Final Exam Flashcards
Middle Childhood
The period between early childhood and early adolescence, approximately from ages 6 to 11.
BMI (body mass index)
A person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters.
Overweight
In a child, having a BMI above the 85th percentile, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s 1980 standards for children of given age.
Obesity
In a child, having a BMI above the 95th percentile, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s 1980 standards for children a given age.
Asthma
A chronic disease of the respiratory system in which inflammation narrow the airways from the nose and mouth to the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing. Signs and symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.
Reaction Time
The time it takes to respond to a stimulus, either physically (with a reflexive movement such as an eyeblink) or cognitively (with a thought).
Selective Attention
The ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others.
Automatization
A process in which repetition of a sequence of thoughts and actions makes the sequence routine, so that it no longer requires conscious thought.
Aptitude
The potential to master a specific skill or to learn a certain body of knowledge.
IQ Test
A test designated to measure intellectual aptitude, or ability to learn in school. Originally, intelligence was defined as mental age divided by chronological age, times 100–hence the term intelligence quotient, or IQ.
Achievement Test
A measure of mastery or proficiency in reading, mathematics, writing, science, or some other subject.
Flynn Effect
The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations.
Multiple Intelligences
The idea that human intelligence is comprised a varied set of abilities rather than a single, all-economic passing one.
Developmental Psychopathology
The field that uses insights into typical development to understand and remediate developmental disorders.
Comorbid
Refers to the presence of two or more unrelated disease conditions at the same time in the same person.
Multifinality
A basic principle of developmental psychopathology that holds that one cause can have many (multiple) final manifestations.
Equifinality
A basic principle of developmental psychopathology that holds that one symptom can have many causes.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
A condition in which a person not only has great difficulty concentrating for more than a few moments but also is inattentive, impulsive, and overactive.
Bipolar Disorder
A condition characterized by extreme mood swings, form euphoria to deep depression, not caused by outside experiences.
Learning Disability
A marked delay in a particular area of learning that is not caused by an apparent physical disability, by mental retardation, or by an unusually stressful home environment.
Dyslexia
Unusual difficulty with reading; thought to be the result of some neurological underdevelopment.
Autism
A developmental disorder marked by an inability to relate to other people normally, extreme self-absorption, and an inability to acquire normal speech.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Any of several disorders characterized by inadequate social skills, impaired communication, and unusual play.
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
A legal requirement that children with special needs be assigned to the most general educational context in which they can be expected to learn.
Response to Intervention (RTI)
An educational strategy intended to help children in early grades who demonstrate below-average achievements by means of special intervention.
Individual Education Plan (IEP)
A document that specifies educational goals and plans for a child with special needs.
Acceleration
Educating gifted children alongside other children of the same mental, not chronological, age.
Concrete Operational Thought
Piaget’s term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions.
Classification
The logical principle that things can be organized into groups (or categories or classes) according to some characteristic they have in common.
Transitive Inference
The ability to figure out the unspoken link between one fact and another.
Sensory Memory
The component of the information-processing system in which incoming stimulus information is stored for a split second to allow it to be processed. (Also called the sensory register).
Working Memory
The component of the information-processing system in which current conscious mental activity occurs. (Formerly called short-term memory).
Long-Term Memory
The component of the information-processing system in which virtually limitless amounts of information can be stored indefinitely.
Knowledge Base
A body of knowledge in a particular area that makes it easier to master new information in that area.
Control Processes
Mechanisms (including selective attention, metacognition, and emotional regulation) that combine memory, processing speed, and knowledge to regulate the analysis and flow of information within the information-processing system. (Also called executive processes).
Metacognition
“Thinking about thinking,” or the ability to evaluate a cognitive task in order to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one’s performance on that task.
Pragmatics
The practical use of language that includes the ability to adjust language communication according to audience and context.
Hidden Curriculum
The unofficial, unstated, or implicit rules and priorities that influence the academic curriculum and every other aspect of learning in a school
Immersion
A strategy in which instruction in all school subjects occurs in the second (usually the majority) language that a child is learning.
Bilingual Schooling
A strategy in which school subjects are thought in both the learner’s original language and the second (majority) language.
Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS)
An international assessment of the math and science skills of fourth- and eight-graders. Although the TIMSS is very useful, different countries’ scores are not always comparable because sample selection, test administration, and content validity are hard to keep uniform.
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
Inaugurated in 2001, a planned five-year cycle of international trend studies in the reading ability of fourth-graders.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
An ongoing and nationally representative measure of US children’s achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subjects over time; nicknamed “the Nation’s Report Card.”
Phonics Approach
Teaching reading by first teaching the sounds of each letter and of various letter combinations.
Whole-language Approach
Teaching reading by encouraging early use of all language skills–talking and listening, reading and writing.
Charter School
A public school with its own set of standards that is funded and licensed by the state or local district in which it is located.
Private School
A school funded by tuition charges, endowments, and often religious or other non-profit sponsors..
Voucher
Public subsidy for tuition payment at a non-public school. Vouchers vary a great deal from place to place, not only in amount and availability, but in restrictions as who gets them and what schools accept them.
Home schooling
Education in which children are taught at home, usually by their parents.
Industry Versus Inferiority
The fourth of Erikson’s eight psychosocial crises, during which children attempt to master many skills, developing a sense of themselves as either industrious or inferior, competent or incompetent.
Latency
Freud’s term for middle childhood, during which children’s emotional drives and psychosexual needs are quiet (latent). Freud thought that sexual conflicts from earlier stages are only temporarily submerged, bursting forth again at puberty.
Effortful Control
The ability to regulate one’s emotions and actions through effort, not simply through natural inclination.
Resilience
The capacity to adapt well to significant and to overcome serious stress.
Family Structure
The legal and genetic relationships among relatives living in the same home; includes nuclear family, extended family, stepfamily, and so on.
Family Function
The way a family works to meet the needs of its members. Children need families to provide basic material necessities, to encourage learning, to help them develop self-respect, to nurture friendships, and to foster harmony and stability.
Nuclear Family
A family that consists of a father, a mother, and their biological children under age 18.
Single-parent Family
A family that consists of only one parent and his or her biological children under age 18.
Extended Family
A family of three or more generations living in one household.
Polygamous Family
A family consisting of one man, several wives, and their children.
Child Culture
The particular habits, styles, and values that that reflect the set of rules and rituals that characterize children as distinct from adult society
Aggressive-rejected
Rejected by peers because of antagonistic, confrontational behavior.
Withdrawn-Rejected
Rejected by peers because of timid, withdrawn and anxious behavior.
Bullying
Repeated, systematic efforts to inflict harm through physical, verbal, or social attack on a weaker person.
Bully-Victim
Someone who attacks others and who is attacked as well. (Also called provocative victims because they do things that elicit bullying).
Preconventional Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg’s first level of moral reasoning, emphasizing rewards and punishments.
Conventional Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg’s second level of moral reasoning, emphasizing social rules.
Postconventional Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg’s third level of moral reasoning, emphasizing moral principles.
