Infographic 8.2: Infant Brain and Sensorimotor Development

The brain development section is above the motor and sensory development section, and reads as follows. At 0 months, there is a brain scan showing a small brain. Attached text reads “An infant’s brain grows rapidly during the 1st year of life, more than doubling in size.” At 1 month, there is an illustration of neural formation - there are few neurons, and they are spaced far apart. Attached text reads “At birth, an infant’s brain has roughly the same number of neurons as that of an adult.” At 9 months, there is an illustration of neural formation - there are more neurons, and they have begun to join and connect. At 12 moths, there is a brain scan showing a larger and more complex brain than in the first. Attached text reads “There is dramatic growth in axon length and synapses, which make up gray matter. In addition, myelin is increasing significantly around axons, improving the efficiency of neural communication. Myelinated white matter is shown in these scans. At 15 months, there is an illustration of neural formation - there are more neurons, and they are more tightly connected than before. Attached text reads “But as the infant matures, the dendritic connections grow increasingly complex, eventually becoming refined based on experience.” At 24 months, there is a brain scan and an illustration of neural formation. Both show more complex and fully developed functions. The motor and sensory development timeline is below the brain development one. Values in the timeline are as follows. At 0 months, there are two sensory milestones: Babies can discriminate the smell of their mothers’ milk, and prefer sweet tastes. At 1 month, there is a sensory milestone, where babies search with their eyes for sound. At between two and four months, babies are able to roll over. At four months, there is a sensory milestone where babies have well-established close vision. At between 4 1/2 and 8 months, babies are able to sit without support. At between 4 1/2 and 10 months, babies can are able to stand while holding on. At between 9 and 14 months, babies are able to pincer grasp. At between 10 and 14 months, babies can stand alone easily. At between 11 and 14 1/2 months, babies can walk alone easily. At between 12 and 20 months, babies can build a tower of two cubes. At between 14 and 22 months, babies can walk up steps. Text attached to the chart reads as follows: “Along with continued brain development over the first 2 years of life, we see advancement in demonstrated capabilities, known as the motor milestones. The general sequence and timing of these increasingly complex movements is fairly universal. More subtly, but along the same timeline, babies’ abilities to discriminate among things in their sensory world also become progressively more sophisticated.”