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| Bayley Scales of Infant Development | Scales developed by Nancy Bayley and widely used in the assessment of infant development. The current version has three components: a mental scale, a motor scale, and an infant behaviour profile. (See page(s) 146) |
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| Broca's area | An area in the brain's left frontal lobe involved in speech production. (See page(s) 149) |
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| cephalocaudal pattern | The sequence in which the greatest growth occurs at the top—the head—with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom. (See page(s) 126) |
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| deferred imitation | Imitation that occurs after a time delay of hours or days. (See page(s) 144) |
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| developmental quotient (DQ) | An overall developmental score that combines subscores in motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social domains in the Gesell assessment of infants. (See page(s) 146) |
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| dynamic systems theory | The perspective on motor development in infancy that seeks to explain how motor behaviours are assembled for perceiving and acting. (See page(s) 136) |
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| fine motor skills | Motor skills that involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity. (See page(s) 136) |
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| grasping reflex | A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the infant's palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly. (See page(s) 133) |
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| gross motor skills | Motor skills that involve large muscle activity, such as walking. (See page(s) 133) |
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| habituation | Repeated presentation of the same stimulus, which causes reduced attention to the stimulus. (See page(s) 144) |
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| infant-directed speech | Speech often used by parents (in which case it sometimes is called "parentese") and other adults when they talk to babies. It has a higher-than-normal pitch and involves the use of simple words and sentences. (See page(s) 150) |
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| infinite generativity | An individual's ability to generate a seemingly endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules, which makes language a highly creative enterprise. (See page(s) 147) |
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| intermodal perception | The ability to relate and integrate information about two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing. (See page(s) 140) |
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| kwashiorkor | A condition caused by a deficiency in protein, in which the child's abdomen and feet become swollen with water. (See page(s) 132) |
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| language | A system of symbols used to communicate with others. In humans, language is characterized by infinite generativity and rule systems. (See page(s) 147) |
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| language acquisition device (LAD) | A biological endowment, hypothesized by Chomsky, that enables the child to detect certain language categories, such as phonology, syntax, and semantics. (See page(s) 149) |
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| lateralization | Specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. (See page(s) 128) |
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| marasmus | A wasting away of body tissues in the infant's first year, caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency. (See page(s) 132) |
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| Moro reflex | A neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a sudden, intense noise or movement. When startled, the newborn arches its back, throws its head back, and flings out its arms and legs. Then the newborn rapidly draws its arms and legs close to the centre of the body. (See page(s) 133) |
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| neuron | Nerve cell that handles information processing at the cellular level. (See page(s) 127) |
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| object permanence | The Piagetian term for one of an infant's most important accomplishments: understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched (See page(s) 141) |
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| perception | The interpretation of what is sensed. (See page(s) 137) |
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| proximodistal pattern | The sequence in which growth starts at the centre of the body and moves toward the extremities. (See page(s) 126) |
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| REM (rapid eye movement) sleep | A recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. (See page(s) 129) |
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| rooting reflex | When the infant's cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched, the infant turns its head toward the side that was touched in an apparent effort to find something to suck. (See page(s) 133) |
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| scheme | In Piaget's theory, a cognitive structure that helps individuals organize and understand their experiences. (See page(s) 141) |
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| sensation | The product of the interaction between stimuli and the sensory receptors—the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin. (See page(s) 137) |
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| sucking reflex | A newborn automatically sucks an object placed in its mouth. (See page(s) 133) |
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| sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) | A condition that occurs when an infant stops breathing, usually during the night, and suddenly dies without apparent cause. (See page(s) 130) |
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| telegraphic speech | The use of short and precise words to communicate; young children's two- and three-word utterances characteristically are telegraphic. (See page(s) 149) |
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| Wernicke's area | An area of the brain's left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension. (See page(s) 149) |