Behavioural development and mental health in infancy: object retrieval

C Lange-Küttner1

  • 1School of Health and Sports Science, University of North London, UK. c.langekuettner@unl.ac.uk

Insights

Understanding normal infant development is crucial for identifying developmental delays. Experimental child psychology and developmental neuroscience offer insights into cognitive systems and behavioral patterns, aiding in the assessment of mental development.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Neuroscience

Background:

  • Assessing poor mental development requires a benchmark of normal development.
  • Infant cognitive system parameters influence later intelligence composition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To highlight the importance of understanding normal development for identifying deviations.
  • To connect experimental child psychology and developmental neuroscience findings to practical observations.

Main Methods:

  • Review of experimental child psychology findings on infant cognitive parameters.
  • Application of developmental neuroscience principles to explain observed child behaviors.

Main Results:

  • Established parameters of infant cognitive development are key to balanced intelligence.
  • Developmental neuroscience explains behaviors like unresponsiveness and excessive clinging.

Conclusions:

  • Normal development benchmarks are essential for diagnosing developmental issues.
  • Integrating psychological and neuroscientific approaches provides a comprehensive understanding of child development.

Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
The Nativist Approach01:21

The Nativist Approach

The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to exist...
Socioemotional Development during Infancy01:30

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Attachment01:20

Attachment

Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that physical...
Relationship with Parents: Attachment01:28

Relationship with Parents: Attachment

Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...