OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANTS AND TODDLERS

Overview of Development: Infants and Toddlers An Assignment Submitted by Name of Student Name of Establishment Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall 2011

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANTS AND TODDLERS Abstract Developmental texts of Kathleen Stassen Berger are currently being used at nearly seven hundred colleges and universities in a dozen countries and in five languages. Invitation to the Life Span is a 15-chapter textbook covering the entire life span. This work is an overview of the first four chapters of the mentioned textbook. Some research methods and strategies that provide a wide overview of the process of development are introduced in the first chapter. Development from the genetic interactions that produce all inherited characteristics to the first sounds, movements and reactions of a newborn are traced in the second chapter. The third chapter traces early development from the first movements of the newborn to the first sentences of the toddler. The fourth chapter, respectively, explores the psychological development. Keywords: newborn, infant, toddler, life span, life development

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANTS AND TODDLERS Overview of Development: Infants and Toddlers Developmental works of Kathleen Stassen Berger are currently being used at nearly seven hundred colleges and universities in a dozen countries and in five languages. Invitation to the Life Span is a 15-chapter textbook covering the entire life span. The life-span perspective, as first set forth by Paul and Margaret Baltes and their associates, is an approach to the study of human development that takes into account all phases of life. Some research methods and strategies that provide a wide overview of the process of development are introduced in the first chapter. Development from the genetic interactions, that produce all inherited characteristics, to the first sounds, movements and reactions of a newborn are traced in the second chapter. The interplay of heredity and environment is illustrated throughout these chapters too. The second chapter describes the beginning and development of life during the germinal and the fetal periods. The third chapter traces early development from the first movements of the newborn to the first sentences of the toddler. The entire set of accomplishments is interactive: progress in body movements allows advances in thinking, and the opposite. Talking about body changes, one can say that in the first two years of life infants gain weight, grow taller, increase in head circumference. Birthweight is doubled by four months, tripled by one year and quadrupled by two years. The brain is dramatically increased in size and complexity. The parts of the cortex dedicated to the motor skills and senses mature in the first year. Dendrites are cut back and brain regions are rededicated to processing other sensations, if neurons are unused. Over the first two years sleep gradually decreases. Variations of sleep patterns are normal, as with all areas

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANTS AND TODDLERS of development. Newborns have many reflexes, including the survival ones of breathing and sucking. Fine motor skills are difficult for infants, but time, experience and motivation allow infants to advance in all of them. At birth, the senses already respond to stimuli. Prenatal experience makes hearing the most mature sense. Vision is the last mature at birth, but it improves quickly. Infants use their senses to strengthen their early social interactions. In the first two years they gradually develop an understanding of objects. Infant memory is fragile, but not completely absent. Eager attempts to communicate are apparent in the first year. At about six to nine months infants babble, by ten months they understand words and gestures, and at about one year they speak their first words. The fourth chapter opens by tracing infants emotions as their experiences accumulate and their brains mature over the first two years. The chapter explores the psychological development. To sum up, one should mention that two emotions, distress and contentment, appear as soon as an infant is born. The tendency of one part of the brain to stimulate another, called synaesthesia, is apparent in early life. Self-recognition emerges at about eighteen months. A childs emotions are guided by parental practices either reinforcing or inhibiting them. Ideally, a good fit develops between the childs personality and the parents actions. Sometimes by two months, and clearly by six months, infants become more responsive and social. As they play, toddlers engage in social referencing, looking to other peoples facial expressions to detect what is enjoyable and what is frightening. The impact of nonmaternal care depends on many factors. No matter who provides it, the quality of care is crucial.

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANTS AND TODDLERS References Dacey J.S., Travers J., & Fiore L.B. (2008). Human Development Across the Lifespan. McGraw-Hill, Baltes P., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. (2006). Life span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon & R. Lerner (Eds,), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 569-595. Berger, K.S. (2009). Invitation to the Life Span. Worth Publishers, chapters 1-4. Berger, K.S. (2004). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. Worth Publishers Kail, R.V., & Cavanaugh J.C. (2008). Human Development: A life-Span View. . Cengage Learning, 41-167. Mosher R.L., Youngman D.J., & Day J.M. (1999). Human Development Across the Life Span: Educational and Psychological Applications. Praeger, 1-10. Siegelman C.K., & Rider E.A. (2008). Life-Span Human Development. Cengage Learning, 1-89. Thies K.M., & travers J.F. (2001). Human Growth and Development Through the Lifespan. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2-5.