Chapter 4 IQ's

Question 1

is the reproductive system fully formed at birth?

Answer 1

yes

Question 2

midbrain and medulla

Answer 2

• brain structures that are the most developed at birth
• regulate vital functions such as heartbeat, respiration, attention, sleeping, waking, elimination, and movement of the head and neck
• also controls primitive reflexes

Question 3

cortex

Answer 3

• least developed part of the brain at birth

- involved in perception, body movement, thinking, and language

Question 4

what influences which neural pathways are myelinized first?

Answer 4

• cephalocaudal and proximodistal patterns
• ex. nerves serving muscles in the neck and shoulders are myelinized earlier than those serving the abdomen -> babies can control their head movements before they can roll over

Question 5

reticular formation

Answer 5

• brain structure that regulates attention

- myelination of it begins in infancy and finishes during mid-20’s

Question 6

what adaptive reflexes persist across the lifespan?

Answer 6

• ones that protect us from harmful stimuli
• ie. withdrawing from a painful stimulus, opening and closing of pupil in eye to respond to various levels of brightness

Question 7

Philip Zelazo’s research about stepping reflex

Answer 7

infants who were encouraged to exercise the stepping reflex were more likely to spontaneously display stepping movements and begin walking at an earlier age

Question 8

when do primitive reflexes typically disappear in a neurologically healthy infant?

Answer 8

by 6-8 months

Question 9

North American vs. European parents reaction to infant sleep patterns

Answer 9

• North American parents see babies’ erratic sleep cycles as a problem that parents need to fix through intervention
• European parents see babies’ erratic sleep cycles as manifestations of normal development, and expect babies to naturally acquire normal sleep patterns without parental intervention

Question 10

True or false - it’s bad to pick up an infant immediately once it starts crying

Answer 10

False - research actually suggests that promptly picking up crying babies during the first 3 months of life will lead to less crying later in infancy

Question 11

baby bone development

Answer 11

in order for infants to be able to perform coordinated muscle movements (like grasping), their bones must separate themselves from the masses of cartilage

Question 12

baby lungs and heart

Answer 12

increased lung efficiency and heart strength lead to increased stamina, so that by the end of infancy, children are able to engage in fairly long periods of motor activity without rest

Question 13

3 groups of motor skills

Answer 13

• locomotor skills
• nonlocomotor skills
• manipulative skills

Question 14

locomotor skills

Answer 14

• aka: gross motor skills

- enable infant to get around in the environment (ex. crawling skills)

Question 15

nonlocomotor skills

Answer 15

• improve babies’ ability to use their senses and motor skills to interact with objects and people around them
• ex. head movement skills

Question 16

manipulative skills

Answer 16

• aka: fine motor skills

- involve use of hands (ie. when a baby stacks blocks on top of each other)

Question 17

order of locomotor skills

Answer 17

1. stepping reflex
2. rolls over; sits with support; moves on hands and knees (creeps)
3. sits without support; crawls
4. pulls self up and walks grasping furniture, then walks alone
5. walks backwards, sideways, runs
6. walks up and down stairs, 2 feet per step

Question 18

order of nonlocomotor skills

Answer 18

1. lifts head slightly; follows slowly moving objects with eyes
2. lifts head up to 90-degree angle when lying on stomach
3. holds head erect while in sitting position
4. squats and stoops, plays patty-cake
5. rolls ball to adult; claps
6. jumps with both feet off of the ground

Question 19

manipulative skills

Answer 19

1. holds object if placed in hand
2. begins to swipe at objects in sight
3. reaches for and grasps objects
4. transfers objects from one hand to the other
5. shows some signs of hand preference; grasps a spoon across palm but has poor aim when moving food to mouth
6. stacks two blocks; puts objects into small container and dumps them out
7. uses spoon to feed self; stacks 4-10 blocks

Question 20

gender differences

Answer 20

• girls continue to be ahead of boys in aspects of physical maturity (ie. seperate wrist bones appear earlier in girls)
• boys are more likely to suffer from developmental delays, are less healthy, and have higher mortality rates
• male infants display clear preference for rough-and-tumble play

Question 21

evidence that motor skill development is influenced by nature

Answer 21

• motor milestones are always reached in the same sequence by all infants
• motor skill development always follows cephalocaudal and proximodistal patterns

Question 22

evidence that motor skill development is influenced by nurture

Answer 22

infants who are denied opportunities to practice motor skills develop them much later than infants who are given the opportunity to practice them

Question 23

breastfeeding should be the sole source of nutrition for how long?

Answer 23

at least the first 6 months of life

Question 24

benefits of breast milk

Answer 24

• contributes to rapid weight and size gain
• breast-fed infants less likely to suffer from diarrhea, gastroenteritis, bronchitis, ear infections, and colic, and are less likely to die in infancy

Question 25

when should infants get breast milk and formula?

Answer 25

• if they’re pre-term babies (because their intestinal tracts aren’t as developed as those of full-term infants, so they need special formula with animo acids and fats)
• if they’re babies of drug-dependent women (because the drugs can become present in their breast milk)

Question 26

at 6 months of age, how many new foods should infants be introduced to per week?

Answer 26

no more than 1 new food (allows for easy discovery of food allergies)

Question 27

2 types of malnutrition

Answer 27

• macronutrient malnutrition

- mirconutrient malnutrition

Question 28

macronutrient malnutrition

Answer 28

diet containing too few calories

Question 29

micronutrient malnutrition

Answer 29

deficiency in certain vitamins and minerals

Question 30

why are Canadian infants less at risk for micronutrient malnutrition?

Answer 30

because Canada is a world leader in food fortification - we add micronutrients like vitamin D, vitamin A, and iodine to our foods

Question 31

how many respitory illnesses do infants have in one year? How is this influenced by daycare?

Answer 31

• infants get 7 respitory illnesses per year on average
• infants who go to daycare get 14 respitory illnesses (double the amount on average) because they’re in group settings and are therefore exposed to a wider range of germs and viruses

Question 32

infants born before ____ weeks are labelled “preterm”

Answer 32

37 weeks

Question 33

infants born before ____ weeks may not have sufficiently developed adaptive reflexes

Answer 33

32 weeks

Question 34

when do most physically normal pre-term infants catch up to their full-term peers?

Answer 34

by age 2-3

Question 35

kangaroo care

Answer 35

• showing parents how to increase the amount of skin-to-skin contact with their infants
• found that preterm babies who receive kangaroo care grow and develop more rapidly than those in traditional neonatal care
• also found that kangaroo care alleviates the pain response in premature infants

Question 36

infant/child vision

Answer 36

• infant’s vision isn’t very good at birth
• you must move closer to them in order for them to see you clearly
• kids reach adult visual acuity by age 7

Question 37

when can infants successfully track objects in the visual field?

Answer 37

6-10 weeks

Question 38

in what way are infant’s hearing ability less developed than kids or adults?

Answer 38

they need high-pitched sounds to be louder than an adult or child would in order to hear them

Question 39

newborns detecting “general” sound locations

Answer 39

• can detect direction of sounds if they come at different times to each ear (we know because they will move their head to the direction of the sound)
• if the sounds are played from a sound equidistant to each ear (aka: midline), newborns struggle to locate its direction

Question 40

can newborns tell the difference between sweet, sour, and bitter?

Answer 40

Yes (Steiner experiment)

Question 41

what are believed to be the best-developed senses at birth?

Answer 41

senses of touch and motion