Conception occurs when an egg from the mother is fertilized by a sperm from the

father. In humans, the conception process begins with ovulation, when an ovum,
or egg (the largest cell in the human body), which has been stored in one of the
mother’s two ovaries, matures and is released into the fallopian tube. Ovulation
occurs about halfway through the woman’s menstrual cycle and is aided by the
release of a complex combination of hormones. In addition to helping the egg
mature, the hormones also cause the lining of the uterus to grow thicker and more
suitable for implantation of a fertilized egg.

If the woman has had sexual intercourse within 1 or 2 days of the egg’s
maturation, one of the up to 500 million sperm deposited by the man’s ejaculation,
which are traveling up the fallopian tube, may fertilize the egg. Although few of
the sperm are able to make the long journey, some of the strongest swimmers
succeed in meeting the egg. As the sperm reach the egg in the fallopian tube, they
release enzymes that attack the outer jellylike protective coating of the egg, each
trying to be the first to enter. As soon as one of the millions of sperm enters the
egg’s coating, the egg immediately responds by both blocking out all other
challengers and at the same time pulling in the single successful sperm.

The Zygote

Within several hours, half of the 23 chromosomes from the egg and half of the 23
chromosomes from the sperm fuse together, creating a zygote—a fertilized ovum.
The zygote continues to travel down the fallopian tube to the uterus. Although the
uterus is only about 4 inches away in the woman’s body, this is nevertheless a
substantial journey for a microscopic organism, and fewer than half of zygotes
survive beyond this earliest stage of life. If the zygote is still viable when it
completes the journey, it will attach itself to the wall of the uterus, but if it is not,
it will be flushed out in the woman’s menstrual flow. During this time, the cells in
the zygote continue to divide: The original two cells become four, those four
become eight, and so on, until there are thousands (and eventually trillions) of
cells. Soon the cells begin to differentiate, each taking on a separate function. The
earliest differentiation is between the cells on the inside of the zygote, which will
begin to form the developing human being, and the cells on the outside, which
will form the protective environment that will provide support for the new life
throughout the pregnancy.
The Embryo
Once the zygote attaches to the wall of the uterus, it is known as the embryo.
During the embryonic phase, which will last for the next 6 weeks, the major
internal and external organs are formed, each beginning at the microscopic level,
with only a few cells. The changes in the embryo’s appearance will continue
rapidly from this point until birth.

While the inner layer of embryonic cells is busy forming the embryo itself, the
outer layer is forming the surrounding protective environment that will help the
embryo survive the pregnancy. This environment consists of three major
structures: The amniotic sac is the fluid-filled reservoir in which the embryo (soon
to be known as a fetus) will live until birth, and which acts as both a cushion
against outside pressure and as a temperature regulator. The placenta is an organ
that allows the exchange of nutrients between the embryo and the mother, while at
the same time filtering out harmful material. The filtering occurs through a thin
membrane that separates the mother’s blood from the blood of the fetus, allowing
them to share only the material that is able to pass through the filter. Finally, the
umbilical cord links the embryo directly to the placenta and transfers all material
to the fetus. Thus the placenta and the umbilical cord protect the fetus from many
foreign agents in the mother’s system that might otherwise pose a threat.

The Fetus
Beginning in the 9th week after conception, the embryo becomes a fetus. The
defining characteristic of the fetal stage is growth. All the major aspects of the
growing organism have been formed in the embryonic phase, and now the fetus
has approximately six months to go from weighing less than an ounce to weighing
an average of 6 to 8 pounds. That’s quite a growth spurt.

The fetus begins to take on many of the characteristics of a human being, including
moving (by the 3rd month the fetus is able to curl and open its fingers, form fists, and
wiggle its toes), sleeping, as well as early forms of swallowing and breathing. The fetus
begins to develop its senses, becoming able to distinguish tastes and respond to sounds.

