Developmental Psychology - Infancy PDF

**DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY** **UNIT-II** **INFANCY** **Characteristic of Infancy** **1. Infancy Is the Shortest of All Developmental Periods** Infancy begins with birth and ends when the infant is approximately two weeks old, by far the shortest of all developmental periods. It is the time when...

**DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY** **UNIT-II** **INFANCY** **Characteristic of Infancy** **1. Infancy Is the Shortest of All Developmental Periods** Infancy begins with birth and ends when the infant is approximately two weeks old, by far the shortest of all developmental periods. It is the time when the fetus must adjust to life outside the uterine walls of the mother where it has lived for approximately nine months. Despite its shortness, infancy is generally subdivided into two periods: the period of the Partunate and the period of the neonate. **Period of the Partunate** (from birth to fifteen to thirty minutes after birth): This period begins when the fetal body has emerged from the mother\'s body and lasts until the umbilical cord has been cut and tied. Until this is done, the infant continues to be a parasite and makes no adjustments to the postnatal environment the environment outside the mother\'s body. **Period of the Neonate** (from the cutting and tying of the umbilical cord to approximately the end of the second week of postnatal life): The infant is now a separate, independent individual and is no longer a parasite. During this period, the infant must make adjustments to the new environment outside the mother\'s body. **2. Infancy Is a Time of Radical Adjustments** Although the human life span legally begins at the moment of birth, birth is merely an interruption of the developmental pattern that started at the moment of conception. It is the graduation from an internal to an external environment. Like all graduations, it requires adjustments on the individual\'s part. It may be easy for some infants to make these adjustments but so difficult for others that they will fail to do so. Miller has commented, \"In all the rest of his life, there will never be such a sudden and complete change of locale\". **3. Infancy Is a Plateau in Development** The rapid growth and development which took place during the prenatal period suddenly come to a stop with birth. In fact, there is often a slight regression, such as loss of weight and a tendency to be less strong and healthy than at birth. Normally this slight regression lasts for several days to a week, after which the infant begins to improve. By the end of the infancy period, the infant\'s state of development is usually back to where it was at the time of birth. **4. Infancy Is a Preview of Later Development** It is not possible to predict with even reasonable accuracy what the individual\'s future development will be on the basis of the development apparent at birth. However, the newborn\'s development provides a clue as to what to expect later on. **5. Infancy Is a Hazardous Period** Infancy is a hazardous period, both physically and psychologically. Physically, it is hazardous because of the difficulties of making the necessary radical adjustments to the totally new and different environment. The high infant mortality rate is evidence of this. Psychologically, infancy is hazardous because it is the time when the attitudes of significant people toward the infant are crystallized. Many of these attitudes were established during the prenatal period and may change radically after the infant is born, but some remain relatively unchanged or are strengthened, depending on conditions at birth and on the ease or difficulty with which the infant and the parents adjust. Developmental tasks **ADJUSTMENTS OF INFANCY** Infants must make four major adjustments before they can resume their developmental progress. If they do not make them quickly, their lives will be threatened. While these adjustments are being made, there is no developmental progress. Instead, the infant remains on a plateau or may even regress to a lower stage of development. These adjustments are: **1. Temperature Changes:** There is a constant temperature of 100°F in the uterine sac, while temperatures in the hospital or home may vary from 60 to 70°F. **2. Breathing:** When the umbilical cord is cut, infants must begin to breathe on their own. **3. Sucking and Swallowing:** The infant must now get nourishment by sucking and swallowing, instead of receiving it through the umbilical cord. These reflexes are imperfectly developed at birth, and the infant often gets less nourishment than is needed and thus loses weight. **4. Elimination:** The infant\'s organs of elimination begin to work soon after birth; formerly, waste products were eliminated through the umbilical cord. **CONDITIONS INFLUENCING ADJUSTMENT TO POSTNATAL LIFE** **1. Prenatal Environment** The first condition that influences the kind of adjustment infants make to postnatal life is the kind of prenatal environment they had. A healthy prenatal environment will contribute to good adjustments to postnatal life. Inadequate prenatal care of the mother, as a result of either poverty or neglect, is often responsible for the development of unfavorable conditions in the intrauterine environment which affect the developing child and lead to complications during childbirth, both of which affect the kind of adjustment the infant makes. **2. Kind of Birth** The second condition that influences