Chapter 7: Exam 2 Flashcards
Growth Patterns Height
*Growth rate slows down during preschool years
*Girls and Boys tend to gain 2 to 3 inches
*Boys as a group become slightly taller than girls
Growth Patterns Weight
- Gains remain fairly even at about 4 to 6 pounds per year
- Become increasingly slender as they gain in height
- Boys as a group become slightly heavier than girls
*Variation is shown from child to child
Development of the Brain
Develops more quickly than any other organ in early childhood
*At Age 2, the brain has attained 75% of its adult weight
*At Age 5, the brain has reached 90% of its adult weight
Due in part to the continuing myelination of nerve fibers
Brain Development and Visual Skills
- Part of the brain that enables children to sustain attention & screen out distractors become increasingly myelinated between 4 - 7 years old
- Speed of visual processing information improves throughout childhood, reaching adult levels at the onset of adolescence.
Right-handed Individuals
Left Hemisphere is more involved in intellectual understandings requiring logical analysis, problem-solving, language, and computation.
Left-Handed Individuals
Right, Hemisphere is superior in visual-spatial functions (puzzles), aesthetic and emotional responses, and understanding metaphors.
Pros: Higher math stability, success in athletics, success in musical fields, architecture fields, and the arts
Cons: Dyslexia, stuttering, high blood pressure, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and depression
Right Brain, Left Brain?
Not all left/right-handed people fall within these categories, as functions of each side can begin to overlap each other.
Corpus Callosum
A thick bundle of nerve bundles that connects the left and right hemisphere of the brain.
Myelination process of Corpus Callosum
Largely complete by age of 8, enabling the integration of logical and emotional functioning.
Truth or Fiction
Some children are left-brained, and others are right-brained
Fiction
The statement is too all-inclusive to be true. The functions of the two brain hemispheres overlap.
Plasticity
The tendency of new parts of the brain to take up the functions of injured parts
Plasticity of the Brain
Greatest at about 1 to 2 years old and then gradually declines
Neurological Factor: Include growth of new dendrites (“sprouting”) and the redundancy of neural connections
Motor Development
Preschool years witness an explosion of motor skills as children’s nervous systems mature and their movements become more precise and coordinated
- Myelination completion of neural pathways that link cerebellum to cerebral cortex helps develop fine motor skills, balance, and coordination
Gross Motor Skills
Skills employing the large muscles used in locomotion
*Motor experience in infancy may affect the development of motor skills in early childhood
Gross Motor Skills Timeline
- At age 3, children can balance on one foot
- At age 3 or 4, they can walk up stairs as adults do, placing one foot on each step.
- At age 4 or 5, they can skip and pedal a tricycle
Girls are somewhat better at balance & precision.
Boys show an advantage in throwing & kicking.
Some children are genetically predisposed at developing better coordination or more strength
Physical Activity
Preschoolers spend an average of more than 25 hours a week in large muscle activity
*Decreases as the child ages
Motor Activity Level
- Begins to decline after 2 to 3 years of age (becoming less restless and able to sit still longer)
- Between 2 & 4, children show increase in sustained, focus attention
Rough and Tumble Play
It consists of running, chasing, fleeing, wrestling, hitting (with an open hand), laughing, and making faces.
- more common among boys
- not the same as aggressive behavior
- helps develop physical and social skills
(Twin studies suggest a genetic tendency for activity level)
Individual Differences in Activity Level
- Children of active mothers are twice as likely to be active as children of inactive mothers (4 to 7-year-olds)
- Children of active fathers are 3.5 times as likely to be active
Reasons:
1. Active parents serve as role models for activity
2. Sharing of activities by family members encouraging child’s participation
Fine Motor Skills
Skills employing the small muscles used in manipulation and coordination, such as those in fingers
- Develops gradually, a bit slower than gross motor skills
Childrens Artistic Development
*Linked to the development of cognitive and motor skills
- Children first scribble during the 2nd year of life
*Basic scribbles are the building blocks: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, circular, curving, waving, zig zagging, and dots.
4 Stages of making scribbles
- placement - 2 year old scribbles in various locations on the page
- shape - 3 year old starts to draw basic shapes; circles, squares, triangles, crosses, Xs, and odd shapes.
- design - as soon as they can draw shapes, they begin to combine them in a design phase.
