Unit 3 devpsy

• Cephalocaudal pattern 


  Developmental sequence in which the earliest growth occurs at the top –the head– with the physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.
• Proximodistal pattern


  Developmental sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards Height and weight the extremities.
• By the time the infant is born, the infant that began as a single cell is estimated to have a brain that contains approx. 100 billion neurons.
• The infant’s head should be protected from falls or other injuries, and should not be shaken.
• Shaken baby syndrome 


  includes brain swelling and hemorrhaging.
• EEG


  best used to measure an infant brain’s electric activity.
• Frontal lobe 


  Involved in voluntary movemen, thinking, personality, and intentionality or purpose.
• Occipital lobe 


  Function in vision
• Temporal lobe


  Have an active role in hearing, language processing and memory.
• Parietal lobe


  Play important roles in registering spatial location, attention and motor control.
• Lateralization


  refers to specialization of function in one hemisphere or the other.
• Early experiences play an important role in brain development.
• Newborns show greater electrical brain activity in the L-hemisphere than the R- hemisphere when they are listening to speech sounds.
• Neonatal


  Relating to newborn children (or other mammals)
• Neonatal development is also referred to as infancy
• Patterns of growth


  • Cephalocaudal pattern - Developmental sequence in which the earliest growth occurs at the top (the head) with the physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom
  • Proximodistal pattern - Developmental sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards the extremities

  
• Infants see objects before they can control their torso, and they can use their hands long before they can crawl or walk
• Infants control the muscles of their trunk and arms before they control their hands and fingers, and they use their whole hands before they can control their several fingers
• By the time the infant is born, the infant that began as a single cell is estimated to have a brain that contains approximately 100 billion neurons
• The infant's head should be protected from falls or other injuries, and should not be shaken
• Shaken baby syndrome includes brain swelling and hemorrhaging
• EEG is best used to measure an infant brain's electric activity
• The cerebral cortex


  • Has two hemispheres (left and right)
  • Lateralization refers to specialization of function in one hemisphere or the other

  
• Newborns show greater electrical brain activity in the left hemisphere than the right hemisphere when they are listening to speech sounds
• Myelination


  The process of encasing axons with fat cells (occurs from prenatal to adolescence)
• Synaptic pruning


  A natural process that occurs in the brain between early childhood and adulthood, where the brain eliminates extra synapses
• Some areas of the brain such as the primary motor areas develop earlier than others such as the primary sensory areas
• Frontal lobes are immature in the newborn
• Neurons in the frontal lobe become myelinated and interconnected in the first year of life, infants develop an ability to regulate sleep and reflexes

  
• Cognitive skills do not emerge until later in the first year
• The prefrontal region of the frontal lobe has the most prolonged development, of any brain region, with changes detectable into emerging adulthood

  
• Children who grow up in a deprived environment may have depressed brain activity
• The brain can demonstrate flexibility and resilience
• Neuroscientists believe that what wires the brain - or rewires it, is repeated experience
• The brain has plasticity and its development depends on context
• Newborns usually sleep about 18 hours a day. By 6 months of age, many American infants approach adult-like sleeping patterns. REM sleep—during which dreaming occurs—is present more in early infancy than in childhood and adulthood
• Sleeping arrangements for infants vary across cultures. In America, infants are more likely to sleep alone than in many other cultures
• Some experts believe shared sleeping can lead to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but the most critical factor in predicting SIDS is prone sleeping
• Individual differences among infants in terms of their nutrient reserves, body composition, growth rates, and activity patterns make defining nutrient needs difficult
• As infants develop their motor skills, so do their eating movements: from suck-and-swallow to chew-and-swallow