Infancy and Childhood Flashcards
Physical Development - Maturation
the distance one has traveled toward mature adult size and shape enhanced by experience
Physical Development - Maturation - Sequence of motor skills
Rolling over - 3 months
Sitting unsupported - 6 months
Crawling - 8-9 months
Beginning to walk - 12 months
Walking independently - 15 months
Cognitive Development - Jean Piaget
believed that children moved from stage to stage as they matured and were exposed to relevant types of experiences
- Believing that development occurs in stages derives from the discontinuous understanding of development…
Cognitive Development - Discontinuous
development involves distinct and separate stages with different kinds of behavior and milestones occurring in each stage, each having starting and stopping points.
Cognitive Development - Continuous
development is an incremental process that involves gradual and ongoing changes throughout the life span
Schema
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.
(unit 5 ) they are the list of characteristics that allow us to know what makes and object fit in a concept versus others.
How we form Schemas and Concepts
As children experience new things, they shape their schemas in one of two ways - assimilation or accommodation
How we form Schemas and Concepts - Assimilation
Interpret new information in terms of an existing schema
How we form Schemas and Concepts - accommodation
adapt their existing schema to incorporate new information
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete Operational
- formal Operational
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Sensorimotor (0-2)
Experience world with their 5 senses - through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Sensorimotor (0-2) - Object Permanence
Develop object permanence around 9 months - now know that objects and people exist even if they are out of sight (peek - a - boo)
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Preoperational (2-7)
children develop language and symbolic thinking
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Preoperational (2-7) - Egocentric
Piaget concluded that preschool children are egocentric meaning they cannot perceive things from another’s point of view.
For example - an egocentric child playing hide and go seek may just child their face against the wall because if he can’t see you, then you can’t see him = inability to take on someone else’s perspective.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Preoperational (2-7) - Conservation
Lack the concept of conservation ( knowledge that quantity can remain the same when the shape or other properties change)
For example - a 4 year old, doesn’t understand that 8 oz of water in a short, wide glass is the same as 8 oz in a tall and skinny glass
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Concrete Operational (7-12)
Develop the ability to think in a more logical manner
- children in this stage master idea of conservation and no longer are egocentric… yet items are still presented simply and in a hands-on manner
- children in this stage are also able to transform mathematical functions. so if, 4+8 = 12 then transformation 12 - 4 = 8 is also readily doable
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development - Formal Operational (12+)
Characterized by abstract reasoning
- approach problems systematically… ruing out possibilities along the way
- this is thought to emerge during the teenage years… yet research has show that not everyone fully masters this stage, some research has show that approximately 60 % of adults reach this stage
Social Development - stranger anxiety
the fear of strangers and develops around 8 months. this is the age at which infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face.
Attachment
the positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular individual
Attachment - Harry Harlow
- Took infant monkey away from biological mother at birth
- Gave baby money s two options, wire “mother” that provided milk and a cloth “mother” that was warm but no milk
- Baby monkey spent most of the time clinging to the cloth “monkey” and went occasionally to wire “monkey” to nurse
- showed that attachment was about comfort
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Attachment - Harry Harlow - Implications of his research
- This idea then was transferred to humans … that human attachment grows through the responsiveness of the infants’ caregivers to the signals the babies provide ( like crying, smiling, reaching, etc.)
- The more the caregiver responds, the more secure the attachment.
Attachment - Harry Harlow - Implications of his research - secure Attachment
Relaxed and attentive caregiving become the backbond of secure attachment
Attachment - Harry Harlow - Implications of his research - insecure attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth mother was removed.
