In the physical development stage the first year of life, the average baby grows 10 inches and gains 15 pounds. By 4 months birth weight has doubled, and by one year it has tripled. During the second year physical growth slows considerably. Rapid increases in height and weight will not occur again until early adolescence. An infant's growth does not occur in the smooth, continuous fashion depicted by growth charts. Growth takes place in fits and starts. When babies are measured daily over their first 21 months, most show no growth 90 percent of the time, but when they grow, they do so rapidly. Some children gain as much as 1 inch in height overnight. Changes in the baby's size are accompanied by marked changes in body proportions. During the first two years after birth, babies and toddlers have heads that are large relative to their bodies. This rapid growth of the head reflects that rapid development of the central nervous system: An infants brain reaches three -quarters of its adult size

6-10 months- Babbling, including both consonant and vowel sounds repeated in syllables.

18 months- Vocabulary spurt-three or more words learned per day.

More than a million cases of child abuse are reported each year, and more than 1,000 children die annually as a result of abuse. Children who witness domestic violence learn aggressive behavior and are more likely to behave aggressively in the future whenever they believe that violence will serve their purposes.

Erik Erickson believed that an infant's early experiences, first in trusting that basic needs will be met and then in developing self-expression, create personality traits. He also felt that a person could, later in life, resolve developmental crisis that appear during these early stages.

Emotion from birth onward, infants express distress, sadness, and contentment. Pleasure is expressed in a first social smile at about 6 weeks and the first laughter at about 4 months. Fear also begins early, and stranger wariness and other clear signs of fear are evident at about 6 months, when cognitive advances allow differentiation between the familiar and the unexpecte

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jean Piaget, , Newborn- Reflexive, Child Abuse, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erickson, cognitive development, head growth, believed infant's experiences, believed infant's, infant's experiences, infants express, vowel sounds, child abuse, growth slows, personality traits,
Approximate Word count = 763
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)