Child Development: From Conception to Birth and Beyond

Posted on Nov 20, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Evolutionary Changes and Transformations

These changes, inherent to the individual, are observed as differences within the individual over time. Three key characteristics define these transformations:

  1. Universality: Common and observable in all individuals of the same species (e.g., not specific to individual tantrums).
  2. Qualitative: Changes in system organization leading to reorganized system behavior (not merely quantitative growth as suggested by preformationism).
  3. Irreversibility: Changes are cumulative and integrated into the system’s behavior (influenced by past structures). Note: Regressions can occur within the system.

Development and Growth

Development and growth are related but not interchangeable. Growth can occur without development. Growth is quantitative increase, while development involves changes in system behavior.

Ontogenetic Time

Ontogenetic time is inherent to life, spanning from birth to death. Ontogenesis is the individual’s formation during their lifetime. Phylogenesis is the product of species development over vast time periods. Each individual has their own developmental time, influenced by various factors. Age is a universal, conventional time reference.

Psychogenetic Invariant Sequence

This refers to the temporal order (sequence) of universal changes in development. This invariant sequence is independent of chronological time. Empirical evidence supports the predictive utility of psychological development.

Emergence

Emergence refers to the appearance of new capacities, skills, or experiences that lead to a qualitative reorganization of the system’s behavior.

Structure

Structure refers to the organization of behavior towards a task.

Developmental Factors

These include environmental, biological, and cognitive factors.

Relationship Between Factors

Factors interact and cannot be quantified individually. Behavior cannot be predicted from a single factor. The individual actively constructs themselves based on inherited predispositions and environmental interactions. A developmental program, proposed by inheritance, interacts with the necessary environment for its realization. Stimulation triggers maturation levels, facilitating learning during sensitive periods.

Biological Factor: Inheritance

Inheritance proposes a biological substrate and developmental program imprinted on the inherited genetic structure. This provides the information necessary for certain behaviors. These are inherited predispositions (Remplein), a range of possibilities, not fixed behaviors. According to Anastasi, no characteristic is 100% inherited. The influence of inheritance is indirectly related to physical features and even more indirectly to behavioral traits. The degree of indirectness is determined by the amount of processing between genetic predisposition and behavior constitution (e.g., walking vs. piloting a plane).

Maturation

Maturation is the deployment of inheritance over time, influencing the timing of development. Its expression requires environmental interaction. Inheritance and maturation are both crucial in the developmental process, with maturation being the more dynamic concept.

Life Cycle: Individual

The individual life cycle includes stages from conception to death: Prenatal, Infancy, Preschool, School Age, Youth (early, middle, late adolescence), Young Adulthood, Mature Adulthood, Late Adulthood, and Death.

Life Cycle: Family

The family life cycle includes stages such as couple formation, early parenthood, families with preschoolers, school-aged children, adolescents, and the middle and end of family life.

Conception to Breastfeeding: Prenatal Development

From the moment of fertilization, a period of bodily structure formation begins. Events during this period can significantly impact later development. The fetus is entirely dependent on the mother, culminating in birth and independent life. Human gestation lasts 38-40 weeks.

Three Periods of Prenatal Development

  1. Pre-embryo or zygote (2 weeks): Rapid cell division and multiplication, uterine wall adhesion, and placenta formation.
  2. Embryonic (until the 8th week): Primary organ formation, a highly sensitive period where alterations can occur. By the fourth week, the embryo reaches 2mm, forming the head, heart, and intestines. Facial features appear around the sixth week, and hands and feet by the seventh. By the end of this period, the embryo appears human, reaching 3cm and exhibiting initial movements.
  3. Fetal (until birth): Continued structural evolution. Sex organs differentiate around 12 weeks, and spontaneous limb movements become noticeable by 16 weeks. Viability outside the womb is possible around 28 weeks (and from 22 weeks with intensive care). Neuronal development completes around 7 months. Intrauterine activity includes sucking, swallowing, amniotic fluid elimination, and sound perception. The fetus experiences deep sleep, REM sleep, and wakefulness, reacting to stimuli. A fatty layer develops in the 8th month, aiding temperature regulation and antibody acquisition. Movement decreases in the final trimester.

