Childhood Development Flashcards
What is the definition for growth?
- Changes that can be measured and compared to norms
- Involves physical changes, increasing in size
What is the definition for development?
- Progressive/continuous process of change
- Leading to a state of organised and specialised functional capacity
- Orderly processes occurring through life cycle
What are the domains of human development?
1) Biological
2) Cognitive
3) Psychosocial
Describe the biological domain
- Based on genetics and physiological factors (ie. age, race, gender)
- Changes in size, shape, characteristics of human body such as physiological processes in puberty
Describe the cognitive domain
- Ability to learn and experience the world we live in and communicate with others
- Changes in thinking, problem solving, memory and learning, language and other intellectual skills
Describe the psychosocial domain
Comprises of intra and interpersonal relationships of an individual with others which includes family, peers, love relationships, co workers
What are the core themes in psychological understanding?
- Nature vs Nurture (Biology and Culture)
- Continuity and Changes in stages
- Stability and Change (lifelong development)
Describe the biology and culture theme
- Psychological develop happens in a physical body located socially in a cultural context, affects outcomes
- Cognitive development influenced by sociocultural context
Describe the continuity and change theme
- Nothing in permanent: inevitable change in patterns of development over lifespan
- Continuity/change life goals
Why is knowledge of grow and development at each age important?
- Age gives us insights about person’s patterns of psychological functioning
- Physical changes throughout lifespan universal/identical
Describe prenatal physical development
1) Zygote (fertilised egg)
2) Embryo (2 weeks to 2 months)
3) Foetus (2 months to birth)
- Genetic and environmental factors affect development (teratogens)
What are teratogens?
- Any substance or environmental factor might cause birth defects
- ie. alcohol, smoking, stress, radiation
Describe newborn physical development
- Arrive with several reflexes which equip them for survival
- Inborn, don’t have to be learned
- Networks in the brain begin to develop rapidly
What is maturation?
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behaviour, not influenced by experience
What is cognition?
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communicating
Describe Piaget’s cognitive theory
- Brain builds schema: a concept/framework to organise and interpret information
- Adjust schemes to incorporate new information
1) Sensorimotor Stage
2) Pre operational stage
3) Concrete operational stage
4) Formal operational stage
What is the sensorimotor stage?
- Take in world through senses/actions
- Coordinate sensory input with motor actions
- Lack object permanence
- No symbolic/representational thought
What is pre operational stage?
- Use language, doesn’t comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
- Ego-centrism, animism
- Reasoning based on what things “seem like” from personal experience
- No principle of conversation
What is concrete operational stage?
- Gain operations allowing logical thought about concrete events
- Understand conservation
What is formal operational stage?
- Begin thinking logically about abstract concepts
- Symbols, work with imagined realities
- Systematic reasoning
- Understand freedom, think about moral values
Describe social development for children aged birth to 6 months
- Enjoys being talked to and played with
- Imitate facial expressions and movements
- Preference for some people
Describe social development for children aged 6 to 12 months
- Understand behaviour and bring attention to it
- Ability to point at 9 months
- Cooperate with care
Describe social development for children aged 12 to 24 months
- Thinks centre of universe
- Enjoys playing beside another child (parallel play)
- Aggressive behaviour is more frequent and deliberate
- Emotional highs and lows, prone to temper tantrums
What is attachment?
Emotional tie, separation causes anxiety
