Chapter 7Development Across the Lifespan

The Preschool Years: Physical and Cognitive Development

What’s going on to effect development during the preschool years (ages 3 thru 6)?

• Preschool!– The start of intellectual and social interaction – Practice/preparation for child’s formal education

* TREMENDOUS growth and change during this period!

– physical • (weight, height, nutrition, health, physical

brain changes, motor skills)– Cognitive

• (intellectual development, language)

Physical Growth…

The Growing Body

• Preschool age children’s physical abilities advance significantly (compared to infancy stage)

• Children grow steadily during the preschool period

Physical Development: Gaining Height & Weight

The figures show the median point for boys & girls at each age (50% of children above this point, 50% below)

These averages mask individual differences in height & weight

– By the age of 6, boys are taller and heavier, on average, than girls.

– There are profound differences in height and weight between children in economically developed countries and those in developing countries. WHY?

• Nutrition, healthcare– Differences in height and weight also reflect

economic factors within the U.S.• Children whose families are below the poverty level are

among the shortest of all preschool age children

Changes in body shape and structure occur during the preschool years

A. Boys and girls become less chubby and roundish and more slender (no more potbelly!).

B. Arms and legs lengthen. C. Children grow stronger as muscle size

increases and bones become sturdier. D. The sense organs continue to develop.E. Body proportions are more similar to those of

adults (relationship between head and body more adultlike).

Nutritional needs change during the preschool years

(& effect development!).

• The growth rate slows during this age, thus preschoolers need less food to maintain their growth.

• Encouraging children to eat more than they want to, may lead to increased food intake.

(Nutrition during the preschool years, continued)

Increased food intake may lead to OBESITY, (defined as a body weight more than 20 % higher than the average weight for a person of a given age and height;

a. Obesity is more common among older preschoolers than it was 20 years ago

b. Obesity is brought about by both biological (genetics, responsiveness to sweets) and social factors (parental encouragement).

It is important not to force children to eat too much in the mistaken belief that they need more

food!

• Children tend to be quite adept at maintaining an appropriate intake of food.

• The best strategy is to ensure a variety of foods, low in fat and high in nutritional content.

• Children should be given the opportunity to develop their own natural preferences for foods (no one food is indispensable!)

Health & Illness during the preschool years

• The majority of children in the United States are reasonably healthy.

• For the average American child, the common cold is the most frequent, and most severe, illness.

• The proportion of children immunized in the U.S. has fallen during some portions of the last two decades.

Recommended immunization schedule (American Assn. Of Pediatrics). In text…

Although physical illness is typically a minor problem during the preschool years, more children are being treated for emotional disorders

• The use of drugs such as antidepressants and stimulants doubled and tripled between 1991 and 1995

• Reason for increase is unclear– Quick fix for behavioral problems

& normal developmental difficulties?

~Therapy is beginning to replace drugs as the treatment of choice!

Numbers of Preschool Children Taking Medication for Behavioral Problems

Injuries: The Dangers that Preschoolers Face

The danger of injuries during the preschool years is in part a result of children's high levels of physical activity (they can get around on their own now!).

– Poison, drowning in tub/pools, falls, burns Some children are more apt to take risks than

others, leading to more injury– Boys have higher injury rates.

Economic and ethnic differences exist in injury rates.

– Living in poverty environment = 2x higher risk– Cultural differences in supervision, gender roles

The Consequences of Lead Poisoning

High levels of lead have been linked to higher levels of antisocial behavior, including aggression & delinquency in school-age children.

Another factor effecting development during the preschool years: Brain Growth

The brain grows at a faster rate than any other part of the body!

• By age 5, children's brains weigh 90 % of average adult brain weight.

• Brain growth is so rapid because of the increase in the number of interconnections among cells, and the increase in myelin (the protective insulation that surrounds parts of neurons).

The 2 halves of the brain begin to become more differentiated and

specialized• The left hemisphere focuses on verbal

competence (speaking, thinking), and considers information sequentially (focus

on parts). • The right hemisphere concentrates on

nonverbal areas (spatial relations, music, emotional expression), and considers information more globally (focus on wholes).

(Brain lateralization continued)

• The two hemispheres of the brain act in tandem (work together) despite specialization of hemispheres (they are interdependent, not independent)

• This specialization is studied using MRI’s and the lateralization pattern is true for most people

These scans show how different parts of the brain are activated during certain tasks, illustrating the increasing specialization of the brain.

Looking Into the Brain…

(Brain lateralization continued)

• There are many individual differences in the nature of lateralization, and in relation to gender and culture.

– Males show greater lateralization of language in the left hemisphere, whereas for females, language is more evenly divided between the two hemispheres. (This may account for why female's language development proceeds at a more rapid rate during early childhood.)

