exam 3 chapter notes

Question 1

Coping

Answer 1

means adapting to challenges- meeting new people, dealing with frustrations, managing fears and stress- and accommodating to new situations

Question 2

Competence

Answer 2

is a cluster of related skills, knowledge and abilities. Learning to cope with life’s challenges builds social, emotional, physical and cognitive competencies

Question 3

Developing social competence

- Around a year and half children are

Answer 3

becoming more independent

o Can move about on their own and starts to use language

Question 4

• The word “no” for many parents can be seen as a sign of defiance

Answer 4

but it should really be seen as a point in which the child is learning to be independent
o The child begins making their own decisions

Question 5

1) According to Dr. Bryan Kolb, why are social interactions so important for cognitive development? Relative to puzzles or word games, what is the most complex behaviour?

Answer 5

Interaction of children and the way they engage in play like behaviours is very important- puzzles and board games
o Children set up social hierarchies when they play with each other
 This is important because it teaches the children how to engage with one another
o The most complicated/complex behaviour we have is social interaction
 We do not behave the same way around different individuals. (Behave differently when in the presence of your mother vs. friends vs. strangers)
 1 to 1 interaction rather than 1 to puzzle interactions are important for getting the frontal lobe up to speed in terms of how you keep track of all this contextual information that you are going to need as an adult in a complicated world.

Question 6

Dr. Lillian Katz

- Unless children achieve at least a minimal level of

Answer 6

social competence by roughly about the age of 6 they will be at risk for the rest of their lives.
o Because once a child has experienced being defined as unlikeable or has been avoided by peers then that child tends to define itself as those traits.

Question 7

• Children learn best through

Answer 7

play; they also find ways to deal with fears, anger and other strong emotions.

Question 8

• Between the ages of 1 and 6- play is one of the

Answer 8

main ways children interact with the world
o Play is how they learn about the world around them, how they problem-solve, develop skills, create imaginary worlds, make friends and discover all kinds of new and interesting things.

Question 9

Stages of play:

• Functional play
• constructive play
• symbolic play
• games with rules play

Answer 9

• Functional play- simple movements that involve the senses.
  o Much of the play of infants and toddlers is functional play
  o Simple and repetitive
• Constructive play- a style of play in which the child uses play materials to create something
  o The child may or may not have a plan/intended outcome.
  o Children usually start to engage in constructive play around age two.
• Symbolic (or dramatic) play- the child using one object to represent another
  o this type of play can start off as simple imitation and pretend and it progresses to dramatic and sociodramatic play, in which children act out stories with others and may include props and costumes.
  o Typically seen through the preschool years.
• Games with rules play- can include games with set rules that the children develop together.
  o The games may or may not be competitive, but they require children to agree on the rules and to follow them in order to play together.
  o Cognitive advances in the school age period allow children to manage and enjoy more complicated games with rules.

Question 10

Parten’s categories of social play

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Associative play
• Cooperative play

Answer 10

• Unoccupied: when a child is not playing but strands around or fleetingly watches anything that is of interest
• Onlooker: when a child watches other children play without participating. Children at all ages engage in this.
• Solitary play: when a child plays alone, focused on him/herself, whether others are present or not. When others are present or nearby, there is no interaction. Children engage in solitary play at any age
• Parallel play: when two or more children play near each other, engaged in their own activities, without interacting. This type is common among toddlers and young preschoolers.
• Associative play: when children play with similar materials, in close proximity. They might talk and/or share ideas or materials but they are not working together or playing in a coordinated way. Young preschoolers (Ages 3 to 4) tend to play in this way
• Cooperative play: when two or more individuals or groups work together with a plan or desired outcome. This usually requires children to take on roles or tasks and to negotiate in order to sustain the play. By about age 4, children can usually manage cooperative play.

Question 11

Self-regulation is

Answer 11

“an ability to be boss of one’s own attention, emotion and behaviour at an appropriate level of one’s age and culture”

• Involves taking into account not only our own thoughts and feelings but those of others as well.
• Is central to our transition from helplessness to competence
• Develops post-Nataly- in first 5 or 6 years of life
• Children learn self-regulation by being regulated
• How we manage stress
• About addressing and removing or preventing impulses in the first place

Question 12

• The regulation of our energy is central to how

Answer 12

we regulate our emotions, behaviour and attention.
o Arousal states operate on a continuum from asleep to crying and unable to cope.
o When experiences are overwhelming, a young child’s arousal regulation can be overwhelmed.
 Young children may shut down or become on constant, high alert.

