Life-Span Development Chapter 5 Notes

I. Reflexes - Born with reflexes and skills necessary to sustain life (sucking, swallowing, Moro/startle reflex, grasping, rooting, Babinsky, stepping, looking, and perceptual abilities like seeing, hearing and smelling)
II. Growth Patterns
* Cephalocaudel pattern - top to bottom
* Proximodistal pattern - center out
* Gross motor skills - large muscle activities (walking)
* Fine motor skills - finely tuned movements (finger dexterity)
* Average North American newborn is 20 inches long and weighs 7.5 pounds. Infants grow about 1 inch per month during the first year and triple their weight
III. The Brain (see additional handout)
IV. Brain's development - 3 processes in the development of neurons
* cell production - 10-26 weeks after conception, 250,000 neurons per minute
* cell migration (proximodistal growth pattern) Neuron movement from neat the center of the brain
* cell elaboration - axon and dendrites grow from connections with other cells, continues years after birth, during infancy dendrite branching is extensive
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