Chapter 7 Physical and cognative development in early childhood

Question 1

myelination

Answer 1

The process by which the nerve cells are covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells, which increases the speed at which informatiobn travels through the nervous systems.

Question 2

preoperational stage

Answer 2

Piagets second stage, lasting from about 2 to 7 years of age, during which children begin to represent the world with word, images and drawings, and symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action; stable conecpts are formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism is present and magical beliefes are constructed.

Question 3

operations

Answer 3

In Piagets theory, these are reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they formally did physically.

Question 4

symbolic function substage

Answer 4

Piagets first substage of preoperational thought, in which the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present (between about 2 and 4 years of age)

Question 5

egocentrism

Answer 5

The inability to distinguish between ones own perspective and someone elses (salient feaure of he firs substage of preoperational thought)

Question 6

animism

Answer 6

The belief that inanimate objects have life like qualities and are capable of action.

Question 7

intutive thought substage

Answer 7

Piagets second substage of preoperational thought, in which children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions (between 4 and 7 years of age)

Question 8

centration

Answer 8

The focusing of attention on one charaterisic to the exclusion of all others.

Question 9

conservation

Answer 9

In Piagets theory, an awareness that altering an objects or a substance appearance does not change

Question 10

zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Answer 10

Vygotskys term for tasks too difficult for children to master alone but can be mastered with the assistance of adults or more skilled children

Question 11

social constructivist approach

Answer 11

An approach that emphasises the socail contexts of learning and that knowledge is mutually built and constructed. Vygotskys theory reflects this approach

Question 12

executive attention

Answer 12

Involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks and dealing with novel or difficault circumstances.

Question 13

sustained attention

Answer 13

Focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event or other aspect of the enviroment

Question 14

strategies

Answer 14

deliberate mental activities to improve the processing of information

Question 15

theory of mind

Answer 15

The awreness of ones own mental process and the mental processes of others

Question 16

Monessori approach

Answer 16

An educational philosophy in which children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities and are allowed to move from one activity to another as they desire

Question 17

developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)

Answer 17

Education that focuses on the typical developmental patterns of children (age-appropiateness) and the uniqueness of each child (individual-appropriateness)