Question 13

Self-regulation and learning, behaviour and health

There are 3 key aspects

Answer 13

1. Emotion regulation: is the process of initiating, maintaining and adjusting the occurrence, intensity or duration
2. Behaviour regulation: is the organization of social interactions with others and the coordination of physical movements
3. Attention regulation: is the capacity to selectively and consciously focus. It is the basis for persistence, curiosity, memory, cognitive flexibility, planning and problem solving

Question 14

2) Introduction to temperament

Nine observable dimensions that were used to score children’s behaviours in order to define temperament.

Answer 14

• Activity level: how active is the child i.e., how often do they move and how fast?
• Rhythmicity: how regular is the child’s bodily functions e.g., sleep, hunger, exertion
• Approach or withdrawal: how does the child initially respond to new people? Places? Food? Objects?
• Adaptability: how easily does the children adapt to changes?
• Intensity of reaction: whether a positive or negative reaction, how much energy does the child expend?
• Threshold of responsiveness: how intense does something have to be before the child responds to it?
• Quality of mood: overall, does the child tend to be happy (positive) or not (negative)
• Distractibility: how easily distracted is the child?
• Attention span and persistence: how much time does the child spend in activity and how long do they continue even if they experience interruptions or interference?

Question 15

Three general types of children

Answer 15

• Easy: these children tend to be positive in mood, regular in their bodily functions and adapt easily to changes
  o 40% of children can be categorized as “easy”
• Slow to warm up: these children tend to be negative in mood, initially react by withdrawing but adapt slowly to changes
  o 15% of children can be categorized as this
• Difficult: these children tend to be negative in mood, irregular in their bodily functions, adapt to new experiences slowly and with difficulty and have high-intensity reactions
  o 10% can be categorized as this

Question 16

Temperament refers to

Answer 16

children’s emotionality, activity and attention.

• Can be defined as individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation
• A temperament bias refers to patterns of feelings based in a child’s biology and appear early in development
• Temperament is an individual difference that influences how we react to situations, interactions and environments.
• The terms “goodness of fit” and “the match” are commonly used to describe the temperamental similarities and differences between parent and child.

Question 17

3) According to Dr. Joan Durrant, goodness of fit with a parent is most important for children with what predispositions or characteristics? What should parents be considering when responding to a given child’s temperament

Answer 17

o A child who is more active, more reactive, more impulsive, less persistent, less regular in their rhythms, is more difficult for the parent if the parent has a different temperament
 A very low activity parent with a high activity child can create some challenges
o parents need to look and analyze the different temperaments they both have and try and get them to match
o Parents need to look at things as two personalities coming together that neither one has a whole lot of control over-
 When a child is jumping on furniture and you want them to stop- rather than getting mad at the child need to take a step back and realize that maybe this child needs more activity- they need to jump

Question 18

Hidden regulators

Answer 18

: infant-mother interactions include touch, temperature, sounds, smells and movement that exert an unobserved, discrete impact on regulating the infant’s physiological system and behaviours such as crying.

Question 19

• Crying signals

Answer 19

a baby’s needs to caregivers.

Question 20

• Infants typically have 4 distinct types of cries

Answer 20

the birth cry, the pain cry, the hungry cry and the pleasure cry
o Birth cry: occurs only at birth and is how the infant clears out amniotic fluid from the lungs and trachea.
o The other cries are often signals to caregivers and may be difficult to distinguish

Question 21

4) According to Dr. Ron Barr, does the phenomenon of difficult infants who cry a lot seem to be universal, or is specific to Western societies?

Answer 21

o It seems to be universal. Crying linked to higher survival capacity
o There is huge variations in everything- so why would crying be any different

Question 22

5) As discussed by Dr. Joan Durrant, what is a common assumption about infant crying amongst parents and what behaviour does it put parents at risk for?

