six to nine months

Six to Nine Months

FogelChapter 7 Created by Ilse DeKoeyer-Laros, Ph.D.

Overview Chapter 7• Physical and Motor Development

• Perceptual Development

• Cognitive Development

• Emotional Development

• Social and Language Development

• Family and Society

Experiential ExercisesCo-regulating with Baby

Experiential Exercises Co-regulating with Baby

• Between 6 and 9 months, babies grow more adventurous– physical: they start to creep

or crawl on their own

– psychological: they begin to take initiative and call attention to themselves

• Infants now develop a serious interest in the object world, and come to understand that objects are whole entities with an existence separate from their own

Introduction

Picture from: http://flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/2511777779/

Physical and Motor Development

• Between 6 and 9 months, infants develop— independent sitting

— supported standing — rolling over— creeping or crawling

• By 9 months, infants can— take a few steps while holding on to furniture or an adult— pick up small objects using just the tips of the thumb and

index finger

Picture from: http://www.imaginarybinky.com/2008/04/let-sun-shine-down.html

Physical and Motor DevelopmentHand Movements and Hand Preference

— right hemisphere: spatial patterns & nonlinguistic (e.g., emotional) information processing

— the left hemisphere: sequential processing of the sort used in understanding language

Functions of the hemispheres of the brain

— linked to handedness – the preference for the use of one hand over another

Picture from: www.morphonix.com/.../specimens/hemispheres.html

Physical and Motor Development Hand Movements and Hand Preference

• Infants begin to show hand preference around 2 months, when visually guided reaching begins

• More permanent hand preferences do not emerge until the 2nd year

Picture from: path31.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

— 30-50% of infants under age 1 show a right-hand preference when reaching – this preference is relatively stable over the 1st year

— 10-30% have a left-hand preference in reaching

Physical and Motor Development Hand Movements and Hand Preference

Around 6 months, infants– begin reaching with a single hand

– learn to sit without support & extend the non-reaching hand backward to balance their upper bodies

– two-handed reaches become more sophisticated• with larger objects (like a big ball)

• cross the mid-line of the body

Physical and Motor DevelopmentCrawling

Being able to extend one arm independently of the other is believed to be important for the development of crawling (see Table 7.2) – while babies are still reaching with two hands at

the same time, they either creep or rock

– infants begin to crawl when they can reach with one hand

Picture from: http://www.sover.net/~sweeneyc/babygirlold.html

Physical and Motor DevelopmentCrawling

Not all infants go through this sequence — infants who creep before they crawl are better at

crawling: they move faster and their movements are larger and more efficient

— non-creepers become proficient crawlers after a couple of weeks

Picture from private collection

Physical and Motor Development How Motor Skills Develop

Dynamic systems theory: new motor skills develop by adding additional components to existing skills — crawling: even when infants can get on hands & knees,

they cannot crawl because they can’t alternate extension of the arms and legs

— walking: 9-month-olds can pull themselves to standing, take steps while holding onto something, and alternate leg movements – but they can’t walk, because they lack the capacity to balance

Physical and Motor Development How Motor Skills Develop

The moving room recreates the visual experience of moving without taking steps at the same time — infants under 1 year will fall in the direction in which the

wall appears to be moving — infants older than 1 year may sway but are less likely to

lose their balance

Physical and Motor DevelopmentHow Motor Skills Develop

Motor development is a complex systems interaction of— the different parts of the motor system (legs, trunk, arms)— the perceptual system— the environment in which the child is moving

For example,— infants can make walking movements if

they are supported by an infant walker or an adult


Perceptual DevelopmentRecognition of Objects & Depth

• Under 6 months— object recognition and depth perception are

easier if the objects are moving and if real objects are presented

• After 6 months, infants can— infer object properties & depth from visual cues

alone— “see” three dimensions when they are shown

objects in two dimensions (e.g., in a drawing)

Perceptual DevelopmentRecognition of Objects & Depth

By 7 months, infants use visual cues to judge depth & distance— infants with a patch over one eye will reach toward

the larger of two identical pictures of a face, apparently perceiving it as closer

