PYSC228 NOTES FOR UNIT 2 – 8.

PYSC228 NOTES FOR UNIT 2 – 8.Unit 2 – Infancy Lesson 3: Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy: the First Two Years Learning Objectives 1. Differentiate the two primary growth patterns. - When you’re born you weigh 3.4Kg and are 48cm long. By age 2 you’re 3x your weight and 2x your height - There are 2 major growth processes that begin prenatally 1. Cephalocaudal pattern of growth: Growth from the head downwards (head develops first followed by what is more down) 2. Proximodistal pattern of growth: growth from the inside of the body towards the outside (trunk of the body develops faster than the arms or the legs) 2. Discuss infant brain development, including the concepts of synaptic pruning and plasticity. - Given the cephalocaudal pattern of growth, the brain develops very quickly in the 1st 2 years of life. Myelination also happens to increase impulse travel rates - Synaptic connections that are constantly activated get strengthened. Those that don’t are discarded by synaptic pruning - The potential for systematic change w/i a person to fit their environment is called plasticity. The human brain is extremely plastic during infancy 3. Describe the importance of experience and sleep in brain development. - 2 processes related to early experience and brain development 1. Experience-expectant processes: brain development that occurs based on environmental experiences that all members of the species typically encounter. (e.g. for normal visual and auditory development one must see light and hear sound) 2. Experience-dependent processes: brain development that occurs based on unique environmental stimuli shared by only individuals in particular environmental circumstances (e.g. repeated exposure to the sounds of a language helps the child create those sounds)