Answer 22

o When babies are crying, if a parent assumes that baby is crying just to make them mad, that parent is likely ignore or get angry and shake the baby.

Question 23

• Attachment

Answer 23

refers to the intimate emotional bonds that infants develop with their parents and other primary caregivers. Individual interactions build attachment relationships.
o Secure attachment relationships between young children and their parents and caregivers are fundamental to helping children learn to cope with stress and regulate emotions, behaviour and attention
o Attachment is easier when parents are attuned to their babies.
 Attunement refers to how parents and other caregivers react to an infant’s signals.
 Well attuned caregivers detect what their babies are feeling and are able to reflect those emotions back in their facial expressions, voice, behaviour.

Question 24

6) What parenting quality does Jean Clinton emphasize as critical for the development of children’s secure attachment?

Answer 24

o Predictable parents- will the parents respond when they cry? Important to so that the child can develop secure attachments
o Parents that ignore the child- child may develop insecure/avoidant attachments
o Parents that cause fear- disorganized attachment
o Important to respond to the baby predictably.

Question 25

Verbal and nonverbal communication contribute to attuned interactions and attachment relationships.

Answer 25

• Infants engage in chains of communication with caregivers by using vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions and body movements.
  o Brief exchanges gradually develop into sustained , coregulated chains of communication.
   Watching a baby, watching their cues and responding sensitively is the most thing parents can do to support baby’s secure attachment

Question 26

7) What is the still face experiment and what does it study? – Dr. Tronick

Answer 26

o An experiment that investigates what happens when parents are not so “attuned” with their babies.
o In the experiment the mother sits down in front of the baby and she’s playing with her baby who is about a year of age – she gives a greeting to the baby and the baby gives one back
 They are working to coordinate their emotions and their intentions, what they want to do in the world.
o Then they ask the mother NOT to respond to the baby
 The baby very quickly picks up on this and then the baby uses all of her abilities to try and get the mother back
• She smiles at the mother, points, baby puts both hands up in front of her, makes a screechy sound at the mother
• When they don’t get a regular response, they experience negative emotions

Question 27

8) According to the findings of Myruski, Gulyayeva et al. (2018), what factor may contribute to parents being present but distracted and unresponsive?

Answer 27

o Mobile devices.
o Their research with 50 infants found that this may have negative consequences for children’s social and emotional development.

Question 28

9) According to Brian Russell, what may attachment mean from a father’s perspective? In what contexts may children be more likely to engage with their fathers?

Answer 28

o Men engage with their kids through play and through activation and through exploration and problem-solving.
o Kids learn to trust their dads through the context of activation and paly
o Programs for dads need to be very activity focused- they need to be doing something and being active
 This is the context in which a lot of men FEEL like a father

Question 29

Emotional learning

Answer 29

Children begin with a few simple emotions (happiness, sadness, anger) but, especially as they develop social cognition, gradually display other, more complex emotions (jealousy, shame, satisfaction)

Question 30

Stress behaviour and misbehaviour

Answer 30

• Dr. Stuart Shanker- red brain vs blue brain
  o Red brain: when the brain is dysregulated and self-control is difficult
  o Blue brain: when a child is calm and focused

Question 31

Aggression- Dr. Richard Tremblay

Answer 31

• Dr. Richard Tremblay has been studying aggression trajectories from early childhood to adolescence/

Question 32

10) Richard Tremblay argues that what problem behaviour needs to be curbed within the first three or four years of life?

Answer 32

o Children are at the worst for their aggression in preschool/kindergarten
o Highly distruptive behaviour needs to be curbed – will be less likely to have serious delinquency problems if done so.
o Important for a child at around 3 to 4 years of life to have an environment that is helping learning alternatives to using physical aggression
o Important to learn how to curb physical aggression in first 3 or 4 years

Question 33

11) Does research suggest that “rough and tumble” play is healthy for development or not?

Answer 33

o Play fighting is one of the best ways to learn alternatives to physical aggression – Tremblay
 Learning the limit between play and aggression
 Example: tickling
o It is healthy!

Question 34

12) Dr. Melanie Soderstrom discusses a “moral choice study” that is emphasized in lecture. Be familiar with the results of the original study and the general experimental methods.