— infants’ ability to recognize objects in two dimensions leads to increased interest in picture books and television at this age

Perceptual DevelopmentRecognition of Objects and Depth

Haptic perception – perception of the properties of an object using touch– newborns can distinguish different properties of

objects by using their mouths

– between 4 and 6 months, infants explore objects actively, combining hand, mouth, and vision

– after 6 months, infants develop specialized hand movements to detect information about specific object properties such as size, texture, and shape

Perceptual DevelopmentOther Perceptual Developments

By 6 months, babies• recognize differences between simple melodies

• can use cross-modal perception to infer information about object properties– infants who are familiarized with an object only by touch

can recognize the object by sight alone

– if babies hear a sound in the dark, they will reach for an object in the direction of the sound

Perceptual DevelopmentOther Perceptual Developments

• In short, 6- to 9-month-olds use subtle cues to infer regularities in their perceptual world – they can learn from pictures

in books and on television

– they pick up relationships between different senses to pay attention to things that interest them most

• These perceptual abilities lead to clear preferences (e.g., for particular pictures, objects, and tastes)

Picture from: flickr.com/photos/offwithyourhead/80276937/

Cognitive DevelopmentMemory

• By 7 months, — infants can remember how to make a mobile move

for as long as 21 days, without a reminder

– memories are less context dependent • infants can remember a salient event that has been

learned in different (but related) situations

– infants can remember longer sequences of events, like longer melodies

• However, memory is still tied to the situation

Cognitive DevelopmentInformation Processing

• At 7 months, infants are able to group stimuli into higher-order conceptual categories— 7-month-olds (but not 5-month-olds) recognized the

same faces shown in different positions— they distinguished smiling from non-smiling faces— they recognize a prototype from distorted versions— they distinguish horses from other four-legged

mammals

Cognitive Development Information Processing

Infants of this age also— understand that moving objects should follow along

their prior path of movement & larger objects can support smaller objects

— respond differentially when the same object is placed above or below another object, showing that they have a category for these spatial relationships

— seem to have a concept of number– they dishabituated when a puppet’s jumps changed, from

two to three or from three to two

Cognitive DevelopmentSecondary Circular Reactions

Sensorimotor Stage III (4 to 8 or 9 months) –Secondary circular reactions — infants begin to repeat actions that, by chance,

produce some effect on the objects and people in the environment

– once the chance discovery is made, infants make deliberate, intentional attempts to repeat that action


• Infants also vary the actions in order to explore changes in the effect – they will drop objects off the edge of their high chairs

– they shake objects in different ways to notice the effect or repeatedly dump things out of containers

• Repeated occurrences in the environment take on meaning for the baby (see Observation 7.2)– by 7 months, Laurent knew that he would be fed shortly

after he heard his mother’s bed creak


Infants are becoming more goal directed & can perceive others’ intentional behavior— in one study, 9-month-old

infants looked longer when a grasping hand contacted a toy than when the toy was touched with the back of a hand

Picture from: flickr.com/photos/36908756@N00/301474833

Cognitive DevelopmentOut of Sight, Out of Mind?

Object permanence – the ability to remain aware of an object even after it has gone out of sight infants will not actively search for an object that has

been hidden until after 9 months

Picture from: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2005/08/do_babies_know_if_hidden_objec.php


• In one study, 7- to 8-month-olds saw an object disappear behind one of two screens

• a hand reached behind the screens and reappeared holding the object in either a possible situation or an impossible situation

• Infants looked longer at the hand following the impossible situation compared to the possible one

• In a similar study, infants not only looked longer at the impossible situation, they also looked more at their parents as if to share their puzzlement


Infants of this age are becoming aware of objects and people as whole entities– people, as opposed to objects, are understood by

infants as having intentions

– the ability to perceive another’s intentions corresponds with infants’ awareness of their own intentions, their ability to have an effect on the environment

Emotional DevelopmentNegative Emotions

• Anger arises when infants cannot succeed at being an effective causal agent— accompanied by crying, but facial expression and

underlying feeling are different from distress

• In one study– 2- and 4-month-olds reacted to inoculations with

physical distress, crying with tightly shut eyes

– 7-month-olds responded with more angry expressions, crying with open, vigilant eyes


Anger can be adaptive and useful— In one study, infants were taught to pull a string to

activate a slide projection & music— After this, the experimenters stopped turning on the

slide projector and music when the infant pulled— Most infants reacted with anger, but some showed

sadness — the infants who expressed anger immediately became

interested again when the contingency was renewed— those who showed sadness reacted with less enjoyment


• Expressions of anger are also seen in 7-month-olds when they are frustrated— e.g., when a teething biscuit is removed from

their mouths or when their arms are restrained

• Separation distress – after 6 months, infants respond to parental

separation with some anger, especially if the parent happens to be a part of the infant’s activity (e.g., play) when he or she leaves

Picture from: http://meidays.blogdrive.com/


• Wariness – infants may become quiet and stare at a stranger

or a strange situation, knit their brows, become momentarily sober, and look away

– wariness allows the infant to observe what is happening & is a more adaptive reaction to strange situations than the withdrawal of infantile fussing and crying

Emotional DevelopmentPositive Emotions

Positive emotions become more complex • Different types of smiles had different meanings

depending on whether the infant gazed at the mother or not – Simple smiling & gazing at mother during peekaboo:

– enjoyment of recognition or of readiness to engage in play

– Simple smiles without gazing at mother after a tickle – often accompanied by gasping for air and sighing & perhaps

associated with enjoyment of relief or of relaxation


• Duchenne smiles occur with gazing at mother when she uncovers her face during peekaboo – may reflect an enjoyment of agency, sensing oneself as an

active rather than passive participant in the game

– Duchenne smiles without gazing at mother occur most during a tickle, often as infants turn their bodies away as if trying to hide or protect themselves – may reflect an enjoyment of hiding or perhaps an

enjoyment of escape

Picture from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/image/123286/index.html?cat=25


• There is a growing ability to communicate with others about emotions — around 8 months, infants who smile when looking at an

object will turn to smile at a nearby adult

• By 6 months, babies will laugh — at jokes — at very abrupt and highly arousing stimuli — at things that once made them cry, such as a loud noise or

a loss of balance— in one study, they cried when a stranger wore a mask, but

laughed when their mothers did

Emotional DevelopmentEmotion Regulation

Infants are beginning to use cognition to decide what to feel, a process known as appraisal

— there is a growing relationship between infant emotion & attention to emotion-related events and processes

Picture from: www.spicetart.com/growing_ivy/page/2/

Emotional DevelopmentEmotion Regulation

Gender differences• In one study, 6-month-old boys and girls were

observed during face-to-face play, followed by maternal still-face

• Boys were more likely than girls to– smile & vocalize as well as show anger or distress during

the still-face

– have a more positive interaction with the mother during the normal face-to-face period

• Girls gazed more at objects & showed more interest

Emotional DevelopmentRecognition of Emotional Expressions

• Between 6 and 9 months – babies seem more capable of recognizing smiles than

other expressions

– their ability to distinguish between other expressions, such as fear and anger, is relatively poor

• Individual differences— 7-month-old infants whose mothers show a lot of positive

emotions are more likely to respond to negative facial expressions, perhaps because of their relative novelty


• 7-month-olds ability to distinguish between emotions improves when— facial expressions are combined with voices expressing the

same emotions— faces are presented dynamically

• They also recognize whether a facial expression is paired with a matching vs. a mismatched intonation– e.g., when an angry expression is matched with an angry

vs. happy tone of voice


• Infants of this age prefer to look at faces judged by adults to be attractive – apparently, attractiveness, like recognition of particular

people, can be inferred from more global features of the face that do not involve specific expressions

• Infants can also distinguish between the faces of children and adults

Emotional DevelopmentInfant Temperament

• Temperament — a persistent pattern of emotion and emotion regulation in

the infant’s relationship to people and things in the environment

• Some aspects of temperament are partly inherited— negativity and inhibition appear early in life and are

persistent in 5-10% of \ infants up until 5 to 7 years

– similar proportions of persistently inhibited children are found in different countries and even in infant monkeys


