Week 4: Development through the pre-school years

Question 1

What is the number one cause of death in preschool age? Give an example

Answer 1

Accidents.
I.e. drowning, automobile, choking

Question 2

What causes this age group to be in danger? 3 things

Answer 2

1) high levels of physical activity - they can’t be supervised all the time so it’s easy for them to get hurt
2) curiosity
3) lack of judgement for danger - they’re curious about things and don’t understand it’s danger; don’t understand their limits

Question 3

What is lead poisoning linked to? Why is it especially problematic at this age?

Answer 3

High levels of lead exposure are linked to antisocial behaviour, lower intelligence, and difficulty with processing.
Can cause illness and even death.
This age is a critical period of development because their brains are growing fast = irreversible damage

Question 4

What are potential sources of lead?

Answer 4

Old paint and ceramics, some types of toys with lead-based paints

Question 5

What are the 4 factors of brain growth at this age?

Answer 5

1) increase in connections being formed
2) corpus callosum becomes thicker / bigger, more connections
3) cerebellum has an increase of connections - it’s responsible for coordination of movement
4) lateralization improves - specific areas in the brain start doing specific function; it means a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other, in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function as compared to the other

Question 6

What are three things the left side of the brain does?

Answer 6

Speech, planning, problems dealt with one at a time / methodically

Question 7

What are three things the right side of the brain does?

Answer 7

Whole picture thinking
Music / drawing
Spatial - seeing the whole picture of a situation

Question 8

What gross motor skills have children mastered by this age?

Answer 8

Jumping, skipping, and

Question 8

What gross motor skills have children mastered by this age?

Answer 8

Jumping, skipping, and running
Climb stairs alternating feet
Balance on one foot

Question 9

What can a 3 year old not do when running?

Answer 9

Can’t stop or turn suddenly, because the connection with the cerebellum isn’t there yet

Question 10

How does climbing stairs differ between 3 and 4 years old?

Answer 10

At 3 they go downstairs two feet on each step at a time. By 4 they can walk downstairs alternating steps.

Question 11

What is the definition of a fine motor skills? Should this be focused on by a PT / OT before a gross motor skill?

Answer 11

Little muscles doing little movements.
No, need to teach larger movements then smaller movements

Question 12

Name the types of fine motor skills that most children have by age 3?

Answer 12

Can use buttons, zippers (for getting dressed, undressed to use the bathroom). Can draw small things like circles, squares

Question 13

Name an additional fine motor skill that children develop at age 4 and 5.

Answer 13

They can draw a more recognizable picture

Question 14

Symbolic functioning develops at this age. What is it?

Answer 14

They can use a symbol, like a toy car, and play with it an imagine they’re in a car. Or they can just talk about a car in a conversation. Or like a object, where they associate a car key with a car for example.

Question 15

What is the development / change in their language / thought process?

Answer 15

Because they are not in the here and now anymore, they can plan for something.
I.e. when they were younger, if they wanted ice cream they’d cry for it to be now. At this age, they can plan to have it at a later time.
They can also consider several possibilities, i.e. what flavour of ice cream they want.

Question 16

Preschoolers experience egocentrism. What does this mean? What are its two forms.

Answer 16

They don’t understand that others have different perspectives from their own.
It takes two forms:
- lack of awareness that others see things from a different physical perspective
- failure to realize that others may hold thoughts, feelings, and points of view that differ from theirs

Question 17

In this age there is the zone of proximal development. What does that mean?

Answer 17

They can almost complete a task on their own but need help to fully complete it

Question 18

What is the term used to help the child during his zone of proximal development? Give examples.

Answer 18

Scaffolding is a method where teachers offer a particular kind of support to students as they learn and develop a new concept or skill.
Examples:
1) plan: order the steps - tell them what to do in sequence
2) give them clues
3) demonstrate how to do things and then make them copy

Question 19

What social development happens?

Answer 19

They see special qualities in their peers - i.e. start realizing that they feel happy around a certain friend
Friendship is focused on completion of shared activities.
Play becomes more sophisticated and interactive.