1-081 - Infant Motor and Psychological Development: New Findings on a Classic Topic

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The field is experiencing a resurgence in the study of a classic, but oft overlooked, topic: the intricate relationship of infant motoric and psychological development. Infants’ active engagement with the world facilitates myriad new skills and abilities, emphasizing both the transactional nature of development and its often nonlinear unfolding. The presentations in this symposium incorporate both laboratory assessments and naturalistic observations, include multiple infant populations (typical, atypical, and disadvantaged), and examine relations between motoric development and multiple domains (cognition, language, social development).

First, a longitudinal investigation identifies differential patterns in the unfolding of infant hand-use preferences over the first 2 years of life and how they relate to cognitive and language development. This work is extended in presentation 2, which examines how infants of high and low SES families manually explore objects and surfaces, some physiological correlates of these behaviors, and possible developmental consequences. Next, presentation 3 investigates postural development in infants at low- and high-risk for ASD, and the consequences of postural delays on infant communicative development. Finally, presentation 4 uses a full-day, in-home observation to compare crawling and walking infants’ language experiences and their consequences for language development. The session will conclude with a 15-minute open discussion of the presented research and possible future directions and practical implications.

The inclusion of multiple distinct populations of infants, as well as focus on a wide-range of developmental domains, should have broad appeal to the diverse SRCD audience.

Sub Unit

• Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Chair

• Eric A Walle, University of California, Merced

Individual Presentations

• Development of Infant Hand-use Preferences and Their Consequences - Presenting Author: George F Michel, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

• Manual Exploratory Selectivity, SES, and Salivary Cortisol in Infants - Presenting Author: Melissa Wechsler Clearfield, Whitman College

• Postural Development and Relations to Communication in Infants with vs. without Risk for ASD - Presenting Author: Nina B Leezenbaum, University of Pittsburgh; Eve Sauer LeBarton, Kennedy Krieger Institute; Jana M Iverson, University of Pittsburgh

• Differences in Crawling and Walking Infants' Language Environments: A Home Observation Study - Presenting Author: Eric A Walle, University of California, Merced; Anne S. Warlaumont, University of California, Merced