How the Environment Can Affect the Vulnerable Fetus

Prenatal development is a complicated process and may not always go as planned.
Although the amniotic sac and the placenta are designed to protect the embryo,
substances that can harm the fetus, known as teratogens, may nevertheless cause
problems. Teratogens include general environmental factors, such as air pollution
and radiation, but also the cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs that the mother may use.
Teratogens do not always harm the fetus, but they are more likely to do so when
they occur in larger amounts, for longer time periods, and during the more
sensitive phases, as when the fetus is growing most rapidly. Harmful substances
that the mother ingests may harm the child. Cigarette smoking, for example,
reduces the blood oxygen for both the mother and child and can cause a fetus to be
born severely underweight. Another serious threat is fetal alcohol syndrome
(FAS), a condition caused by maternal alcohol drinking that can lead to
numerous detrimental developmental effects, including limb and facial
abnormalities, genital anomalies, and mental retardation. Maternal drug abuse is
also of major concern and is considered one of the greatest risk factors facing
unborn children.

Infancy and Childhood: Exploring and Learning

If all has gone well, a baby is born sometime around the 38th week of pregnancy.
The fetus is responsible, at least in part, for its own birth because chemicals
released by the developing fetal brain trigger the muscles in the mother’s uterus to
start the rhythmic contractions of childbirth. The contractions are initially spaced
at about 15-minute intervals but come more rapidly with time. When the
contractions reach an interval of 2 to 3 minutes, the mother is requested to assist in
the labor and help push the baby out.

The Newborn Arrives With Many Behaviors Intact

Newborns are already prepared to face the new world they are about to experience.
Babies are equipped with a variety of reflexes, each providing an ability that will
help them survive their first few months of life as they continue to learn new
routines to help them survive in and manipulate their environments.

Name Stimulus Response Significance

The baby turns its head toward

Rooting the stroking, opens its mouth, and Ensures the infant’s feeding will be a
reflex The baby’s cheek is stroked. tries to suck. reflexive habit

A light is flashed in the baby’s Protects eyes from strong and

Blink reflex eyes. The baby closes both eyes. potentially dangerous stimuli

Withdrawal A soft pinprick is applied to Keeps the exploring infant away from
reflex the sole of the baby’s foot. The baby flexes the leg. painful stimuli

The baby turns its head to one

Tonic neck The baby is laid down on its side and extends the arm on the
reflex back. same side. Helps develop hand-eye coordination

The baby grasps the object

An object is pressed into the pressed and can even hold its
Grasp reflex palm of the baby. own weight for a brief period. Helps in exploratory learning

Loud noises or a sudden drop The baby extends arms and Protects from falling; could have
in height while holding the legs and quickly brings them in assisted infants in holding onto their
Moro reflex baby. as if trying to grasp something. mothers during rough traveling

The baby is suspended with

Stepping bare feet just above a surface Baby makes stepping motions as
reflex and is moved forward. if trying to walk. Helps encourage motor development

Although infants are born ready to engage in some activities, they also contribute
to their own development through their own behaviors. The child’s knowledge and
abilities increase as it babbles, talks, crawls, tastes, grasps, plays, and interacts
with the objects in the environment. Parents may help in this process by providing
a variety of activities and experiences for the child.
Cognitive Development During Childhood
Piaget believed that children gain their cognitive ability in a developmental order.
These insights—that children at different ages think in fundamentally different
ways—led to Piaget’s stage model of cognitive development.

Piaget argued that children do not just passively learn but also actively try to make
sense of their worlds. He argued that, as they learn and mature, children develop
schemas—patterns of knowledge in long-term memory—that help them
remember, organize, and respond to information. Furthermore, Piaget thought
that when children experience new things, they attempt to reconcile the new
knowledge with existing schemas. Piaget believed that the children use two
distinct methods in doing so, methods that he called assimilation and
accommodation .

When children employ assimilation, they use already developed schemas to

understand new information. If children have learned a schema for horses, then
they may call the striped animal they see at the zoo a horse rather than a zebra. In
this case, children fit the existing schema to the new information and label the
new information with the existing knowledge. Accommodation, on the other hand,
involves learning new information, and thus changing the schema. When a
mother says, “No, honey, that’s a zebra, not a horse,” the child may adapt the
schema to fit the new stimulus, learning that there are different types of four-
legged animals, only one of which is a horse.

