7 physical and cognitive development in early childhood this multimedia product and its contents are...

7Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

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© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

• Changes in height and weight happen more slowly during early childhood.– Child adds about 2 – 3 inches and 6 pounds per year

• Steady progress in major locomotor skills– Running, jumping, skipping

• Manipulative skills improve but less so than major motor skills

Growth and Motor Development


Figure 7.1 Stages in Children’s Drawings

FIGURE TO COME


Figure 7.1 Stages in Children’s Drawings(continued)


• Growth of the Corpus Callosum

• Helps create functional specialization of left and right hemispheres

The Brain and Nervous System

Lateralization


Figure 7.2 Lateralization of Brain Function


• Reticular formation – Regulates attention and concentration

• Hippocampus – Transfer of information to long term memory

The Brain and Nervous SystemMyelinization


• 83% right-handed

• 14% left-handed

• 3% ambidextrous

• Appears very early in life

• Research suggests a genetic link

The Brain and Nervous System

Handedness


• Often eat less than when babies

• Food aversions surface

• Eating behaviors bring on family conflicts

• May not consume the majority of daily calories at mealtime

Health and WellnessEating patterns


• Each year, 4 – 6 bouts of brief sickness

• High levels of family stress more likely to produce sick children

• 25% of U.S. children under 5 have one accident in any one year requiring medical treatment

• More common among boys

Health and WellnessIllnesses and Accidents


• Physical or psychological injury resulting from an adult’s intentional exposure of a child to potentially harmful stimuli, sexual acts, or neglect

• Responsible for about 10% of emergency room visits

• Between 1% and 5% of children suffer physical abuse.

• 2000 infants and children die each year as the result of child abuse

Abuse and NeglectChild abuse


• Socio-cultural factors

– Personal or cultural values that regard physical abuse as morally acceptable

– Arise from cultural traditions of children as property

– Living in communities that support these beliefs increases abuse

Abuse and NeglectRisk factors


• Characteristics of the child– Physical or mental disabilities– Difficult temperaments

• Characteristics of the abuser– Depressed– Lacking in parenting skills and knowledge– History of abuse themselves– Substance abusers– Live-in male partners whose children are not theirs



• Family stress – Poverty– Unemployment– Interparental conflicts

• The presence of several factors in combination increases likelihood of abuse



• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Delays in all domains of development

• Children removed from the abusive situation appear to catch up

Abuse and NeglectConsequences of Abuse


Preventing abuse begins with education!

• Information to parents

• Parenting classes

• Identification of families at risk

• Protect children from further injury

Abuse and Neglect


• Increased proficiency in the use of symbols

• Still have difficulty thinking logically

• Centration – Child’s tendency to think of the world in

terms of one variable at a time

Cognitive ChangesPiaget’s Preoperational Stage


• Child’s tendency to look at things from his or her own perspective

• May create frustration in communication

• Piaget Three-mountain task – See Figure 7.3

Cognitive ChangesEgocentrism


Figure 7.3 Piaget’s Three Mountain Task


• Animism – The belief that inanimate objects are alive

• Irreversibility– The inability to mentally reverse actions or

ideas

• Inability to solve conservation tasks– See Figure 7.4

Cognitive ChangesPiaget’s Preoperational Stage


Figure 7.4 Piaget’s Conservation Tasks


• Children as young as 2 and 3 seem to have at least some ability to understand that another person sees things or experiences things differently than they do

• Flavell’s perspective-taking ability– Level One – child knows that other people experience

things differently: begins at 2 – 3 years

– Level Two –child develops a series of complex rules to figure out out precisely what the other person sees or experiences: begins at 4 – 5 years

Challenges to Piaget’s Views


• Young children do understand others’ emotions

• Can regulate their own emotions

• Appearance and Reality– Older children understand the same object

can be represented differently, depending on point of view

Challenges to Piaget’s Views


• Understanding thoughts, desires, and beliefs– 18 months – rudimentary beginnings

– Age 3 – some aspects of link between people’s thinking, feelings, and behavior

– Age 4 – basic principle that each person’s actions are based on their representation of reality

Theories of Mind


• 4 – 5 year olds– Can’t understand that others can think about them– Don’t understand that most knowledge can be

derived from inference (this understanding develops by age 6)

• 5 – 7 year olds– Understand reciprocal nature of thought

• False Belief Principle– Children can look at a problem from another’s point

of view and discern what information causes a person to believe something that isn’t true

