Early Childhood Flashcards
Corpus Callosum
the thick bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain
Plasticity
the tendency of new parts of the brain to take up the functions of injured parts
Gross Motor Skills
skills employing the large muscles used in locomotion
Fine Motor Skills
skills employing the large muscles used in manipulation, such as those in the fingers
Nightmares
dreams of disturbing and vivid content
Sleep Terrors
frightening dreamlike experiences that occur during the deepest stage of non-REM sleep, shortly after the child has gone to sleep
Somnambulism
sleepwalking
Enuresis
failure to control the bladder (urination) once the normal age for control has been reached
Bed-Wetting
failure to control the bladder during the night
Encopresis
failure to control the bowels once the normal age for bowel control has been reached, also called soiling
Preoperational Stage
Piaget’s second stage of development, characterized by inflexible and irreversible mental manipulation of symbols
Symbolic Play
play in which children make believe that objects and toys are other than what they are, also called pretend play
Egocentrism
putting oneself at the center of things such that one is unable to perceive the world from another person’s point of view
Precausal
a type of thought in which natural cause-and-effect relationships are attributed to will and other preoperational concepts
Transductive Reasoning
faulty reasoning that links one specific isolated event to another specific isolated event
Animism
the attribution of life and intentionality to inanimate objects
Conservation
in cognitive psychology, the principle that properties of substances such as weight and mass remain the same (are conserved) when superficial characteristics such as their shapes or arrangement are changed
Theory of Mind
the understanding that people are mental beings who have their own mental states, including thoughts, wishes, feelings that differ from our own
Appearance-Reality Distinction
the difference between real events on the one hand and mental events, fantasies and misleading appearances on the other hand
Scripts
abstract, generalized accounts of familiar repeated events
Autobiographical Memory
the memory of specific episodes or events
Rehearsal
a strategy that uses repetition to remember information
Fast-Mapping
a process of quickly determining a word’s meaning, which facilitates children’s vocabulary development
Overregularization
the application of regular grammatical rules for forming inflections to irregular verbs and nouns
Pragmatics
the practical aspects of communication, such as adaptation of language to fit the social situation
Inner Speech
Vygotsky’s concept of the ultimate binding of language and thought, inner speech originates in vocalizations that may regulate the child’s behavior and become internalized by age 6 or 7
What is growth in early childhood?
decelerate when compared to infancy
about 5 to 8 cm and 2 to 3 kg per year
less round and more slender
body proportions are more similar to those of adults
muscle size increases and bones become more sturdier
sense organs continue to develop
What is nutrition for kids in early childhood?
need less food
let the child decide how much to eat
obesity/overweight: 1/3 at risk, 14% are overweight, 6% are obese
why: watching tv, spending less time outside playing, sugary drinks
what to do: drink more water, have meals as a family
iron deficiency
parents as role models
What is brain development in early childhood?
corpus callosum becomes considerably thicker
lateralization and specialization becomes more pronounced (can lose brain function, but still high plasticity)
myelination of reticular formation and hippocampus (related to attention/concentration and long term memory improvements)
growth in the nerves connecting the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex (related to advances in preschooler’s motor skills)
brain growth spurts are linked to advances in cognitive skills (causality/directionality)
What are fine motor skills in early childhood?
small muscles, hands and wrists
handedness becomes well established
right vs. left, show preference by 1 year, lefties might have trouble with language (dyslexia)
What are the drawing stages in early childhood?
Scribbles: up to 30 months, don’t have much coordination
Single Units: 30 to 46 months, lift pencil after they are done with the shape, one line
Differentiated Figures: 46 months to 7 years, go back and add on to the shape
Integrated Whole: 7+ years, more realistic and easy to understand what the drawing is
What is sleep in early childhood?
between 10 and 13 hours
nightmares (light sleep)
sleep terrors and sleepwalking: deep sleep (non REM), wanes with age, brain gets more mature, incidence drops with age
What are some disorders in toilet training?
enuresis: failure to control bladder, twice a week, after 5, bed wetting, maturity of the bladder
encopresis: failure to control bowels, physical and psychological causes (stress)
both are more common in boys
What are some major illnesses in early childhood?
