Developmental Psychology: Birth to Early Infant Motor & Perceptual Development PDF

PSYU2235 / PSYX2235 Developmental Psychology BIRTH TO EARLY INFANT MOTOR & PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT WEEK 3 DR JOSEPHINE PAPARO [email protected] THIS WEEK… Part 1 oBirth and the Postnatal Environment ─Early Risk and Resilience in Development Part 2 oEarly Infant Deve...

PSYU2235 / PSYX2235 Developmental Psychology BIRTH TO EARLY INFANT MOTOR & PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT WEEK 3 DR JOSEPHINE PAPARO [email protected] THIS WEEK… Part 1 oBirth and the Postnatal Environment ─Early Risk and Resilience in Development Part 2 oEarly Infant Development: The First Three Months of Life ─Motor and Perceptual Development ─Parent Child Reciprocal Interaction 2 For anyone whom the content of this lecture may be personally impactful… https://www.pinkelephants.org.au/ https://rednose.org.au/ https://www.bearsofhope.org.au/ https://www.pregnancylossaustralia.org.au/ https://www.sands.org.au/ https://stillbirthfoundation.org.au/ https://www.panda.org.au/ MQ Wellbeing Service 3 PART 1: BIRTH AND THE POSTNATAL ENVIRONMENT Early Risk and Resilience in Development Part 1: Aims & Learning Outcomes Students should be able to: Describe key features of the perinatal and immediate postnatal environment and how they may impact infants (including risks to the infant during the birth process) Describe risk and resilience factors in the postnatal period o Explain cumulative stress model o Explain additive main effects model for understanding relative risk and resilience in development 5  THE BIRTH PROCESS Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/season-13-the- simpsons-13x17-l2Je0hJzZUDil0B2w 6 Birth Process Birth process 7 The Birth Process 3 Stages of Labour o 1st Stage: Contractions of uterus to dilate cervix o 2nd Stage: Pushing baby through the birth canal (“crowning”) o 3rd Stage: Expelling the placenta Caesarean delivery o Aust has highest rate in the world (32% of all births, cf. NZ at 20%) Birth risks to the infant o Prematurity: Baby born before lungs, sucking fully mature Source: https://www.zimbio.com/The+Best+Mother- o Hypoxia: Due to labour Daughter+Moments+in+%27Gilmore+Girls%27/articles/ complications - ”failure to bP1HjP91FZG/The+Birthday+Speech progress”, posterior presentation 8 The Birthing Environment/ Baby’s Response to Childbirth Delivery practices & setting o Impact of contractions/expulsion – (moderate) stress – stimulates baby’s respiratory function – complication – anoxia (cord tangle, position of baby) o Drugs in labor - Maternal pain relief in labour (morphine derivatives) may have sedative effect on infant respiratory function. In contrast, maternal distress and blood pressure during childbirth can affect baby’s hearth rate o Epidural anaesthetic – mother does not actively push baby out – greater likelihood of instrumental delivery Early caretaking practices o E.g., co-sleeping/rooming in vs. nurseries 9 Identifying at Risk Newborns Physical Risk Factors Prematurity Low birth weight o Linked to low SES ─ Quality of nutrition, smoking/drugs in pregnancy, access to antenatal care & education o Linked to multiple birth Respiratory Distress – anoxia APGAR test - Appearance (skin colour); Pulse (heart rate); Grimace response (reflexes); Activity (muscle tone); Respiration (breathing rate and effort)  Neonatal Intensive Care  Supportive programs to assist parents 10 POSTNATAL RISKS AND RESILIENCE 11 Risk and Resilience in Development Risk factors — factors within the child or within the environment that stress or impair an individual’s adaptive functioning o eg. Alterations to the uterine environment, difficult birth, premature labour, early discharge o e.g. poverty, availability of community and extended family support, cultural practices o eg. Mental illness in a parent, postnatal depression/anxiety o e.g. Difficult temperament Cumulative Stress Model — Stressors (risks) add together until a threshold is reached above which problem outcomes occur 12 Cumulative Risk: The Case of Child Abuse Ontogenic Development – An individual’s biological characteristics and developmental history & social context Parent—childhood history of parental rejection or maltreatment, unplanned pregnancy, poor prenatal education, lack of experience in caring