Human Growth and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Growth and Development - Essay Example In addition, the summary describes the development of the infant’s senses, trends of sleep, weight, and height increase patterns. The summary to chapter six highlights the development of cognition in infants and factors that affect the infant’s cognitive processes. In addition, under cognitive development, the paper describes the development of language. Finally, the paper summarizes chapter seven of the book that deals with psychosocial development. Under this section, a description of infant emotions is available. Development Processes in Infants In her book The Developing Person through the Lifespan, Berger describes the main changes that take place in an individual’s life, especially during infancy. Each of the chapters in the book reveals the growth processes in different aspects. This paper will highlight the man ideas brought out in chapters 5, 6, and 7. These chapters discuss the different levels of growth that occur in infants in the first two years of t heir life. Infant is a Latin-derived word that refers to any child who does not speak. During infancy, multiple growth processes take place rapidly. Chapter 5 of the book describes the biosocial development of infants. At birth, babies are only 3 kilograms and 20 inches. In the first five months of the baby’s life, the weight doubles. ... As long as the infant receives sufficient nutrition, the body and brain keep growing. Percentile ranks used by clinicians help track the baby’s growth in comparison to the norm (Berger, 2011). Sleep is a crucial aspect of infants with newborns requiring about seventeen hours a day. As they grow, they take up family sleep patterns. A great percentage of infants at one year manage to sleep the entire night. Factors such as diet, birth order, brain maturation, and child rearing practices affect sleeping cycles. On the other hand, infant’s brain reaches 75% of its potential mature weight. Neuron development takes place vigorously in some parts of the brain especially those dealing with vision, smell, language, and emotional processing. Different parts of the cortex advance in growth taking up different responsibilities. Studies reveal that multiple neural dendrites emerge in infancy. In addition, pruning helps the brain function faster. The rate at which the brain develops depends on experiences surrounding the infant (Berger, 2011). Formation of new neurons implies healthy growth. Abuse and neglect slow the formation of neurons and may hinder brain development. The chapter also highlights the functioning of senses in infants. The five senses (vision, taste, touch, hearing, and smell) exhibit function since birth. However, hearing is the sharpest sense at birth while a binocular capability of the eyes in infants is achieved in 14 weeks. With time, infants acquire motor skills. The chapter highlights the cephalocaudal and proximal-distal nature of growth. Growth begins with the head downwards and extends from the torso’s center to the arms and legs. An infant’s motor skills develop slowly with muscle movements advancing from one to the other.