Chapter 7: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Flashcards
Repeated urination in clothing or in bed.
enuresis
Physical skills that involve the large
muscles.
gross motor skills
Piaget’s term for ability to use mental
representations (words, numbers, or
images) to which a child has attached
meaning.
symbolic function
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.
preoperational stage
pretend play
Play involving imaginary people and
situations; also called fantasy play,
dramatic play, or imaginative play.
pretend play
Physical skills that involve the small
muscles and eye-hand coordination.
fi ne motor skills
Tendency to attribute life to objects that
are not alive.
animism
Piaget’s term for a preoperational
child’s tendency to mentally link partic-
ular phenomena, whether or not there
is logically a causal relationship
transduction
In Piaget’s theory, the tendency of
preoperational children to focus on one
aspect of a situation and neglect others.
centration
In Piaget’s terminology, to think simulta-
neously about several aspects of a
situation.
decenter
Piaget’s term for inability to consider
another person’s point of view; a char-
acteristic of young children’s thought.
egocentrism
Piaget’s term for a preoperational child’s
failure to understand that an operation
can go in two or more directions.
irreversibility
Awareness and understanding of
mental processes.
theory of mind
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
Retention of information in memory for
future use.
storage
Process by which information is
prepared for long-term storage and
later retrieval.
encoding
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
In Baddeley’s model, element of
working memory that controls the
processing of information.
central executive
Storage of virtually unlimited capacity
that holds information for long periods.
long-term memory
Conscious control of thoughts,
emotions, and actions to accomplish
goals or solve problems.
executive function
Ability to reproduce material from
memory.
recall
Ability to identify a previously encoun-
tered stimulus.
recognition
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 specifi c
experiences or events, linked to time
and place.
episodic memory
Model, based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural
theory, that proposes children construct
autobiographical memories through
conversation with adults about shared
events.
social interaction model
Memory of specifi c events in one’s life.
autobiographical memory
Individual intelligence tests for ages
2 and up used to measure fl uid
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 diff erence
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.
scaff olding
Process by which a child absorbs the
meaning of a new word after hearing it
once or twice in conversation.
fast mapping
Speech intended to be understood
by a listener.
social speech
The practical knowledge needed to use
language for communicative purposes.
pragmatics
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