for children, immature personality characteristics Child—premature birth (aversive cry, physically not as drawn to them, lack social responsiveness, hard to care for); baby who cries and is difficult to soothe Context – social support, employment, housing, domestic violence 13 Risk and Resilience in Development Protective Factors — positive factors within the child or within the environment that can modify/reduce the negative impact of stressors or risks Example: Teenage mother – risk cluster o eg., good nutrition, economic advantage, good schools o eg., supportive responsive parenting (Meaney’s study) o eg., child with easy temperament o eg., specific genetic code Additive Main Effects Model — Developmental outcome is the result of the combined effects of stressors (-ve) and protective (+ve) factors 14 PART 2: EARLY INFANT DEVELOPMENT The First Three Months of Life Part 2: Aims & Learning Outcomes Students should be able to: Describe changes that take place over the early years as children become proficient in movement Discuss perceptual capacities of infants (e.g. visual, auditory, taste, smell, touch) and approaches to investigating these in the laboratory Explain inter (or cross) modal perception and sensory integration Discuss the concept of parent-child reciprocal interaction 16  MOTOR DEVELOPMENT 17 Locomotor Development Some Key Principles Sensorimotor integration Integration of primitive reflexes Reflexes – automatic, involuntary, stereotyped response to external stimulation Indicators or early neurological integrity – mostly integrated by 6 mths Superseded by voluntary motor control – may be basis for later movement Progression See notes Tutorial 1 of development Ortho-genetic: Gross (global) to Fine (differentiated) eg., grasp Cephalocaudal: Head control/trunk control first Proximo-distal: Core stability supports fine motor Source: https://tenor.com/view/baby-falling-over-gif- capacity 10497245 18 Locomotor Development Do not try th home! Illustration from Pearson textbo 19  Locomotor Development Gross Motor Milestones Head control in prone Rolling over o Overcome Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex o Importance of floor time Propping  crawling o Movement enhances learning, interaction Sitting o Postural stability underpins fine motor development, vestibular system *Cultural Pull to stand differences Cruise Walk *Descriptive Run, stand on one leg, hop (3yrs) work Gesell, Walk backwards, change direction Bayley 20 quickly (5yrs) Gross Motor Development: Walking and Balance VIDEO ***DISCLAIMER*** Please excuse the… Corny narration Creepy child as Godzilla connotations 21 Gross Motor Development: Walking and Balance Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch? 22 v=GtZ91JuavxU Fine Motor Development Progression from reflex to voluntary (integrate grasp reflex) Grasp (no release) – gross to fine – voluntary release Swipe and palmar grasp – pincer grasp Underpinned by trunk stability o Fine and gross motor development are intertwined – differentiated movements are grounded in “core strength” Second year – voluntary and controlled release (can build tower of blocks), can scribble 23 Fine Motor Development Stop at 5mins Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiTuGv_GeaE 24 Maturation vs. Practice/Learning Maturationist view – genetically programmed, universal unfolding Practice/environment effect on timing Deprived infants Example of frog plasters Floor time Some cultural rearing practices – can both restrict and enhance motor development Maturation is necessary, but not sufficient 25 Postural Stability Inter (cross) modal perception: Different sensations are combined to inform perceptions Integration of kinaesthetic, visual and vestibular information underpins postural reflexes Vision is fundamental o Motor development is compromised Need for early intervention: Compensatory activities ─ E.g., Postural experiences, Scooter boards for children with developmental motor problems, etc 26  PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT 27 Sensory Processes Perception = Interpretation of Sensory Input from Sensory Organs Mouth for sucking – first sensory focus Hands for grasping – tactile Sensory receptors in eyes nose ears Vestibular system - inner ear, motion Kinaesthesis – proprioception (joint and stretch receptors): Knowing where your body is in space 28 Assessing Infant Perceptual Abilities: How Infants See and Interpret the World Preferential looking paradigms Habituation paradigms Visual cliff paradigm Source: https://onedio.co/content/the-most- horrible-experiment-in-history-little-albert- Conditioning experiment-10962 paradigms See Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2 29 Vision (1): Patterns & Contrasts Visual Scanning – track baby’s eye movements Best focus 20 - 25 cm Newborns – visual acuity limited o Patterns and contrasts - scan edges; tend to fixate on a single feature o Colour vision develops quickly over first few months 2-month-olds scan more Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/tlc-network- tlc-sweet-home-sextuplets- extensively but still focus on ky8MGXNJxTfNxN6nPC contours or edges 30 Vision (2): Face Perception Newborns readily look at faces – have features infants find interesting  Movement  Edges  Paired with a voice  Solidity (3 dimensional)  Complexity Scrambled faces: 2-month-old infants (but not 1 month old) distinguish and “prefer” natural faces, e.g., own mother’s face 3 to 6 months – distinguish facial expressions 31 Vision (3): Depth Perception 32 Hearing & Auditory Perception (1) Newborns can distinguish the human voice Unborn fetuses can hear their mother’s voice – and neonates show preference for mother’s voice by 4 days after birth (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980) Recognise familiar stories after pregnancy exposure: DeCasper & Spence (1986) o Cat in the Hat study ??? Music By 6 months infants can discriminate pitch, tempo, 33 contour, rhythm and melody Hearing & Auditory Perception (2) Sensitivity to sound relevant to language perception Discrimination of phonemes; biologically primed to learn any language o Habituation paradigms  “Pa… Ba’ experiment Newborns can localise sounds Prefer patterned sounds at the frequency range of the human voice Can distinguish between different sounds by 1 34 month Olfaction (Smell) Highly acute at birth Head turning used as index of preference for breast pad of own mother vs. another mother (McFarlane, 1975; Porter et al., 1992) 2-day-olds respond randomly 6-day-olds 22/32 days infants turned toward own mother’s breast pad 35 Taste Newborn infants discriminate among basic taste qualities (Steiner) Sweet  expression of satisfaction, slight smile, sucking Sour  lip-pursing, wrinkling of nose, blinking of eyes Bitter  dislike expression, spitting, Source: vomiting movements https://gfycat.com/discover/baby- eating-lemon-gifs *Food preferences may relate to early taste 36 exposure Touch, Temperature, Pain Important to exploration of the environment and emotional development Newborns Oral exploration predominates – but by 4 months manual tactile exploration developing After 4 months manual/tactile exploration takes over Sensitivity to tactile stimulation illustrated by reflexes Baby massage (Tiffany Field) Sensitive to warmth & cold Register pain Changing views over time Rebecca Slater er al., at Radcliffe Hospital Oxford has used MRI imaging to show young infants do feel pain and threshold may be lower than for adults (Implications for… Circumcision/ Neonatal surgery/Innoculations) Also: stroking provides pain relief (see video on iLearn) 37 Inter (Cross) Modal Exploration Inter (Cross) Modal Perception: Different sensations are combined to inform perceptions Infants reach towards objects that are visually interested in (want to manipulate/explore them) Infants turn towards sounds that interest them (so they can see the source) Infants mouth objects that are interesting to look at and touch 38 Inter (Cross) Modal Integration Combining information from different senses to produce “amodal” representation E.g., Oral and visual Classic experiment with pacifiers (Melzoff & Borton, 1979) 1.Infants suck dummy with distinctive shape/texture Source: https://tenor.com/view/baby-stealing-fight-fighting-over- pacifier-gif-16102305 2.Shown pictures – look longer at 39 dummy they have 40 PARENT CHILD RECIPROCAL INTERACTION 41 Crying Survival – Universal/Adaptive (Problem – Aversive Cries) Early communication – different cries Cross cultural / cohort differences (beliefs about crying and soothing) Developmental trajectory Individual differences – confounds Distressed babies learning compromised