Child Development

Question 0

What does a secure attachment help with in future life?

Answer 0

Influences brain development. Allows for better

• social competence
• peer relations
• self-reliance
• physical and emotional health

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

A biologically-based system that functions to maintain proximity to the infant’s caregiver
Infants are predisposed to exhibit
-proximity seeking behaviours
-contact maintaining behaviour eg crying

Question 2

When is the critical period for making the first attachment and after how many years will problems stop arising of separated?

Answer 2

Critical period is during first year

Problems may result of separated during first 4 years

Question 3

What cognitive development skills do newborns have?

Answer 3

Preference for human faces to inanimate objects

First smile around 6 weeks which rewards the carer

Question 4

What cognitive developments have happened by 7-8 months?

Answer 4

Specific attachments formed
Child shows distress in absence of key people
Wary of strangers picking them up, touching them, even with key people present

Question 5

What cognitive development has happened by about three months?

Answer 5

Distinguish strangers from non-strangers
Preference for non-strangers shown eg smiling
Will allow any caring adult to handle them

Question 6

At what developmental stage is age 12+?

Answer 6

Formal operational

Question 7

At what age is pre-operational?

Answer 7

2-7

Question 8

What cognitive developments happen during the sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs)?

Answer 8

Experience world through senses
Develop motor-coordination
No abstract concepts
Develop body schema of where they end and world begins
Understand permanence - continued existence of objects even out of their site.

Question 10

At what age is concrete operational?

Answer 10

7-12

Question 11

What developments happen in the pre-operational stage? (2-7 years)

Answer 11

Language development
Symbolic though
Imagination
Can classify by a single feature eg all red

Question 12

What limitations are three still at the pre-operational stage?

Answer 12

Egocentrism - can’t see things from other people’s point of view
Believe everybody experiences the world as they do
Lack concept of conversation

Question 13

What develops in the concrete operational stage (7-12)?

Answer 13

Can think logically but concrete rather than abstract
Conservation of number, mass and weight
Classification by multiple features
See things from other people’s perspectives

Question 14

What happens in the formal operational stage? (12+ years)

Answer 14

Abstract logic

Hypothetic-deductive reasoning

Question 15

At what age is sensory-motor?

Answer 15

0-2 years

Question 16

Limitations of Piaget’s four stages of development?

Answer 16

Tends to focus on what children cannot do, not what they can

Question 17

What is the concept of Vygotsky’s theory of social development?

Answer 17

Cognitive development requires social interaction
Child is seen as an apprentice - learns through shared problem solving
With able instruction, child can achieve some increase in understanding.

Question 18

What are the implications of theory about childhood cognitive development for communicating about illnesses and treatment?

Answer 18

Don’t assume average ability - need to assess each child’s level of understanding and some of proximal development, then tailor communication
Young children’s lack theory of mind, may think that others know how they feel
Difficult to articulate feelings
Danger of using metaphors which may be taken to literally
Difficulty thinking about the future which can affect consent and adherence

Question 19

What are the three phases of separation?

Answer 19

Protest - distressed, looking for mother, cling to substitute
Despair - helplessness, withdrawn, intermittent crying
Detachment - more interest in surroundings, smile, sociable. Remote and apathetic when carer returns

Question 20

At what age are children normally most distressed by separation?

Answer 20

Age 6 months to 3 years

Question 21

What makes it more distressing for children when separated?

Answer 21

Unable to keep image of carer in their mind
Limited language, may not understand ‘tomorrow’
Lack ability to understand abstract concepts
Feel abandoned
May feel punished for own failings

Question 22

What a implications of child development for health outcomes?

Answer 22

Adherence may be adversely affected which can impede recovery
Experience of pain may be worse if anxiety is high
Adverse effects of stress on health

Question 23

What can hospitals do to help children?

Answer 23

Allow parent/carer access
Allow attachment objects eg teddy/blanket
Reassure child is not being punished or abandoned
Make environment feel more like home
High quality of substitute care, have specialist nurses and continuity of staff

Question 24

How to have good communication with children?

Answer 24

Smile
Maintain eye contact
Be calm
Acknowledge and greet child
Maybe talk to parents first to give child time to relax
Observe, wait and listen
Demonstrate anything you're going to do maybe on a teddy
Give simple and clear information
Give them choice eg sit on mum's lap?
Distractions
Rewards eg stickers
Give them enthusiastic praise

Question 24

What are the names of Piaget’s four stages of development?

Answer 24

Sensory-motor
Pre-operational
Concrete operational
Formal operational