Lesson 10

Question 1

What ages are considered the “Early Childhood” period?

Answer 1

Ages 2 to age 6

Question 2

What is this stage also referred to as?

Answer 2

The play years because play becomes a very important part of the child’s life and development.

Question 3

Body Proportions

Answer 3

Body Proportions Change:
During early child hood, body proportions become more “adult-like,” with the head becoming smaller, and the legs/feet becoming larger, relative to the rest of the body. The center of gravity moves from the breastbone to the belly button, which contributes to gains in motor skills.

Question 4

Body Proportions Change and BMI

Answer 4

Of interest is that the body mass index (BMI = the ratio of weight to height) is lower at 5 and 6 years of age than at any other age in the lifespan. This is significant in that it tells us young children are meant to be relatively tall and thin and engaged in active, physical play.

Question 5

What are Growth Slows?

Answer 5

Although body proportions are changing, with the lower body lengthening and fat giving way to muscle, overall, children’s growth is slowing during this stage, with average gains of 3 inches in height per year, ad about 4.5 pounds in weight per year.
By 6 years, the average child in a developed nation weighs between 40-50 pounds and is at least 3-1/2 feet tall. The typical 6 year old- looks lean, not chubby, which is related to changing body proportions.

Question 6

What happens during the growth slows?

Answer 6

Young children need fewer calories per pound of body weight than previously, and their appetites are smaller. This poses a potential nutritional problem in that a small appetite can be ‘ruined’ more easily Han a larger appetite.

Question 7

Nutrition

Answer 7

Over consuming even healthful items (e.g. fruit juice and milk) is discouraged. For children as for persons of all ages, a healthy diet is one that is varied and contains mostly fruits, vegetables, and grains (such as bread and cereal), with modest quantities of dairy products (yogurt, low-fat milk) and protein (eggs, meat, fish).

Question 8

What are some health issues that are correlated to nutrition?

Answer 8

Obesity is not the only health problem associated with an improper diet. Tooth decay correlates with bestie, meanin that the more overweight a child is, the more likely it is that child will suffer from oral health problems such as tooth decay.

Question 9

Activity Level

Answer 9

Activity Level:
Children’s levels of activity reach their highest points between 2 and 3 years of age. Activity levels declines steadily after three years. This change in children’s activity levels contributes to the fact that as children grow older, they are less at risk for suffering serious injuries and/or death from accident. (Children’s judgment usually improves as they grow older, also, and this certainly lends to the lower rates of injury and death from accident.)

Question 10

Injuries in childhood

Answer 10

Accidents still serve as the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 11 years, with most of these accidents occurring at home or in an automobile. In fact, accidents kill more children than the next 5 causes combined! Not until age 40 does a specific disease overtake accidents as a cause of death.

Among children, 2 to 6 year olds are most vulnerable to accidental death injury. Fatal accidents in this age group most often involve fire, suffocation, choking or drowning.

Question 11

What are the three factors that have been identified as related to the likelihood of a child’s suffering a serious accident?

Answer 11

Amount of adult supervision.
Safety of the play space
Childs activity level

Question 12

Amount of adult supervision

Answer 12

Young children should be supervised by an adult at all times. Failure to provide proper supervision greatly increases the likelihood of accident. Also, it is not appropriate for a 5 or 6 year old to be given the responsibility of supervising a 2 or 3 year old. The older child simply is not capable of that level of responsibility, and should never be put into that impossible situation.

Question 13

Safety of the play space

Answer 13

Unrestrained inside a moving vehicle, unsupervised near a body of water (of any size), in range of dangerous items— these are not safe spaces for children.

Question 14

Childs activity level

Answer 14

Usually, the Moore active the child, the higher the risk of accident.

Question 15

Play (physical characteristics)

Answer 15

Play is an incredibly important facet of the young child’s development. It is through play that the child learns about his world and about himself. Every child must be given the space and opportunity to play, both alone and with other children. Here I will briefly describe three different types of play that have been identified on the basis of the physical characteristics of the play.

Question 16

Sensorimotor Play

Answer 16

This type of play involves the child’s use of her senses (taste, touch, smell, etc.) and motor abilities (any movement of the body). A child playing in mud is exhibiting sensorimotor play. A child smearing applesauce on his high chair tray, in his hair, on his face, in his mouth—this is sensorimotor play. Finger painting is another example of this type of play that all children are naturally drawn to. What’s important to realize is that this is an important and effective way for children to learn about their world.

Question 17

Mastery Play

Answer 17

This type of playa has as its goal the mastery of new skills, though the child likely is not aware that this is what she is trying to achieve. Mastery play begins as physical, and later becomes intellectual. Examples: [physical] stacking blocks, running, climbing, jumping, walking across a plank of wood, putting together a puzzle; [intellectual] games with words, games with ideas, putting together a puzzle of the letter of the alphabet. In each and every case, the child is working toward mastering specific kills as they play. Examples for adults might include skiing, Golding and dancing, to name a few.

