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Physical, Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development in Infancy.
Krista L. Bilowus
Georgian Court University
I was able to sit down and interview a mother with her 8 month old son. The mother is 2 years of age, a stay at home mom, and is part of the middle class. The father works full time to support the family, and the home life is a very stable environment. She has 1 other son who is 3 years of age, but for the sake of this interview I am only focusing on the 8 month old boy.
The boy was born at 37 weeks gestation, making him 3 weeks early. He was born 6 pounds and 13 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Now at 8 months old the child weighs 17 pounds and is 26 inches long. I had asked the mother if their were any complications for pre-term labor and there were none, just a little boy eager to get into this world. The child was not born at concerning weight, but according to a study done by Xiong, Wighton, Magnus, Pridlian, Acuna, and Buekens, children who are born at a smaller birth weight tend to go through a “catch up” period where they gain weight at a fast rate. I asked the mother if the child had gone through a “catch up” period, and was told that by 2 months old the child had gained enough weight to bring him into the 90th percentile on weight, whereas he was in the 75th percentile at 1 month. I would also like to point out that this child is bottle-fed with formula, and at 6 months old was introduced to solids by means of baby-led weaning. Baby-led weaning is a form of feeding that bypasses purees and the child just starts to eat what any adult would eat.
Infants learn through classical and operant conditioning, as well as observation. Many parents classically condition their children to stop crying at the sight of a breast or a bottle. Parents also often do operant condition every day. For example if an infant is playing with a toy, and by pushing a button the toy sings and makes noise, the child is engaging in operate conditioning. Imation is a big thing for infants. If a parent is smiling, or making a funny face at an infant the infant is more inclined to try and imitate the parent. Imitation helps an infant explore the social world, and get the understanding that they are just like everyone else. I asked the mother during my interview if her son was imitating and was told the he has started to imitate others around 3 months old.
Motor development is huge when it comes to infants. There is gross motor development and fine motor development. Gross motor skills attribute to an infants ability to crawl, stand, and walk. When speaking with the mother I asked her if and at what age her child had hit certain development goals. At 4 weeks the infant was able to hold his own head, the age range for this is anywhere been 3 weeks to 4 months, with an average at 6 weeks. At 6 weeks old the child was able to roll from his belly to back. The age range for this is 3 weeks to 5 months, with an average age of 2 months. At 3 months the child...
