Bertenthal And Campos

One of the most important milestones in an infant’s early development is his ability to propel himself through crawling. Typically, this occurs at the seven to 10-month mark for most infants. What sort of changes occur parallel to it and what does it mean for an average infant? An infant’s ability to self-propel was shown to be of utmost importance in the study by Bertenthal and Campos (2009), who demonstrated this development in an infant’s life cycle ushers in the ability to generate his own experiences and learn about the world around him. According to Bertenthal and Campos (2009), the development of self-propelled locomotion can be traced to the infant developing the strength to keep his torso lifted off the ground (p. 51). From there, it becomes a process of coordinating limb movements in a proper diagonal pattern. They describe this development as being derived from experience in moving their arms and legs. In about half of the examples they examined, within 2 weeks of being able to support their torsos, infants were able to move their limbs in diagonal patterns (Bertenthal and Campos, 2009, p. 51). For pre-crawling infants, what sort of imagery comes to mind? A new-born laying on his back, not participating in the world around him, for instance. Or perhaps, being pushed in a

It was only those who had been crawling for a minimum of eight weeks who showed any acceleration in heart rate (the measure employed by the researchers to determine fearful responses). A follow-up study was initiated that saw infants being given 40 hours of training in a walker to help them move themselves. Compared to a control group who received no such training, the researchers claim to have found “firm support for the conclusion that experiences with self-produced locomotion contribute to the development of fear of heights” (Bertenthal and Campos, 2009, p.