Infants who were the most inhibited• were more likely to be subdued in unfamiliar

situations, have a dour mood, report anxiety, and have an overactive sympathetic nervous system response as teenagers

• showed a higher activation in the amygdala (part of the limbic system responsive to fear) when viewing pictures of unfamiliar faces as adults


• Infants and children who have difficulties with attention and emotion regulation (rated as highly reactive, emotional, inattentive, or inhibited) have different patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex compared to well-regulated infants

• For example, inhibition is related to brain wave and heart rate patterns as well as to stress responses to frustration

• Stress responses to frustration – such as heart rate acceleration, cortisol secretion, and sympathetic nervous system activation – are present at an early age for some inhibited infants and may persist for periods of up to 1 year


• Role of parents – infants who are more inhibited are more likely to

have parents who are introverted & anxious

– infant inhibition & negativity are related to lower scores on maternal adaptation to pregnancy, sensitivity to the infant after birth, and self-esteem

– mothers who rate infant cries as more aversive are more likely to rate their infants as difficult

• These findings do not rule out a genetic explanations


• A finding that may call the genetic explanation into question is that children do not necessarily exhibit continuity of temperament – inhibited children may, with sensitive child rearing,

eventually lose their extreme sensitivity

– normal children may become more inhibited in extremely stressful environments


Continuity & discontinuity • extreme fussiness at birth predicts later emotionality

in full-term infants, but not in premature infants

• temperament most likely does not contribute to long-term cognitive deficit or enhancement – parental behavior may attenuate the long-term effects of

early temperamental characteristic

• inhibited children who showed more positive emotion were less likely to be inhibited at age 3 than inhibited children who tended to be more negative


• Parental and child factors can interact to influence the stability of temperament over time

• Temperament assessed at the end of the infancy period, between 2 and 4 years of age, tends to show long-term stability – 2-year-olds who were rated as more difficult had more

attention problems and aggressive behavior at 12 years

– 3-year-olds who were rated low on self-control had more adjustment problems and interpersonal conflicts as adults

Emotional DevelopmentThe Measurement of Temperament

• Temperament is difficult to measure in a reliable and valid manner – some researches have conducted observations

– usually, parents are asked to rate their child’s temperaments

• However, when mothers and fathers are asked to rate the same child, their reports agree only about half the time – there is more agreement about the difficulty of an infant

than about any other dimension of temperament


• The correlation between parental reports and behavior observed in a laboratory improves if infants’ behaviors are extreme

• Explanations of differences between parent reports and observed behavior include— infants behave differently in different situations— questions on rating scales don’t reflect child’s individuality— parental reports reflect parents’ personalities or

psychological state— for instance, multiparous & extroverted mothers were more likely

to rate their infants as easy


The best research strategy:— a combination of parental

reports, direct observations, and physiological measures (such as cortisol and sympathetic nervous system activity) made at repeated intervals in the child’s life

Picture from: http://ethiopia.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/african-american-dolls

Social and Language DevelopmentSocial-Object Frames

• As infants become increasingly interested in objects, between 4 and 6 months of age, earlier face-to-face frames give way to social-object play frames – the infant’s developmental task is to integrate interest in

objects with the desire to remain socially and emotionally connected to the parents

• At first, infants are primarily focused on the objects — it is up to the parents to provide frames for mutual

communication about the objects


Coordination of attention to people & objects is enhanced if parents regularly create object-directed frames– the more attentive & animated parents are, the more likely

that the infant will learn to co-regulate attention with others

– infants who are more attentive to what adults do and say are more likely to learn language and to learn, by age 3 or 4 years, to share the mental perspectives of other people



At 6 months, infants appear to be in a receptive mode, ready to participate in the frames created by the parents

By 8 months, they are beginning to take initiatives in social frames— they start making jokes— they “ask” to be picked up by making

sad facial expressions or raising their hands above their heads

— they smile and laugh more toward familiar and trusted adults than toward unfamiliar ones


Social and Language DevelopmentBabbling

Babbling begins after 6 months• sounds as though babies are talking to themselves

as they roll off a string of related vowel and consonant sounds to accompany their eating or playing

• has the intonation contours (the rising and falling pitches) of sentences– the intonation contours of babbling match the intonation

contours of the speech spoken in the infant’s home (e.g., French, Chinese, or Arabic)


• In one study, some mothers were asked to respond contingently to infant babbling, while another group was asked not to respond to the babbling– infants whose mothers were contingent produced more

“mature” babbles that had more recognizable syllables, strong contrasts between consonants and vowels, and a more fully voiced sound

– this suggests that babbling may be speech-like because it occurs during parent-infant contingent vocal interaction.


