Physical Development In Infancy And Toddlers

Physical development throughout infancy and toddlers is a very important topic to study and discuss. Infants and toddlers are at a time in their lives in which their bodies change more rapid than any other time of life after birth. It is also important to study the vast changes from a infant to a toddler. Throughout these few years, changes in the body are so predominant that makes this an extremely important topic to discuss. The main audience for this post can be families that are about to have a child, or are thinking of having a child, and families that have an infant or toddler.

1. Heredity

Ample amounts at which the rate infants and toddlers grow comes from heredity. Physical growth and the height are in many cases determined by heredity. Children often times follow a pattern called "catch-up growth" in which is a genetically fixated pattern of growth. This generally occurs when children do not have severe conditions such as poor nutrition and illness. When it comes to body weight, genetics also are a large factor. Although environmental factors play a large role in in the physical growth of infants and toddlers, there is generally a pattern when it comes to body weight (Berk, 2012, p. 171).

2. Nutrition

For the first two years of a child's life, nutrition is very crucial because the baby's brain and body are growing at a very fast rate. about a fourth of the calories an infant intakes is dedicated to physical growth. In order to keep the developing organs functioning, babies need extra calories (Berk, 2012, p. 172). As infants, babies either need to be breastfeed or bottle-fed. Many parents choose to breastfeed because the milk is at the right temperature and is sterile, it is very easily digestible for the infants, breastfeeding prevents from diseases, there is a correct balance of fat and protein, and many other reasons. People would choose to bottle feed for maternal freedom, the women face no breast discomfort, babies sleep through night sooner, and a few other reasons. Overall, breastfeeding is a more common practice for feeding an infant (Berk, 2012, p. 172) (PowerPoint notes 3/6).

3. Emotional Well-Being

Affection is very important, and is as important as food when it comes to physical growth. A disordered parent-infant relationship subsidizes the failure to grow normally. This phenomenon is known as growth faltering. Growth faltering is when infants weight, height, and head circumference are below what they are supposed to be for their specific age. Often times, troubled marriages devote to these caregiving problems. The baby will show abnormal feeding behaviors, that affect growth. It is very important that parents take the extra time to make sure their baby is receiving the care and affection he/she needs (Berk, 2012, p. 176).

4. Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is when infants act on the stimuli that follow their behavior change the probability that the behavior will occur again. There are two types of operant conditioning responses. One is known as the reinforcer and one is punishment. Reinforcer’s increases the probability of behaviors occurring again. This can happen when desirable stimulus is presented or when unpleasant stimulus is removed. The other is punishment in which reduces the probability of behavior occurring again. This can happen when the infant is presented with unpleasant stimulus and when a desirable stimulus is removed. All in all, infants will act in such ways in which play large roles in their social relationships, and physical development (Berk, 2012, p. 178).

5. Imitation

Many infants learn through a process known as imitation, the copying of a behavior of someone else. Infants ability to copy adult’s gestures like head and finger movements is a widely known phenomenon. Many researchers’ would agree that babies imitating reflex is just mouthing which is known to be an early on exploratory response. Many researchers would argue that infants imitate with attempt and determination, not just because he/she is copying an adult. Majority of researchers would agree that imitation does not decline. Infants only imitate when the gesture is being repeated. There are special cells in motor areas of the cerebral cortex called mirror neurons and those are what is to believe creates imitative capacities. All in all, imitation is a very dominant way of learning for infants (Berk, 2012, p. 180).

6. Motor Development

Motor development has two different categories to it which are fine and gross motor. Gross motor is the control over body actions and fine motor reflects small motor movements. There are many cultural variations in motor development, home environments and infant rearing practices play a large role in the motor development. The cultures that influence early motor development are the West Indians of Jamaica and Kipsigis of Kenya. When discussing motor skills there are 4 factors influencing new motor skills: the Central Nervous System Development, the body’s movement capacities, goal the child has in mind, and environmental support for the skill. To conclude there are many internal and external factors influencing motor development in infants and toddlers (PowerPoint notes 3/6).

7. Speech Perception

Young infant’s different types of speech sounds trigger auditory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. Researchers found that while infants hear certain sounds, they make up motor plans that ready them for making their own sounds. Between the ages of 6 to 8 months, infants start to screen out sounds in which is not used in their native tongue. Eventually, infants target speech units that are important in everyday language and can recognize familiar words in humans’ speech. Finally when infants are around 7 to 9 months they can take words that they hear and make out wordlike units to describe or say what they want (Berk, 2012, p. 187).

8. Vision

Vision goes through many changes throughout the first 7 to 8 months of life. The rapid maturation of the eye and visual centers in the cerebral cortex explains the development. When an infant is about 2 months old, he/she can focus on objects and colors. Their vision is adultlike by about four months. Babies are able to explore their visual fields to see how objects and items are placed. The development of aspects of vision consist of depth, pattern, and object perception (Berk, 2012, p. 189).

9. Object Perception

In the first weeks of life infants are able to have a sense of size constancy. Size constancy is the perception of an object’s size as the same, despite changes in the size of its retinal image. Shape consistency is also evident at the first week of life. Shape consistency is when the perception of an object’s shape as stable, regardless of the changes in the shape seen on the retina. All in all, shape and size constancy are adult-like from birth. Infants are born with both of those capabilities (Berk, 2012, p. 194).

10. Intermodal Perception

Intermodal perception is when one can make sense of running streams of light, sound, tactile, odor, and taste. The behaviors of infants make researchers believe that sight, sound, and touch all go together from what was learned earlier. Babies center from different sensory systems by encountering amodal sensory properties. Amodal sensory properties are information that is not specific to a single modality but that overlaps two or more sensory systems. Examples of amodal sensory properties include rate, rhythm, duration, intensity, temporal synchrony, and texture and shape. It is said that even newborns are very well able to perceive amodal properties (Berk, 2012, p. 195).

11. Links

https://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40795-016-0124-0 http://gracepointwellness.org/461-child-development-parenting-infants-0-2/article/10108-infancy-physical-development-motor-developmenthttp://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/ResourceCentres/PregnancyBabies/Babies/PhysicalDevelopmentofBabies/Pages/default.aspx