Infant Cognitive Pages

April 27, 2021

Talking with infants can help their brain and communication development, because when parents talk to a lot to their young children they use lots of different sounds and words which improves the infants understanding of language https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/connecting-communicating/communicating/talking-with-babies-toddlers#:~:text=Talking%20with%20your%20baby%20or,of%20different%20sounds%20and%20words .

Yes, its possible, the process neurogenesis happens during adulthood. https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/#:~:text=From%20birth%20to%2 0age%205,any%20other%20time%20in%20life.

Neurons communicate with one another at junctions called synapses. At a synapse, one neuron sends a message to a target neuron—another cell. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/human-biology/neuron-nervous-system/a/the-synapse

In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections form every second. After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are reduced through a process called pruning, which allows brain circuits to become more efficient. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/#:~:text=Brains%20are%20built%20over%20time%2C%20from%20the%20bottom%20up.&text=In%20the%20first%20few%20years,circuits%20to%20 become%20more%20efficient.

The limbic system is a brain area, located between the brainstem and the two cerebral hemispheres, that controls emotion and memory

The hypothalamus helps keep the body's internal functions in balance. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001202.htm#:~:text=The%20hypothalamus%20helps%20keep%20the, Body%20temperature

1. Read a book 2. Cuddle them 3. Sing 4. Play peekaboo 5. Narrate your day 6. Count aloud 7. Point your finger 8. Give them a choice

Factors such as place of residence, physical exercise, family income, parents' occupation, education, availability of learning resources, nutrition influence the IQ of a child to a great extent.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/intelligence/

At birth a baby has roughly 100 billion brain cells https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/4356e/#:~:text=At%20birth%2C%20an%20infant%20has,sends%20im pulses%20to%20other%20neurons.

https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/3-2-our-brains-control-our-thoughts-feelings-and-beha vior/#:~:text=The%20limbic%20system%20is%20a,the%20hypothalamus%2C%20and%20the%20hippocampus.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/baby/development/88259378/19-simple-ways-to-make-your-baby-smarter

What does the Bayley Scales of Infant Development determine? Provide an example of this type of testing.

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development is an assessment instrument designed to measure motor, cognitive, language, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior development in babies and young children. For example, a child with a scaled score of 9 on the Social-Emotional Scale of the Bayley-III has a composite score equivalent of 95 and a percentile rank of 37. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/bayley-scales-of-infant-development

What does the Fagan Test of Intelligence focus on? How does it ‘work’?

The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence (FTII) is the culmination of 20 years of basic research on infant visual perception and recognition memory abilities and 10 years spent developing a clinically useful test for diagnosing infants at high-risk for later intellectual deficit. individual differences in the processing of information during infancy are linked to individual differences in performance on standard tests of intelligence later in life. https://infantest.com/ftii.pdf

In infancy, what comes first: receptive vocabulary or spoken vocabulary? Define each.

Children first develop receptive vocabulary, which is understanding the expressions and words of others. Spoken vocabulary is the child's ability to express themselves, which develops later on.

https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/Article?contentid=1892&language=English#:~:text=Children%20first%20develop%20receptive%20language,child's%20ability%20to%20express%20themselves.

What does it mean when an infant overextends vocabulary?

Overextension occurs when a categorical term (a word used to describe a group of things) is used in language to represent more categories than it actually does.

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Overextension#:~:text=Overextension %20occurs%20when%20a%20categorical,a%20lion%20as%20a%20'kitty.

What does it mean when an infant under extends vocabulary?

This is a common semantic error made by children. It occurs when a word is given a narrower meaning that it has in adult language.

https://conorharrisonsblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/overextension-and-underextension/

What is telegraphic speech? Telegraphic speech is simply two-word sentences, toddlers develop this level of speech between 18-24 months. Telegraphic speech is important because it means an infant is learning to communicate their thoughts and feelings. https://babysparks.com/2019/10/02/telegraphic-speech-what-it-is-and-how-it-develops/

Noam Chomsky believes that children are born into the world with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). What does this mean?

In other words, he believes that children are born with an understanding of the rules of language; they simply need to acquire the vocabulary. https://study.com/academy/lesson/chomskys-language-acquisition-device-definition-lesson-quiz.html#:~:text=Chomsky%20proposed%20that%20every%20child,need%20to%20acquire%20the%20v ocabulary.

Explain the strategies that parents can use to enhance children’s language acquisition:

Recasting

Recasting is another form of modelling. The recast occurs when the parent modifies a childs utterance by adding new or different grammar (syntactic) or word meaning information (semantic) information.

https://praacticalaac.org/strategy/recasting-a-language-facilitation-strat egy/#:~:text=Recasting%20is%20another%20form%20of,or%20a%20'New% 20Thing'.

Echoing

The key to helping a child who uses echolalia is to figure out the meaning behind the echolalia, and then respond in a way that helps him learn. You can do this by being your child's “detective”, and then being his interpreter.

http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/Helping-Children-Who-Use-Ec holalia.aspx

Expanding

Language expansion and language extension are two ways for you to help children develop their expressive language skills. Language expansion “expands” a child's utterance—when talking with a child, use adult grammar but do not add new information.

https://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/227_LangExpExt.pdf

Labelling

Even when kids aren't ready to use words yet, you can prepare them by labeling things in their environment. Limit testing, and about things a child is familiar with.

https://childmind.org/article/helping-toddlers-expand-their-language-skil ls/

What happens during Child Directed Speech?

- Up to the child’s first birthday the caregiver, tends to speak to them in monologues, i.e. long stretches of talk that require little feedback or involvement from the child other than their continued attention.

- From about eighteen months of age the child is addressed in a grammatically simple manner about a restricted number of topics. The topics are typically limited to here-and-now concrete concepts, e.g. talking about what the child is currently doing or looking at.

- From about two years of age, words and phrases are repeated to the child over and over again: the caregiver never seems to say something just once. In addition, an exaggerated intonation pattern is used together with a higher than usual pitch.

https://www.sltinfo.com/child-directed-speech/