Final Exam Flashcards
body growth
- slow, regular pattern
- 2-3 inches in height; 4-5 lbs per year
- appear long-legged (lower portion of body grows faster)
boys vs girls body growth
- height and weight: girls are shorter and lighter than boys until about 9 years old
- fat-muscle ratio: girls have slightly more body fat but after 8 years old - they accumulate fat at faster rate (pre-puberty)
secular trend
- change in body size across generations
- industrialized countries: larger and heavier
- due to faster rate of physical maturity: improved health and nutrition
Skeletal Growth
- bones lengthen and broaden
- ligaments aren’t attached allowing flexibility
teeth
- betwen 6 and 12: 20 primary teeth are lost/replaced
- 50% of school-aged kids have at least some tooth decay (low SES more at risk)
Maloclussion
- misalignment of the teeth
- upper and lower teeth don’t meet
- affect 1/3 of school aged children
- causes: heredity, thumb sucking, extra teeth
Brain Development
- brain weight increases by 10% (adult weight reached)
- white matter and gray matter
white matter (brain)
-myelinated nerve fibers in frontal lobes of cerebral cortex increases (acquire complex abilities)
gray matter (brain)
neurons and supportive material declines
lateralization
greater in both hemispheres
-synaptic connections and myelination occur at same time as synaptic pruining
neurotransmitters
- permit communication
- neurons become selective and thinking becomes flexible
- specific neurotransmitters may affect cognition (thinking, social/emotional adjustment)
hormones
- influences changes in brain functions
- changes in behavior
myopia
-near-sightedness
-can see close but not far away
Causes: genetics, early biological trauma (low birth weight), experience (reading and close work/computer)
Otitis Media
- ear infections decrease
- eustachian tube: longer, narrower, slanted
- chronic, untreated: hearing loss
Malnutrition leads to…
- stunted growth
- low IQ
- poor motor coordination
- inattention
Obesity
- BMI
- overweight: BMI > 85th and 95th percentile same age/sex
-In the US, there are about 30% of children who are overweight and 17% are obese
BMI
“body mass index”
- measure of body fat based on weight and height
- calculated using the ratio of weight to height
- BMI does NOT measure body fat directly but it is a reasonable indicator of body “fatness” for children
Causes of Obesity
- genetics
- environment
- sleep
- undernourished
- feeding practices
- external stimuli
- physical activity (lack of)
Bedwetting
-common health problem
-“nocturnal enuresis”
-occurs in about 10% of school-aged children
Causes: muscular response to inhibit urination fails, hormonal imbalance allows urine to accumulate, difficulty awakening to a full bladder
Treatment: antidepressant drugs (short-term fix) or urine alarm (conditioning to wake child)
most common chronic illness?
ashthma
Gross motor improvements
- balance improves
- agility
- flexibility
- force
fine motor improvements
- writing: legibility and accuracy
- drawing: organization, detail, depth
physical play
- child organized games (informal)
- adult organized games (formal)
Child organized games
- informal
- games with rules common
- invented games
- gains in perspective taking
- participation = understands fairness
Adult organized games
-formal
-50% (60% boys;37% girls) participate
Advantages: increase self-esteem and social skills
Disadvantages: emphasizes competition, criticisms can cause anxiety, early exposure = loss interest
Physical Education in schools
- 15% of US schools provide physical education to students 3 times a week
- leads to poor health (lack phys ed) - only 49% (b) and 35%(g) exercise for 1+ hours a day
- solution: more frequent physical edu and/or change content
Recess in schools
- 7% of US schools no longer provide recess and many others have recess once a day
- Benefits: boost children’s learning capability, regular and unstructured recess fosters children’s competence
Unintentional injuries
Most common: motor vehicle accidents, bikes, and pedestrian -boys more at risk Prevention: - school based education -- teach safety - model safe behavior -require helmets -watch high-risk children
individual differences in motor development
Genetics:
- body build
- Child’s sex: boys are better with gross motor (i.e., throwing and kicking) and girls are better at fine motor skills and flexibility
Environment:
- parent encouragement/expectations
- family income (limits access to lessons/equipment)
- school/community lessons (may make resources available)
Development of memory strategies
- Rehearsal (early grade school)
- Organization
- Elaboration
**school promotes using these strategies
Rehearsal (mem strategies)
repeating info to oneself
Organization (mem strategies)
- grouping related items together
- gain in processing capacity – use several strategies
- test strategies: determine which works best and how to combine effectively
Elaboration (mem strategies)
- creating a relationship between pieces of information not in the same category
- meaningful chunks of information
Long-term memory knowledge based
arrange knowledge in larger, organized, elaborate hierarchically structured networks
-know more about a topic: makes new information more meaningful/familiar; easier to store and revive
Theory of Mind
- beliefs about mental activities
- Metacognition
- knowledge of cognitive capacities: allows skills to monitor progress, sees mind as an active, constructive agent
Metacognition
- awareness of thought processes
- becomes more elaborate and refined
- reflect on their own mental life
Cognitive Self-Regulation
(not very good)
- monitoring progress toward a goal
- checking outcomes
- redirecting unsuccessful effort
To promote:
- point out important features/demands of tasks
- suggest effective learning strategies
- emphasize monitoring progress and vale self-correction
factors that contribute to Reading
- phonological awareness
- information processing speed increases
- visual scanning and discrimination
- practice
How to teach reading?
- whole language: expose to text in complete form; reading parallels natural language
- phonics: coach on the basic rules for translating written symbols in sounds
Mathematics
-learn facts and skills through practice, reasoning, and strategies
Debate: drill vs. “number sense”
- number senses: understand numbers and use them to explain and solve quantitative problems
Individual differences in cognition
- Defining and measuring IQ
- IQ represents general intelligence and reasoning
- intelligence: many mental capacities (not on tests)
Group Tests (IQ test)
- require little training
- allow large group testing
- instructional planning
- identify students who need individual testing
Individual Tests (IQ test)
- examiners need training and experience
- identifies highly intelligent and children with learning problems
Stanford-Binet (IQ test)
- general knowledge
- quanitative reasoning
- visual-spatial reasoning
- working memory
- information processing
Wechsler Scales (IQ test)
- WISC-IV (6-16 yrs); WIPPSI-III (2.5-7yrs)
- verbal reasoning
- perceptual (or visual-spatial) reasoning
- working memory
- processing speed
Language Development
grammar, vocab, and pragmatics
Vocab (language develop)
- increases fourfold during school year: 20 new words a day
- understand multiple meaning (bright); metaphors (jump in shower)
Grammar (language develop)
- mastery of complex constructions (passive)
- advanced understanding of infinitive phrases (anxious)
Pragmatics (language develop)
- adjust to people and situations
- phrase requests to get what they want