- pictorial - between 4 & 5 years old designs begin to resemble recognizable objects
Handedness
- No hand preferences during infancy, but at age 2 to 3 months, in most cases, a rattle placed in the infant’s hand is held longer with the right hand.
- By 4 months - most infants show a clear-cut right-hand preference for exploring objects.
(Genetic Prediposition) 7 -10% Left handed of General Population
The genetic component of handedness
a. if both parents are right-handed, your chances of being right-handed are 92%
b. if both parents are left-handed your chances are 50%
Health and Illness
Good health requires proper nutrition
Nutrition
During 2nd year, child’s appetite becomes erratic, due to child’s growth more slowly than infancy, they need fewer calories.
- Between 1 and 3, children need 1,000 - 1,400 calories of food each day
- Between 4 and 8, they require 1,200 and 2,000 depending on growth and activity level
MAYO Clinic advises eating a balanced diet of protein sources (seafood, lean meats, nuts,) fruits, vegetables, grains, & dairy products.
Minor Illnesses
Refer to respiratory infections (colds), and gastrointestinal upsets (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea)
- Ages 1 to 3, on average, develop 8 to 9 minor illnesses a year
- Between 4 to 10 years old, the average drops to 4 to 6
Truth or Fiction
Some diseases are normal during childhood
True
Minor Illnesses, referred to by some as “the stuff going around,” are statistically normal, meaning that many or even most children contract them.
Major Illnesses
One-third of children in the U.S. younger than 18 suffer from a chronic illness.
Around the world, 8 to 9 million children die each year of six diseases: pneumonia, (leading cause) diarrhea, measles, tetanus, whopping cough, and tuberculosis.
Lead causes neurological damage and may result in lowered cognitive functioning and other delays.
Accidents
Single most common cause of death is motor vehicle accidents
*Boys are more likely than girls to incur accidental injuries at all ages and in all socioeconomic groups
Poor children:
a. five times more likely to die from fires
b. more than twice as likely to die in motor vehicle accidents
Sleep
Preschoolers do not need as much sleep as infants.
- National Sleep Foundation recommends 11 to 13 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period for preschoolers
Sleep Disorders
Sleep terrors
Somnambulism (Sleep walking)
Sleep Terrors
Frightening dreamlike experiences occur during the deepest stage of non-REM sleep, shortly after the child has gone to sleep.
Usually, begin in childhood or early adolescence and are outgrown by late adolescence.
Sometimes associated with stress; moving, beginning school, parental divorce, or being in a war zone.
NOT NIGHTMARES
Somnambulism (Sleepwalking)
More common among children than adults (onset between ages of 3 and 8)
Occurs during deep sleep
Have no memory of doing so
It is assumed to reflect the immaturity of the nervous system
False Myths of Sleepwalking
Sleepwalkers’ eyes are closed, and they will avoid danger.
They will become violently agitated if they are awakened during an episode.
Elimination of Waste
Occurs reflexively in neonates
Toilet training is the process in which parents teach children to inhibit the reflexes governing urination and bowel movements. (maturation plays a crucial role)
Most are toilet-trained between ages 3 & 4
Children who do not become toilet trained within reasonable time frames may be diagnosed with enuresis, encopresis, or both.
Truth or Fiction
Competent parents toilet train their children by their 2nd birthday
Fiction
Most American children are actually toilet trained between the ages of 3 & 4
Enuresis
Failure to control the bladder (urination) once the normal age for control has been reached (5 years old, accidents that occur less than twice a month do not count)
Organic cause: immaturity of the motor cortex
Outgrow between the ages of 8 and adolescent
Bedwetting
Failure to control the bladder during the night
Encopresis
Failure to control the bowels once the normal age for bowel control has been reached (aka soiling)
*more likely to occur during the day
*stems from both physical (chronic constipation) and psychological factors (punishment of toileting accidents)
Vicious Cycle: Soiling, punishment, anxiety
Preoperational Stage
The 2nd stage in Piaget’s scheme is characterized by inflexible & irreversible mental manipulation of symbols.
(Lasts from about 2 to age 7)
*Operations are mental manipulations of information, and at this stage, young children’s logic is, at best, “under construction.”
a. Language ability is the greatest symbolic activity during this stage
b. scribbling and drawing begin at start of this stage
Symbolic Thought
Preoperational thought is characterized by the use of symbols to represent objects and relationships among them.