Piaget’s most important contribution to understanding cognitive development, and

the fundamental aspect of his theory, was the idea that development occurs in
unique and distinct stages, with each stage occurring at a specific time, in a
sequential manner, and in a way that allows the child to think about the world
using new capacities
 Approximate
Stage age range Characteristics Stage attainments

Birth to about 2 The child experiences the world through the fundamental
Sensorimotor years senses of seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting. Object permanence

Children acquire the ability to internally represent the Theory of mind; rapid
world through language and mental imagery. They also increase in language
Preoperational 2 to 7 years start to see the world from other people’s perspectives. ability

Children become able to think logically. They can

Concrete increasingly perform operations on objects that are only
operational 7 to 11 years imagined. Conservation
 Adolescents can think systematically, can reason about
Formal 11 years to abstract concepts, and can understand ethics and scientific
operational adulthood reasoning. Abstract logic

The first developmental stage for Piaget was the sensorimotor stage, the cognitive
stage that begins at birth and lasts until around the age of 2. It is defined by the
direct physical interactions that babies have with the objects around them. During
this stage, babies form their first schemas by using their primary senses—they
stare at, listen to, reach for, hold, shake, and taste the things in their environments.

During the sensorimotor stage, babies’ use of their senses to perceive the world is
so central to their understanding that whenever babies do not directly perceive
objects, as far as they are concerned, the objects do not exist. Piaget found, for
instance, that if he first interested babies in a toy and then covered the toy with a
blanket, children who were younger than 6 months of age would act as if the toy
had disappeared completely—they never tried to find it under the blanket but
would nevertheless smile and reach for it when the blanket was removed. Piaget
found that it was not until about 8 months that the children realized that the object
was merely covered and not gone. Piaget used the term object permanence to refer
to the child’s ability to know that an object exists even when the object cannot be
perceived.

Object Permanence

Children younger than about 8 months of age do not understand object permanence.

At about 2 years of age, and until about 7 years of age, children move into
the preoperational stage. During this stage, children begin to use language
and to think more abstractly about objects, but their understanding is more
intuitive and without much ability to deduce or reason. The thinking is
preoperational, meaning that the child lacks the ability to operate on or transform
objects mentally. In one study that showed the extent of this inability, Judy
DeLoache (1987) [10] showed children a room within a small dollhouse. Inside the
room, a small toy was visible behind a small couch. The researchers took the
children to another lab room, which was an exact replica of the dollhouse room, but
full-sized. When children who were
2.5 years old were asked to find the toy, they did not know where to look—they
were simply unable to make the transition across the changes in room size. Three-
year-old children, on the other hand, immediately looked for the toy behind the
couch, demonstrating that they were improving their operational skills.

The inability of young children to view transitions also leads them to be

egocentric—unable to readily see and understand other people’s viewpoints.
Developmental psychologists define the theory of mind as the ability to take
another person’s viewpoint, and the ability to do so increases rapidly during the
preoperational stage.
In one demonstration of the development of theory of mind, a researcher shows
a child a video of another child (let’s call her Anna) putting a ball in a red box.
Then Anna leaves the room, and the video shows that while she is gone, a
researcher moves the ball from the red box into a blue box. As the video
continues, Anna comes back into the room. The child is then asked to point to
the box where Anna will probably look to

find her ball. Children who are younger than 4 years of age typically are unable to
understand that Anna does not know that the ball has been moved, and they
predict that she will look for it in the blue box. After 4 years of age, however,
children have developed a theory of mind—they realize that different people can
have different viewpoints, and that (although she will be wrong) Anna will
nevertheless think that the ball is still in the red box.

