var glossaryItemsAr = new Array();
glossaryItemsAr[' Operant conditioning '] = 'A process of learning where organisms learn to repeat behaviors for a positive outcome, or to avoid a negative outcome. Examples of this type of learning can be found in experiments that have successfully conditioned newborns to alter their head-turning and sucking responses in order to receive a reward.';
glossaryItemsAr[' Phonology '] = 'A subfield of linguistics which describes the way sounds function within a given language, and the rules for their combinations. In the first months of life, a baby makes sounds that can be associated to all languages. Around her first birthday, she drops sounds that are not related to her mother tongue and her chattering becomes similar to her native language.';
glossaryItemsAr[' Reinforcement '] = 'An event, circumstance, or condition that increases the likelihood that a given response will recur in a given situation. For example, it was shown that infants’ sucking rates increased when sucking on a pacifier was followed immediately by human speech sounds or the mother’s voice. This study indicates that social stimuli, can serve as potent reinforcers, which help infants learn and acquire new behaviors.';
glossaryItemsAr[' Semantics '] = 'The study of the meanings that are encoded in language. Semantics deals with the definitions of words and the meanings of words as they are used in relation to other words. When infants begin to develop a lexicon (vocabulary) for their native language, they may sometimes store information about the sound patterns of potential words first, and then add information about their meanings at some later point. ';
glossaryItemsAr[' Social smile '] = 'The earliest elicited smiles begin to appear toward the end of an infant’s first month of life and can be evoked through social interaction, such as the sound of a human voice. The prevailing opinion, though, is that the true social smile appears at approximately six to eight weeks. At this point the stimulus is clearly social, because the infant smiles in response to human faces.';
glossaryItemsAr[' Symbolic (pretend) play '] = 'During the second year of life, children begin to play pretend games in which they re-enact activities in non-literal ways (e.g., by pretending to drink from a cup, or use a block as a telephone). These advances reflect a child’s progress toward greater ability for abstract thinking and imagination.';
glossaryItemsAr['Accommodation '] = 'The cognitive process of revising existing cognitive schemes, perceptions, and understanding so that new information can be incorporated. In order to make sense of some new information, you must actually adjust information you already have to make room for this new information.  For example, when a breast-fed baby is given a bottle for the first time, the sucking scheme has to be modified to fit the shape, size and milk flow opening of the new nipple before it is effective.';
glossaryItemsAr['Adaptation '] = 'Refers to an individual\'s ability to adjust to changes and new experiences, and to accept new information. The ability to adapt helps us grow mentally and continually develop.';
glossaryItemsAr['Anxious avoidant attachment '] = 'A child who forms this kind of attachment has no confidence that when he seeks care he will be responded to helpfully; on the contrary, he expects to be rebuffed. As an adult, such an individual will attempt to live his life without the love and support of others. This pattern is the result of the individual having been constantly rebuffed by his mother when he approached her for comfort or protection.';
glossaryItemsAr['Anxious-resistant attachment '] = 'A child who forms this kind of attachment is uncertain whether a parent will be available, responsive, or helpful when called upon. Because of this uncertainty, this individual is always prone to separation anxiety, tends to be clinging, and is anxious about exploring the world. This pattern is seen when a parent was available and helpful on some occasions but not on others, by separations, and later, by threats of abandonment used as a means of control.';
glossaryItemsAr['Assimilation '] = 'The cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemes, perceptions, and insights. This means that when you are faced with new information, you make sense of this information by referring to information you already have (information processed and learned previously) and try to fit the new information into the information you already have. For example, an infant that learned the word “cat” may use that particular scheme (cat) to apply to a dog or other animal.';
glossaryItemsAr['Attachment '] = 'An enduring emotional tie to a specific other person. The attachment that infants form with their parents (especially their mother) is a very powerful bond that is important for their survival. It keeps them close to their mothers (or other primary caregiver), which is important for getting food, staying away from danger, and receiving comfort.';
glossaryItemsAr['Attention span '] = 'The length of time your child can concentrate and stay engaged in an activity. Attention span gets longer as babies grow.';