(most important kind of young children is language)
Symbolic Play
Play in which children make believe that objects and toys are other than what they are (aka pretend play) Begins in 2nd year
- Requires cognitive sophistication
- Based on the use and recollection of symbols (mental representations of things children have experienced or heard about)
- 12 to 13 months (performing familiar activities, such as sleeping or feeding themselves)
- At 15 to 20 months, they shift focus from themselves to others (pretend to feed a doll)
- At 30 months, they can make believe that the object takes an active role (may pretend that the doll is feeding itself.)
Imaginary Companions
aka “Virtual Character.”
An estimated 10% & 50% of preschoolers have one.
Commonly found among firstborns and only children (less aggressive, more cooperative, and more creative than other children)
*Transition from imaginary companions to socialization with peers after the egocentrism stage has ended.
Truth or Fiction
A preschool having an imaginary companion is a sign of loneliness or physiological problems
Fiction
Having imaginary companions is a normal –though not universal – aspect of development.
Egocentrism
Putting oneself at the center of things such that one is unable to perceive the world from another person’s point of view.
- Sign of early childhood, not of selfishness
- Preoperational children do not understand that other people may have different perspectives of the world
Truth or Fiction
Two-year-olds tend to assume that their parents are aware of everything that is happening to them, even when their parents are not present
True
This erroneous (but adorable) assumption reflects egocentrism and their ability to focus on multiple aspects of a situation simultaneously.
Piaget’s “Three-Mountain Test”
Suggests that 5 and 6-year-olds usually select photos or build models that correspond to their own viewpoints and not of other’s viewpoints)
Causality: Why? Because
Explanation of behavior is extended to inanimate objects.
Examples:
The sun may be thought of as shining because it wants to shine or someone wants it to.
Reporting themselves as doing because they want to do them or “Because Mommy wants me to.”
Truth or Fiction
“Because Mommy wants me to” may be a perfect explanation – for a three-year-old.
True
This line of “reasoning” is another reflection of early childhood egocentrism
Precausal
A type of thought in which natural cause-and-effect relationships are attributed to will and other preoperational concepts.
Transductive Reasoning
Reasoning from the specific to specific (one specific isolated event to another)
Examples:
Three year old argues, “She should go on the swings in the backyard because it is light outside” or she should go to sleep because it is dark outside.”
Animism
The attribution of life and intentionally to inanimate objects
*Attribute life and intention to animate objects such as the sun and moon (“Why is the moon gone during the day?”) (“Is it afraid of the sun.”)
Artificialism
The belief that environmental features were made by people
- Assumes that environmental features such as rain and thunder have been designed and made by people.
Confusion of Mental & Physical Events
Preoperational children have difficulty making distinctions between mental and physical events.
*Between 2 & 4, show confusion between symbols and things they represent
- Do not recognize that words are arbitrary and that people can use different words to refer to things
Conservation
In cognitive psychology, the principle is that properties of substances, such as weight and mass, remain the same (are conserved) when superficial characteristics, such as their shapes or arrangements, are changed.
- Requires the ability to focus on two aspects of a situation at once, such as height and weight
- This ability comes into play during the concrete operational stage
Centration
Focusing on an aspect or characteristics of a situation or problem.
- Preoperational child focuses or centers on only one dimension at a time
Class Inclusion
Categorizing a new object or concept as belonging to a broader group of objects or concepts
- Requires children to focus on two aspects of a situation at once
Factors that influence cognitive development
- Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding
- Zone of proximal development
- Home environment
- Preschool education
- T.V.
(Parent responsiveness and interaction with children are key ingredients in children cognitive development)
Scaffolding
Vygotsky’s term for temporary cognitive structures or methods of solving problems that help the child as he or she learns to function independently.
*Continued guidance provided by adults decreases as children become capable of carrying out tasks on their own
HOME (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment)
Developed by Betty Caldwell, used for evaluating children’s home environments
- Better predictor of young children’s later IQ score
- Stimulating home environment connected with occupational success as an adult
- Harsh home environments linked with poor academic outcomes in school
6 Subscales of “HOME”
- Parental emotional and verbal responsiveness
- Avoidance of restriction and punishment
- Organization of the physical environment
- Provisions of appropriate play materials
- Parental involvement with the child
- Opportunites for variety in daily stimualtion
Effects of Early Childhood - Education
Preschool education enables children to get an early start on achievement in school.
