Psych Exam Flashcards
What are the changes in height and weight that occur during this age?
6-12 children are growing
Average 2-3 inches a year
Weight gain about 7 pounds per year
what are the gender differences seen in height?
Girls are more rapid, growth spurt around age of 10
Girls are on average taller than boys during this stage
What are the impacts of adequate nutrition and undernutrition/malnutrition?
Receiving more nutrients are happier children
Having a breakfasts helps with reaction time, more energy levels, processing information, more alert
Malnutrition dampens kids curiosity, motivation to learn
What are causes and consequences of obesity and how have rates in the United States changed over the years?
A body mass index at or above a 90 percentile
20% of children in US are considered obese
Tripling in the past twenty years
Causes: genetic, social (parental control), lack of exercise
What are the barriers to identification of psychological disorders in children?
- Symptoms are often inconsistent from those of adults
- Antidepressant drugs used for treatment not been approved by regulators for use with children
What are the pros and cons of using medication to treat psychological disorders in children?
Pros: Depression and other psychological disorders treated successfully using medication.
More traditional nondrug therapies that largely employ verbal methods are ineffective
Cons: we do not know the long term consequences, correct dosages are not always known with children ages and sizes
Side effects: interferes with appetite, energy levels, sleeping
What are learning disabilities and do they indicate anything about the child’s intellectual level?
Affect 1 in 10 school aged children
Affect ability of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities
Mismatch in academic performance and their potential to learn
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia: reading disability
-Misperception of letters during reading
-Reduced phonemic awareness
-left/right confusion
-Difficulty in spelling
Dysgraphia
inability to write coherently
-Symptom of brain damage or disease
Dyscalculia
severe difficulty in making arithmetical calculations
-Result of brain disorder
Is dyslexia considered a visual disorder or an auditory processing disorder?
Difficulty sounding out letters (auditory processing disorder)
What are the symptoms of ADHD?
Persistent difficulty in finishing task, following instructions, and organizing work
Inability to watch an entire tv program
Frequent interruptions of other or excess talking
fidgeting
How does drug treatment (e.g., stimulants like Ritalin) help with NOT reducing hyperactivity and increasing attention and how do stimulants help with academics, if at all (i.e., what are the short-term and long-term impacts of taking ADHD meds on academics)?
Commonly treated with stimulants
Improved attention and compliance
Increasing attention span
Negative side effects
irrebility
Academic improvement
Know the main characteristics of how children think in Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)how logic is used in this stage, how egocentric are they, and what they can and can’t understand/master in this stage.
-Active and appropriate use of logic
-Conservation mastered
-Able to answer questions correctly without much thought
-Concrete problems solvable
-Less egocentric
-Better understanding of time/speed
-if cars start and finish at the same time point they will understand they can travel at the same time because the red car is traveling faster.
-Unable to understand abstract or theoretical questions
decentering
ability to take multiple aspects of a situation into account
reversibility
notion that processes transforming a stimulus can be reversed to original form
Know 3+5=8 but 5+3=8
What are the major characteristics of language development in middle childhood? Know specifically about how grammar use improves, as well as understanding of syntax, which phonemes are difficult?
Vocabulary continues to increase
Mastery of grammar improves
Passive voice increases
Ex: the dog was walked by john
Conditional sentences appear
EX: if i put away my blocks, daddy will read my favorite book
Phonemes that are difficult: j,v ,th, zh
how intonation is difficult for children to interpret
tone of voice can change meaning of sentence
what are the increases in pragmatic language development?
using gestures, how close you stand to a person, when to start and when to stop a conservation
how can language help self-control with regards to the marshmallow test?
Resisting temptation so they can get a bigger reward
4 year olds chose to look at marshmallows while waiting (this was not an effective strategy)
while 6-8 year olds used language to help overcome temptation by speaking and singing to themselves, reminding them that if they waited they would get more treats in the end. Thus children in this stage can use self-talk (language) not only to communicate but also to regulate their own behavior. The effectiveness of self-control grows as language skills increase
What is the difference between code-based and whole-language approaches to teaching about reading and which method is most recommended by reading experts?
Code-based approaches:
select words made up of letters and letter combinations representing the same sound in different words
Whole-language approaches:
Recognizing words as whole pieces of language, words function in relation to one another
National Reading Panel and National Research Council support reading instruction using code-based approaches
Know what an Intelligent Quotient is and how it’s calculated.
Calculation: Mental age/actual age X 100
Know about the three major current IQ tests, including which test is more flexible/fair for children with English as a second language.
Standford-Binet: administered orally, more difficult questions, no possible deviation from the test questions, cannot elaborate questions, or give extra information
Wechsler Intelligence Scale
Kaufman Assessment: more fair for children with English as a second language
What are problems concerning the standard IQ tests?
Poor predictors of later income and success
Iq test in favor of white, upper, class students
