Parental Support of Early Childhood Physical Development

Topic: Parental Support of Early Physical Development

In this unit, you will learn about physical development in infancy/toddlerhood and early childhood. The focus of this Discussion is on early physical and motor development and the role that parents can play in supporting this development.

Please respond to the following:

Imagine that you are a psychology professional working with first-time parents, Mark and Nicole, and you are providing these parents with information on infant and early childhood physical development. Their son, David, is an 11-month-old infant who can crawl and stand up holding onto something. He can build a tower of two cubes and he can scribble vigorously.

How do David’s motor skills compare to the gross- and fine-motor skill milestones described in Chapter 5 of your textbook? Should Mark and Nicole be concerned if David does not reach the milestones at the average age listed in the table? Why or why not?

In providing advice to Mark and Nicole, what are some everyday experiences they can provide for 11-month-old David to support mastery of reaching, grasping, sitting, and crawling?

Many Western parents provide preschoolers with early training in gymnastics, tumbling, dance, soccer, and other movement skills through organized classes (Berk, 2022). Mark and Nicole want to do everything they can to support David’s athletic development so that when he reaches early childhood he will be able to take part in some organized classes.

What advice would you give Mark and Nicole regarding the athletic development support they can provide David in these early years?

TEXTBOOK: Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Laura E. Berk.

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD

Mother

Shang Meng Lei, 9 years, China

This painting captures a mother and her infant affectionately imitating each other’s facial expressions and gestures. During the first year, infants grow rapidly, move on their own, increasingly investigate and make sense of their surroundings, and learn from others.

WHAT’S AHEAD IN CHAPTER 5

5.1 Body Growth

Changes in Body Size and Muscle–Fat Makeup • Changes in Body Proportions • Individual and Group Differences

5.2 Brain Development

Development of Neurons • Measures of Brain Functioning • Development of the Cerebral Cortex • Sensitive Periods in Brain Development • Changing States of Arousal

■ Biology and Environment: Brain Plasticity: Insights from Research on Children with Brain Injury

■ Cultural Influences: Cultural Variation in Infant Sleeping Arrangements

5.3 Influences on Early Physical Growth

Heredity • Nutrition • Malnutrition • Emotional Well-Being

■ Social Issues: Health: Lead Exposure and Children’s Development

5.4 Learning Capacities

Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Habituation • Statistical Learning • Imitation

5.5 Motor Development

The Sequence of Motor Development • Motor Skills as Dynamic Systems • Fine-Motor Development: Reaching and Grasping

5.6 Perceptual Development

Hearing • Vision • Object Perception • Intermodal Perception • Understanding Perceptual Development

■ Biology and Environment: “Tuning in” to Familiar Speech, Faces, and Music: A Sensitive Period for Culture-Specific Learning.

On a brilliant June morning, 16-month-old Caitlin emerged from her front door, ready for the short drive to the child-care home where she spent her weekdays while her mother, Carolyn, and her father, David, worked. Clutching a teddy bear in one hand and her mother’s arm with the other, Caitlin descended the steps. “One! Two! Threeeee!” Carolyn counted as she helped Caitlin down. “How much she’s changed!” Carolyn thought to herself, looking at the child who, not long ago, had been a newborn. With her first steps, Caitlin had passed from infancy to toddlerhood—a period spanning the second year of life. At first, Caitlin did, indeed, “toddle” with an awkward gait, tipping over frequently. But her face reflected the thrill of conquering a new skill.

As they walked toward the car, Carolyn and Caitlin spotted 3-year-old Eli and his father, Kevin, in the neighboring yard. Eli dashed toward them, waving a bright yellow envelope. Carolyn bent down to open the envelope and took out a card. It read, “Announcing the arrival of Grace Ann. Born: Cambodia. Age: 16 months.” Carolyn turned toward Kevin and Eli. “That’s wonderful news! When can we see her?”

“Let’s wait a few days,” Kevin suggested. “Monica’s taken Grace to the doctor this morning. She’s underweight and malnourished.” Kevin described Monica’s first night with Grace in a hotel room in Phnom Penh. Grace lay on the bed, withdrawn and fearful. Eventually she fell asleep, gripping crackers in both hands.

