42 Child and Adolescent Dev.

Question 1

contrast a primary vs secondary vs tertiary circular reaction (sensorimotor stage)

Answer 1

• primary circular reaction
  
  • reflex action and response both involve baby’s own body such as sucking thumb
• secondary circulation reaction
  
  • action gets response from other person or object, leading to repetition such as cooing
• tertiary circulation reaction
  
  • planned action gets pleasing result, leading to similar new actions (step on squeaky toy = squeeze squeaky toy)

Question 2

describe preoperational stage (2-7, pre-logical)

Answer 2

• representations - objects represented by words or images
• ability to pretend
• lack of conservation
  
  • taller glass looks like more liquid

Question 3

describe concrete operational stage (7-12, logical)

Answer 3

• logical thinking about objects and events
• mental manipulation of objects and processes
• ability to consider more than one dimension at a time (compensation)

Question 4

describe formal operational stage (12-adult, abstract)

Answer 4

• abstract thinking
• hypothesizing
• higher order thinking
  
  • synthesizing
  • analyzing
  • evaluating

Question 5

summarize Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Answer 5

Question 6

handedness is established by age ____

Answer 6

handedness is established by age 7

Question 7

describe brain development in early childhood

Answer 7

• by age 5, brain is 75% of adult weight
• by age 6, brain is 90% of adult weight
• 2 major changes throughout early and middle childhood:
  
  • continued myelination (particularly of longe-range association pathways and frontal lobe)
  • inverted U-shaped trajectory of synaptic density (increases until puberty then steady pruning throughout adolescence and adulthood)

Question 8

describe cognitive development in early childhood

Answer 8

• episodic memory
  
  • earliest memories (ages 2-4)
• continued expansion of language skills
  
  • uses 900 words (age 3)
  • can tell stories and name colors (age 4)
  • uses plural, prepositions and compound sentences (age 4)
  • asks the meaning of words (age 5)
  • 90% intelligible (age 5)

Question 9

describe factors associated with slower language acquisition

Answer 9

• male sex
• prematurity
• multiple gestation
• bilingualism
• low socioeconomic status

Question 10

describe emotional development in early childhood

Answer 10

• struggle for autonomy and separateness from parents (separation/individuation)
  
  • “terrible twos”
• development of secondary emotions (3 years)
  
  • embarrassment, jealousy, pride, shame, guilt, envy
• development of emotion regulation
• nightmares, monster fears (age 4)

Question 11

describe social development in early childhood

Answer 11

• gender identity (by age 3)
• understands turn-taking, sharing and other social rules (age 3)
• imaginary play, cooperative play (age 3)
• imaginary friends (age 4)
• romantic feelings for others (age 5)
• social conformity (age 5)

Question 12

describe cognitive development in middle childhood

Answer 12

• law of conservation achieved
• logical thinking
  
  • seriation: ability to quantify differences (Jane is taller than Sue)
  • transivity: ability to infer relations among elements in a serial order (if I am taller than Jane, and Jane is taller than Sue, than I am taller than Sue)
• mnemonic strategies (rehearsal, categorization)
• understanding of death (age 8)
• language
  
  • shift from egocentric to social speech
  • vocabulary expansion (50,000 words by age 12)

Question 13

describe emotional development in middle childhood

Answer 13

• internalization of social “display rules” guiding emotion expression (boys don’t show sadness; girls don’t show anger)
• language development facilitates cognitive regulation of emotion (use your words)
• maturation of prefrontal-limbic pathways facilitate down-regulation of emotions

Question 14

describe social development in middle childhood

Answer 14

• organized sport possible
  
  • focus is on learning “rule of the game” (age 9)
  • understands value of being a team player
• competency/competition
  
  • children start to compare themselves to others (age 6)
• understands fairness, generosity (age 8)
• perspective-taking
  
  • takes another perspective (age 10)
  • simultaneously understands multiple perspectives on the same situation (age 12)

Question 15

name the predominant health issues in childhood

Answer 15

• age 3-6
  
  • injury due to trauma
  • exposure to communicable diseases
• age 7-12
  
  • chronic medical conditions (asthma, diabetes)
  • injuries