5.2 The Infant

Nota:

• adaptive value

Nota:

• not clearly useful

1. Typically disappear
   1. Higher centers of the cerebral cortex develop to make voluntary motor behaviors possible

1. Spend half their sleeping hours in REM
   1. Associated with brain maturation and plasticity

Nota:

• average age of mastery

1. Proximodistal Principle
   1. Activities involving the trunk are mastered before activities with arms and legs
   2. Master gross motor skills before fine motor skills
2. Cephalocaudal principle
   1. Lift heads before control trunk to sit
3. Orthogenetic Principle
   1. Differentiated and integrative motor responses more evident in older infants

Nota:

• around 10 months; less babies crawl now than before

1. Stepping reflex disappears as infants need a more mature nervous system to walk
   1. Big heads, short legs
2. Might start to walk and regress to crawling
   1. Easier

Nota:

• press palm and outer fingers together

1. Bend elbow
   1. Pincer Grasp

      Nota:

      • involving only the thumb and (fore)finger

Nota:

• infants moving their bodies in repetitive ways 

1. Occurs shortly before a new skill has been learned

1. Use sensory feedback to modify their motor behavior in adaptive ways
   1. Falling allows infants to discover which surfaces are safe and unsafe
2. Self-organizing behavior
   1. Nature and nurture inseperable
      1. Different motor skills present different challenges to learn from; not generalizable