Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood

A. Pre-natal period
1. Embryonic Stage: conception to 8 weeks
2. Fetal Stage: 8 weeks to birth
- recognizably human
- maintains an internal equilibrium that interacts
continuously with the intrauterine environment
- (+) damage global impact
- girls biological vigor than boys due to second X
chromosome
- (+) behaviors necessary for adaptation outside the
womb

Fetal Stage Developmental Landmarks
4-5 months AOG
16 to 20 weeks
17 weeks
18 weeks
- vigorous movements
- grasp reflex
- hears, responds to loud noises with
muscle contractions, movements,
and an increased heart rate
5-6 months AOG
20 weeks
25 weeks
- retinal structures can detect bright
light flashed on the abdominal wall
causing - changes in fetal heart rate
and position
- Moro (startle reflex)
7 months AOG
28 weeks
- eyelids open
- smell and taste are also developed
- sucking reflex

2.a. Development of the Nervous System
- brain weight = 350 g at birth
- 4x in neocortex due to growth in the number and
branching of dendrites
- uterine contractions cause the developing neural
network to receive and transmit impulses
2.a.i. Pruning
- programmed elimination of certain brain
structures present at birth
- occurs to rid of cells that have served their
function
- immature brain can be vulnerable
implications in child and adult neuropsychiatric
disorders

2.b. Risk factors
2.b.i. Maternal Stress
- correlates with levels of stress hormones that
act directly on the fetal neuronal network
- anxious mothers hyperactive, irritable, and
low BW infants
2.b.ii. Maternal Substance Use

Alcohol - leads to Fetal alcohol
syndrome: growth retardation,
minor anomalies, short
palpebral fissures, midface
hypoplasia, a smooth or short
philtrum, and a thin upper lip;
and CNS manifestations
- may be associated with ADHD
Smoking - leads to prematurity, low BW
infants, Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDs)
Marijuana - prematurity, low BW infants,
withdrawal symptoms
Cocaine - behavioral abnormalities
Antibiotics,
anticonvulsants,
lithium, warfarin
- teratogenic effects
Selective Serotonin
Reuptake Inhibitors
(SSRIs)
- neonatal behavioral syndrome

2.b.iii. Radiation Exposure
2.b.iv. At 2 to 15 weeks AOG gross deformities,
stunted growth, abnormal brain function, or cancer

B. Infancy: Birth to 18 months

Infancy Developmental Landmarks
Newborn

- Reflexes and Survival Systems
breathing, sucking, swallowing, and
circulatory and temperature
homeostasis
sensory organs are incompletely
developed
REM and non-REM sleep
crying, smiling
penile erection in males
can make noises
1 day old - (+) can smell mothers milk
3 days old - distinguish mothers voice

Language and Cognitive Development

Mastery of
Comprehension
Mastery of Expression
Birth to 6 months
- startle response to loud
or sudden sounds
- attempts to localize
sounds
- appears to listen, may
respond with smile
- recognizes warning,
angry, and friendly
voices
- responds to own name
- (+) vocalizations other
than crying
- (+) differential cries for
hunger, pain
- vocalizes to show
pleasure
- plays at making sounds
- babbles (a repeated
series of sounds)
7- 11 months (Attending to language)
- shows listening
selectivity
- listens to music or
singing
- recognizes own name
- looks at pictures being
named for up to 1
minute
- listens to speech without
being distracted by other
sounds
- responds to own name
with vocalizations
- imitates the melody of
utterances
- uses jargon
- (+) gestures,
exclamation
- plays language games
(pat-a-cake, peekaboo)
12-18 months (Single-Word)
- shows gross
discriminations between
dissimilar sounds
- understands basic body
parts, names of common
objects
- (+) understanding of
some new words weekly
- identify simple objects
- understands up to 150
words by age 18 months
- uses single words
- talks to toys, self, or
others using long
patterns of jargon and
occasional words
- utterances are 25%
intelligible
- articulates vowels
correctly with initial
and final consonants
often omitted

Emotional and Social Development

Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior
Birth to 2 months
- Love evoked by touching
- Fear evoked by loud
noise
- Rage evoked by body
restrictions
- Brain pathways for
emotion forming
- Social smile and joy
shown
- Responds to emotions of
others
3-4 months onward
- Self-regulation of - laughter possible and
Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood
emotions starts
- Brain pathways of
emotion growing
more control over
smiles; anger shown
7-12 months
- Self-regulation of
emotion grows
- increased intensity of
basic three
- Able to elicit more
responsiveness
- Denies to cope with
stress
1. Temperament (Chess and Thomas)
- innate psycho-physiological characteristics
- range of normal behavioral patterns
- from the difficult child at one end of the spectrum
to the easy child at the other end
- Rhythmicity

2. Attachment
- Bonding is the term used to describe the intense
emotional and psychological relationship a mother
develops for her baby.
- Attachment is the relationship the baby develops
with its caregivers.