Carolyn felt Caitlin’s impatient tug at her sleeve. Off they drove to child care, where Vanessa had just dropped off her 18-month-old son, Timmy. Within moments, Caitlin and Timmy were in the sandbox, shoveling sand into plastic cups and buckets with the help of their caregiver, Ginette.

A few weeks later, Grace joined Caitlin and Timmy at Ginette’s child-care home. Although still unable to crawl or walk, she had grown taller and heavier, and her sad, vacant gaze had given way to an alert expression, a ready smile, and an enthusiastic desire to imitate and explore. When Caitlin headed for the sandbox, Grace stretched out her arms, asking Ginette to carry her there, too. Soon Grace was pulling herself up at every opportunity. Finally, at age 18 months, she walked!

This chapter traces physical growth during the first two years—one of the most remarkable and busiest times of development. We will see how rapid changes in the infant’s body and brain support learning, motor skills, and perceptual capacities. Caitlin, Grace, and Timmy will join us along the way to illustrate how individual differences and environmental influences affect physical development.

BODY GROWTH

5.1 Describe major changes in body growth over the first two years.

The next time you’re walking in your neighborhood park or at the mall, note the contrast between infants’ and toddlers’ physical capabilities. One reason for the vast changes in what children can do over the first two years is that their bodies change enormously—faster than at any other time after birth.

5.1.1 Changes in Body Size and Muscle–Fat Makeup

By the end of the first year, a typical infant’s height is about 32 inches—more than 50 percent greater than at birth. By 2 years, it is 75 percent greater, averaging 36 inches. Similarly, by age 5 months, birth weight has doubled to about 15 pounds. At 1 year it has tripled to 22 pounds, and at 2 years it has quadrupled to about 30 pounds.

Figure 5.1 illustrates this dramatic increase in body size. But rather than making steady gains, infants and toddlers grow in little spurts. In one study, children who were followed over the first 21 months of life went for periods of 7 to 63 days with no growth, then added as much as half an inch in a 24-hour period! Almost always, parents described their babies as irritable, very hungry, and sleeping more on the days before a spurt (Lampl, 1993; Lampl & Johnson, 2011).

5.1.3 Individual and Group Differences

In infancy, girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys, with a higher ratio of fat to muscle. These small sex differences persist throughout early and middle childhood and are greatly magnified at adolescence. Ethnic differences in body size are apparent as well. Grace was below the growth norms (height and weight averages for children her age). Early malnutrition contributed, but even after substantial catch-up, Grace—as is typical for Asian children—remained below North American norms. In contrast, Timmy is slightly above average in size, as African-American children tend to be (Bogin, 2001).

Children of the same age differ in rate of physical growth; some make faster progress toward mature body size than others. But current body size is not enough to tell us how quickly a child’s physical growth is moving along. Although Timmy is larger and heavier than Caitlin and Grace, he is not physically more mature. In a moment, you will see why.

The best estimate of a child’s physical maturity is skeletal age, a measure of bone development. It is determined by X-raying the long bones of the body to see the extent to which soft, pliable cartilage has hardened into bone, a gradual process that is completed in adolescence. When skeletal ages are examined, African-American children tend to be slightly ahead of European-American and Hispanic children of the same chronological age. And girls are considerably ahead of boys—the reason Timmy’s skeletal age lags behind that of Caitlin and Grace. At birth, the sexes differ by about 4 to 6 weeks, a gap that widens over infancy and childhood (McCormack et al., 2017; Tanner, Healy, & Cameron, 2001). Girls are advanced in development of other organs as well. This greater physical maturity may contribute to girls’ greater resistance to harmful environmental influences. As noted in Chapter 2, girls experience fewer developmental problems than boys and have lower infant and childhood mortality rates.

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

5.2a Describe brain development during infancy and toddlerhood, current methods of measuring brain functioning, and appropriate stimulation to support the brain’s potential.

5.2b Explain how the organization of sleep and wakefulness changes over the first two years.

At birth, the brain is nearer to its adult size than any other physical structure, and it continues to develop at an astounding pace throughout infancy and toddlerhood. We can best understand brain growth by looking at it from two vantage points: (1) the microscopic level of individual brain cells and (2) the larger level of the cerebral cortex, the most complex brain structure and the one responsible for the highly developed intelligence of our species.

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