Development Processes in Infants - Case Study Example

? Development Processes in Infants Development Processes in Infants In her book The Developing Person through the Lifespan, Berger describes the main changes that take place in an individual’s life, especially during infancy. Each of the chapters in the book reveals the growth processes in different aspects. This paper will highlight the man ideas brought out in chapters 5, 6, and 7. These chapters discuss the different levels of growth that occur in infants in the first two years of their life. Infant is a Latin-derived word that refers to any child who does not speak. During infancy, multiple growth processes take place rapidly. Chapter 5 of the book describes the biosocial development of infants. At birth, babies are only 3 kilograms and 20 inches. In the first five months of the baby’s life, the weight doubles. In a year’s time, the weight triples and by the end of two years, it quadruples. An infant grows in a cephalocaudal manner, described as head-to-toe manner. In addition, infants also exhibit a proximal-distal growth that enables infants to learn how to balance their heads before arms and legs. The brain undergoes rapid changes as well. As long as the infant receives sufficient nutrition, the body and brain keep growing. Percentile ranks used by clinicians help track the baby’s growth in comparison to the norm (Berger, 2011). Sleep is a crucial aspect of infants with newborns requiring about seventeen hours a day. As they grow, they take up family sleep patterns. A great percentage of infants at one year manage to sleep the entire night. Factors such as diet, birth order, brain maturation, and child rearing practices affect sleeping cycles. On the other hand, infant’s brain reaches 75% of its potential mature weight. Neuron development takes place vigorously in some parts of the brain especially those dealing with vision, smell, language, and emotional processing. Different parts of the cortex advance in growth taking up different responsibilities. Studies reveal that multiple neural dendrites emerge in infancy. In addition, pruning helps the brain function faster. The rate at which the brain develops depends on experiences surrounding the infant (Berger, 2011). Formation of new neurons implies healthy growth. Abuse and neglect slow the formation of neurons and may hinder brain development. The chapter also highlights the functioning of senses in infants. The five senses (vision, taste, touch, hearing, and smell) exhibit function since birth. However, hearing is the sharpest sense at birth while a binocular capability of the eyes in infants is achieved in 14 weeks. With time, infants acquire motor skills. The chapter highlights the cephalocaudal and proximal-distal nature of growth. Growth begins with the head downwards and extends from the torso’s center to the arms and legs. An infant’s motor skills develop slowly with muscle movements advancing from one to the other. Motor skills start with sitting, crawling, and the infant can walk at one year. There is significant variation of acquiring motor skills among infants (Berger, 2011). In chapter 6, Berger (2011) discusses the development of the cognitive processes in two year olds. This chapter highlights the processes of language development, memory, thinking, and intelligence. Piaget studied cognition in infants and revealed that initial cognition results from the senses and motor actions. The first stage in sensorimotor intelligence involves the reflexes while the second involves primary motions from the infant’s body. During the third stage, the infant adopts secondary reactions. In the fourth stage, the infant exhibits behavior driven by goals. The fifth stage comes with a lot of curiosity in the infant. Infants in this stage seek to experiment. In the sixth stage, infants portray the ability to think before action and can imitate the action of others. The author highlights the process of habituation that happens when an infant receives a stimulus repetitively. The repeated stimulus becomes boring and the infant is likely to shift attention to a different object. According to Berger (2011), an infant’s ability to process information depends on several factors. These include previous experiences, sensory awareness of chances, an infant’s current needs and motivation as well as the developmental stage. In addition, movements and people increase an infant’s perception. On a different note, development of infant memory depends on the availability of ‘real-life’ experiments, the level of motivation and any memory aids provided. When an infant reaches nine months, the ability to imitate what elder people do increases. Studies reveal that implicit memory takes its roots before explicit memory. Development of language begins with the noises that infants make since birth, including cooing, crying, yelling, and gurgling. Infants exhibit a preference for speech that is straightforward and repetitive. Babbling is one of the earliest sounds that an infant makes and involves a repetitive pattern of syllables. Infants speak their first words at twelve months. At this age infants utter noun that are common (Berger, 2011). After an infant makes the initial steps into talking, an explosion of the language follows. During the explosion, infants learn about 50-100 words each month. They begin with holophrases that communicate an entire idea. At 21 months, infants have the ability to communicate in two-word sentences. Culture influences the initial words an infant speaks. Three theories support the learning of language in infants. According to Berger (2011), the first theory suggests that adults teach infants through correction, approval for correct speech, and by use of reminders. The second theory points to the contribution of society. Infants try their best to communicate in order to fit in society. The third theory suggests that infants can learn language on their own. However, the complexity of language makes this theory to be less relevant. Chapter 7 discusses psychosocial development in infants. This elaborates the development of emotions in the initial two years. There is a stepwise development of emotions in infants. After the first six months, an infant reacts with a social smile at the sight of faces. When the infant realizes the existence of curiosity at about three months, laughter evolves. Anger sprouts at six months when an infant feels frustrated. Stress in an infant induces production of cortisol, and the infant portrays sadness. At nine months, infants can recognize strange things, people, and situations and express fear. As they develop emotionally, infants stop reacting to familiar situations but portray fright when in unfamiliar situations. In addition, they develop a reaction when separated from their caregivers (Berger, 2011). As an infant gets into the toddler stage, they express emotions with discrimination. They show anger and fear in a focused way. In addition, new emotions emerge and include pride, guilt, and embarrassment. From birth to four months, infants consider themselves part of their mothers. From five months, the sense of self emerges. At the age of nine, they begin to recognize their mirror images. With time, infants begin to regulate their emotions (Berger, 2011). Using previous experiences, they know when to express fear and when to get angry. After some time, they become subject to stress from the hormonal regulation of the hypothalamus. Studies reveal that stability of the mother and concern of the father reduces stress in infants. According to Berger (2011), the maturation of different parts of the brain determines the emotions expressed by a child. However, the anatomy of an infant’s brain leads to synesthesia. This is the situation whereby a sense leads to the induction of a different sense. In addition, infants associate senses and later emotions. Infants portray different temperaments depending on genetic factors and rearing practices. Therefore, parents need to know how to handle their infant’s temperament appropriately. There are several theories of psychosocial development in children. These include trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, and social learning. All these affect the emotional development of infants. In addition, the distance and time a parent spends with the infant has emotional effects. Experimental evidence shows that infants portray a synchrony of emotions to those of the caregiver. In addition, the reactions of a caregiver to an infant’s emotions affect emotional development. The chapter also highlights the development of an infant’s attachment and elaborates different types of attachments and their causes. Moreover, the chapter mentions the roles of fathers and mothers in conveying social messages to infants (Berger, 2011). As described above, the first two years of an infant’s life come with multiple rapid changes. These changes are cognitive, psychosocial, and biosocial development processes. Berger elaborates each of these processes in detail. In addition, the mentioned theories have explanations, and Berger couples the theories with experimental data from other authors. The three chapters offer adequate understanding of the behavior of infants. The book provides crucial and reliable psychological information concerning infants’ growth. References Berger, K. S. (2011). Developing Person Through the Life Span (8th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Read More