After about 7 years of age, the child moves into the concrete operational stage,
which is marked by more frequent and more accurate use of transitions,
operations, and abstract concepts, including those of time, space, and numbers.
An important milestone during the concrete operational stage is the development
of conservation—the understanding that changes in the form of an object do not
necessarily mean changes in the quantity of the object. Children younger than 7
years generally think that a glass of milk that is tall holds more milk than a glass
of milk that is shorter and wider, and they continue to believe this even when they
see the same milk poured back and forth between the glasses. It appears that these
children focus only on one dimension (in this case, the height of the glass) and
 ignore the other dimension (width).
However, when children reach the concrete operational stage, their abilities to
understand such transformations make them aware that, although the milk looks
different in the different glasses, the amount must be the same.

Conservation

Children younger than about 7 years of age do not understand the principles of
conservation.

At about 11 years of age, children enter the formal operational stage, which is
marked by the ability to think in abstract terms and to use scientific and
philosophical lines of thought. Children in the formal operational stage are better
able to systematically test alternative ideas to determine their influences on
outcomes. For instance, rather than haphazardly changing different aspects of a
situation that allows no clear conclusions to be drawn, they systematically make
changes in one thing at a time and observe what difference that particular change
makes. They learn to use deductive reasoning, such as “if this, then that,” and they
become capable of imagining situations that “might be,” rather than just those that
actually exist.

Social Development During Childhood

It is through the remarkable increases in cognitive ability that children learn to

interact with and understand their environments. But these cognitive skills are only
part of the changes that are occurring during childhood. Equally crucial is the
development of the child’s social skills—the ability to understand, predict, and
create bonds with the other people in their environments.
Knowing the Self: The Development of the Self-Concept
One of the important milestones in a child’s social development is learning about
his or her own self-existence. This self-awareness is known as consciousness, and
the content of consciousness is known as the self-concept. The self-concept is a
knowledge representation or schema that contains knowledge about us, including
our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values,
goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals. The child’s
knowledge about the self continues to develop as the child grows. By age 2, the
 infant becomes aware of his or her sex, as a boy or a girl. By age 4, self-
descriptions are likely to be based on physical features, such as hair color and
possessions, and by about age 6, the child is able to understand basic emotions
and the concepts of traits, being able to make statements such as, “I am a nice
person”. Soon after children enter grade school (at about age 5 or 6), they begin to
make comparisons with other children, a process known as social comparison.
For example, a child might describe himself as being faster than one boy but
slower than another . According to Erikson, the important component of this
process is the development of competence and autonomy—the recognition of
one’s own abilities relative to other children.

And children increasingly show awareness of social situations—they understand that other
people are looking at and judging them the same way that they are looking at and judging
others.

Successfully Relating to Others: Attachment

One of the most important behaviors a child must learn is how to be accepted by
others—the development of close and meaningful social relationships. The
emotional bonds that we develop with those with whom we feel closest, and
particularly the bonds that an infant develops with the mother or primary
caregiver, are referred to as attachment .

As late as the 1930s, psychologists believed that children who were raised in
institutions such as orphanages, and who received good physical care and proper
nourishment, would develop normally, even if they had little interaction with their
caretakers. But studies by the developmental psychologist John Bowlby (1953) [27]
and others showed that these children did not develop normally—they were
usually sickly, emotionally slow, and generally unmotivated. These observations
helped make it clear that normal infant development requires successful
attachment with a caretaker.

Developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth was interested in studying the

development of attachment in infants. On the basis of their behaviors, the children
are categorized into one of four groups, where each group reflects a different kind
 of attachment relationship with the caregiver. A child with
a secure attachment style usually explores freely while the mother is present and
engages with the stranger. The child may be upset when the mother departs but is
also happy to see the mother return. A child with an ambivalent (sometimes
called insecure-resistant) attachment style is wary about the situation in general,
particularly the stranger, and stays close or even clings to the mother rather than
exploring the toys. When the mother leaves, the child is extremely distressed and
is ambivalent when she returns. The child may rush to the mother but then fail to
cling to her when she picks up the child. A child with an avoidant (sometimes
called insecure-avoidant) attachment style will avoid or ignore the mother,
showing little emotion when the mother departs or returns. The child may run
away from the mother when she approaches. The child will not explore very much,
regardless of who is there, and the stranger will not be treated much differently
from the mother.