Answer 34

o Infants preferred shapes that behaved in a “nice way” rather than objects that behaved in a “bad way”
o One shape helps push one up the hill/ while another is going to push it back down the hill
 Infants preferred the shape that helped rather than the shape that would hinder helping
 Researcher is blind as to which shape is the helper/hinderer. \
o Infants have a preference for people and objects that behave in prosocial ways over those who are antisocial

Question 35

Executive function

Includes:

Answer 35

• Inhibitory control: ability to stay on task, inhibit impulsive actions and pay attention
• Working memory: ability to hold information in mind and recall for use later
• Mental flexibility: ability to modify plans and try different strategies to find solutions

Question 36

13) As discussed by Durrant, what is the difference between “discipline” and “punishment”? what is the likely outcome of punishment on children’s behaviour when caregivers are not present?

Answer 36

o Discipline: discipline is about teaching in an environment that fosters the child’s learning.
 Children cannot learn when they are afraid/anxious/stressed
 All about teaching/mentoring
o Punishment: is about imposing something that the child doesn’t like in the hopes that it will deter them from doing that next time

Question 37

14) Be familiar with the “circle of repair”. Who is it for and under what general conditions is it intended to have its maximum positive impact?

Answer 37

o A useful strategy for caregivers to support children as they learn to self-regulate their emotions and overcome challenging situations
o Bob Marvin
 Most of the time melt downs occur because a toddler wants to do something or wants something, and they are being frustrated
 Parents need to first understand, that their toddlers out of control meltdown behaviour, actually means that he needs you to do a number of things in a specific order
1. Needs you to take charge
2. Be kind
3. Soothe me
4. Stay with me until we both understand this feeling that seems too much for me alone
5. Help me return to what I was doing, with a new option

Question 38

15) Be familiar with the Shanker self-regulation method

Answer 38

o Dr. Stuart Shanker describes five steps to the self-regulation method: reframe the behaviour, recognize the stressors, reduce the stress, reflect and respond

Question 39

18) In Dr. Mildred Warner’s video on the “ecological framework”, what is it that economists are over-looking when they interpret investments in early education? Are children biological units? What are the dual-roles of parents? Are children the private responsibility of parents?

Answer 39

o A child is NOT a biological unit that you insert a little bit of early education and you get these huge results
 This is the way many economists are interpreting these investments in formal preschool
 Preschool for 3 hours a day wont make a lot of difference. Need to start early

Question 40

19) What is the central idea of Vygotsky’s theory with respect to thinking and learning? What is the central influence on development?

Answer 40

o Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of development is based on 4 principles
1. Children construct knowledge
2. Development cannot be separated from its social context or culture
3. Learning usually leads development
o Recognized that children’s cognitive and language development do not happen in isolation.
 Social interaction of some sort is involved in most learning
o According to Vygotsky, cognitive processes and skills are socially transferred from knowledgeable members of society to children.
 Viewed cognitive development as a socially-mediated process that is dependent on support from adults and more competent peers.

Question 41

o Zone of proximal development

vygotsky’s theory

Answer 41

noticed that there were some tasks that were too difficult for children to master alone but that could be mastered with the guidance and assistance of an adult or more-skilled child.
 the lower limit of the zone of proximal development is the level of problem solving reached by a child working independently.
 The upper limit is the level of additional skill the child can master with the assistance of a more skilled individual

Question 42

Vygotsky

Described three levels of learning

Answer 42

1. Level 1: unable to do the task without an adult or mature learner
2. Level 2: able to do the task but needs assistance from an adult or mature learner
3. Level 3: able to complete the task independently

Question 43

20) According to Dr. Mildred Warner, what are the potential economic advantages for parents and society of supporting children’s rights to early education?

Answer 43

o Children are considered the private property of parents except for education
o Women pay a very high price – they pay for lost earnings, lost career trajectories and their retirement benefits are also going to be lower.
o Get much higher returns when you focus on the whole ecological context rather than just the kid piece alone

Question 44

21) Of the three rights articulated in your textbook, what does the convention on the rights of the child outline as a child’s right, above and beyond general right and needs for protection.
o The CRC outlines:

Answer 44

 The rights of children
 What is needed in order to protect them
 What is needed to foster environments where they not only survive, but thrive.
o The convention says childhood is separate from adulthood, and lasts until 18; it is special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity.