advances in immunization and medication, in developing countries 8 to 9 million die every year, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, tetanus, whopping cough, tuberculosis
accidents are the leading cause of death in Canadian children, high levels of energy combined with curiosity and lack of judgement, but single most common cause of death is by motor vehicles accidents
second-hand smoke: ear infections, asthma, cough, lung infections, SIDS
What are adverse childhood experiences?
patterns of adversity: neglect, exposure to intimate partner violence, physical abuse, emotional maltreatment, sexual abuse
risk factors: sociocultural factors, characteristic of the child, characteristics of the abuser, household stress
outcomes: exposure effect, intergenerational risk, high level of stress hormones
preventive measures: education and identification of families at risk, report of suspect neglect and abuse
What is Piaget’s Preoperational Stage?
operations: organized, formal, logical mental processes
symbolic function: pretend play, imaginary friends (first or only child), not able to do operations
egocentrism: speech and thought, fail perspective-taking activities, can’t understand how people can have a different perspective then them
centration: no conservation or transformation, one variable at a time, irreversibility, appearance equal reality, do not understand class inclusion
precausal thought: transductive reasoning, animism, artificialism
critiques: researchers think that children can do more than Piaget thought
What is the relationship between play and cognitive development?
1 to 2 years: first pretend play, pretend to drink tea from cup
2 years: constructive play, building blocks
2 to 3 years: substitute play, more advanced pretend play
4 years: sociodramatic play, pretend they are someone else
5 to 6 years: rule-governed play, board games
What is theory of mind?
understand the link between thinking or feeling and behavior by age 3
understands that people have different mental states by age 4 or 5
false belief tasks, needs a basic language skill (like words such as want, think, feel, remember), understands that different senses give you different kinds of info
understands that people have mental states about their own mental states by age 6
What is memory in early childhood?
age differences in cognitive development as a function of changes in children’s capacity and use of their working memory
organized in scripts
susceptible to suggestions
autobiographical: low accuracy but facilitated by talking to others
What is the processing of numbers in early childhood?
if given a set of items children will: assign one number to each items, count every number only once, show some consistency
impact of language on numeracy
impact of indirect numeracy activities at home
Authoritative
a child-rearing style in which parents are restrictive and demanding yet communicative and warm
Authoritarian
a child-rearing style in which parents demand submission and obedience
Permissive-Indulgent
a child-rearing style in which parents demand submission and obedience
Rejecting-Neglecting
a child-rearing style in which parents are warm and not restrictive
Rejecting-Neglecting
a child-rearing style in which parents are neither restrictive and controlling nor supportive and responsible
Inductive
parenting technique based on an attempt to foster understanding of the principles behind parental demands, characteristic of disciplinary methods such as reasoning
Regression
a return to behavior characteristic of earlier stages of development
Dramatic Play
play in which children enact social roles
Disinhibit
stimulate a response that has been suppressed by showing a model engaging in that behavior
Categorical Self
the definitions of the self that refer to external traits
Gender Role Socialization
learning to acquire clusters of traits and behaviors that are considered stereotypical of females and males
Gender Identity
a person’s innate, deeply felt sense of being male or female (sometimes even both or neither)
Gender Stability
the concept that one’s sex is unchanging
Gender Constancy
the concept that one’s sex remains the same despite changes in appearance or behavior
Gender-Schema Theory
the view that society’s gender-based concepts shape our assumptions of gender-typed preferences and behavioral patterns
Gender-Neutral Parenting (GNP)
the decision not to assign a specific gender to children based on their biological sex
What is Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory?
social interaction is the key to development, scaffolding, zone of proximal development
internalization of the ways of thinking
primitive stage: learn through conditioning
naïve psychological stage: use language to communicate
egocentric (private) speech stage: symbolic function of language, repeating dialogues they’ve heard before, not just talking to themselves
ingrowth stage: internalization of speech routines, private discourse to inner discourse, inter-mental to intra-mental
What is language development in early childhood?
Piaget: thought comes first
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: language determines thought
Vygotsky: interactionist perspective, private speech becomes inner speech
social approach and usage-based approach: we learn language by using it
What is language development from 2 to 3 years?
one word utterances combinations “ball table” or “table ball”
pivot schemes “__ gone” or “gone __”
item-based constructions, “I gained apples”, but not “I liked apples” not able to generalize
What is language development from 3 to 6 years?
fast mapping: 9 new words per day, categorical nature of words (explains fast mapping)
grammar explosion: inflections, negative and questions, overgeneralization, complex sentences, two verbs in one sentence
phonological awareness: nursery rhyme, related to rate of literacy
pragmatics: please, thank you, social norms
importance of reading experiences: more books correlated with better language development
What is early childhood education?
environment enrichment can enhance the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children
What is screen time?
