PSYC 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Baby Colic, Pharyngeal Reflex, Jerky
23 Jun 2016
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PSYC 250 – The newborn infant
A baby!
• What would you expect?
• What would you need to change?
• What can he/she do?
• What do you need to do?
• What kind of support do you need ?
State of arousal
• State - refers to a continuum of arousal; ranges from deep sleep --> intense activity
• 2 newborn states: Sleeping and crying
Sleep
• REM sleep - ACTIVE sleep state, associated with dreaming (in adults), jerky eye movements under
closed lids etc.
o REM sleep (not the quiet, deep sleep kind!) constitutes fully 50% of a newborn's total sleep
time and declines rapidly to only 20% by 3 or 4 years of age…
• WHY? Theory: helps develop infant's visual system
Crying
• Early in infancy --> crying reflects discomfort or frustration
• Crying gradually becomes more of a communicative act
Colic
• Baby colic - aka infantile colic
• Defined as episodes of crying for more than 3 hours a day for more than 3 days a week for 3
weeks in an otherwise healthy child between the ages of 2 weeks and 4 months.
• Cause is generally unknown
Article: crying among hunter-gatherer group
• Frequency of crying was the same
• But duration of crying was different because they breast fed automatically
Techniques to reduce crying
• Repetitive motions and sounds - swaddling, soothing
• Response to distress = assessing severity of infant's distress BEFORE responding allows infants to
cope with less serious problems
Video: Newborn reflexes (involuntary, unlearned responses)
• Rooting response - touch baby's cheek and they root
• Stepping reflex
• Some of our reflexes disappear (discontinuous development) but some are with us for life (gag
reflex)
• Examples: Rooting, sucking, grasp, foot curl, stepping, motor reflexes (twisting/fists), morrow (falling),
blinking, sneezing, gagig, pupil dilatio
• Oe touh vs. doule touh you a't tikle yourself
o Idiates ay's have soe sort of oept of self
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
State of arousal: 2 newborn states: sleeping and crying. Sleep: rem sleep - active sleep state, associated with dreaming (in adults), jerky eye movements under. Crying: early in infancy --> crying reflects discomfort or frustration, crying gradually becomes more of a communicative act. Frequency of crying was the same: cause is generally unknown. Article: crying among hunter-gatherer group: but duration of crying was different because they breast fed automatically. Techniques to reduce crying: repetitive motions and sounds - swaddling, soothing, response to distress = assessing severity of infant"s distress before responding allows infants to cope with less serious problems. Video: newborn reflexes (involuntary, unlearned responses: rooting response - touch baby"s cheek and they root. I(cid:374)di(cid:272)ates (cid:271)a(cid:271)y"s have so(cid:373)e sort of (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:272)ept of self. Newborn bonding: both mom and dads show hormonal changes in their body --> increase in nurturing like behaviours. Infant mortality: death during the first year after birth, has become a relatively rare event in western industrialized world.
