Infant and Toddler Development Paper

Write a 5 pages essay addressing each of the following questions. Be sure to completely answer all the questions. Separate each section in your paper with a clear heading that allows your professor to know which question you are addressing in that section of your paper. Support your ideas with at least three (3) citations in your essay. Make sure to reference the citations using the APA writing style for the essay. The cover page and reference page do not count towards the minimum word amount.Infant and Toddler Development Paper

  1. Provide an example of classical conditioning, of operant conditioning, and of habituation/recovery in young infants. Why is each type of learning useful?
  2. Using examples, explain why intermodal perception is vital for infants’ developing understanding of their physical and social worlds.Infant and Toddler Development Paper
  3. Cite evidence that motor development is a joint product of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.
  4. Using the text discussion on pages 153-157, construct an age-related list of infant and toddler cognitive attainments. Which ones are consistent with Piaget’s sensorimotor stage? Which develop earlier than Piaget anticipated?
  5. What impact does toddlers’ more advanced play with toys have on the development of attention?
  6. Why is the social-interactionist perspective attractive to many investigators of language development? Cite evidence that supports it.
  7. Why do many infants show stranger anxiety in the second half of the first year? What factors can increase or decrease wariness of strangers?
  8. How do genetic and environmental factors work together to influence temperament? Cite several examples from research.

Classical conditioning refers to a stimulus which is neutral in nature that results to an automatic response. At the point where a connection is made by the central nervous system between two stimuli, there is a behavior that is produced by a neutral stimulus. Through classical conditioning, infants are able to recognize events that occur in daily life for the purposes of anticipating what may happen next (Thelen & Smith, 2014).  As a result, through classical conditioning, the environment is not only predictable but also orderly.

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Ope rant conditioning refers to a situation whereby the environment is acted on by infants and the stimuli which follows their behavior results to a change in the possibility of the re-occurrence of the behavior (Thelen & Smith, 2014).   Ope rant conditioning is the best approach that can be used to determine/find out the stimuli which can be perceived by babies and those which they have a preference for. It also has a significant role when it comes to forming social relationships.

Recovery/ Habituation refers to the gradual reduction in a response strength which results from repetitive stimulation. With a new stimulus, the chances of a high level responsiveness are high also referred to as recovery (Thelen & Smith, 2014). Through recovery and habituation, learning among children is highly efficient as it promotes the ability to focus attention on environmental aspects that are least known about. Habituation and recovery are relied on more as compared to other learning capacities.Infant and Toddler Development Paper

Question 2

Babies take a very short time after birth to reach out for items and to remain attentive in a specific direction that a sound comes from. Infants have the ability to collectively categorize sound, sight and touch. To add on, they also possess the ability to persistently perceive input from various sensory systems which results to an overlap of the entire system into two or more. When there is more than one sensory system, that is referred to as inter modal stimulation and it includes a modal properties in early age. Young infants always have inter modal sensitivity which may also be regarded as perceptual development (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016).  Therefore, inter modal stimulation tends to affect the entire aspects of neurocognitive development. A perfect example may be given by infants who stare at the face of an adult caregiver. However, they need sight and sound input to possess the ability of establishing the difference that exists between negative and positive emotional expressions (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016).  Another example may be illustrated by temporal synchrony where a child attempts to identify a language and observing an object’s motion and speech sound.

Question 3

Motor development promotes the ability of a child to take full control on the progress of their individual bodies. Motor skills function as a separate system that can easily be mixed. By being a joint product of environmental, biological and psychological factors, motor development facilitates some of the most effective ways on how the environment can be controlled and explored in such a manner that, one skill supports the development of another (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016).  For motor development to be highly efficient and effective, it is mandatory that new tasks are mastered with the willingness to learn. A perfect example in a home scenario is the case of learning how to walk in a home environment where there are stairs. A child tends to develop more interest to learn how to climb stairs in comparison to a scenario where they had no home.

Question 4

When infants and Toddlers grow physically in the first years of life, they also develop mentally/ cognitively. As they learn and interact with the environment daily, children create newer links within the body. A list of the age-related infant and toddler cognitive attainments is as follows;

Birth -3 months

  • Can differentiate between sour, bitter, sweet and salty
  • Can focus on moving objects including caregivers
  • Respond to the environment using facial expressions
  • Can respond to expected behavior such as sucking a bottle or nipple

3-6 months

  • Can recognize and respond to the facial expressions of other people o sounds that are familiar
  • Start imitating facial expressions.
  • Can react and recognize sounds that are familiar

6-9months

  • Can differentiate between images
  • Understand the difference between inanimate and animate objects
  • Can gauge the distance of an object

9-12 months

  • Clearly understand the concept of object permanence
  • Can copy some action and gestures and respond through sound and gestures
  • Love looking at books with pictures
  • Are able to manipulate objects by turning them over and placing one over another Infant and Toddler Development Paper

1-2 years

  • Learn extensively by exploring
  • Can differentiate between me and you
  • Are able to imitate the language and actions of adults
  • Are able to note familiar people or objects 
  • Can understand and appropriately respond to words

 

Piaget clearly explains the six stages of cognitive development which include: reflexes (birth-1 month), where a child understands the environment through reflexes that are inborn such as looking and sucking. This is followed by the primary circular reactions (2-4 months) where co-ordinate d sensations and new images support cognitive development (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016). The actions are repeated over and over since they are found to be pleasurable by the infant. The third stage is secondary circular reactions (4-8 months) where a child becomes more focused on the world and tends to repeat actions to trigger environmental responses.

