Development
- proceeds along an orderly predictable path
- is cumulative and progressive
- has age and stage related expected outcomes
- maladaptive behaviours are deviations from the normal path
- familiarity with normal developmental expectations is needed for clinical decision-making
Historical views Darwin
- Interested in emotion and language
- Based on observations of his children
- A Biological Sketch of an Infant (1877)
- by gestures and in a marked manner by different intonations, -
Historical views
Skinner
Built his daughter a “futuristic
and convenient crib” à “air-crib”
(1944)
o Climate controlled
o Made keeping a baby on
schedule easier
- Intended to protect the baby
rather than for experiments
Historical views
Gesell (1925)
-Conducted early observations of child development &
noticed similar sequences in development across
children
* Believed that diagnosis of developmental problems
must be done within the context of knowledge of typical
developmental processes
* Environmental influences were assumed to be minor
Recent theorists have added:
* Prenatal and infant brain
development
* Effects of nutrition on early
neurological processes
* Infant perception, attention, and
memory processes
* Infant sensorimotor intelligence
* Social, emotional, and
communicative areas
o Infant temperament
o Attachment to caregivers
o Language and symbolic play
o Parent-child reciprocity
Building a framework
need an understanding of… to….
Current conceptual frameworks are built on early theorists (e.g. Gesell)
Need understanding of
* ”typical” developmental milestones
* biological and environmental interactions
that affect development
In order to properly…
* choose and use developmentally
appropriate assessment methods
* make decisions based on these
measures
* plan relevant interventions
Building a framework
What can we agree on so far?
Certain developmental sequences, milestones & stages seen as “universals” of development
o e.g. babbling, object permanence
- However, there is wide individual variation within what is typical (range of normality)
- Extreme variations (or deviations) are identified as atypical or disabilities
–Individual variations are a product of both genes & the environment
- The early environment plays an important role in developmental change
- Developmental change in infancy has a high biological and maturational component
- Children carry a genetic potential> a genetic reaction range provides
parameters of development
o E.g. height potential
Building a framework
Piaget
- Held a constructionist view
- The genes & the environment combine in a constructive way such that each developmental step is greater than the sum of its factors
- Believed that that the relationship between the initial state and final product involves the progressive construction of information
- ”We still need to explain in detail how in cognition… A collaboration between the
genome and the environment actually works” – Piaget - Very much influenced by Waddington
Building a framework
Waddington
Proposed an “epigenetic landscape” of development
* Believed that there are developmental pathways (or
necessary epigenetic routes) a child undergoes >
chreods
- Self-regulatory process ensures that the organism
(conceptualized as a ball rolling down the landscape)
returns to its channel following small perturbations à
homeorhesis
o Large perturbations can result in a different route
being taken
§ E.g. rearing child in dark - For a typically developing child, the same end point will
be reached despite the small perturbations that arise
from slightly different rearing environments - A deviation from the normal path early in development
(high up the hill), at a critical period of development,
or a major perturbation later in development, may
cause the child to take a different developmental path
and reach one of a discrete set of possible alternative
end states (phenotypes)
What do we expect in typical development?
- Birth to age 3 = period of extremely rapid development
- Convention = developmental changes are evaluated in discrete domain categories (e.g. Bayley, Mullens)
- Development occurs in multiple domains including:
- Cognitive
- Sensory-perceptual
- Language
- Physical-motor
- Social-emotional
- Adaptive behaviour
Developmental assessment
Trained professional presents infants with situations and tasks designed to produce an observable set of behavioral responses (e.g. BSID)
Cognitive - Birth >6 months
Exploration of objects e.g. grasping
Cognitive- 6m-2yr
Functional play, repetition e.g. stacking blocks
Cognitive 2-3 yr
Pretend play – use of symbols e.g. pencil = magic wand
Cognitive 2-5 yrs
Fantasy play shifts from selfreferenced to other-referenced
play (relational)
e.g. playing house
Cognitive Preschool
Become less dependent on
realistic props and toys to enact
their fantasy play
e.g. pretend forest
Language birth -3m
Rapidly learn to cry and coo to attract attention to their needs and engage in social interactions
Language 3-12m
babbling
language 9-10
comprehension of single words
language 13-14 m
Comprehension of ~50 words
language 24 m
Ability to:
* follow simple directions
* point to named objects
* join in repetitive familiar games or stories
Typical expression and production of speech:
Expression typically begins at the end of first year but with a wide range of normality
* Onset, quantity, and quality of speech
- Achieving speed that is understandable can occur anywhere from age 2-4 years
Early use of words:
- Holophrastic speech
- Telegraphic speech
- First words – usually personal or action-related
- Holophrastic speech (12-15 months)
o Single words used to mean full sentences / phrases
o Accompanied by gestures - Telegraphic speech (1-3 years)
o Abbreviated sentences to mean full sentences / phrases
Physical Motor - neonatal
- Motor reflexes (important for infant survival) - most
disappear or are replaced by voluntary movements - Failure to lose reflexes >sign of developmental delay
e.g. sucking, Moro
reflex
Physical-Motor 2m
Reach for object
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1 - Assessment12
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Clinical Interviews30
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Intelligence Testing45
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Development35
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Report Writing22
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ASD32
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ADHD27
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Specific Learning Disorders29
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Visual-motor Integration16
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Neuropsychological Assessment20
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ADI8
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ADOS24
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CBCL9
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Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised HVLT-R8
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DOMINIC9
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DANVA8
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ADHD LAB20