3. Stranger Anxiety (at about 26 weeks to 32 weeks)
- result from a baby's growing ability to distinguish
caregivers from all other persons
- in babies exposed to only one caregiver

4. Separation anxiety (between 10 and 18 months)
- related to stranger anxiety but not identical to it.
- As infants separate by moving away from mother,
they constantly look back and return for
reassurance

5. Parental Fit
- how well the parents relates to the infant
- takes into account temperamental characteristics
of both parent and child
- goodness of fit: harmonious and consonant
interaction between a parent and a child
- Poor fit distorted development and maladaptive
functioning

C. Toddler: 18-30 months (2 years old)

Language and Cognitive Development

Mastery of Comprehension Mastery of Expression
12-24 months (Two-Word Messages)
- Responds to simple
directions
- Responds to action
commands
- Understands pronouns (me,
him, her, you)
- Begins to understand
complex sentences
- Uses two-word
utterances
- Imitates environmental
sounds in play
- Refers to self by name,
begins to use pronouns
- Echoes two or more
last words
- uses three-word
telegraphic utterances
- Utterances 26% to 50%
intelligible
- Uses language to ask
for needs
24-36 months (Grammar Formation)
- Understands small body parts
(elbow, chin, eyebrow)
- Understands family name
categories
- Understands size
- Understands most adjectives
- Understands functions
- Uses real sentences
with grammatical
function word
- Usually announces
intentions before
acting
- Conversations with
other children, usually
just monologues
- Jargon and echolalia
gradually drop from
speech
- Increased vocabulary
Speech 50% to 80%
intelligible
- P, b, m articulated
correctly
- Speech may show
rhythmic disturbances


Emotional and Social Development

Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior
1-2 years
- Shame and pride appear;
envy, embarrassment
appear
- Displaces onto other
children
- empathy starting;
expressions of feeling
- Likes attention and
approval
- enjoys play alone or
next to peers
2-5 years to 3-6 years (see table for pre-school)

1. Sexual Development
- Children exhibit curiosity about anatomical sex
recognized as healthy and met with age-appropriate
replies, they acquire a sense of the wonder of life and
are comfortable with their own roles.

1.a. Gender identity
- conviction of being male or female
- manifests at 18 months and fixed by 24 to 30 mos

1.b. Gender role
- the behavior that society deems appropriate for one sex
or another

2. Sphincter Control and Sleep
- toilet training serves as a paradigm of the family's
general training practices
- control of daytime urination 2 years
- control of nighttime urination 4 years
- generally sleep about 12 hours a day, including a 2-hour
nap: takes 30 minutes to sleep

3. Parenting Issues
- Parental task: firmness about the boundaries of
acceptable behavior and encouragement of the child's
progressive emancipation
- Children will struggle for the exclusive affection and
attention of their parents rivalry
- balance between punishment and permissiveness and
set realistic limits

D. Pre-school

Language and Cognitive Development

Mastery of
Comprehension
Mastery of Expression
36-54 months (Grammar development)
- Understands
prepositions
- Understands many
words
- Understands cause and
effect
- Understands analogies
(Food is to eat, milk is
to________)
- Correct articulation of n,
w, ng, h, t, d, k, g
- Uses language to relate
incidents from the past
- Uses wide range of
grammatical forms
- Plays with language
- Speech 90% intelligible
- Able to define words
- Can repeat a 12-syllable
sentence correctly
55 mos onward (True Communication)
Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood
- Understands concepts of
number, speed, time,
space
- Understands left and
right
- Understands abstract
terms
- Is able to categorize
items into classes
- Uses language to tell
stories, share ideas, and
discuss alternatives
- Increasing use of varied
grammar; spontaneous
self-correction of
grammatical errors
- Stabilizing of articulation
f, v, s, z, l, r, th, and
consonant clusters
- Speech 100% intelligible
Emotional and Social Development
Emotional Skills Emotional Behavior
2-5 years to 3-6 years
- Can understand causes
of many emotions
- Can begin to find ways
for regulating emotions
and for expressing them
- Identifies with adult to
cope
- Empathy increases with
understanding
- More response and less
reaction
- self-regulation:
- Use your words to
convey feeling
- Aggression becomes
competition
- By age 5, shows
sensitivity to criticism
and cares about feelings
of others

1. Sibling Rivalry
- birth of a sibling tests capacity of further
cooperation and sharing
- depends on child-rearing practice. Favoritism for
any reason commonly aggravates such rivalry
- If not handled properly, the displacement of the
firstborn can be a traumatic event

2. Play
1. Parallel play (2 and 3 years) solitary play alongside
another child with no interaction between them.
2. Associative play (by 3 years) - plays with the same
toys in pairs or in small groups, but still with no real
interaction among them.
3. Cooperative play (by age 4) - real interactions and
taking turns become possible.