the kind of adjustment that will be made to postnatal life is the kind of birth the infant experiences. Many traditional beliefs about birth and how it affects the individual\'s adjustments to life persist even today. There are five kinds of birth they are: **Natural, or Spontaneous, Birth:** In a natural birth, the position of the fetus and its size in relation to the mother\'s reproductive organs allow it to emerge in the normal, headfirst position. **Breech Birth:** In a breech birth, the buttocks appear first, followed by the legs and finally the head. **Transverse Birth:** In a transverse presentation, the fetus is positioned crosswise in the mother\'s uterus. Instruments must be used for delivery unless the position can be changed before the birth process begins. **Instrument Birth:** When the fetus is too large to emerge spontaneously or when its position makes normal birth impossible, instruments must be used to aid in delivery. **Caesarean Section:** I f x -rays taken during the latter part of pregnancy indicate that complications may result if the infant emerges through the birth canal, the baby is brought into the world through a slit made surgically in the mother\'s abdominal wall. The infant who has been born spontaneously usually adjusts more quickly and more successfully to the postnatal environment than one whose birth has been difficult enough to require use of instruments or caesarean section. More hazards are associated with instrument births and caesarean sections than with spontaneous births. The more difficult the birth, the greater the chance of damage and the more severe the damage. **3. Experiences Associated with Birth** The third conditions that influence the kind of adjustments infants make to postnatal life are experiences associated with birth. Regardless of the kind of birth, two birth experiences have a major effect on postnatal adjustments. They are the extent to which the mother is medicated during the birth process and the ease or difficulty with which the infant establishes respiration. Infants whose mothers are heavily *medicated* during labor show drowsiness and disorganized behavior for three or more days after birth, as compared with one or two days for those whose mothers are lightly medicated or receive no medication at all. The ease or difficulty with which infants start to *breathe* after birth likewise affects their postnatal adjustments. When there is interruption of the oxygen supply to the brain before or during birth*-**anoxia (absence of oxygen)*** the infant may die. **4. Length of Gestation Period** The fourth condition that influences infants\' adjustments to postnatal life is the length of the gestation period. Very few infants are born exactly 280 days after conception. Those who arrive ahead of time are known as ***prematures*** -often referred to in hospitals as \"preemies\"- while those who arrive late are known as ***postmatures**,* or ***postterm*** babies*.* Postmaturity occurs less often than in the past because it is now possible to induce labor when x-rays/scanning show that the fetus is large enough and well-enough developed to adjust successfully to postnatal life. Induced labor is also used as a means of preventing possible birth complications and birth injuries, especially brain damage, which can result if the fetal head is allowed to grow too large. **5. Parental Attitudes** How quickly and how successfully newborn infants will adjust to postnatal life is greatly influenced by parental attitudes. This is the fifth condition that influences the kind of adjustments infants make to postnatal life. When parental attitudes are unfavorable, for whatever the reason, they are reflected in treatment of the infant that militates against successful adjustments to postnatal life. By contrast, parents whose attitudes are favorable treat the infant in ways that encourage good adjustment. Parent-infant interactions are not characterized by the emotional tension and nervousness that are normally present when parental attitudes are unfavorable. **6. Postnatal Care** The sixth influential condition is the kind of postnatal care the newborn receives during the infancy period. For the most part, care during the first three or four days after birth will be by hospital personnel. After that, care will be in the home, usually given by the mother with some assistance from the father, relatives, or paid domestic help brought into the home for a week or more after the mother leaves the hospital. While the overall quality of the postnatal care is important in determining the kind of adjustments the infant will make to postnatal life, three aspects of this care are especially important. They are the amount of attention infants receive to ensure that their needs will be met satisfactorily and relatively promptly, the amount of stimulation they receive from the time of birth, and the degree of confidence their parents, especially their mothers, have in meeting their needs. Characteristics of the Infant **HAZARDS OF INFANCY** **Physical Hazards** ***Unfavorable Prenatal Environment***: As a result of unfavorable conditions in the prenatal environment, the infant may have difficulty adjusting to postnatal life. Excessive smoking on the part of the mother, for example, can affect the development of the fetus. Prolonged and intense maternal stress is another important factor, causing the infant to be tense and nervous. ***Difficult and Complicated Birth***: A difficult or complicated birth frequently results in