1. Chapter 3! Physical Development

2.  You have changed a lot since you were a baby. You learned more in early childhood than you ever will again. People grow and develop in stages throughout their lives. Developmental psychology is the study of changes that occur as a person matures.

3. Nature and Nurture  Developmental psychologists study the question of nature versus nurture.  Nature refers to our genes (heredity). Nurture refers to what we have learned and experienced.  Psychologists want to know how much of development results from heredity (nature) and how much is learned (nurture).  Usually both nature and nurture influence behavior.

4. Newborns  Most infants are born with certain inborn, automatic movements called reflexes.  The grasping reflex is an infant’s clinging response to a touch on the palm of the hand. For example, infants can grasp a finger so strongly that they can be lifted into the air.  The rooting reflex is an infant’s response to a touch near the mouth. The infant turns toward the source of the touch.  How can psychologists study infants who cannot speak or understand questions?

6. Can babies swim???

7. Newborns  They do this by stimulating them in different ways.  Then they study the responses infants make, such as cry, smile, or show surprise or fear. From these responses, psychologists learn how infants see the world.

8. Physical Development  Within two years, infants change into children who can walk, talk, and feed themselves. These changes are the result of both maturation and learning.  Maturation is the internally programmed growth of a child. It is like a plant that shoots up and unfolds according to a built-in plan.  Children normally develop according to a general schedule. For example, they begin to lift their heads at about 3 months of age. They can grasp objects at about 5 to 6 months.  Children can only do such skills when their bodies are physically ready. This is called maturational readiness.

9. Physical Development  Psychologists developed a timetable for maturation by observing thousands of children.  They recorded the ages at which infants first began to smile, sit up, crawl, and walk. They discovered that each child is different.  On average, infants start to walk at 12 to 13 months, but some are ready at 9 months.  Others are not ready until 18 months.

10. Perceptual Development  Infants are born with perception skills. For example, experiments showed that infants have depth perception. Using glass with a shelf below it, researchers created a visual cliff.  They learned that infants can perceive a drop-off, because the infants responded with fear to the drop-off.

11. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=p6cqNhHrMJA Video on next slide!

13. The Development of Language  Both language and thought use symbols. Children begin to think about things before they can speak. For example, 1-year-old children will look for a toy that has disappeared. They know in their minds that the toy exists, even if they cannot see it.  Chimpanzees can be taught to “talk” using sign language or special typewriters.

14. The Development of Language  By “talking” in this way, chimps are using words as symbols. Chimps, however, cannot put words together to form sentences like humans can.  The rules for organizing words into sentences are called grammar. Grammar is what makes the sentence “The rhinoceros roared at the boy” mean the same as “The boy was roared at by the rhinoceros.” Learning language involves several steps. First, children must learn words. Then they must give the words meaning

15. The Development of Language  Finally, they must learn grammar.  Infants begin to babble sounds in their first year. Late in their first year, children begin to imitate the speech of their parents, brothers, and sisters. In their second year, children begin using sounds as symbols. The sounds may be incomplete words, but they have meaning for the child. For example, the child may use the sound “ba” to represent the object “ball.”

16. The Development of Language  Children can join words into two-word phrases by the end of their second year.  At age 2, though, a child’s grammar is not like an adult’s. At this age, children use telegraphic speech.  They leave out words, but the meaning is usually clear. For example, a child might say “Where my apple?” By the age of 4 or 5, children know several thousand words. https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/OFiHaMdPP ZE https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/OFiHaMdPP ZE