Section one discusses cephalocaudal and proximodistal patterns of growth. It discusses growth rates in the first year of life and the development of the brain and the formation of neural connection from sense stimuli and caregiver interactions. Next it covers how long a baby sleeps and the phases of sleep as well as sleeping arrangements. It also makes a correlation between shared sleeping environments and the potential for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) to occur. Finally it looked at infant nutrition. It discussed the benefits of breast feeding for immune health and also looked at bottle feeding as an alternative.
Malnutrition in impoverished countries was also looked at. Section two looks at infant development for a motor level. There is a discussion on Thelen’s dynamic systems theory which talks about how perception and action are coupled in the development of the nervous system and motor skills. Reflexes and the length of time of certain ones are covered. Rooting and Moro reflexes are the earliest to appear, but only last a few months. Eventually more permanent reflexes appear such as sneezing, coughing, blinking, etc. After reflexes Santrock discusses gross motor skills such as crawling and walking.
Gross motor skills involve large muscle groups. Fine motor skills begin with reaching and grasping and become more detail oriented throughout the infant’s first year. The third section looks at the development of the senses. It discusses how sensation is the information received by receptors and perception is how the sensation is interpreted. Visual perception begins as blurry masses in infants, but they quickly pick up tracking and patterning skills. Over the next few months color vision starts to develop and some infants as early as 6 months have some depth perception.
Vision develops both due to biological conditions and environmental ones. Sensations such as hearing, pain, and taste differentiation are present before birth. Odor differentiation begins around the first few days. Intermodal Perception a form of sensory integration from multiple sources is also present in newborns and infants become more perceptive during their first year. The most fascinating part of this chapter was the discussion on taste and how studies have shown that infants have a preference even in the womb for sweet and salty based on swallowing and facial expression.
The section I think could have been better was on reflexes and in particular thumb-sucking. When 40% of children continue to suck their thumbs after starting school, it seems like a significant number to look into further. I would like to do more research to find out the potential reasons for such behavior. I was a thumb-sucker for a long time and am curious to find out if there are genetic or environmental reasons for such continued behavior.