temporary or permanent brain damage. If the birth requires the use of instruments, as in the case where the fetus is so large that it has to be aided in its passage down the birth canal or if the fetus lies in a foot first or a transverse position, the chances of brain damage from the use of instruments to aid delivery are always present. ***Multiple Birth*** Children of multiple births are usually smaller and weaker than singletons as a result of crowding during the prenatal period, which inhibits fetal movements. These babies tend to be born prematurely, which adds to their adjustment problems. ***Postmaturity:*** It is hazardous only when the fetus becomes so large that the birth requires the use of instruments or surgery, in which case the hazards are due to the conditions associated with birth rather than to postmaturity per se. One study of babies born more than three weeks after term reported that they experienced neonatal adjustment problems and were also socially maladjusted and required special schooling by the age of seven. ***Prematurity:*** Prematurity causes -more neonatal deaths than any other condition. Prematurely born infants are also especially susceptible to brain damage at birth because the skull is not yet developed enough to protect the brain from pressures experienced during birth. Anoxia is another common problem since the premature baby\'s respiratory mechanism is not fully developed. ***Multiple Birth*** Children of multiple births are usually smaller and weaker than singletons as a result of crowding during the prenatal period, which inhibits fetal movements. These babies tend to be born prematurely, which adds to their adjustment problems. ***Postmaturity:*** It is hazardous only when the fetus becomes so large that the birth requires the use of instruments or surgery, in which case the hazards are due to the conditions associated with birth rather than to postmaturity per se. One study of babies born more than three weeks after term reported that they experienced neonatal adjustment problems and were also socially maladjusted and required special schooling by the age of seven. ***Prematurity:*** Prematurity causes -more neonatal deaths than any other condition. Prematurely born infants are also especially susceptible to brain damage at birth because the skull is not yet developed enough to protect the brain from pressures experienced during birth. Anoxia is another common problem since the premature baby\'s respiratory mechanism is not fully developed. **Psychological Hazards** ***Traditional Beliefs about Birth*** Difficult births, for example, are believed to result in \"difficult children\" -those who are hard to handle and whose behavior tends to deviate from that of children born with a minimum of difficulty. For centuries it has been believed that children of multiple births have to be different and inferior to singletons and that prematures are doomed to be physical and mental weaklings. Time of birth on the future development of the child, while there is little scientific evidence to substantiate the belief that there is a \"best time\" to be born, there is evidence that, because the mother\'s health plays an extremely important role during the prenatal period, any unfavorable condition during her pregnancy may and often does prove to be hazardous to her unborn child. ***Helplessness*** To some parents the helplessness of the newborn infant is appealing while, to most, it is frightening. So long as the infants are in the hospital and under the care of doctors and nurses, parents are not too concerned about their helplessness. However, when they take them home from the hospital and assume the responsibility for their care, infantile helplessness becomes a serious psychological hazard. ***Individuality of the Infant*** To most adults, being different is interpreted as being inferior. When parents steep themselves in child-care literature before the arrival of their first child, or when they set up norms of behavior based on what their earlier-born children did at different ages, they tend to judge a newborn infant in these terms. ***Developmental Lag*** Some infants lag behind are those born prematurely or those who were injured at birth. Instead of regaining lost birth weight by the end of the first week or sooner, they may continue to lose weight or rest on a plateau with no improvement at all. Even worse, they may show such a pronounced lag that instead of being allowed to go home with their parents three to four days after birth, as is usual, they are kept in the hospital and may even have to have special nursing care. ***Plateau* in *Development*** Even though a plateau in development is normal immediately after birth, many first-time parents are unaware of this. As a result, they are concerned when their baby seems to be making no progress. ***Lack* of *Stimulation*** There is increasing scientific evidence that newborn infants need stimulation of different areas of their bodies and of different sense organs if they are to develop as they should. This, of course, is not a \"new-fangled idea\" because, in the days when babies were born at home, they were picked up, rocked, talked to, and sung to as part of their routine care. ***New-Parent Blues*** States of depression, often called \"new-parent blues,\" are almost universal among new parents. These depressive states tend to be more pronounced in mothers than in fathers and in parents of first babies than in those who have already had one or more children.