Deck 5: C: Perceptual and Motor Development

Question 1

Your friends Jack and Jill are the parents of a new baby boy. Jill has relatives who have some hearing impairment so they are worried about their son's hearing. What can you tell Jack and Jill about the signs of hearing impairment that they should watch for in their son?

Answer 1

A good answer will be similar to the following:
The first sign of hearing impairment that parents should look for in a newborn is a lack of response to sudden, loud noises. Second, repeated ear infections might be a sign of damage to the ear. Third, by nine months a baby with normal hearing should turn its head in the direction of sounds and respond to its own name. Fifth, by 12 months a baby with normal hearing should begin to imitate speech sounds. Jack and Jill should watch for these signs and seek treatment immediately for any hearing impairment. If hearing impairment is recognized and dealt with at an early age, a child's cognitive and social development will be normal.

Question 2

Compare how a one-month-old infant and a three-month-old infant would look at a face. Are infants innately attracted to faces? Explain your answer.

Answer 2

A good answer will be similar to the following:
Young babies (one-month-olds) look mostly at the outer edges of a face. By three months of age, babies focus almost entirely on the interior of the face, particularly the eyes and lips.
Some scientists assert that babies are innately attracted to stimuli that are face-like. They argue that there is some aspect of the face-perhaps two eyes and a mouth in the correct arrangement-that constitutes a distinctive stimulus that is readily recognized, even by newborns. Newborns turn their eyes to follow a moving face more than they turn their eyes for nonface stimuli, supporting the view that infants are innately attracted to faces. At four weeks, though, infants begin to track all moving stimuli, not just faces. One idea is that newborns' face tracking is a reflex, based on primitive circuits in the brain, that is designed to enhance attention to face-like stimuli.
Whether or not face preference is truly innate, early development of face-recognition skill is adaptive, since it provides the basis for social relationships that infants form during the rest of the first year.

Question 3

Discuss what is known about infant visual acuity and colour perception.

Answer 3

A good answer will be similar to the following:
· Visual acuity:
°Newborns and one-month-olds see at 6 metres what normal adults see at 60 to 120 metres.
°Infant visual acuity is about the same as a normal adult's by one year of age.
· Colour perception:
°Infants detect wavelength-and therefore colour-with specialized neurons called cones that are in the retina of the eye.
°Neural circuitry for perceiving colour gradually begins to function in the first few months after birth.
°Newborns can perceive few colours, but by three months can see the full range of colours.

Question 4

Your friend Shane has noticed that his three-week-old daughter Fran seems to drink more from her bottle when it contains sugar water than when it contains formula. Shane thinks that he saw Fran lick her lips when she was given a bottle of sugar water. Shane thinks that he is crazy because he doesn't think that the senses are functioning in babies who are so young. What can you tell Shane about the sense of taste that might make him feel better?

Question 5

Research shows that fewer than half of children meet fitness standards on fitness tests. Additional evidence indicates that physical education in schools is not meeting children's needs. What are some suggestions that you might make for improving physical education in schools?

Question 6

Discuss the symptoms, causes, and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Question 7

Your friend Carter is concerned that his daughter is not crawling at eight months even though the books say she should be. He asks you about it, indicating they've done everything "by the books" including always putting his daughter "back-to-sleep." He wonders if her late crawling will have long-term developmental consequences. What would you tell him?

Question 8

Describe what is known about how well infants can smell, taste, and feel.

Question 9

List and briefly describe the four types of pictorial cues that are used in depth perception.

Question 10

Your neighbour has just accepted a coaching position for a children's soccer team. This is his first time as a coach, and he is not sure whether to be really tough on the children to make them better, like some of his former coaches, or whether to be a "nice guy" like some of his other coaches, who didn't seem to care about winning at all costs. What guidelines could you give him about what he can do to encourage the children to enjoy being on the team and to want to continue to play soccer?

Question 11

Your friend Alex and Katya are concerned that their nine-month-old daughter Mariana often uses her left hand to pick up objects. Alex and Katya are both right-handed, and they do not want Mariana to be left-handed because it is a right-handed world. What can you tell your friends about the roles of heredity and environment in the development of hand preference?

Question 12

Fred and Wilma's five-year-old son, Frank, has just been diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Fred and Wilma believe that now that Frank is taking the drug Ritalin everything will be fine. What can you tell Fred and Wilma about other treatments for ADHD?

Question 13

Discuss what is known about infant depth perception and the visual cliff, drawing on the research by Gibson and Walk.

Question 14

Based on what you know about the infant's visual system, how would you decorate a child's nursery so that it is consistent with the young infant's visual ability? Include information on acuity and pattern perception.

Question 15

Your friends Elmo and Dawn have a three-year-old daughter, Courtney. Dawn stays at home with Courtney during the day while Elmo is at work. Often in the evening, Courtney will say "Mom, Mom, Mom" repeatedly before Dawn responds to her. Elmo cannot understand why Dawn keeps ignoring Courtney. When Courtney says "Dad" he always responds right away. How would you explain what's happening using what you know about the selective nature of attention, orienting responses, and habituation?

Question 16

Suzanne wants her children to be more active. What advice can you give her?