Question 18

Rough and Tumble Play

Answer 18

Play that mimics aggressive behavior but is not aggressive its fun. This type of play involves more than one person (may be multipl children or child(ren) and adult), requires energy, and usually is characterized by bodies flying, laughing, rolling etc.
Boys tend to participate in rough and tumble play more often than girls, but this is just as likely to be a result of the fact that boys are encouraged to participate in this type of play whereas girls are not as it is to be a function of inborn sex-differences.
Functions of his type of play include:
1) testing of one’s own physical limits
2)learning about others—their physical strength, their physical limits their patience, etc.
3) expending energy

Question 19

Motor skills

Answer 19

Maturation of the brain’s structures and connections permit setter physical coordination during the play years. In general, and largely as a result of play, motor skills are developing quickly during early childhood.
Typically these are divided into two categories: Gross motor skills, which involve large muscles and large body movements, and fine motor skills, which involve small body movements, finer muscle control, and eye hand coordination.

Question 20

Gross Motor

Answer 20

These skills improve dramatically from 2 to 6 years of age. Examples include running, climbing, jumping, and other large-muscle movements. Where gross motor skills are concerned, most 5 year-olds are very skilled and graceful, able to do things with their bodies that might surprise you if you haven’t spent much time around young children. Boys tend to be more skilled than girls in the gross motor area.

Question 21

Fine Motor

Answer 21

These skills tend to be more difficult for children to master. Examples include writing, tying ones, putting tutors through a hole, pouring a glass of juice from a large container. Girls tend to be more skilled than boys in the fine motor area.

Question 22

Brain Development and Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 22

An area of the brain right above the eyes, the prefrontal cortex is referred to as the executive of the rain because this is where planning, reflection and prioritization occur. as this portion of the brain matures during childhood, children become capable of planning ahead as well as thinking about past experiences.
Crucial for impulse control.
Maturation of prefrontal cortex is reason for decline in serious injury in older children.
Sleep becomes more regular
Temper tantrums subside
Emotions become more nuanced and under control of the child
Uncontrollable expressions of emotion become less common

Question 23

Lateralization

Answer 23

This is a process by which specialization occurs within the brain, meaning that specific portions of the brain eventually come to take on specific functions, with right and left hemispheres (sides) of the brain working on different things (e.g. right hemispheres controls creativity, art and music; left hemisphere controls language and math).
No one is exclusively right or left brained.

Thus, lateralization is a matter of degree rather than a hard and fat compartmentalizations of function.

Question 24

Corpus Callosum

Answer 24

This is a band of nerve fibers within the brain that connects th two hemispheres and allows for more efficient communication between them. the corpus callous grows and matures more during early childhood than any other period in the lifespan.

Question 25

Impulsiveness and Perseveration

Answer 25

Neurons in the brain have only two kinds of impulses—they are either on or off, or what could be thought of as “activated” or “inhibited.” Throughout life, it i important that there be a balance between these impulses so that individuals are neither too impulsive not too cautious.
Impulse control is the ability to hold off on acting in response to an idea or behavior, and some young children struggle with this ability (meaning that they tend to be very impulsive)

Perseveration is a tendency to stick to (or get stuck on) one action or thought, such as by a child who continues to cry long after he/she has forgotten what he/she is crying about.
In case of both in young children, we are seeing different manifestations of the same basic developmental issue, which is the relative immaturity of the prefrontal cortex. For most children, a saturation occurs with age, these behaviors will disappear.

Question 26

Myelination

Answer 26

Process by which axons become coated with myelin (also called ‘white matter’), a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron. This is a primary reason for faster thinking as children grow older ,and helps to explain, for example, why 5 year olds are much quicker that 3 year olds in virtually every aspect of functioning.

Question 27

Emotions and the Brain

Answer 27

A final major region of the brain to be considered here is lambic system, which contributes in significant ways to the development of emotional expression and regulation.

Three major areas of the lambic system are particularly relevant.
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Hypothalamus

Question 28

Amygdala

Answer 28

This tiny structure deep in the brain registers positive and negative emotions, including fear. Increased activity with age in this portion of the brain is one reason young children experience and manifest fear in ways (e.g. nightmares, phobias) not previously experience.

Question 29

Hippocampus

Answer 29

Located next to the amygdala, the hippocampus is a central processor of memory, especially memory for locations. The hippocampus often works in tandem with the amygdala, by summoning memory in response to the anxieties of the amygdala. A child might determine whether or not to be frightened in a certain setting/situation, for example, based on memories of experiences in similar settings/situations. Such location-specific memories, however, are fragile during early childhood because the hippocampus is relatively immature.

Deep emotional memories from childhood are capable of interfering with rational thought during adulthood (such as when a certain situation/setting evokes fear, but the memories connected to the cause of those fears are not available to the adult.)

Question 30

Hypothalamus

Answer 30

This third part of the lambic system responds to signals from the amygdala and hippocampus by producing hormones that activate parts of the brain and body.

Note that limbic system development and thus children’ reactions to their experiences will be feted by theory careful observations of their parents’ emotions in specific settings/situations.