Theories of Mind


• Influences on Development of a Theory of Mind

– Correlated with performance on Piaget’s tasks

– Pretend play

– Shared pretense with other children

– Discussion of emotion-provoking events with parents

– Language skills

– Some research suggests cross-cultural replication

Theories of Mind


• Neo-Piagetian Theories: Robbie Case– Short-term storage space (STSS)

• Refers to child’s working memory

– Operational efficiency• Limited number of schemes to which a child can attend

• Improves through practice and brain maturation

– Matrix Classification• Requires child to place a given stimulus in two categories

simultaneously

Alternative Theories of Early Childhood Thinking


Figure 7.5 Neo-Piagetian Matrix Task


• Metamemory– Knowledge about and control of memory

processes.• 2 – 6 year olds have poor strategies for memory

• Metacognition– Knowledge about and control of thought

processes• Enables the child to generate strategies to solve

problems

Alternative Theories of Early Childhood ThinkingInformation Processing Theories


• Stages of Cognitive Development– Primitive stage

• Infant possesses mental processes “similar to animals”• Learns primarily through conditioning

– Naïve psychology stage• Learns to use language to communicate but does not

understand symbols– Private Speech stage

• Uses language as a guide to solve problems• Internalized by 6-7

– Ingrowth stage• Logical thinking results from internalization of speech

acquired from children and adults in a social world

Alternative Theories of Early Childhood ThinkingVygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory


• Fast-mapping– Occurs about age 3

– Ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents

– Rapidly form a hypothesis about a new word’s meaning

Changes in Language


• Inflections– Additions that change meaning– Earliest inflection in English is the addition of –ing: “Where

going?”

• Questions and Negatives– Use particular sets of rules

• Overregularization– Using rules when they don’t apply

• Complex sentences– Use conjunctions to combine two ideas or using imbedded

clauses

Grammar Explosion


• A child’s sensitivity to sound patterns that are specific to a language

• Awareness of sounds being represented by letters– Can be learned in school through formal instruction

– The greater a child’s phonological awareness, the faster s/he learns to read

– Primarily develops through word play• Nursery rhymes• Games involving repetitive words• Invented spelling – attempting to write

Phonological Awareness


Figure 7.6 Invented Spelling


• Alfred Binet – Identify children who might have difficulty in school

• Lewis Terman– Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

• Mental age/chronological age x 100 = IQ• 2/3 of children exhibit an IQ between 85 and 115

• Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children – Verbal scales– Performance scales– Working memory scales

Differences in IntelligenceMeasuring Intelligence


Figure 7.7 The Normal Curve


• Stability and Predictive Value of IQ Scores– Correlation between IQ score and future grades is

about .50 – .60

– Consistent relationship within social classes and racial groups

– IQ scores are quite stable

– BUT IQ tests do not measure underlying competence

Differences in Intelligence


• Heredity– Twin and adoption studies show strong influence of heredity

• Family Influences– Adoption studies also provide support for environmental

influences• Children adopted in higher social class homes had higher IQ

scores– Parents of higher social class provide interesting and complex

learning environments• Age-appropriate play materials• Warm and appropriate responses to behavior• Quick in answering questions• Talk to children often• Avoid being excessively restrictive, punitive, or controlling

Origins of Individual Differences in Intelligence


• Formal education programs help• Head Start aids poor children and supports

intellectual development– Provide intellectual stimulation

– Help children to acquire new vocabulary

– Children show a gain of about 10 IQ points

– Long term impact on children• Less likely to be placed in special education, repeat a grade

• More likely to graduate high school

Origins of Individual Differences in IntelligencePreschool Influences


Figure 7.8 Early Education and IQ Scores


• Chinese and Japanese children– Demonstrate higher performance on achievement tests

• African American children consistently score lower than white children.– Differences appear to be narrowing

– Fall within the reaction range of scores possible with different environments

– May reflect poverty differences

– Mixed-race adoptions studies support environmental influence

– Flynn Effect: over last two centuries IQ scores have increased in all groups; argues for environmental effects

Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores


• Piaget sees the child as the little scientist who works on her own to discover knowledge. Vygotsky suggests children learn from skilled social partners in a social setting. Which theory or combination describes children the best? Why?

• What makes Head Start a successful program?

Questions to Ponder

7 physical and cognitive development in early childhood this multimedia product and its contents are...

Documents

physical abuse

riskprotect children

right hemispheresthe

result of child abuseabuse

cultural values

nervous systemhandednessoften

nervous systemmyelinization83

likelihood of abuseabuse