glossaryItemsAr['Autonomy'] = 'Each child needs to develop a sense of being a separate, independent self, that comes from being treated as an important individual, and be allowed increasing opportunities for freedom. The infamous “no” of “terrible two” toddlers is an assertion of autonomy that leads to freely saying “yes” and developing the power to control bodies and feelings.';
glossaryItemsAr['Babbling '] = 'An early stage of language development, usually occurring at around five to seven months, in which an infant appears to be experimenting with making the sounds of language, but not yet producing any real words. A baby\'s babbling includes combining consonants and vowels and repeating sounds, such as "baba" or "papa" that begin to sound like real words. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Bonding '] = 'The process that a child goes through in developing lasting emotional ties with the immediate caregivers, which is seen as the first and most significant developmental task of a human being, and is central to that person\'s ability to relate properly to others throughout its life.';
glossaryItemsAr['Brain maturation '] = 'The human brain develops and matures rapidly during the first years of life. The sequence of neuro-development is genetically predetermined.  But during early brain development there are sensitive periods during which experiences affect brain maturation. Although certain experiences are essential for orderly brain development to proceed, the occurrences of some adverse experiences will cause harm to the developing brain. Descriptively, sensitive periods could be conceived of as a brief opening of a window of vulnerability, of need, and also of opportunity.';
glossaryItemsAr['Canonical babbling '] = 'An advanced form of babbling, which appears by the 10th month of life. It consists of well-formed vowel and consonant sound combinations required for meaningful speech. Research suggests that emerging speech or language-related disorders might be associated with late onset of canonical babbling.';
glossaryItemsAr['Categorization '] = 'Refers to the grouping of separate items into a set according to some type of percept or rule. Members of a category may be classified together because they share a common attribute, element, or relation. For example: a category can be – “vehicles with four wheels” or “animals” etc.';
glossaryItemsAr['Cause & effect '] = 'Several months after birth (three to six months) babies begin to realize that there are rules and order to their world. For instance, A baby may realize that when she is hungry, she cries and the breast or bottle appears – to provide her with exactly what she needs. These are initial signs of understanding causal relationships. Gradually she will understand the sequence and causal relationship between her own actions (such as: extending her hand) and the interesting occurrence (the toy she has struck, moving). ';
glossaryItemsAr['Cerebral cortex '] = 'The thin outer layer of the brain. It surrounds the inner parts of the brain like a cap or helmet. The cortex acts as the main control center and information processing center. It controls thinking, memory, and language.   ';
glossaryItemsAr['Cognitive abilities '] = 'The mental processes through which we understand our world: we interpret the information that is received from our senses, remember it, sort it into categories, understand the causal relationships, and draw conclusions. This is how we learn new things, think and imagine.';
glossaryItemsAr['Cooing '] = 'Open, vowel-like, gurgling noises, such as “aaah” and “oooh”, made by infants. Cooing sounds begin to emerge sometime between one and three months of age. In contrast to crying sounds, which are signals of distress, cooing sounds are usually sounds of contentment and happiness.';
glossaryItemsAr['Crying '] = 'A state of arousal produced by the nervous system triggered by some form of biological threat. In the beginning, crying is involuntary. Crying motivates adults to soothe infants by picking them up, and is the first-emerging example of a class of behaviors labeled attachment behaviors. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Depth perception '] = 'The ability to judge the distances of objects, which also allows us to see them in three dimensions- having some depth, as opposed to being flat. Infants need to be capable of depth perception in order to avoid falling down stairs, and to be able to grasp objects, among others. Research shows that babies perceive depth before they become mobile.';
glossaryItemsAr['Egocentrism'] = 'Refers to the inability on the part of the child to take another person\'s perspective, or the inability to separate one\'s own perspective from those of others. In their first years of life, children believe that everyone sees what they see, hears what they hear, and knows what they know. For example, a child might cover his eyes and say, "You can\'t see me!" Egocentrism lies in the belief that because he cannot see anyone else, they cannot see him.';
