CH7 Flashcards
Physical skills that involve large
muscles.
gross motor skills
Physical skills that involve the small
muscles and eye-hand coordination.
fine motor skills
Increasingly complex combinations of
skills, which permit a wider or more
precise range of movement and more
control of the environment.
systems of action
Preference for using a particular hand.
handedness
In Piaget’s theory, the second major
stage of cognitive development, in
which symbolic thought expands but
children cannot yet use logic effectively.
preoperational stage
Children do not need to be in
sensorimotor contact with an object,
person, or event to think about it.
Children can imagine that objects or
people have properties other than those
they actually have.
Use of symbols
Children are aware that superficial
alterations do not change the nature of
things.
Understanding of
identities
Children realize that events have causes.
Understanding of
cause and effect
Children organize objects, people, and
events into meaningful categories.
Ability to classify
Children can count and deal with
quantities.
Understanding of
number
Children become more able to imagine
how others might feel.
Empathy
Children become more aware of mental
activity and the functioning of the mind.
Theory of mind
Children focus on one aspect of a situation and
neglect others.
Centration: inability to decenter
Children fail to understand that some operations
or actions can be reversed, restoring the
original situation.
Irreversibility
Children fail to understand the significance of
the transformation between states.
Focus on states rather than transformations
Children do not use deductive or inductive
reasoning; instead they see cause where none
exists.
Transductive reasoning
Children assume everyone else thinks,
perceives, and feels as they do.
Egocentrism
Children attribute life to objects not alive.
Animism
Children confuse what is real with outward
appearance.
Inability to distinguish appearance from reality
Piaget’s term for ability to use mental
representations (words, numbers, or
images) to which a child has attached
meaning.
symbolic function
Play involving imaginary people and
situations; also called fantasy play,
dramatic play, or imaginative play
pretend play
Piaget’s term for a preoperational
child’s tendency to mentally link
particular phenomena, whether or not
there is logically a causal relationship.
transduction
Tendency to attribute life to objects that
are not alive.
animism
Piaget’s term for awareness that two
objects that are equal according to a
certain measure remain equal in the
face of perceptual alteration so long as
nothing has been added to or taken
away from either object.
conservation
Piaget’s term for a preoperational child’s
failure to understand that an operation
can go in two or more directions.
irreversibility
Process by which information is
prepared for long-term storage and
later retrieval.
encoding
Retention of information in memory for
future use.
storage
Process by which information is
accessed or recalled from memory
storage.
retrieval
Initial, brief, temporary storage
of sensory information.
sensory memory
Short-term storage of information being
actively processed.
working memory
Storage of virtually unlimited capacity
that holds information for long periods.
long-term memory
In Baddeley’s model, element of
working memory that controls the
processing of information.
central executive
Conscious control of thoughts,
emotions, and actions to accomplish
goals or solve problems.
executive function
Ability to identify a previously
encountered stimulus.
recognition
Ability to reproduce material from
memory
recall
Memory that produces scripts of familiar
routines to guide behavior.
generic memory
General remembered outline of a
familiar, repeated event, used to guide
behavior.
script
Long-term memory of specific
experiences or events, linked to time
and place.
episodic memory
Memory of specific events in one’s life.
autobiographical memory
Model, based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural
theory, that proposes children construct
autobiographical memories through
conversation with adults about shared
events.
social interaction model
Individual intelligence tests for ages
2and up used to measure fluid
reasoning, knowledge, quantitative
reasoning, visual-spatial processing,
and working memory.
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
Individual intelligence test for children
ages 2½ to 7 that yields verbal and
performance scores as well as a
combined score.
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale
of Intelligence, Revised (WPPSI-IV)
Vygotsky’s term for the difference
between what a child can do alone and
what the child can do with help.
zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Temporary support to help a child
master a task.
scaffolding
Process by which a child absorbs the
meaning of a new word after hearing it
once or twice in conversation.
fast mapping
The practical knowledge needed to use
language for communicative purposes.
pragmatics
Speech intended to be understood
by a listener.
social speech
Talking aloud to oneself with no intent
to communicate with others.
private speech
Preschoolers’ development of skills,
knowledge, and attitudes that underlie
reading and writing.
emergent literacy
approach, named for the town in
Italy in which the movement started in the 1940s
Teachers follow children’s interests and support them in exploring and investigating ideas and feelings through words, movement, dramatic play, and music.
The Reggio Emilia Approach
method is based on the belief that children’s
natural intelligence involves rational, spiritual, and empirical aspects
The Montessori Method