Factors Affecting Fetal Development

Factors include repeated X-ray exposure, certain drugs (e.g., thalidomide), maternal smoking (low birth weight, lower IQ), alcohol (birth defects, intellectual delays), heroin (neonatal withdrawal), insecticides, pesticides, solvents, paints, cleaning products (malformations), and maternal malnutrition (nervous system damage).

Psychological Aspects of Intrauterine Growth

While direct influence is unclear, indirect influence of maternal psychological states on the fetus seems undeniable. Maternal anxiety produces hormones like adrenaline, reducing blood flow to the fetus. The mother’s psychological state also influences her pregnancy care, indirectly affecting the fetus.

Labor

Birth marks the newborn’s physical independence from the mother. Psychoanalytically oriented psychologists propose the concept of birth trauma. Intrauterine life can influence later life, interacting with a desire to return to the womb, symbolizing a conflict-free state. Birth presents physical demands: breathing, pressure changes (risk of cerebral hemorrhage), and potential anoxia. These can cause irreversible cell damage. Newborns must regulate body temperature, often requiring incubator support.

Newborn States

Newborns cycle through several states: regular sleep, irregular sleep, quiet alertness, waking activity, and crying. Initially, they sleep 16-20 hours a day, with cyclical activity patterns of feeding, brief wakefulness, and sleep, repeated every 3-4 hours. Feeding schedules are initially irregular, becoming more regular over time.

Newborn Equipment

Newborns possess innate abilities for adaptation and survival, categorized into information systems, action systems, and communication systems.

Systems for Information

  1. Visual Perception: Less developed at birth but rapidly improves. Initial focus is best at 20-25cm, with limited acuity and binocular convergence. Newborns detect light intensity changes, wavelengths (color), brightness, contrast, and prefer objects with distinct features, particularly edges and contours.
  2. Auditory Perception: Well-developed at birth, perceiving sounds experienced in utero. Initially, they cannot locate sound sources but prefer low, rhythmic sounds and human voice frequencies.
  3. Taste Perception: Present at birth, with preferences and dislikes expressed through facial gestures.
  4. Olfactory Perception: Can perceive and react to odors, showing relaxation and sucking motions to pleasant smells.
  5. Tactile Perception: Thermal and pain receptors are functional.

Systems to Transmit Information

  1. Crying: A reflex response to discomfort, initially indicating lung function. Triggered by temperature changes, intense stimuli, hunger, pain. Different cries signal hunger, anger, grief, and attention needs. Crying elicits physiological responses in caregivers, primarily serving as a call for care.
  2. Smiling/Grimacing: Initially reflects physiological states, later evolving into recognition responses and eventually acquiring social value (2nd month). Adults react positively, increasing interaction.
  3. Emotional Expression: Gestures communicate pleasure and displeasure before language development, interpreted by adults.

Systems to Act

  1. Reflexes: Innate behaviors for survival, triggered by specific stimuli. Some reflexes have known functions, others disappear over time. Important reflexes include sucking, rooting, swallowing, and grasping. Sucking and grasping become voluntary around 4 months. Other reflexes (palpebral, emetic, pain avoidance) remain with minimal changes. Primitive reflexes (swimming, crawling, walking, climbing, Babinski, plantar grasp, Moro) disappear within months, potentially remnants of evolutionary past.
  2. Imitation: Recent studies suggest imitation of non-visible body parts (face) is possible before 8 months, requiring intermodal perception (vision and muscle activity).

Temperamental Variables

Nine temperamental variables, present from early life, influence individual differences:

  1. Activity Level
  2. Rhythmicity of biological functions
  3. Approach/Withdrawal to novelty
  4. Adaptability to change
  5. Sensitivity to stimulation
  6. Intensity of reactions
  7. General mood
  8. Distractibility
  9. Persistence of activity

These variables categorize children into three groups: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up.