Regulation critical 42 Sleeping Key Developmental Task in first Three Months: Establishing an organised sleep-wake pattern o Short sleep/wake cycles over 24 hrs – longer sleep at night as infant develops ─ Average young infant sleeps 16/24 ─ Large individual differences ─ Cultural differences (e.g., beliefs about night waking, co-sleeping) Young infants spend more time in REM sleep. As infants develop REM sleep decreases Sleep regulates sensory stimulation o “witching hour” fussiness attributed to overstimulation 43 Stylised Voices Adult speech to Babies = Stereotypic Raised pitch Pitch and loudness changes exaggerated Slow speed Source: https://tenor.com/view/baby-talk-talking-to-babies-baby-talk- goochy-goochy-goo-gif-12718726 Long pauses between utterances 44 Stylised Facial Expressions (1) Adults… Initiate interaction—mock surprise Maintain interaction—smile Terminate interaction—frown with head aversion and breaking gaze Avoid interaction—neutral face with gaze aversion 45 Stylised Facial Expressions (2) Stylised Facial Expressions are… Exaggerated in space, time Repertoire limited Universal (?) “games” adults play with babies oPeek-a-boo surprise games ─Builds gross motor skills, ─Strengthens visual tracking ─Encourages social development ─Promotes regulation ─Teaches object 46 Source: https://gifer.com/en/QRm3 Synchronised Interactions There is an innate temporal organisation to infant behaviour Adults are (? intuitively) sensitive to this organisation - they adapt their own behaviour to it = Synchronised interactions 47 Synchronised Interactions Function Elicit infant attention Aid in behaviour organisation and state control Regulate information input so as not to overload the system Affirm infant’s emerging sense of self/agency48 Synchronised Interactions Temporal – timing of speech reciprocity seems to be innate Energetics – loudness is matched Physiognomic – match body movements and facial expressions 49 Synchronised Interactions Turn Taking and Reciprocity Condon & Sander (1974) o Neonates movements are organised with adult speech (not replicated) Kozak-Mayer & Tronick (1985) o Turn-taking conversational structure of mother-infant face-to-face interaction where mother provides turn-giving signals and infant engages in turn-taking Malloch & Trevarthen (2008); Trevarthen (2020) o “Companionship Space” through joint use of music-like qualities in Source: vocal & body gestures – https://comb.io/6SSX6E communicative musicality o Seen where arm movements of infants synchronised with adult speech rhythms (e.g. songs with 50 actions) Affect Attunement = Performing behaviours that express the quality of a shared affect state, but without imitating the exact behavioural expression of the inner state Characteristics of attuned behaviours Some form of matching occurs – inner states (unconscious) The matching is largely cross-modal (modality of expression used by mother to match is different from the modality used by the infant e.g., vocalisation vs behaviour) Most common dimension matched is intensity Function of attunement behaviours To “commune with” the baby “intersubjectivity” 51 Summing Up There are a number of risks to development relevant to the immediate perinatal/postnatal environment that are important to identify for early intervention to occur Cumulative Stress and Additive Main Effects Risk models can be useful for understanding the balance between risk and resilience during development Motor and perceptual changes occur early in the developmental period Reciprocal parent-child exchanges and attunement is critical to the development of communication capabilities during infancy 52 DVD – AVAILABLE on ILEARN and MQ LIBRARY RESERVE Getting to know you : Recognising infant communication & social interaction. Northern Beaches Child & Family Health Service and NSW Institute of Psychiatry "Current research has shown how critical early social interaction is for a child's developing brain. In the hurly-burly of parenthood, it can be difficult to recognise your baby's earliest communications. By focusing on the first three months of life, this video aims to help babies and parents get to know each other.". Link to iLearn copy Link to MQ Library Reserve copy Not assessable – for interest/illustration 53  THANK YOU  See you next week for… Cognitive Development (A): Piaget 54