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PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 3: Handout

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Extra Go-2 Resources

Infant Brain Development: The Critical Intervention Point

Dr. Jill Stamm explains how the hard science of wiring the brain, and resulting cognitive processes, can

be translated into user-friendly information and practical strategies to influence her future capacity to

learn.

PBS, The Secret Life of the Brain: The Baby’s Brain

This five-part series reveals the fascinating processes involved in brain development across a lifetime.

This mini clip contains compelling episodes of the first part “The Baby’s Brain: Wider than the Sky” and

the second part “The Child’s Brain: Syllable from Sound.”

American SIDS Institute

Malnutrition

National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome

Brain Connection: Infantile Amnesia

Child Development Institute: Language Development in Children

The 15 Most Common First Words

© Deb Vos and Indian Hills Community College

PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 3: Handout

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Infancy & Toddlerhood Charts

Each child develops the same, but all children develop differently in their own time, making all

children unique!

Newborn Reflexes

Name of Reflex Response Developmental Course

Palmar Grasp Curl fingers around objects that touch the palm

Birth to about 4 months, when it is replaced by voluntary grasp.

Rooting Turn head and tongue toward stimulus when cheek is touched.

Disappears over 1st few weeks of life and is replaced by voluntary head movement.

Sucking Suck on objects placed into mouth.

Birth to about 6 months.

Moro (startle) Startle response in reaction to loud noise or sudden change in the position of the head, results in throwing out arms, aching the back, and bringing the arms together as if to grasp something.

Birth to about 5-7 months.

Babinski Fans and curls the toes in response to stroking the bottom of the foot.

Birth to about 8-12 months.

Stepping Makes stepping movements as if to walk when held upright with feet touching a flat surface.

Birth to about 2-3 months

Swimming Holds breath and moves arms and legs, as if to swim, when placed in water.

Birth to about 4-6 months.

Blinking Flask of light or puff if air, closes both eyes.

Life-long.

Tonic neck Infant placed on back, forms fists in both hands and usually turns head to the right (sometimes called “fencer’s pose” because the infant looks like it is assuming a fencer’s pose).

Birth to 2 months.

PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 3: Handout

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Motor Skills Timetable

Average Age Achieved Motor Skill

2 months Lifts head, holds head steady when held upright 3 months Pushes head and chest up with arms, rolls from

stomach to back. 4 months Grasps cube.

6 months Sits without support.

7 months Rolls from back to stomach, attempts crawling, uses opposite thumb to grasp objects.

8 months Achieves sitting position alone, pulls to stand. 9 months “Cruises” by holding on to furniture.

10 months Plays patty-cake.

11 months Stands alone.

12 months Walks alone. 14 months Builds tower with two cubes, scribbles.

17 months Walks up steps.

18 months Runs.

Language Milestones

Age Language Skill

2-3 months Cooing. 6 months Babbling.

1 year-13 months First word, holophrases.

16-24 months Vocabulary spurt, learn new words by fast mapping.

21 months Telegraphic speech. 21-30 months Syntax.

Santrock, J., (2022). Essentials of lifespan development (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Kuther, T. (2023). Lifespan development: Lives in Context, 3rd ed. Sage.

© Deb Vos and Indian Hills Community College

PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 3: Lecture

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Fast Mapping, Naming Explosion, & Telegraphic Speech

Speaker: Deb Vos

By 13 months of age, children begin to quickly learn the meaning of new words and understand that

words correspond to particular things or events. Infants learn new words through fast mapping, a

process of quickly acquiring and retaining a word after hearing it applied a few times. At 18 months,

infants are more likely to lean a new word if both they and the speaker are attending to the new object

when the speaker introduces the new word. Two-year old’s have been shown to be able to learn a word

even after a brief exposure under vague conditions or after over hearing a speaker use the word when

talking to someone else. Between 24 to 30 months, infants can learn new words even when their

attention is distracted by other objects or events. Children’s knowledge and interests influence their

vocabulary development. They are more likely to learn words that are related to those they know and

label objects, actions, and events that they find interesting.

Fast mapping improves with age and accounts for vocabulary spurts, or naming explosion-a period of

rapid vocabulary learning that occurs between 16-24 months of age. During this period, infants apply

their word-learning strategies to learn multiple words of varying difficulty, seemingly at once. Within

weeks, a toddler may increase their vocabulary from 50 words to more than 400 words. Infants vary in

the speed of word acquisition, with some showing a rapid increase in vocabulary before others. In

addition, although fast mapping helps young children learn many new words, their own speech lags

behind what they can understand because young children have difficulty retrieving words from memory.

At about 21 months of age, or usually about 8 to 12 months after they say their first word, most children

compose their first simple two-word sentences, such as “Kitty come.” Telegraphic speech, like a

telegram, includes only a few essential words. Like other milestones in language development,

telegraphic speech is universal among toddlers. Children around the world use two-word phrases to

express themselves.

Language development follows a predictable path. Between 20 and 30 months of age, children begin to

follow the rules for forming sentences in a given language. Soon they become more comfortable with

using plurals, past tense, articles such as a or the, prepositions such as in and on, and conjunctions such

as and but. By 2 ½ years of age, children demonstrate an awareness of the communicative purpose of

speech and the importance of being understood.

Parents have many opportunities to facilitate their children’s language development. Some strategies

include:

• Be an active conversational partner by initiating conversation with your child.

• Narrate your daily activities to your child as you do them.

• Talk in a slowed-down pace and don’t worry about how you sound to other adults. This will help

your child detect words in the sea of sounds they experience.

PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 3: Lecture

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• Use parent-look and parent-gesture, and name what you are looking at. It also helps to point to

what you want them to look at, then name it.

• When you talk with infants and toddlers be simple, concrete, and repetitive. Use familiar words

often to help them remember the words.

• Play word games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake to help little ones learn words.

• Remember to listen to toddlers’ speech and try not to supply words and thoughts for them. Let

them express themselves.

• Expand and elaborate on their language abilities by asking open-ended questions and by

repeating and adding, or recasting their utterances.

Santrock, J., (2022). Essentials of lifespan development (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Kuther, T. (2023). Lifespan development: Lives in Context, 3rd ed. Sage.

© Deb Vos and Indian Hills Community College