Page 31 - Demo

Prenatal and Childhood Development MODULE 10 161Physical Development in Infancy and Childhood10-2 How do genes and early experiences affect infant and child development?Infancy is the first year of a child%u2019s life. From about 1 year to 3 years of age, a child is a toddler. Childhood includes the years between the toddler and teenager stages. From infancy through childhood, we develop at an amazing and orderly pace on many fronts%u2014physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially. Let%u2019s look first at physical development during this early part of life.The Developing BrainDuring prenatal development, your body made nerve cells at the rate of 4000 cells per second. With your first breath of air, your brain cells were where they needed to be, but your nervous system was still immature. You could not walk, talk, or remember as you now do, because your brain had not yet formed the neural networks that would let you perform these behaviors. In part, these neural networks, which continue developing even in adolescence, were a result of maturation%u2014the biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior. Experience has little effect on maturation. You rolled over, sat up, walked, and learned to run based largely on your genetic blueprint, and no amount of experience can change that. However, experience does affect development. Parents who talk and read to their children foster neural connections that help reading skills develop (Figure 10.3). Those who abuse and neglect their children deprive them of these complex neural connections and hinder development.From ages 3 to 6, the most rapid neurological growth appears to occur in the part of the brain responsible for thinking rationally. Indeed, preschoolers often show amazing growth in their ability to behave and pay attention to a leader.20To see how maturation affects memory, try to remember anything about your first birthday party, or try to remember wearing diapers. Any luck? If you%u2019re like most of us, the answer is no. We can%u2019t remember much before about the age of 3, maturation Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior.Newborn 3 months 15 months %u00a9 PA Photos/TopFotoFIGURE 10.3 Mapping Neural DevelopmentResearchers use electrode caps to measure infant brain activity. The drawings show how the brain%u2019s neural networks grow increasingly more complex as a child matures. Complex activities such as problem solving and reasoning are among the last areas to mature.%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.