PSYB20H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Physical Abuse, Measles, Vaccination Schedule
Lecture 5: Physical Development and Health: 0-3
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe early patterns of growth and appropriate nutrition for young children
2. Outline brain development in infants and explain the importance of early experiences
3. Summarize the early sensory capacities of young infants
4. List the major motor milestones and summarize the major theories of motor development
and the impact of culture
5. Review major health and safety issues for infants and toddlers
Early Growth and Physical Development:
1. Principles of Early Growth and Physical Development
2. Physical Growth
3. Nutrition
Principles of Early Growth and Physical Development
- Larger in proportion to babies’ bodies when they are born
- Our heads would be the size of watermelons if we had the same head to body ratio
- Top to bottom growth
Physical Growth
- Fastest in the first few months of life and then slows down
- We grow fast to catch up to survive
Nutrition
- Stomach capacity changes
oDay 1: marble
oDay 3: gum ball
oDay 7: ping pong ball
- Very important for infant nutrition to be breastfed
oIGA: protects the mucus membrane
Lungs
oComes through breastmilk
- Recommended for a minimum of young ear
- SIDs, long-term health
- Helps the mother as well and less chance of postpartum bleeding
- More likely to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight
- Less anxious
- Beneficial for both
- Why mothers choose not to breast feed:
oAIDS
oPsychotropic medication
oSocial of cultural opinion
oGo to work
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oWant to drink and smoke and they do not want to pass on side effects to the
baby
-Experiment: Assessed 133 healthy kids
oGroups:
oFormula fed
oBreast fed
oBoth
oExamined white matter microstructure and showed that there was an increase of
white matter developed, specifically in the frontal lobe area
oLess development at the back of the brain:
This is a good thing; as the baby is developing, reflexes start to disappear
When babies are born, there are a tonne of conditions and pruning occurs
and they get rid of some conditions
-Overweight:
oHaving a weight for height in the 95th percentile
oBabies can become obese if parents do not provide the right nutrition
If food that is made for 6-12-month year old babies is given to a 4-month-
old, they will be obsess (iron-enriched foods)
Parents do this so the baby stays fuller longer, sleep longer tonight so
they can sleep as well
Food guidelines: can only intake a certain number of fats, etc.
If the baby isn’t burning enough calories by moving around
Building the Brain:
- Brain growth spurts: growth occurs in fits and spurts
- Hindbrain: back of the brain, medulla, pons, cerebellum
- Cerebrum: largest part of the brain
o R hemisphere: processes visual and spatial information
o L hemisphere: language and logical thinking
- Corpus callosum: tough band of tissue joining the 2 hemispheres, so they can
communicate (Damaged in FASD)
- Cerebellum: balance and motor coordination (walking, balancing, riding a bike)
- Brain stem: heart beat, breathing
- Occipital lobe: any visual information (recognizing facial expressions)
- Temporal lobes: memory, visual information, auditory and emotional information
(recognizing a friend in a grocery store)
- Parietal lobe: spatial processing, multi sensory information (remembering how to get
somewhere without a map)
- Language areas: speech and language production
- Frontal lobe: inhibitory control
- Plasticity: none of the neurons are connected and then after a few months there are
multiple connections
oPruning occurs: if they don’t use it they lose it
Bucharest:
- 1966: abortion and contraception was outlawed in Romania
- Lead to an increase in birth rate and many families forced to place their children in state
orphanages
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- The leader at the time thought that the higher the population, the stronger the nation
was; providing more people to enlist into the military to fight at wars
- Way too many babies and they were not able to take care of those babies
Bucharest Early Intervention Project:
- Young children living in institutions were randomly assigned to continued institutional
care or to placement in foster care
- Their cognitive development was tracked through 54 months of age
- Having a proper outcome:
o Age of adoption: If the kids taken out of the institution too late, there were less
differences (before the age of 2 showed better outcomes)
oLength of previous institutionalization (more than 8 months in the institution,
showed less diff)
oSpecific features of the institution:
Number of caregivers
Nutrition
Beginning of life is crucial for proper cognitive development, if that period is missed and if that
damage is done, they will never catch up and achieve their full potential
Early Sensory Capacities:
1. Touch and pain:
a. First sense to develop in utero
b. All body becomes sensitive to touch
2. Smell and taste:
a. Develop in utero
b. Like sweet over bitter, sour, or salty
c. Breastmilk is sweeter than cow milk
d. Taste preference develop in infancy and carry on into early childhood
d.i. About 70% of taste preference is genetic
3. Hearing:
a. Functional before birth: hear the mother’s voice
b. Auditory discrimination develops rapidly: correlation to language development
c. Newborns can usually distinguish between different languages
4. Sight:
a. There is nothing to see in utero
b. Visual perception is important but can only focus on something about a foot
away: usually how far away the caregiver is
c. Binocular vision: doesn’t develop up to after 5 months
d. Peripheral vision: narrow AF, will quickly develop
Milestones:
- If not meeting certain milestones, should be worried
- Gross: use of large muscle groups
- Fine: precise coordination of smaller muscles (moving fingers)
- Current theories emphasize interactions between neural mechanisms, strength, posture,
balance, and perception
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Early growth and physical development: principles of early growth and physical development, physical growth, nutrition. Larger in proportion to babies" bodies when they are born. Our heads would be the size of watermelons if we had the same head to body ratio. Fastest in the first few months of life and then slows down. We grow fast to catch up to survive. Stomach capacity changes: day 1: marble, day 3: gum ball, day 7: ping pong ball. Very important for infant nutrition to be breastfed: iga: protects the mucus membrane. Recommended for a minimum of young ear. Helps the mother as well and less chance of postpartum bleeding. More likely to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight. Why mothers choose not to breast feed: Less anxious: aids, psychotropic medication, social of cultural opinion, go to work, want to drink and smoke and they do not want to pass on side effects to the baby.