The next stage is that of co-ordinate d reactions (8-12 months) where a child begins to slowly show actions that are intentional. As they explore the environment, children imitate the behavior of others and recognize certain objects and how they can be manipulated (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016). The fifth stage is the tertiary circular reactions (12-18months) where children start experimenting with different actions or sounds to get attention from caregivers. The last stage is that of early thoughts (18-24 months) where children can use symbols to represent objects and events. Children also start to understand the world through mental thoughts as compared to purely actions.

Therefore, According to Jean Piaget’s sensorimotor stage of cognitive development, cognitive development that is consistent with his sensorimotor stage include: Responding to the environment using facial expressions, recognizing and responding to the facial expressions of other people, differentiating between images, responding to expected behavior such as sucking a bottle or nipple, manipulating objects by turning them over and placing one over another, imitating the actions and language of adults and noting familiar people or objects. Those which develop earlier than Piaget expected include: differentiating between sour, bitter, sweet and salty, understanding the difference between inanimate and animate objects, gauging the distance of an object and imitating the actions and language of adults,

Question 5

Attention in this case refers to the ability of children to obtain and sustain the most appropriate concentration to a specific task. Attention development in children is influenced through: practice, motivation, sensory integration, self-esteem, underlying diagnoses and underlying diagnoses (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). Attention is important for children as it promotes the ability to screen any stimulus that is not necessary and focus on information that is currently important. Infant and Toddler Development Paper

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Therefore, more advanced play with toys has an integral role in the physical, social, emotional and cognitive well-being of children. It provides the room for children to utilize creativity, develop dexterity, emotional strength and imagination. It also provides the opportunity to explore and create actions that they are able to master to conquer their fears and attempt different roles which need concentration (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015).  More advanced play with toys enhances the development of resilience and confidence; as a result, children are able to develop competencies that require some extent of concentration in facing future challenges. Since toys enhance undirected play, children have the chance to work alone and with others in sharing, discussing, negotiating, and self-advocacy that result from concentration.  It is also worth noting that, the use of toys in advanced play promotes child-driven play (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). As such, children are presented with the opportunity to practice skills in decision making and to discover individual sections of interest thus promoting attention development.

Question 6

The social-interaction perspective tends to explain the development and acquisition of language by laying emphasis on the role that social interaction plays between adults who are linguistically knowledgeable and a growing child. In other words, this perspective is based on the sociology-cultural theory by Lev Vygotsky. This perspective tends to derive social processes from the interaction of humans which promotes the understanding of how the society is shaped by individuals and vice versa (Benson & Haith, 2013). With the details of daily life, language development investigators can relate how language develops through the biological and social perspectives. This perspective is attractive since it reveals how the brains of children predispose their ability to learn and communicate language. Therefore, language development in children takes place from someone with the urge to communicate to them. Infant and Toddler Development Paper

Question 7

Infants reveal stranger anxiety during the first year’s second half. This anxiety is as a result of how caregivers and individuals react to the emotions of infants of anger, fear, smiling and crying which has the potential of regulating the social behavior of infants (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). During this period, there is an increase in the level of fear and anxiety that manifests in the form of stranger anxiety among infants, whereby, infants tend to cry or become nervous to faces that are unfamiliar. Therefore, with improvement on the motor and cognitive skills, infants tend to develop more anxiety for strangers. Factors that can increase stranger wariness include: temperament, past bad experiences with strangers, lack of proper care and abuse from caregivers (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). Factors that decrease wariness of strangers include: proper care, good relations with caregivers, exemplary past experiences with strangers and adequate exposure to the social environment.  

Question 8

Temperament is majorly characterized by levels of irritability, energy, persistence, activity and emotions at individual level. There are specific genes which tend to affect individual behavior and these genes are inheritable and lay the behavioral and emotional frameworks as building blocks for constructing personalities (Rothbart, 2014).  However, not all are inheritable. Some are highly dependent and gradually develop through experiences with the environment that shape and influence behavioral patterns (Rothbart, 2014). For example, children with high irritability levels that result from inadequate care lack ways to control their emotions. Therefore, they are more likely to become temperamental later in life. With regards to genetics, children who are inheritably impatient, inactive, and have a depressed mood tend to be temperamental later in life. Infant and Toddler Development Paper

References

Benson, J. B., & Haith, M. M. (2013). Language, memory, and cognition in infancy and early

childhood. Amsterdam: Academic.

Keenan, T., Evans, S., & Crowley, K. (2016). An introduction to child development. Sage.

Rothbart, M. K. (2014). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development.

New York: Guilford Press.

Smith, P. K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2015). Understanding children’s development. John

Wiley & Sons.

Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (2014). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition

And action. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Infant and Toddler Development Paper