glossaryItemsAr['Emotion '] = 'One of the most difficult concepts in psychology to define, emotion has many different definitions. A simple definition of emotion is that it is a response by a whole organism, involving: physical arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience.';
glossaryItemsAr['Empathy '] = 'The ability to understand and feel what another person is feeling, not in the physical sense, but in an emotional sense. The expression; “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” is actually a description of empathy.';
glossaryItemsAr['Eye-hand coordination '] = 'The development of the ability to locate, grasp and manipulate objects is a major task in motor development. This very complex task requires the voluntary coordination of eye, arm, hand and finger movements.  By the end of the third month, after lots of practice, babies can intentionally reach and strike an object they see. This is the initial foundation of hand-eye coordination.';
glossaryItemsAr['Fine motor skills '] = 'Involve the groups of small muscles that enable us to carry out specific, very controlled movements using the palms of our hands and fingers and the muscles surrounding our mouth and eyes. These muscles enable babies to grasp and manipulate objects as well as to speak, eat and move their eyes.';
glossaryItemsAr['Gross motor skills'] = 'Gross motor development involves the groups of large muscles that control the head, shoulders, arms, back, abdomen and feet. As babies grow, gross motor development occurs naturally, but its progress is also a function of practice and repetitive exercise.';
glossaryItemsAr['Habituation '] = 'When a new stimulus (object, toy, sound etc.) is presented to an infant several times, he will pay less attention to it each time. The tendency to have decreased responsiveness to something that becomes boring is called habituation. When your baby shows habituation to an object, show him a new one. Investigators use habituation to determine weather babies can discriminate between similar stimuli.';
glossaryItemsAr['Hand preference '] = 'Many organisms display a preference for one side of the body when performing certain movements. Infants begin to demonstrate a hand preference when they reach for objects, as early as five months of age. However, many infants display an irregular pattern of handedness, shifting from one side to the other or using both hands. By 18 to 24 months of age, most infants have established a hand preference that does not change as they get older.';
glossaryItemsAr['Holophrase'] = 'A one-word utterance used by young children in the earliest stages of language-learning (between 12 and 18 months of age) to express meaning which in more mature speech would normally be contained in more complex grammatical structure, such as a phrase or sentence. For example: by saying “ball” the infant may mean: “There is a ball” or “Bring me the ball” or “Where is the ball?” etc. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Hypersensitivity'] = 'Extensive sensitivity to sensation or stimuli. A baby who is hypersensitive appears rigid and tense. He is too sensitive to noises, being touched, does not like many positions etc.';
glossaryItemsAr['Hyposensitive '] = 'The brain of the hyposensitive child registers sensations less intensely than normal. His response to a stimulus (noises, being touched etc.) is usually delayed or lessened in intensity. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Imitative learning '] = 'Learning new behaviors by repeating the actions of others. One of the most easily observed ways that infants learn is through imitation. Imitation begins to play an increasingly important role in learning at approximately six weeks of age. Parents are primary models for imitative learning.';
glossaryItemsAr['Intelligence'] = 'Can be defined as the capacity for goal-directed, adaptive behavior. This type of behavior is that which helps us achieve the goals we set and the challenges we face. If we are stuck in a very bad situation, those with high intelligence should be more likely to find a solution or a way out of the bad situation than those with lower intelligence. Intelligence is not just inborn, but increases with experience. Thus, high intelligence is both innate and socially influenced. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Intersensory perception '] = 'The ability to combine information from different senses.  For example, when infants recognize that an object that is seen can also be touched, they are engaging in intersensory perception. The ability to coordinate and integrate information from different forms of sensation exists at birth (at least to a limited extent), and continues to improve with age.';
glossaryItemsAr['Intrapersonal development'] = 'this is our ability to recognize our own positive and negative emotions, and to control how we deal with and express them. This also includes setting goals, delaying satisfaction and the way we face problems when they arise. Interpersonal development involves the way we interact with others, and encompasses social skills, such as empathy, respecting others\' opinions, and the ability to live, work and cooperate with other people.';