3. Drawing
- Helps trace the child's growth and express
creativity:
- representational and formal in early childhood
- make use of perspective in middle childhood
- become abstract and affect laden in adolescence
- also reflect children's body image concepts and
sexual and aggressive impulses

4. Imaginary Companions
- in children with above-average intelligence and
usually in the form of persons
- may also be anthropomorphized toys
- friendly, relieve loneliness, and anxiety
- disappear by age 12, but they can occasionally
persist into adulthood


E. Middle Childhood

Language and Cognitive Development
- expresses complex ideas
- logical exploration tends to dominate
- increase interest in rules and orderliness
- increase capacity for self-regulation
- ability to concentrate by 9 - 10 years
- (+) complex motor tasks and activities

1. Chum Period
- an important phenomenon
- by 10 years old close same-sex relationship
- absence of a chum during middle childhood is an early
harbinger of schizophrenia (Sullivan)

2. School Refusal
- generally due to separation anxiety
- usually not an Isolated problem
- typically avoid many other social situations


Other Issues in Childhood

1. Sex Role Development
- The sex role also involves identification with culturally
acceptable masculine or feminine ways of behaving
- Ambiguity is created as society grows more tolerant and
sex roles become less rigid.

2. Dreams and Sleep
- At 1 year old experienced as if true
- At 3 years old shared by other children
- At 4 years old unique to each child
- The dream content should be seen in connection with
children's life experience, developmental stage,
mechanisms used during dreaming, and sex
- disturbing dreams peak at 3,6 and 10 years of age
want to keep their bedroom door open or to have a
nightlight
- aggressive dreams rare in early childhood
- by age 7, children know that they create their dreams
themselves
- often create rituals as protection
- Parasomnias (at stage 4 sleep) when dreaming is
minimal do not indicate psychopathology

3. Birth Spacing
- close spacing increases prematurity or underweight
births, and malnutrition
- children from large families increases conduct
disorder and slightly decreased verbal intelligence
- due to low parental interaction and discipline

4. Birth Order (Sulloway)
- Firstborn highly valued particularly if male
- IQ in firstborn reflect parents having more time to
interact with the firstborn child
- Firstborn children - more achievement oriented, most
authoritarian; conservative and conformists
- Second and third children have the advantage of their
parents previous experience and can learn from their
older siblings; usually receive the least attention
- the youngest children may receive too much attention
and be spoiled; tend to be rebellious high proportion
of prominent persons

5. Stepparents

Types of Step Families
N
e
o
-
T
r
a
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l

- Resembles traditional families
- Absent biological parent is included at times.
- Discipline, boundaries and limits, and
expectations are discussed openly.
- Family coalitions and side-taking are better
avoided.
R
o
m
a
n
t
i
c

- Expect to be a traditional family immediately
- The absent biological parent is expected to
disappear and is often criticized.
- Stepparent/stepchild difficulties are common.
- Stress is unbearable.
- Few open and frank discussions about problems
Human Development: Pre-natal, Infancy and Childhood
M
a
t
r
i
a
r
c
h
a
l
- Run by a highly competent mom and her
companion follows
- Companion is a buddy to the children, not to
the parent
- Birth of a step-sibling causes problems.


6. Adoption
- the process by which a child is taken into a family
by one or more adults who are not the biological
parents but are recognized by law as the child's
parents
- usually born out of wedlock 40% born out of
teenage mothers
- disclosure at 2 - 4 years old reduces feelings of
betrayal by adoptive parents and abandonment by
biological parents
- the later the age of adoption, the higher the
incidence and the more severe problems
- may be preoccupied with fantasies of two sets of
parents good and bad parents
- Strong desire to know their biological parents
the experience is generally positive when done
during adolescence or adulthood.

Family Factors in Child Development

1. Family Stability
- separated- and single-parent families low self-
esteem, risk of child abuse incidence of
marital problems eventually, and incidence of
mental disorders
- boys are more affected than girls and older
children are less vulnerable; inborn personality
characteristics protective (Rutter)
- death of a parent adverse emotional effects

2. Day Care Centers
- its role in child development is being studied
- children placed in day care centers before 5 years
old less assertive and less effectively toilet
trained
- The quality of both the day care center and the
homes from which children come must be taken
into consideration.

3. Parenting Styles (Rutter) 4 types

1. authoritarian
2. indulgent-permissive
3. Indulgent-neglectful
4. authoritative-reciprocal (best)
- marked by firm rules and shared decision-making in
a warm, loving environment self-reliance,
self-esteem, and sense of social responsibility

4. Development and Expression of Psychopathology
- related to both age and developmental level
- developmental and language disorders often
diagnosed in preschool years
- Mild Mental Retardation or learning problems
diagnosed in early school-age years
- Disruptive Behavior Disorder - seen with peer
interaction
- Attention Deficit Disorders - seen with demands
for attention in school
- Other conditions (eg schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder) are rare in preschool and school-aged
children