Finally, a child with a disorganized attachment style seems to have no consistent

way of coping with the stress of the strange situation—the child may cry during
the separation but avoid the mother when she returns, or the child may approach
the mother but then freeze or fall to the floor. Most developmental psychologists
believe that socialization is primary, arguing that a child becomes securely
attached when the mother is available and able to meet the needs of the child in a
responsive and appropriate manner, but that the insecure styles occur when the
mother is insensitive and responds inconsistently to the child’s needs.
But the attachment behavior of the child is also likely influenced, at least in part,
by temperament, the innate personality characteristics of the infant. Some
children are warm, friendly, and responsive, whereas others tend to be more
irritable, less manageable, and difficult to console. These differences may also
play a role in attachment.

The Development and Use of Language

Language learning begins even before birth, because the fetus can hear muffled versions of
speaking from outside the womb. During the first year or so after birth, and long before they
speak their first words, infants are already learning language. One aspect of this learning is
practice in producing speech. By the time they are 6 to 8 weeks old, babies start making
vowel sounds (“ooohh,” “aaahh,” “goo”) as well as a variety of cries and squeals to help them
practice. At about 7 months, infants begin babbling, engaging in intentional vocalizations that
lack specific meaning. Children babble as practice in creating specific sounds, and by the
time they are 1 year old, the babbling uses primarily the sounds of the language that they are
learning. These vocalizations have a conversational tone that sounds meaningful even though
it isn’t. Babbling also helps children understand the social, communicative function of
language. Children who are exposed to sign language babble in sign by making hand
movements that represent real language. At the same time that infants are practicing their
speaking skills by babbling, they are also learning to better understand sounds and eventually
the words of language. One of the first words that children understand is their own name,
usually by about 6 months, followed by commonly used words like “bottle,” “mama,” and
“doggie” by 10 to 12 months. The infant usually produces his or her first words at about 1
year of age. It is at this point that the child first understands that words are more than sounds
—they refer to particular objects and ideas. By the time children are 2 years old, they have a
vocabulary of several hundred words, and by kindergarten their vocabularies have increased
to several thousand words. By fifth grade most children know about 50,000 words and by the
time they are in college, about 200,000.
The early utterances of children contain many errors, for instance, confusing /b/ and /d/, or /c/
and /z/. And the words that children create are often simplified, in part because they are not
yet able to make the more complex sounds of the real language. Often these early words are
accompanied by gestures that may also be easier to produce than the words themselves.
Children’s pronunciations become increasingly accurate between 1 and 3 years, but some
problems may persist until school age. Most of a child’s first words are nouns, and early
sentences may include only the noun. “Ma” may mean “more milk please” and “da” may
mean “look, there’s Fido.” Eventually the length of the utterances increases to two words
(“mo ma” or “da bark”), and these primitive sentences begin to follow the appropriate syntax
of the native language. Because language involves the active categorization of sounds and
words into higher level units, children make some mistakes in interpreting what words mean
and how to use them. Children also use contextual information, particularly the cues that
parents provide, to help them learn language. Infants are frequently more attuned to the tone
of voice of the person speaking than to the content of the words themselves, and are aware of
the target of speech. Children learn that people are usually referring to things that they are
looking at when they are speaking.
The linguist Noam Chomsky is a believer in the nature approach to language, arguing that
human brains contain a language acquisition device that includes a universal grammar that
underlies all human language (Chomsky, 1965, 1972). [20] According to this approach, each
of the many languages spoken around the world (there are between 6,000 and 8,000) is an
individual example of the same underlying set of procedures that are hardwired into human
brains. Chomsky’s account proposes that children are born with a knowledge of general rules
of syntax that determine how sentences are constructed. Chomsky differentiates between the
deep structure of an idea—how the idea is represented in the fundamental universal grammar
that is common to all languages, and the surface structure of the idea—how it is expressed in
any one language.
Although there is general agreement among psychologists that babies are genetically
programmed to learn language, there is still debate about Chomsky’s idea that there is a
universal grammar that can account for all language learning.