Chapter 6 Infancy

Chapter six cover infancy.  The first part covered is the biophysical dimension.  This includes the growth and development of an infant.  It goes over the norms of what an infant should do by a certain age and early intervention for development delays.  The chapter informs about different risks which include illnesses and hazards.  One of those risk being SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.  (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013) “SIDS refers to the unexpected death of an infant, for which no physical causes can be found.” (p. 251) Psychological dimension is discussed next with cognitive development and information processing being its topic.  It covers Paiget’s six sensorimotor stages.  It goes to discuss different ways infants communicate.  These include crying, cooing, babbling, holophrastic speech and telegraphic speech.  The risk for psychological dimension is failure to form an attachment who are have usually been institutionalized.  (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013)  “The death rate for children under 2 in these institution was high…The babies were emotionally apathetic and retarded in physical, mental, and social growth.” (p.272)  it goes on to explain how failure of an attachment affect an infant.  The last aspect is social dimension.  This part talks about family and social support.  The risk for this social dimension is poverty which can lead to neglect or other problems.

Ashford, J., & LeCroy, C. (2013). Infancy. In Human behavior in the social environment: A multidimensional perspective (5th ed., p. 251-272). Australia: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.