glossaryItemsAr['Jargon'] = 'Long strings of babbling sounds frequently made with gestures and eye contact in a chant-like intonation, also called conversational babble. Jargon usually appears during the last three months of a baby\'s first year. If you listen from afar, it sounds like the baby is engaging in quite an intricate conversation. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Language '] = 'A formal system of communication which involves the combination of symbols (words), whether written or spoken, as well as some rules that govern them.  This ability is unique to humans, and one of our most developed and intellectually advanced capabilities. Language is what enables us to share our thoughts and impressions with others.';
glossaryItemsAr['Learning '] = 'The process of acquiring knowledge or skills through experience. Any knowledge or behavior that we now possess that we were not born with, was somehow learned. Psychologists have studied learning in a variety of ways, from examining how rats press a lever in the pursuit of obtaining some kind of reward, to offering children rewards for doing what is asked of them, and so on. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Long-term memory'] = ' Refers to the unlimited capacity memory store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time. By "lengthy periods of time" we mean that it is possible for memories stored in long-term memory to remain there for an entire lifetime.';
glossaryItemsAr['Morphemes '] = 'The smallest meaningful unit in a given language. For example: the word "unbelievable" has three morphemes: "un-", (negative) a bound morpheme, "-believe-" a free morpheme, and "-able" (a suffix).';
glossaryItemsAr['Motherese'] = 'Baby talk, or motherese, is a nonstandard form of speech used by adults, particularly mothers, in talking to children. It is usually short animated talk with special intonation and rhythm, and with many rises and falls in pitch which are exaggerated by comparison with normal speech. Development professionals believe that baby talk is an important part of the emotional bonding process, and contributes to language development.';
glossaryItemsAr['Negative reinforcement '] = 'A reinforcing stimulus whose removal serves to decrease the likelihood of the response that produced it. For example, a parent who withdraws his love and isolates a child emotionally in order to reduce undesirable behaviors -- uses a negative reinforcement.';
glossaryItemsAr['Nervous system '] = 'The complex system of nerves which allows us to register touch, sounds and sights, or to move, breathe, feel and think. The nervous system includes the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves that travel throughout the body.';
glossaryItemsAr['Neurons '] = 'The cells which are the basic building blocks of our entire nervous system. The neurons act as sensors for all types of stimuli and transmit the impulses throughout the body. They are generated during the first weeks of life and migrate to their final location where they differentiate and assume their special functions.';
glossaryItemsAr['Object permanence '] = 'The ability to understand that objects still exist after they are no longer in view. This awareness of object permanence begins to develop at four or five months, and is completed by the end of the second year. A baby\'s mind can now conjure up a visual image of the person or object, and "see" it in her mind even when it is not physically there. During the period when object permanence develops, babies love to play games like "Peek-a-Boo, I See You."';
glossaryItemsAr['Perception '] = 'The process through which information gathered by the senses is interpreted by the brain. Current views of perception emphasize that we are biologically equipped at birth to perceive the world in certain ways, that newborns have amazing (although limited) perceptual abilities, and that many aspects of perception reach adult-like capacity during the second six months of life.';
glossaryItemsAr['Phonemes '] = 'In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic unit of sound that can distinguish words (i.e. changing one phoneme in a word can produce another word). Two words that are differentiated by one phoneme, such as "cat" and "rat", are known as a minimal pair. To master the sound system of a language, infants must learn to discriminate and combine the phonemes into meaningful words.';
glossaryItemsAr['Phonology'] = 'A subfield of linguistics which describes the way sounds function within a given language, and the rules for their combinations. In the first months of life, a baby makes sounds that can be associated to all languages. Around her first birthday, she drops sounds that are not related to her mother tongue and her chattering becomes similar to her native language.';
glossaryItemsAr['Pincer grasp'] = 'The ability to pick up small objects between the thumb and forefinger. Babies reach this adult-like fashion of grasping by approximately 12 months of age.';