Canadian pediatric society: less than 1 hour per day
consider educational programming: improvements on same cognitive skills
What are some problems with screen time?
preschoolers might not be able to process and understand the content
struggle to separate reality and fantasy
the more screen time, the less time is spent in physical activity and social interaction
less time for family interaction
What is Erikson’s psychological development regarding autonomy versus shame and doubt (will)?
19 months to 3 years
demand for more choices
physical and self-care (e.g. toileting) skills
independence/autonomy if allowed freedom to explore
shame/self-doubt if restricted and overprotected
What is Erikson’s psychological development regarding initiative versus guilt (purpose)?
4 to 6 years
organize activities around same goal
conflict between independence of action and the sometimes negative results of that action
What is the social-cognitive perspective on development in early childhood?
person perception: ability to classify others (nice, grumpy, etc.), judgements are inconsistent (nice today, mean tomorrow)
understanding rule categories: differentiate violations of social conventions and moral rules, taking a toy is more serious than forgetting to say thank you
understanding others’ intentions: differentiate between intentional and unintentional wrongdoing, but take outcomes into account too
What are child-rearing characteristics?
warm-cold dimension: affectionate, caring, supportive, communicative, related to a child’s social and emotional well-being
restrictive-permissive dimension: standards, rules
What are characteristics of children raised in an authoritative household?
independent
high self-confidence
high social competence
high activity levels
high exploratory behaviors
What are characteristics of children raised in an authoritarian household?
dependent (girls)
low self-confidence
low social competence
defiant (boys)
anxious
What are characteristics of children raised in an permissive indulgent household?
irresponsible
self confidence
social competence
misconduct
substance abuse
What are characteristics of children raised in an rejecting/neglecting household?
detached
low self-confidence
low social competence
misconduct
substance abuse
What is the impact of family structure on children’s development?
children’s development is more impacted by how parents interact with them than by the family structure (married, lone, same sex, skip generation, etc.)
How does divorce impact a child’s development?
children might lose sense of security
children might think they are the cause of separation
children may think they have to take sides
children’s routines are disrupted
children might show: behavioral issues, academic and social difficulties, emotional distress
What are the positive aspects of siblings?
cooperation, teaching, nurturance
social competence, self identity
What are the negative aspects of siblings?
conflicts, control, competition
regression to baby-like behaviors
What are some characteristics of first born children?
more motivated to achieve
more cooperative
more anxious
less self-reliant
more popular with peers
What are peer relationships in early childhood?
preference for same sex and same age playmate develops
solitary play: playing alone
parallel play (18 months): playing side by side with different toys
associative play (24 moths): playing alone plus short-lived spontaneous social interactions
cooperative play (3 to 4 years): children work together to achieve a goal, can be constructive or symbolic
What kind of toys are best for children in early childhood?
the more things the toy does, the less imaginative
the simpler the toy the better
What is aggression in early childhood?
frequently instrumental or object orientated
nature vs. nurture: testosterone, Bandura’s study
media influences: observational learning, disinhibition, increased arousal, priming of aggressive thoughts and memory, habituation
What is prosocial behavior?
empathic behaviors: become evident around 2 to 3 years, related to altruism (do something without expecting anything in return)
perspective taking: related to more prosocial behaviors and less aggressive behaviors
parenting: reasoning with child is related to prosocial behavior
How does personality develop in early childhood?
from temperament to personality development
combination of factors: temperament, opportunity to learn from previous behavior, social and cultural context, parenting style
fears: develops when they observe other people’s fear, peak between 2.5 and 4 years, noise, insects, imaginary creatures, dark
What is categorical self in early childhood?
very concrete
based on visible characteristics
What is emotional self in early childhood?
better vocabulary, better explanations of emotions
emotional regulation, shifts slowly from parents to children, understanding of relational emotions
empathy
awareness of emotional states, linked to their cultural definition of right and wrong, moral emotions (guilt, shame, pride)
What is the social self in early childhood?
social scripts (fosters independence)
place in family network
