Chapter 5: Biosocial Development The First Two Years

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Chapter 5 Biosocial DevelopmentThe First Two
Years

• Dr. M. Davis-Brantley

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Body Size

• Infants double their birth weight by the 4th
  month and triple it by the end of the 1st year
• Fat is typically acquired to provide storage for
  nourishment
• Stored nutrition comes into play to keep the
  brain nourished if the child can not eat due to
  sickness or teething
• Head-sparing
• The biological protection of the brain when
  malnutrition temporarily affects body growth

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Sleep

• New babies typically spend 17 or more hours
  sleeping
• Ample sleep correlates with brain maturation,
  learning, emotional regulation, and psychological
  adjustment
• Growth hormones are released during sleep more so
  than during waking hours
• REM Sleep
• Rapid Eye Movement sleep flickering of eyes,
  dreaming and rapid brain waves
• Decreases significantly after 4 months
• Children are too immature in their brain,
  digestion, and circadian rhythm to sleep on
  command

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Early Brain Development Basic Brain Structures

• Neuronis a nerve cell of the central nervous
  system (most neurons are in the brain)
• Most neurons are created during pregnancy and are
  at their peak during mid-pregnancy
• Cortex
• The outer layer of the brain in humans that is
  the primary location for most of our thinking,
  feeling, and sensing
• Frontal cortex is in the front and is responsible
  for executive functioning which includes
  planning, self-control, and self-regulation (very
  immature at birth)

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Early Brain Development Basic Brain Structures

• Neurons need to communicate with one another in
  order to function
• They are connected by an intricate network of
  nerve fibers
• Axonis a nerve fiber that extends from the
  neuron and transmits electrical impulses from
  that neurons to the dendrites of the other
  neurons
• DendriteA nerve fiber that extends from a neuron
  and receives electrical impulses transmitted from
  other neurons via their axons
• SynapseThe intersection between the axon of one
  neuron and the dendrites of other neurons
• Synapses are critical in communication links in
  the brain

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Early Brain Development

• At birth, the brain contains more than 100
  billion neurons, but not enough dendrites and
  synapses
• During the first months and years, major spurts
  of growth and refinement in axons, dendrites, and
  synapses occur (connections are being made)
• Transient Exuberance is the great increase in the
  number of dendrites that occurs in an infants
  brain over 1st 2 years of life
• Enables neurons to become connected and
  communicate with other neurons within the brain
• This leads to expanding of neurons and
  connections in the brain
• Grows more during this time than any other time
  throughout lifespan

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Sensation and Perception

• Sensationis the response to sensory system when
  it detects a stimulus
• PerceptionThe mental processing of sensory
  information when the brain interprets a sensation
• The brain applies meaning to the sight or sound
  that is sense

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The Senses

• Listening
• Hearing is acute at birth and began during the
  last trimester of pregnancy
• Hearing develops as child begins to distinguish
  between different sounds
• Child also begins to mimic certain sounds as
  she/he is learning language
• Looking
• Vision is the least mature sense at a birth and
  newborns can focus on objects 4 to 30 inches
• With maturation of the visual cortex vision
  improves

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Motor Skills

• Reflexis a responsive movement that seems
  automatic, because it always occurs in reaction
  to a specific stimulus
• 3 Classes of reflexes include
• Those that maintain oxygen supply
• Those that maintain constant body temp.
• Reflexes that manage feeding

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Gross Motor Skills

• Physical abilities involving large body movements
  such a walking and jumping
• B/n 8 and 10 months most infants can lift their
  bodies and engage in coordinating the movements
  of their bodies to crawl, climb, and eventually
  walk (after 10 months)

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Fine Motor Skills

• Physical abilities involving small body
  movements, especially of the hands and fingers
• During first 2 months babies wave their hands at
  dangling objects
• By 3 months they can usually touch the object
• By 4 months some infants can actually grab an
  item but their timing is not accurate
• By 6 months child can grab and hold onto an
  object
• After 6 months they can transfer objects from one
  hand to another
• By 12 months they can coordinate and manipulate

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Babys Health

• Immunization is the process by which the bodys
  immune system is stimulated to defend against the
  attack of a contagious disease
• The healthy person is given a small dose of the
  inactive virus which stimulates that production
  of antibodies
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is when a
  seemingly health infant (at least 2 months of
  age) dies unexpectedly in her/his sleep
• Decrease in amount of SIDS deaths has been linked
  to not putting babies to sleep on their stomachs
  and fewer parents smoking
• Ethnicity can play a significant role

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Babys Health

• Nutrition
• Breast is Best
• For newborns, good nutrition starts with breast
  milk
• Colostrum is a high-calorie fluid secreted by the
  breasts at birth, 3 days later milk comes
• Breast milk is sterile at body temp.
• Contains more iron, vitamins A C, and other
  important nutrients
• WHO recommends the child is breast fed
  exclusively for 4-6 months
• Formula may be better when the mother is HIV

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Babys Health

• Malnutrition
• Protein-calorie malnutrition is a condition in
  which a person does not consume sufficient food
  of any kind
• Marasmus a disease of severe protein-calorie
  malnutrition during early infancy, in which
  growth stops, body tissues waste away, and the
  infant eventually dies
• Kwashiorkor a disease of chronic malnutrition
  where deficiency of protein causes the childs
  face, legs, and abdomen to bloat and makes the
  child more vulnerable to diseases such as
  measles, diarrhea, influenza
• 3 consequences of chronic malnourishment
  include
• Brains may not develop normally
• The are no reserves to protect the child if
  disease strikes
• Childhood diseases become far more lethal than
  typically would be
• The above stated disease can result