutrition for babies unless they are preterm or the
mothers are drug abusers
 Infants require immunizations to start at two months old
 DTaP Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis
 Hib  Haemophilus influenza
 PC  Pneumoncoccal conjugate vaccine
 MC  Meningococcal conjugate vaccine
 MMR  Measles, mumps, and rubella
 Hep B/V  Hepatitis B
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

7. Vision:
Visual Acuity
 At birth visual acuity is 20/200 to 20/400  Improves rapidly
 Color Vision:
 Developed one month after birth
SENSORY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS

8. Early Visual Stimulation:
 Early visual stimulation is critical in early infancy
 Lack of stimulation limits visual capability in later years
 Sleeper Effect
SENSORY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

9. Hearing
Auditory Acuity
 At a general range of pitch and loudness infants can
hear just as well as humans
Smelling and Tasting
Newborns respond differently
to 5 different basic flavors
SENSORY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

10.  Perceptual Skills
Young infants are able to make discrimination among
sight, sound, feelings, and respond to patterns.
 Habituation  a decline in attention that occurs because a
stimulus has become familiar
 Dishabituation responding to a somewhat familiar stimulus as
if it were new
PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS

11. Depth Perception in Infants:
Binocular Cue  involves both eyes
Pictorial Information  requires information from
only one eye
Kinetic Cue  comes from your own motion or
motion of another object
PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANTS
CONT.

12. ERIKSON’S FIRST STAGE OF CHILD
DEVELOPMENT
 Children learn from interaction
 Helps educators:
 Plan
 Understand how infants up to adulthood age
develop

13. RELEVANCY AND PERSONAL
IMPORTANCE
 Future career goal
 Gain a better
understanding of
how children
develop
 Once educators
understand how
children develop, they
can plan
developmentally
appropriate activities

14. By understanding infant development:
Help me plan activities for children
Help educate children’s parents on the development
of their child
 Example: If a child comes to my childcare organization
and has been crying for a majority of the day and the
mother is asking why, I will be able to
tell her it is Colic and that
often moving the babies legs
and rubbing the tummy will
help soothe the child.
PROFESSIONAL IMPORTANCE AND
APPLICATION

15.  Boyd, D., Johnson, P., & Bee, H., (2015). Lifespan
Development (5th ed.). Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc.
REFERENCES