• Right-handed reaching and rhythmical banging increase at the same age infants begin to babble – the right hand is controlled by the left brain, known to be

the primary location of speech processing

– vocalizations come increasingly under the control of the left brain, setting the stage for linking vocalization and cognition, necessary for the development of speech

• Babbling is more likely to be accompanied by (right-) hand & arm movements than leg movements

Social and Language DevelopmentSpeech Perception

• Before 6 months, infants can distinguish sound contrasts from many different languages— they start to lose this ability between 6-9 months

• In one developmental study— younger infants (4-6 months) could distinguish the syllable

contrasts from all three languages tested (English, Salish, and Hindi)

– older infants (10-12 months) could only distinguish between the contrasts of the language heard in the home


• The loss of perceptual sensitivity may be related to the selective processes of brain development – at first, synapses are overproduced

– later some are selected and strengthened; synapses for sounds that are not frequently heard disappear

• By 9 months, American infants prefer to listen to words having a strong-weak stress pattern— 6-month-olds showed no such preference


• By the second half of the first year, infants begin to recognize & produce some of the characteristics of language as a system of sounds

• However, babbling infants are not trying to talk— they are exploring how to make familiar sounds, rather

than as trying to communicate with sounds

– it seems as if they first learn the music and then the words

– this music is learned in the context of parent-infant frames, including social games

Social and Language DevelopmentParent-Infant Games

• By 8 months, new social frames emerge in the parent-infant relationship— infants take more initiative

• As infants get older, they learn to play new social games, such as “point and name” and “give and take” at 12 months – games like “gonna get you” and “horsie,” in which the 6-

month-old played a relatively passive role, occur only rarely at 12 months

Social and Language DevelopmentCultural Differences

Climate is one factor that accounts for cultural differences in child-rearing patterns

– in warm countries, infants tend to be carried, remain in close physical contact, and to be breast-fed longer than infants reared in cold climates

– infants in cold climates are more likely to be separated from their mothers at an earlier age

Picture from: saindonienne.wordpress.com/

http://saindonienne.wordpress.com/

http://saindonienne.wordpress.com/


Cultural differences in parental beliefs about emotion regulation and communication about emotions– in North America & Korea, parents were concerned

about stimulation to foster development

– Italian mothers had similar feelings about love and emotional closeness as North American mothers but were less focused on cognitive stimulation – Similar patterns are found in Latin-American cultures


In a study of physical contact during play between Hispanic- and Anglo-American mothers and their 9-month-old infants

– the overall amount of physical contact did not differ

– Hispanic mothers touched, kissed, hugged, and held their infants physically closer than Anglo mothers

– on questionnaires, the Hispanic mothers reported placing a higher value on touch and affection than Anglo mothers

Picture from: www.momease.com


• In technical and industrial societies, including Japan, Korea, Europe, North America, and urban families everywhere – parents will begin to interpret the infant’s intentions

– the next step is to help the infant carry out the intended act – parents often create new intentions that were not there in

the first place

– In nontechnical agricultural and hunter-gatherer communities, adults are more directive and ritualistic – Chomorro mothers (from the Pacific island of Guam), were

highly directive & repetitive when interacting with infants


• Each style has evolved to fit the needs of the particular culture; problems may arise, however, when cultures are forced to interact – Hispanic Americans, as a minority culture in the United

States, often feel self-conscious in the company of their Anglo-American neighbors and think of themselves as “too affectionate” with their infants

• According to ecological systems theory, this is a conflict between the microsystem of the family and the macrosystem of the culture

Social and Language DevelopmentSelf-Awareness

• Between 6 and 9 months, babies call attention to themselves in ways that did not exist previously