Milwaukee Project
Poor low-IQ mothers’ children were provided enriched daycare from the age of six months. By late preschool years, children’s IQ scores averaged about 121, compared to 95 for peers who did not receive daycare.
Effects of Early Childhood - TV
*By 3, an average child already watches 2 to 3 hours of television a day
* Great potential for teaching a variety of cognitive skills, social behavior, and attitudes
* Sesame Street’s goal was to promote the intellectual growth of preschoolers, particularly of lower economic status
* U.S., England, & China show that among preschool children, the number of hours watching television is a stronger predictor of being overweight than diet.
Theory of Minds
A commonsense understanding of how the mind works
- Research has shown that even preschoolers can accurately predict and explain human actions and emotions in terms of mental states
*Contradicting Piaget’s theory of preoperational children being too egocentric and on too misleading external appearances to have a theory of mind.
False Beliefs: Where are those crayons?
The concept involves children’s ability to separate their beliefs from those of another person who has false knowledge of a situation.
Origins of Knowledge
Another aspect of theory of mind is how we acquire knowledge
- By age 3, most children begin to realize that people gain knowledge about something by looking at it.
- By age 4, children understand that particular senses provide information about only certain qualities of an object; for example, we come to know an object’s color through our eyes, but we learn about it weight by feeling it.
Appearance-Reality Distinction
Difference between real events on the one hand and mental events, fantasies, and misleading appearances on the other hand
- Piaget’s view that children do not differentiate reality from appearances or mental events until the age of 7 or 8.
Development of Memory
*by the age of 4, children can remember events that occurred at least 1 1/2 years ago
Scripts
Abstract, generalized accounts of familiar repeated events
- 3-year-olds can present coherent, orderly accounts of familiar events
Autobiographical Memory
(Episodic Memory)
The memory of specific episodes or events
*Facilitated by children talking about memories with others
Factors Influencing Memory
(Including what the child is asked to remember)
- The interest level of the child
- Availability of retrieval cues or reminders
- What memory measure are we using
a. Children find remembering events that follow a fixed logical order easier than events that do not
b. Young children depend on cues provided by others to help them retrieve their memories
Rehersal
Mental repetition
Memories Strategies
- When trying to remember a new friend’s phone number, you might repeat it several times
- Organizes things to be remembered in categories
a. Most preschoolers do not engage in rehearsal until about five years old
b. Also, rarely group objects into related categories to help them remember
Having preschoolers sort objects into categories enhances memory
Language Development: Why “Daddy Goed Away”
By four years old, children are asking adults and each other questions, taking turns talking, and engaging in lengthy conversations
- “Goed” able to know that the verb is past tense utilizing grammatical rules
Development of Vocabulary
Preschoolers learn on average of 9 new words a day
Fast-mapping
Process in which the child quickly attaches a new word to its appropriate concept
- Children have early cognitive biases or constraints that lead them to prefer certain meanings over others
- They also assume that words refer to whole objects and not their component parts of their characteristics, such as color, size, or textures
Whole-object Assumptions
The assumption that words refer to whole and not their component of parts or characteristics
*Child refer word doggy to the dog rather than its tail, color, or barking
Contrast Assumption
The assumption that objects have only one label
Development of Grammar
Grammar explosion by the 3rd year
Usually, add to their vocabulary
- Array of articles (a, an, the)
- conjunctions (and, but, or)
- Possessive adjectives (your, her)
- pronouns (she, him, one)
- preposition (in, on, over, around, under, through)
Between 3 and 4, they show knowledge of rules for combining phrases and clauses into complex sentences
Overregulation
The application of regular grammatical rules for forming inflections to irregular verbs and nouns.
Pragmatics
The practical aspects of communication, such as the adaption of language to fit the social situation
Which comes first? Cognitive Development
OR
Language Development
Piaget argued that children must understand concepts before they use words to describe them. They learn words to describe classes or categories they have already created.
- Others claim that children create cognitive classes to understand things that are labeled by words.
Inner Voices
Vygotsky’s concept of the ultimate binding of language and thought.
- Originates in vocalizations that may regulate the child’s behavior and become internalized by age 6 or 7.