Question 45

22) Dr. Jennifer Jenkins discusses the « kids families and places study” and its early findings in the framework of Bronfrenbrenner’s Bioecological Model. What specific result does she mention with respect to the parallels between disadvantage at the society level and disadvantage within families? How are individual children impacted?

Answer 45

o The more unequal the children’s experiences are, within the family in terms of what kids are getting from parents, how much time, or attention or affection
 The more inequality the more problematic for children
 When greater inequality in family relationships

Question 46

23) According to Dr. Kofi Marfo, what does he say much of Western research is focused on? From his perspective, are research questions universal or more specific to place? Similarly, is there an “objective” truth to child development, is it all culture, or does the balance between the two remain to be understood?

Answer 46

o Western research is focused on problem solving
 Our research begins from the questions that are important in the context in which we live our lives.
 From his perspective research questions are more specific to place

Question 47

24) Alan Mirabelli, what is a key difference in the two parents discussed in the example from the grocery store? To what extent is the issue parenting skills versus family structure? What are we missing by thinking of families in terms of the last 25 years versus the last 3,00 years.

Answer 47

o One women was able to firmly say no to their child and that was the end it. Of the other parent said “ill give you something to cry about” and then whole tantrum occurred
o If look at the 3000 year of families its like an elastic band- it expands and contracts based on the needs of survival.
 Miss how dynamic and responsive/creative families are

Question 48

25) According to Zeenat Janmohamed, what type of diversity has largely been ignored by studies and textbooks on child development? What three recommendations does Zeenat make for de-stigmatizing this form of diversity?

Answer 48

o Same sex parents is a topic that has been largely ignored by studies and textbooks
o Reality is there are more parents that identify as part of the LGBT community that are having children.
o Three recommendations
 Need to be comfortable talking about gender development and sexual activity- embed in education
 In the material that is used in class with students- need to be able to embed content that realtes to gender/sexual identity- want to teach children that families can come in all shapes and sizes
 Stop with the hetero behaviour
• Don’t make things based on gender, “oh look here comes your boyfriend!”

Question 49

Jody Heymann describes three factors that have led to a major transformation of family life over the past 50 years

Answer 49

1. Increased participation by both men and women in the formal labour force
2. Increasing urbanization
3. Economic globalization

Question 50

26) What is home visiting and how does it relate to the concept of the Mesosystem in the bioecological model?

Answer 50

o Home visiting focuses on fostering healthy child development by supporting positive parenting practices, including support for parents’ socioemotional socioeconomic well-being, through direct services and referrals to other professional services in their communities.
o Several reviews have concluded that home visiting can be an effective strategy to promote health and development outcomes of children from socially disadvantaged families

Question 51

29) What is social capital and what sort of activities/community structures facilitate it?

Answer 51

o Social capital is the collective value of social networks and the tendency for people within networks to do things for each other
 Social networks (who people know)
o Communities that come together (public, private and voluntary sectors) to build opportunities for early childhood programs increase their level of social capital

Question 52

30) According to the World Health Organization, what is the primary environmental threat to children amongst the variety of pollutants they could be exposed to?

Answer 52

o WHO calls air pollution an unseen threat.
o The devastating effects of air pollution on children’s health are well documented and a serious issue that cannot continue to be ignored.
o Toxic air

Question 53

31) According to Dr. Kang Lee, how do children develop racial biases in face perception, and how does this vary for children who are raised in multi-racial homes? What similar effect is seen with preferences for the faces of mothers vs. fathers as a function of experience?

Answer 53

o By 9 months of age they recognize their own race faces better than other faces
o By 12 months they form racial biases
 Like to learn from those of their own race
o If you live in a biracial family- do not develop these biases
o If raised by mother most of the time- then prefer female faces at 3 months
 If raised by father most of the time- then prefer male faces at 3 months

Question 54

32) What disparity in research on cultural influences on child development is highlighted by Dr. Alan Pence? Be generally familiar with what percentage of research is performed on samples representing the majority of the world’s population of children

Answer 54

o over 90% of the children of the world are in the majority world- developing world.
 Over 90% of information is coming from the western world.