Entwicklungspsychologie

• plasticity (Plastizität), importance of early experiences

• about 3,000 cases/year in USA
• mostly between 1-3 months of age

movement = interaction of motivation, perception, and motor skills

•  children actively modulate and fine-tune assembled motor parts to new tasks
• development of new behavior depends on …

– development of nervous system – body’s physical properties and possibilities for movement – child’s goal and environmental support

• some disappear after few months, others persist into adulthood

• typical milestones of gross motor development during first year 
• variability in onset (2-4 months) and in sequence

• development of reaching and grasping up to pincer grip (Pinzettengriff) 
• importance of perceptual-motor coupling

=physical stimuli that are registered by sense organs

= cognitive interpretation of what is sensed

• visual preference method: studying ability to distinguish two objects with different features by measuring gaze time 
•  habituation and dishabituation: reaction to repeated or new stimulus

• acuity improves to adult level until end of first year 
• only green and red at birth, all cones (Zapfen) fully developed with 2 months

• preference for patterned vs. plain displays (Fantz, 1963) 
• preference for faces

• visual cliff experiments (Gibson & Walk, 1960), no crossing with 6-12 months
• first use of binocular depth cues with 3-4 months

• prenatal listening ability in the last 2 months 
• newborns sensitive to human speech sounds
•  newborns recognize voice of familiar caregiver
• improvements in perception of loudness, pitch (Tonhöhe), and localization during first 2 years

• active construction of internal representation of the world (adaptation)
• coding in schemes (Schemata) = organized knowledge

• assimilation and accomodation; organization 
• equilibration (Äquilibration) to resolve cognitive conflict

• first stage in Piaget's theory (Sensumotorische Stufe; from birth to 2) 
•  coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions

yeah

• missing object permanence (until 8 months) 
• A-not-B-error (until 12 months)

• some processes not crucial to reach next stage
• some processes occur earlier than proposed, e.g. object permanence

• crib-mobile experiments (Rovee-Collier, 1987)

•  development of focused attention 
•  importance of joint attention (first with 7, mastered with 11 months)

• newborns imitating facial expressions (Meltzoff, 2005)
•  deferred imitation of specific action (with 9 months)

• implicit memory for 1.5 to 2 years (for 2-6 month-olds)
• explicit memory (first with 6 months, then gradually improving)

• infantile (or childhood) amnesia

• forming of conceptual categories (with 7-9 months)

• universal phoneme detection (up to 6 months)
•  improvement for own language, loss for others (from 6-12 months)

1.  crying (from birth on)
2.  cooing (1-2 months; Gurren)
3.  babbling (with 6 months; Lallstadium)
4.  gestures (with 8-12 months)
5.  first words spoken(with 10-15, mean 13 months) 

understands about 50 word

6. vocabulary spurt starts (with 13-25, mean 18 months; Benennungsexplosion)

• language-acquisition device (LAD; Chomsky, 1957)
•  language abilities of other primates

• sensitive period (cf. „wild children“; „Wolfskinder“)
• • language as tool

• recasting (The dog was barking. When was the dog barking?)
• expanding (Dog bark. Yes, the dog was barking.)
• labeling (asking to name objects)

increasing height and weight

• prefrontal cortex (planning, organizing, maintaining attention)
• synaptogenesis and myelination
• lateralisation

• gross motor skills (enjoyment of moving around)
• fine motor skills (e.g., building block towers) handedness (Händigkeit; right : left = 9 :1)

-  genetic inheritance, in all cultures

• increasing number in the US
• related to other health problems (like type-2 diabetes)
• releated to psychological problems (like lower self-esteem; Selbstwert)