Self-Feeding Method

Three physical changes the infant undergoes includes (1) going from using basic reflexes to learning complex motor skills (e.g. how to crawl and walk); (textbook p. 142; Chapter 4), (2) developing fine motor skills (e.g. precisely reaching and grasping for a toy); (p. 185; Chapter 5), and (3) developing vision, specifically depth perception and pattern perception (e.g. developing the ability to recognize); (pp. 189-193, Chapter 5). These are examples of the dynamic systems theory of motor development as the infant progresses in a sequence.

vFrom the ages of 4~7 a child’s fine motor skills may include; putting together a 12 piece jigsaw and are able to button

At 6 months approximately a child is able to hold objects in palms. They are also able to estimate the distance between his hands and the objects. They are able to turn objects in the hands while looking at it closely. The child can also observe the differences of shape, size and texture of an object. And places objects into the mouth for “inspection”.

In the nursery, I examined toys aimed at the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development. This stage includes actions based on reflexes and the transition to actions based on intentions. Actions that are satisfying are repeated by the child through a process called primary circular reactions. Soon after this first stage, the child moves on to the secondary circular reactions or actions that have an effect on the environment. After experiencing both of these kind of reactions, the child then advances into more intentional actions. The child begins to have goal-directed behavior and curiosity which leads to experimenting. Lastly, the child will begin to understand symbolic problem solving and object permanence.

| * Explores using senses, especially sight and touch; has no sense of danger * Concentrates more due to curiosity and increased physical skills, but skill has short attention span * Follows one step instructions and/or gestured commands * Observes other people closely and tries to imitate their actions * Uses trial and error method when playing with brick, containers * Learns that objects can be grouped together

For the infants and toddler room we want to find toys that will assist in developing reflexes, and repeating, imitating, and goal-oriented schemes. Experimentation is important in this stage, so we need to find toys that will offer up trial and error scenarios

Babies may suck their own fingers or even one of a baby near him. Gradually, these movements become more distinguished and more directed, displaying primary intelligence as when babies grasp a rattle and shake it, rub a blanket, tug at their ear, and suck on a nipple when hungry, rather than on a pacifier. In the sub-stage periods babies tend to become more sensitive to a mobile or mother’s face with interest by being more complex and more complex and repetitive.

Experiment #6 allows parents to see how much their child is interested in toys or objects. Counting how many seconds the infant stares at them can help reveal what is inside his mind. In this experiment, parents observe the length of time the infant pays attention to a given toy before he looks away from the object. The baby is introduced to certain toys several times until the baby loses interest, or habituates, to them. This simple experiment can tell parents how an infant’s brain works and how this may affect his learning skills in the future.

This study brought new knowledge to the field of developmental psychology in understanding the difference in the effect of explicit scaffolding in younger and older infants. Helping rates of young infants increased both during and after explicit scaffolding. In contrast, explicit scaffolding did not increase helping in older infants. The study presented a simple helping scenario in which an object was dropped. Older infants have a better understanding of others’ desires and expectations. This may have made it easier for them to understand the situation and respond appropriately. Thus, the effect of explicit scaffolding was not

For example, I witnessed a young girl who was dancing poetically around the room, jumping (even on one leg at a time), and skipping. This girl demonstrated pronounced gross motor skills because she had great control of the large muscles in her body. After walking over to a table, pulling out a chair, and sitting down, the girl proceeded to demonstrate fine motor skills. This girl carefully inspected the snack table and concluded that she wanted some wheat thins. She held onto her plate with one hand, and with the other clutched small tongs to collect her crackers. She returned to her seat and grasped one cracker between her thumb and fingers and brought it to her mouth, demonstrating the pincer grasp (Decker, 2016c). Unlike gross motor skills, fine motor skills are concentrated on small muscle movements. The CDC provided an environment conducive for physical development, whether it be gross motor skills or fine motor skills. The CDC had a slide with steps, coloring utensils, free space, a station for students to play with pipe cleaners, an outdoor area, building blocks, and many more objects to aid the children’s physical

By helping to pack away, toddlers are learning to sort, categorise, order and compare different items in the centre (Outcome 5.4).

Over the years, new research has been emerging to prove that handedness may develop in the womb and not around three or four as previously believed. This would mean that handedness is purely a nature issue and has nothing to do with nurture or preference. One 2004 study “nine out of 10 fetuses at 15 weeks’ gestation preferred to suck their right thumbs. Hepper’s team followed 75 of those fetuses after birth, and found that at 10 to 12 years old all 60 of the right thumb-suckers were right-handed, while 10 of the 15 left thumb-suckers were left-handed and the rest right-handed”. (Spinney, 2004) These results challenge the long standing theory of how handedness develops.

Children’s physical developmental domain can start develop at infancy and block play can help them. They will learn how to pick up blocks and other items using different types of grasps such as pincer, and palmer grasps. The children will use

The main hypotheses of Karasik and his colleagues is that the experience is the main factor that influence the individual differences in infant motor skills. The experiences day by day play an important role for infants to develop their motor skills, such as sitting, crawling and walking (Adolph &Robinson, 2015). The researchers put emphasize of studying the motor development on the description of infants’ everyday opportunities to practice specific skills in natural contexts. They examined the variability in infant’s sitting skills with the consideration of cultural and contextual influences. The research studied the development of sitting skills of infants at 5 months old from six different cultural groups by observing their performance about

Fine motor skills refer to the ‘small muscles’ in the hands. Proper development of these muscles is crucial for children to succeed academically in writing and self help skills. According to the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), “Fine motor skills form an important foundation for the acquisition of many other skills, including literacy, numeracy, self-help and the ability to perform many everyday tasks” (2008). Children start to develop motor skills from birth, and the ways in which children’s muscles develop will later affect their motor function. Caretakers often look for the typical milestones that infants develop; however, infants acquire development at different rates benefiting child growth. From birth through the early grades (preschool to second grade) children are constantly using their fine motor skills to eat, dress themselves, and in social settings such as school. These skills link to infancy development and are factors in knowing how well children will succeed. The following sub-topics address fine motor development and the importance of occupational therapy interventions: