Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood

A. Pre-natal period 2.b.iv. At 2 to 15 weeks AOG → gross deformities,

1. Embryonic Stage: conception to 8 weeks stunted growth, abnormal brain function, or cancer
2. Fetal Stage: 8 weeks to birth
- recognizably human B. Infancy: Birth to 18 months
- maintains an internal equilibrium that interacts
continuously with the intrauterine environment Infancy Developmental Landmarks
- (+) damage → global impact Newborn - Reflexes and Survival Systems
- girls  biological vigor than boys due to second X • breathing, sucking, swallowing, and
chromosome circulatory and temperature
- (+) behaviors necessary for adaptation outside the homeostasis
womb • sensory organs are incompletely
developed
Fetal Stage Developmental Landmarks • REM and non-REM sleep
4-5 months AOG - vigorous movements • crying, smiling
16 to 20 weeks - grasp reflex • penile erection in males
17 weeks - hears, responds to loud noises with • can make noises
18 weeks muscle contractions, movements, 1 day old - (+) can smell mother’s milk
and an increased heart rate 3 days old - distinguish mother’s voice
5-6 months AOG - retinal structures can detect bright
20 weeks light flashed on the abdominal wall Language and Cognitive Development
25 weeks causing - changes in fetal heart rate
and position Mastery of Mastery of Expression
- Moro (startle reflex) Comprehension
7 months AOG - eyelids open Birth to 6 months
28 weeks - smell and taste are also developed - startle response to loud - (+) vocalizations other
- sucking reflex or sudden sounds than crying
- attempts to localize - (+) differential cries for
2.a. Development of the Nervous System sounds hunger, pain
- brain weight = 350 g at birth - appears to listen, may - vocalizes to show
- 4x  in neocortex due to growth in the number and respond with smile pleasure
branching of dendrites - recognizes warning, - plays at making sounds
- uterine contractions cause the developing neural angry, and friendly - babbles (a repeated
network to receive and transmit impulses voices series of sounds)
2.a.i. Pruning - responds to own name
- programmed elimination of certain brain 7- 11 months (Attending to language)
structures present at birth - shows listening - responds to own name
- occurs to rid of cells that have served their selectivity with vocalizations
function - listens to music or - imitates the melody of
- immature brain can be vulnerable → singing utterances
implications in child and adult neuropsychiatric - recognizes own name - uses jargon
disorders - looks at pictures being - (+) gestures,
named for up to 1 exclamation
2.b. Risk factors minute - plays language games
2.b.i. Maternal Stress - listens to speech without (pat-a-cake, peekaboo)
- correlates with  levels of stress hormones that being distracted by other
act directly on the fetal neuronal network sounds
- anxious mothers → hyperactive, irritable, and 12-18 months (Single-Word)
low BW infants - shows gross - uses single words
2.b.ii. Maternal Substance Use discriminations between - talks to toys, self, or
dissimilar sounds others using long
Alcohol - leads to Fetal alcohol - understands basic body patterns of jargon and
syndrome: growth retardation, parts, names of common occasional words
minor anomalies, short objects - utterances are 25%
palpebral fissures, midface - (+) understanding of intelligible
hypoplasia, a smooth or short some new words weekly - articulates vowels
philtrum, and a thin upper lip; - identify simple objects correctly with initial
and CNS manifestations - understands up to 150 and final consonants
- may be associated with ADHD words by age 18 months often omitted
Smoking - leads to prematurity, low BW
infants, Sudden Infant Death Emotional and Social Development
Syndrome (SIDs)
Marijuana - prematurity, low BW infants, Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior
withdrawal symptoms Birth to 2 months
Cocaine - behavioral abnormalities - Love evoked by touching - Social smile and joy
Antibiotics, - teratogenic effects - Fear evoked by loud shown
anticonvulsants, noise - Responds to emotions of
lithium, warfarin - Rage evoked by body others
Selective Serotonin - neonatal behavioral syndrome restrictions
Reuptake Inhibitors - Brain pathways for
(SSRIs) emotion forming
3-4 months onward
2.b.iii. Radiation Exposure - Self-regulation of - laughter possible and
 Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood

emotions starts more control over gradually drop from

- Brain pathways of smiles; anger shown speech
emotion growing - Increased vocabulary
7-12 months Speech 50% to 80%
- Self-regulation of - Able to elicit more intelligible
emotion grows responsiveness - P, b, m articulated
- increased intensity of - Denies to cope with correctly
basic three stress - Speech may show
1. Temperament (Chess and Thomas) rhythmic disturbances
- innate psycho-physiological characteristics
- range of normal behavioral patterns
- from the difficult child at one end of the spectrum Emotional and Social Development
to the easy child at the other end
- Rhythmicity Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior
1-2 years
2. Attachment - Shame and pride appear; - empathy starting;
- Bonding is the term used to describe the intense envy, embarrassment expressions of feeling
emotional and psychological relationship a mother appear - Likes attention and
develops for her baby. - Displaces onto other approval
- Attachment is the relationship the baby develops children - enjoys play alone or
with its caregivers. next to peers
2-5 years to 3-6 years (see table for pre-school)
3. Stranger Anxiety (at about 26 weeks to 32 weeks)
- result from a baby's growing ability to distinguish 1. Sexual Development
caregivers from all other persons - Children exhibit curiosity about anatomical sex →
- ↑ in babies exposed to only one caregiver recognized as healthy and met with age-appropriate
replies, they acquire a sense of the wonder of life and
4. Separation anxiety (between 10 and 18 months) are comfortable with their own roles.
- related to stranger anxiety but not identical to it.
- As infants separate by moving away from mother, 1.a. Gender identity
they constantly look back and return for - conviction of being male or female
reassurance - manifests at 18 months and fixed by 24 to 30 mos

5. Parental Fit 1.b. Gender role

- how well the parents relates to the infant - the behavior that society deems appropriate for one sex
- takes into account temperamental characteristics or another
of both parent and child
- goodness of fit: harmonious and consonant 2. Sphincter Control and Sleep
interaction between a parent and a child - toilet training serves as a paradigm of the family's
- Poor fit — distorted development and maladaptive general training practices
functioning - control of daytime urination → 2½ years
- control of nighttime urination → 4 years
C. Toddler: 18-30 months (2½ years old) - generally sleep about 12 hours a day, including a 2-hour
nap: takes 30 minutes to sleep
Language and Cognitive Development
3. Parenting Issues
Mastery of Comprehension Mastery of Expression - Parental task: firmness about the boundaries of
12-24 months (Two-Word Messages) acceptable behavior and encouragement of the child's
- Responds to simple - Uses two-word progressive emancipation
directions utterances - Children will struggle for the exclusive affection and
- Responds to action - Imitates environmental attention of their parents → rivalry
commands sounds in play - balance between punishment and permissiveness and
- Understands pronouns (me, - Refers to self by name, set realistic limits
him, her, you) begins to use pronouns
- Begins to understand - Echoes two or more D. Pre-school
complex sentences last words
- uses three-word Language and Cognitive Development
telegraphic utterances
- Utterances 26% to 50% Mastery of Mastery of Expression
intelligible Comprehension
- Uses language to ask 36-54 months (Grammar development)
for needs - Understands - Correct articulation of n,
24-36 months (Grammar Formation) prepositions w, ng, h, t, d, k, g
- Understands small body parts - Uses real sentences - Understands many - Uses language to relate
(elbow, chin, eyebrow) with grammatical words incidents from the past
- Understands family name function word - Understands cause and - Uses wide range of
categories - Usually announces effect grammatical forms
- Understands size intentions before - Understands analogies - Plays with language
- Understands most adjectives acting (Food is to eat, milk is - Speech 90% intelligible
- Understands functions - Conversations• with to________) - Able to define words
other children, usually - Can repeat a 12-syllable
just monologues sentence correctly
- Jargon and echolalia 55 mos onward (True Communication)
 Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood

- Understands concepts of - Uses language to tell 1. Chum Period

number, speed, time, stories, share ideas, and - an important phenomenon
space discuss alternatives - by 10 years old — close same-sex relationship
- Understands left and - Increasing use of varied - absence of a chum during middle childhood is an early
right grammar; spontaneous harbinger of schizophrenia (Sullivan)
- Understands abstract self-correction of
terms grammatical errors 2. School Refusal
- Is able to categorize - Stabilizing of articulation - generally due to separation anxiety
items into classes f, v, s, z, l, r, th, and - usually not an Isolated problem
consonant clusters - typically avoid many other social situations
- Speech 100% intelligible
Emotional and Social Development
Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior Other Issues in Childhood
2-5 years to 3-6 years
- Can understand causes - Empathy increases with 1. Sex Role Development
of many emotions understanding - The sex role also involves identification with culturally
- Can begin to find ways - More response and less acceptable masculine or feminine ways of behaving
for regulating emotions reaction - Ambiguity is created as society grows more tolerant and
and for expressing them - self-regulation: sex roles become less rigid.
- Identifies with adult to - Use your words to
cope convey feeling 2. Dreams and Sleep
- Aggression becomes - At 1 year old → experienced as if true
competition - At 3 years old → shared by other children
- By age 5, shows - At 4 years old → unique to each child
sensitivity to criticism - The dream content should be seen in connection with
and cares about feelings children's life experience, developmental stage,
of others mechanisms used during dreaming, and sex
- disturbing dreams peak at 3,6 and 10 years of age →
1. Sibling Rivalry want to keep their bedroom door open or to have a
- birth of a sibling tests capacity of further nightlight
cooperation and sharing - aggressive dreams rare in early childhood
- depends on child-rearing practice. Favoritism for - by age 7, children know that they create their dreams
any reason commonly aggravates such rivalry themselves
- If not handled properly, the displacement of the - often create rituals as protection
firstborn can be a traumatic event - Parasomnias (at stage 4 sleep) when dreaming is
minimal → do not indicate psychopathology
2. Play
1. Parallel play (2½ and 3 years) – solitary play alongside 3. Birth Spacing
another child with no interaction between them. - close spacing → increases prematurity or underweight
2. Associative play (by 3 years) - plays with the same births, and malnutrition
toys in pairs or in small groups, but still with no real - children from large families → increases conduct
interaction among them. disorder and slightly decreased verbal intelligence
3. Cooperative play (by age 4) - real interactions and - due to low parental interaction and discipline
taking turns become possible.
4. Birth Order (Sulloway)
3. Drawing - Firstborn → highly valued particularly if male
- Helps trace the child's growth and express - ↑ IQ in firstborn → reflect parents having more time to
creativity: interact with the firstborn child
- representational and formal in early childhood - Firstborn children - more achievement oriented, most
- make use of perspective in middle childhood authoritarian; conservative and conformists
- become abstract and affect laden in adolescence - Second and third children have the advantage of their
- also reflect children's body image concepts and parents previous’ experience and can learn from their
sexual and aggressive impulses older siblings; usually receive the least attention
- the youngest children may receive too much attention
4. Imaginary Companions and be spoiled; tend to be rebellious → high proportion
- in children with above-average intelligence and of prominent persons
usually in the form of persons
- may also be anthropomorphized toys 5. Stepparents
- friendly, relieve loneliness, and ↓ anxiety
- disappear by age 12, but they can occasionally Types of Step Families
persist into adulthood - Resembles traditional• families
- Absent biological parent is included at times.
Neo-Traditional

- Discipline, boundaries and limits, and

E. Middle Childhood expectations are discussed openly.
- Family coalitions and side-taking• are better
Language and Cognitive Development avoided.
- expresses complex ideas
- logical exploration tends to dominate - Expect to be a traditional family• immediately
- increase interest in rules and orderliness - The absent biological parent is expected to
- increase capacity for self-regulation disappear and is often criticized.
Romantic

- ability to concentrate by 9 - 10 years - Stepparent/stepchild difficulties are common.

- (+) complex motor tasks and activities - Stress is unbearable.
- Few open and frank discussions about problems
 Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood

- Run by a highly competent mom and her

Matriarchal
companion follows
- Companion is a buddy• to the children, not to
the parent
- Birth of a step-sibling causes problems.

6. Adoption
- the process by which a child is taken into a family
by one or more adults who are not the biological
parents but are recognized by law as the child's
parents
- usually born out of wedlock → 40% born out of
teenage mothers
- disclosure at 2 - 4 years old → reduces feelings of
betrayal by adoptive parents and abandonment by
biological parents
- the later the age of adoption, the higher the
incidence and the more severe problems
- may be preoccupied with fantasies of two sets of
parents → good and bad parents
- Strong desire to know their biological parents →
the experience is generally positive when done
during adolescence or adulthood.

Family Factors in Child Development

1. Family Stability
- separated- and single-parent families → low self-
esteem, ↑ risk of child abuse ↑incidence of
marital problems eventually, and ↑ incidence of
mental disorders
- boys are more affected than girls and older
children are less vulnerable; inborn personality
characteristics protective (Rutter)
- death of a parent → adverse emotional effects

2. Day Care Centers

- its role in child development is being studied
- children placed in day care centers before 5 years
old → less assertive and less effectively toilet
trained
- The quality of both the day care center and the
homes from which children come must be taken
into consideration.

3. Parenting Styles (Rutter) – 4 types

1. authoritarian
2. indulgent-permissive
3. Indulgent-neglectful
4. authoritative-reciprocal (best)
- marked by firm rules and shared decision-making in
a warm, loving environment → ↑self-reliance,
↑self-esteem, and ↑ sense of social responsibility

4. Development and Expression of Psychopathology

- related to both age and developmental level
- developmental and language disorders often
diagnosed in preschool years
- Mild Mental Retardation or learning problems –
diagnosed in early school-age years
- Disruptive Behavior Disorder - seen with peer
interaction
- Attention Deficit Disorders - seen with ↑ demands
for attention in school
- Other conditions (eg schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder) are rare in preschool and school-aged
children