glossaryItemsAr['Positive reinforcement '] = ' A reinforcing stimulus that serves to increase the likelihood of the response that produced it. For example, children tend to repeat behaviors that are reinforced with praise, a hug, or a smile. These responses on the part of parents serve as a positive reinforcement.';
glossaryItemsAr['Pragmatics '] = 'The area of language function that embraces the use of language in social contexts (knowing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it - and how to "be" with other people). Infants apparently learn some of the basic rules of polite conversation such as taking turns, and recognizing one’s turn to speak, even before they say their first words.';
glossaryItemsAr['Recall memory '] = 'The ability to retrieve information from the memory in the absence of direct sensory perceptions of the stimulus in question. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Reflex'] = 'Any response you have to a stimulus that is inherent (i.e., that you are born with), is a reflex. It is an automatic, involuntary response, such as when the doctor hits your knee with a mallet to test your knee-jerk reflex. Movements that newborn infants exhibit, consist mostly of reflexes. Most reflexes develop before birth and are only present for four to eight months after birth and then disappear.';
glossaryItemsAr['Secure attachment '] = 'Formed when a child is confident that his parent (or principal caregiver) will be available, responsive, and helpful should an adverse or frightening situation occur. With this assurance, a child feels bold when exploring the world and also competent in dealing with it. This pattern will exist when a parent, (especially the mother) in the early years, is sensitive to the child’s signals and is lovingly responsive when he seeks protection, comfort, or assistance.';
glossaryItemsAr['Self concept '] = 'Generally refers to the totality of a complex, organized system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each person holds to be true about his or her personal existence. Children develop a concept of who they are through their interactions with others.  ';
glossaryItemsAr['Self regulation '] = 'Refers to the mastery of tasks that were accomplished by the mother\'s body when the child was in the womb, but must now be accomplished by the child\'s body through signaling needs to responsive adults. These tasks include everything from maintaining a normal body temperature to orchestrating physiology and behavior, to learning to soothe and settle once basic needs are met. Later, it means developing the capacity to manage powerful emotions constructively and keep one\'s attention focused. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Senses'] = 'The five senses help infants, children and adults navigate the world. Through the senses, we receive the information from our surrounding, so that we are able to cognitively explore and process it. A newborn’s senses, which began to develop while still in the womb, are immature. The first few months are characterized by very rapid sensory development, and by about the end of the forth month, a baby’s senses are almost as mature as an adult’s.';
glossaryItemsAr['Sensorimotor period '] = 'The first two years of life are called the sensorimotor period because babies relate to the world by learning to coordinate all their sensory experiences (sights, sounds etc.) with their bodies’ motor activities. At this stage, infants learn about the world around them by doing things like sucking, grasping, crawling, etc. This period provides the basis for more abstract thinking later on when the toddler starts to be able to think and imagine things without having to experience them in a concrete way.   ';
glossaryItemsAr['Separation anxiety '] = 'Emotional distress resulting from an infant’s separation from a parent or other attachment figure. This fear is connected to a baby’s discovery that she is a separate entity from her parents and that she has her own desires and needs independent of others. With this comes the realization that her parents can "disappear" and that she is dependant on them. Separation anxiety is typically seen in infants about eight or nine months of age. It reaches a peak around 12 months, and begins to disappear toward the end of the second year.';
glossaryItemsAr['Separation-Individuation '] = 'Babies begin life as unorganized, undifferentiated individuals, absolutely dependant on their mothers or other primary care givers. Within a relatively short time, they become children with unique personalities. Each child experiences in his own way -- acts in his own way. He has, in short, become a person with a stable identity. This process, which is called separation-individuation, begins at about four or five months and ends at around three years of age.';
glossaryItemsAr['Short-term memory '] = 'The ability to recall information that is stored for a brief period of time, usually about a minute. Short-term memory allows us to retain phone numbers from an operator before and while we are dialing the number of interest. The capacity of short-term memory is also limited. Most people can only store roughly 7 chunks of information. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Socialization'] = 'The process through which a person acquires the attitudes, behaviors, and skills needed to get along in a given society. Socialization involves establishing satisfactory relationships with other people and conforming to the cultural standards. Infants become socialized during their first years of life, through interactions with parents and other significant caretakers.';