• These features make up a sense of a differentiated ecological self 1. asking for help

2. taking initiative

3. clowning and showing off

4. demanding

5. hiding and escaping


Social and Language Development Self-Awareness

• At this age– emotions become more complex

– infants begin to take initiative

– infants begin to seem to have their own personalities

• But: they do not have a sense of subjectivity – they have feelings—getting angry or happy—but cannot

yet stand apart from those feelings

– they do not have a sense of an “I” that feels, and, consequently, they do not have a sense that other people are separate subjects with their own feelings

Family and SocietyMaternal Employment

In 2001,

– 64% of U.S. mothers with children under the age of 6 were in the work force

– mothers also do a substantial amount of unpaid work (e.g., child care, household work), estimated to be worth about $27,000 per woman per year


• In general, infant-mother attachment is not seriously altered by maternal employment

• If attachment is going to be affected, it is most likely to decline between employed mothers and their infant sons rather than their daughters – boys are perceived as more independent and as requiring

less parental nurture and attention than girls, who are seen as more vulnerable

– there is a correlation between a son’s insecure attachment and a mother’s perceived level of stress


• A number of studies find that the important variable is the mother’s desire to work— problems with coping, dissatisfaction with life, depression,

and loneliness are significantly higher in young mothers who do not work outside the home than in those who do

— there are higher levels of functioning in families in which the mothers are employed


• Whether mothers work by choice or necessity, they typically end the day fatigued because role overload – the demands of a role are more than an individual can

easily cope with or when the same person is required to perform too many roles

• Role overload increases if the child has a difficult (age 1) or hostile aggressive (age 3) temperament– in this case, mothers a more likely to perceive themselves

as less competent in both the parenting and work roles, and are more likely to feel depressed


• When women work, fathers can also experience a form of role overload – such fathers show more negative behavior with their

infants during the first year

– after the first year, they are just as sensitive to their infants as other husbands

• When women remain at home, fathers can choose when and how to become involved with their infants – these fathers show more positive emotion toward their

infants and are more attuned to the infants’ needs, especially if the infants are boys

Family and SocietyParental Leave Policies

• Even when mothers are paid, they earn only 71 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same position

• Some alternatives exist, but they are not widespread – more flexible work schedules (flextime) began to be

instituted in Europe in the early 1960s

– Swedish workers are entitled to maternity and paternity leaves

– Swedish women earn about 90% the wages men do for similar jobs; 86% of women with young children are in the workforce


• In 1993, the U.S. Congress enacted the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA, Public Law 103-3), which established a family leave policy – provides unpaid leave from employment for up to 12

weeks without loss of rank or position in the workplace in businesses with more than 50 employees

– applies to both mothers and fathers as well as to non-pregnancy-related illnesses

– unfortunately, 95% of businesses are exempt from the FMLA because they have fewer than 50 employees


• Mothers are more likely to take a parental leave – on average, about 3 months

– mothers who take shorter leaves are more likely to feel stress & symptoms of depression, show negative emotions toward their infants and spouses, and to have less interest in their infants

• The average length of leave for fathers was 6.5 days, with 71% of fathers taking 5 or fewer days – fathers who took shorter leaves worked for employers who

were did not have a positive reaction to the employee’s fatherhood, were less involved with their infants, and had less communication with their spouse about the infant


• Compared to other industrialized countries, the United States is not a nation that fully supports children and families

• With little opportunity to take time off from work— mothers cannot breast feed for as long as recommended

by the American Academy of Pediatrics (for 12 months)

– mothers may choose drug-assisted childbirth or C-sections, even if they would have preferred a natural birth, to get back to work sooner

Family and SocietyNurturance Toward Infants

• Interest and ability to care for babies— is present in young boys and girls— will continue in both if fostered by the environment

• In one study, — girls approached a baby more than did boys— once the children were near the baby, both boys and girls

spoke to, reached out for, and touched the baby equally

• In another study, – boys and girls approached babies equally

– at 2 and 3 years, boys were more likely to approach male babies, girls were more likely to approach female babies

Family and Society Nurturance Toward Infants

• Preschoolers’ speech to babies – both boy and girl preschoolers modify their speech to

babies to make it sound more like motherese

– most preschoolers rarely asked questions of the baby (question asking is a major form of adult speech to infants)

– 25% of preschoolers used endearing terms toward the baby and asked soliciting questions (Are you hungry? Are you getting frustrated?)

