Friday, January 8, 2010

Chapter 3: Infancy: Physical and Cognitive Development

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  1. Janet BelskyMarch 3, 2012 at 1:24 PM

    Setting the Context:

    Updated information about brain development, plasticity, pruning, and individual variations. Some of this is pulled together in a table " Brain busting facts to wrap your mind around" (I'm putting similar summary "brain busting" tables in chs. 5 and 9)

    Basic states:
    1) more extensive discussion of breast feeding deterrents-- here I emphasize the need for more concrete support in learning how to breastfeed and also touch on the question of whether breast feeding really does help control obesity.

    2) Updated stats. on stunting in the developing world and food insecurity in U.S families

    3) new studies relating to how best to help a baby sleep

    4) Showcase new findings implicating a brain stem abnormality in SIDS; (also provide stats showing SIDS incidence increases during New Years--when alcohol consumption is high)

    5) Comment on the unintended effect of always putting babies on their backs: infants also need tummy time!

    Sensory and motor development:

    1) Discuss a delightful finding relating to what we learn NOT to see during infancy: The differences between monkey faces (In general, I'll be trying to tie the brain pruning principle discussed early in the chapter more concretely to infant sensory and cognitive research)

    Cognition:

    Here I expand on the 2 ed research suggesting that our knowledge of emotions and intentions appears early on--showcasing a study suggesting that infants can understand the concept that someone is acting mean by about 6 months of age ( I have included some delightful images of this experiment in the book.)

    Language:

    1)Discuss research showing newborns are prewired to attend to the sounds of living things, then selectively are interested in human vocalizations, and then, due to pruning, during the first year of life, babies lose their ability to hear sound tones in other languages-

    2) Discuss longitudinal changes in parent IDS communications as babies approach their first birthday.

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