glossaryItemsAr['Stranger anxiety '] = 'Fear of strangers, or stranger anxiety, emerges during the second half of the first year of life, and reaches a peak frequently around 12 months. This phase is marked by attention toward the stranger, a kind of wariness, and in the extreme cases, fearfulness and upset when the stranger approaches. At this stage, an infant is now highly selective and reacts differently towards those he knows and those he does not.';
glossaryItemsAr['Synapse'] = 'The connection between neurons in the brain. Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. Synapses are thus crucial to the biological “wiring” that underlies perception and thought. The formation of synapses begins as early as the seventh prenatal week. This is a prolonged process that continues a long time after birth.';
glossaryItemsAr['Synaptogenesis '] = 'The formation of synapses or connections between the neurons is a critical feature of brain growth and functioning. Synaptic development is often referred to as “brain wiring”. The formation of synapses depends on complex interactions between genetics, experience, and biochemistry. ';
glossaryItemsAr['Syntax'] = 'The rules (or grammar) that govern the ways words can be combined to form sentences or meaningful and understandable communications. Children learn the syntax of a language when they can join words into sentences and understand multiple-word sentences said by others. Infants begin to put two words together at about 18 months.';
glossaryItemsAr['Telegraphic speech'] = 'At about 18-24 months, infants begin to combine their words into short utterances (simple sentences of two to three words). The sentences are abbreviated, containing almost no function words. The effect is somewhat like telegrams, where unnecessary words are left out (for example: “More juice”, Mommy hug now!”). ';
glossaryItemsAr['Temperament '] = 'Relates to inborn traits, which can already be seen in the earliest development stages. These traits are expressed in the way babies articulate emotions, and how they react to stimulation. For example, every baby has a different activity level, pace, ability to acclimate to new things, level of reaction and more. These different characteristics of a baby\'s temperament will affect the way a baby perceives and experiences the world.';
glossaryItemsAr['Transitional object '] = 'Also called security object, a transitional object is an item chosen by the infant, such as a blanket, doll or pacifier, which offers her comfort when she experiences anxiety when separated from her parents at bedtime, or when left with someone else. This developmental phenomenon is normal. It helps the child make the transition from complete dependence to independence.';
glossaryItemsAr['Two-word utterance '] = 'Several months after infants produce their first single-word utterance they begin to combine two words together to convey larger meanings. These utterances which appear around 18 months of age, are referred to as two-word utterances.   ';
glossaryItemsAr['Vestibular System '] = 'The system that governs our sense of balance and position in space. It is more active in a newborn than it will ever be again. A baby\'s vestibular system is actually over responsive, perhaps because its stimulation is crucial to developing posture and motor skills. Within days of birth an agitated infant will be soothed more readily by gentle swaying, bouncing, and jiggling than by caretaker contact alone. And there\'s evidence that (within reason) the more vestibular stimulation babies receive, the more quickly their physical abilities develop.';
glossaryItemsAr['Visual accommodation '] = 'The ability of infants to bring objects into focus at various distances. This ability is present in weak form at birth. The newborn\'s vision is specifically developed to best see at the "nursing distance” (about 7-10 inches or 18-25 cm.). Other stimuli are blurred, so that he is not overloaded with sensory stimuli. From age two months and up, baby’s capacity to focus on different objects at different distances develops rapidly.';
glossaryItemsAr['Visual discrimination '] = 'A visual perceptual skill that refers to the ability to distinguish one object, shape, color, size, or letter from another. By three to four months of age, object perception skills have blossomed, and by 12 months infants can perceive several different properties of objects such as object number, shape, and length. Visual discrimination is an important pre-reading skill.';
glossaryItemsAr['Working memory '] = 'Information that the brain is actively working on at the moment.  The brain processes information from the sensory register, rehearsing and organizing it for transfer into storage. Infants apparently develop the brain capacity for this type of memory from six to 12 months of age.';