Family and Society Nurturance Toward Infants

• Girls aged 8 to 14 interact more with babies and ignore them less than boys do – boys and girls are equally physiologically aroused or

unaroused by the sight of an infant

– differences in male vs. female interest in babies continue through high school but seem to vanish for college students & young adults

• Parents vs. nonparents – the most responsive group is usually new mothers

– men’s child-rearing status does not affect their responsiveness to babies

Family and Society Parenthood: Mothers versus Fathers

• Mothers tend to be more accurate in identifying the type of cry (pain, distress, etc.) than fathers

• Both mothers and fathers can distinguish their own infant’s cry from cries of unfamiliar infants

Picture from: http://www.julienna.com/pictures/Dad%20and%20Baby%20on%20Slide.jpg

Family and SocietyParenthood: Mothers versus Fathers

• Father-infant interaction— used to be less contingently responsive than mothers; but

no differences were found in recent studies— play and interaction are more directive & show abrupt

changes of activity — cultural differences in the amount of father involvement

• Mother-infant interaction— games are quieter and depend more on the pace set by the

infant— engage in more caregiving

Family and SocietyGrandparents

• One study found that grandparents of infants were more responsive to babies than were parents of adolescents or of grown children who had left home– grandmothers were more responsive than grandfathers– grandfathers were more responsive than men at other

ages

• Grandmother-infant attachment at 1 year – when grandmothers spend much time with the baby,

mothers & grandmothers are nearly interchangeable as attachment figures

– the more time a grandmother spends with the baby, the more secure the attachment relationship

Family and SocietyGrandparents

• In the 1990s, mothers and grandmothers were generally in agreement over beliefs – mothers were more accepting of messiness and nudity

indoors, more relaxed about when to begin toilet training, and less rigid in differentiating sex roles in child play

• Some studies have shown that African-American grandmothers are more involved with their infant grandchildren than Caucasian-Americans– extended family is important in the reduction of family

stress, esp. for low-income, teenage, and single mothers

Experiential Exercises:Rolling Over

This exercise is about the connection between the core and its influence on an infant’s movements

— Lying on your back, place an object on the floor directly above your head.— Turn your head to the right and try to look at your object, so that your back

begins to arch. Relax for 30 seconds, then repeat.— You may notice that your back is arching so much so that you end up on your

side. Once this happens, try and balance yourself like a see-saw.

– Once you are balanced, relax your core & see if you fall to one side or the other

– After the roll, you may notice that one arm is trapped underneath you. Flex your core so as to create a space between your chest and the floor to allow you to free your arm.

– Now look at your object. Can you reach it?

Experiential Exercises:Beginning to Crawl

• Crouched on your hands and knees on the floor, slowly, raise one knee, hold it for a few seconds, and bring it back down.

– Notice how your weight shifts when you do this motion.

• Again, very slowly, raise your other knee and repeat the movement. Do this also with both of your hands.

• Bring your knees together so that your feet are close enough to touch. Repeat the slow-motion raising and lowering movements with both of your legs. Notice how this feels

• Now, spread your knees on the ground far apart. Repeat the same slow-motion movements. Notice how this feels.

• Experiment with different spacing between your knees. Where is the best balance between instability and stability?

Experiential Exercises:Beginning to Crawl

— Slowly lift your right hand and your right knee at the same time. How is your weight shifted and distributed? Do the same with your left hand and knee.

— Next try lifting opposite hands and knees. Is this easier?— Rock back and forth on your hands, shifting your weight to and

from your heels. Does this feel like getting ready to move?— Crawl a few steps forward. Notice the order of limbs that you

move. If you lift your hands and knees diagonallym this is called contralateral crawling. If you lift your hands and knees on the same side, this is called homolateral crawling.

— Try crawling a few steps backward. Is this easier than going forward? Babies often crawl backwards before they crawl forwards.

six to nine months

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