(Brain lateralization continued)

The differences in lateralization between males and females may be attributed to both genetic (corpus callosum differences—larger in women) and environmental factors (girls typically receive greater verbal encouragement).

(nature vs. nurture again!)

Links Between Brain Growth & Cognitive Development…

• Neuroscientists are just beginning to understand how brain development effects cognitive development.– It seems that there are periods of

childhood during which the brain shows unusual growth spurts which have been linked to advances in cognitive ability.•Spurts at age 1 ½ to 2 years of age: linked to language increases

Brain Growth Spurt

Graph shows that brain activity increases drastically during 1 ½-2 years of age when language dramatically increases

Motor Development in the Preschool Years (ages 3—6)

• Both gross and fine motor skills become increasingly fine-tuned during this age.

– Preschoolers' level of activity is extraordinarily high.

– According to research, the activity level at age 3 is higher than at any other point in the lifespan!• (Eaton & Yu, 1989; Poest et al. 1990)

(Motor Development in the Preschool Years continued)

Girls and boys differ in certain aspects of motor development.

• Boys, because of increased muscle strength, tend to be somewhat stronger.

• Girls tend to surpass boys in tasks of dexterity or those involving the coordination of limbs.

Some major gross motor skills in early childhood

• Hopping• Skipping• Running• Throwing

(see table ; emphasizes how gross motor skills improve with time)

Fine Motor Skills are also developing during this period

• Using utensils to eat • Cutting things with scissors • Tying shoelaces • Drawing shapes• Puzzles

– Require much more practice than gross motor skills!

A final component of motor development: Handedness

• Preference begins in infancy, but more finalized in the preschool years

• Most preschool children show a clear preference for the use of one hand over another - the development of HANDEDNESS.

(Handedness Continued)

– 90 % of preschoolers are right-handed

– more boys than girls are left-handed (so there IS a gender difference)

• There is no scientific basis for myths that suggest there is something wrong with being left-handed.

Intellectual Development In the Preschool Years

• How do the dramatic advances in intellectual development that begin during the preschool years take place?

• We will consider several different explanations…

Cognitive Changes that occur during the preschool years: Intellectual Development

Piaget's Stage of Preoperational Thinking

• Piaget saw the preschool years as a time of both stability and great change.

• Preschoolers are in the PREOPERATIONAL STAGE, from age 2 to 7

– characterized by symbolic thinking– Mental reasoning emerges, use of concepts– Less dependence on sensorimotor activity

for understanding the world

(Piaget's Stage of Preoperational Thinking continued)

• A key aspect of preoperational thought is symbolic function ( the ability to use symbols, words, or an object to represent something that is not physically present).

– Using word duck as a symbol for an actual duck

– Understanding that a toy duck represents an actual duck

• Symbolic function is directly related to language acquisition.

The relationship between language and thought

• For Piaget, language and thinking are interdependent (advances in language during the preschool period = advances in thinking)

• Language allows preschoolers to represent actions symbolically.

• Language allows children to think beyond the present to the future.

• Language can be used to consider several possibilities at the same time

• Do improved language abilities in preschoolers lead to improvements in thinking ability, or is it the reverse? A controversial question in the field of psychology!

• Addressing the question if thought determines language or if language determines thought, Piaget argued that language grows out of cognitive advances (more sophisticated thinking patterns)

Another aspect of intellectual development during the

preoperational period (according to Piaget): C ENTRATION - the process of concentrating

on one limited aspect of a stimulus and ignoring other aspects (buttons)

• a major characteristic of preoperational thought

• the major limitation of this period because it leads to inaccuracy of thought.

• The cause of the children’s mistake is allowing the visual image to dominate their thinking (appearance is everything!)

)

Centration: What You See is What You Think

Which row contains more buttons? Preschoolers usually say that the bottom row has more because it looks longer.

(an example of conservation of number, which we will discuss)

Another aspect of intellectual development during Piaget’s preoperational period…

Egocentrism, the inability to take the perspective of others

• EGOCENTRIC THOUGHT, thinking that does not take into account the viewpoint of others, takes two forms:

1) Lack of awareness that others see things from different physical perspectives.

2) Failure to realize that others may hold thoughts, feelings, and points-of-view different from one's own.

(EGOCENTRIC THOUGHT, continued)

• Not intentional/inconsiderate—just lack of understanding that everyone doesn’t view things like them!

• Egocentrism is at the root of many preschool behaviors, for example, talking to oneself and hiding games (if I can’t see you, then you must not be able to see me!).

More about intellectual development during Piaget’s preoperational period

• Preschoolers are unable to understand the notion of TRANSFORMATION

( the process in which one state is changed into another - because they ignore the intermediate steps [ inability to understand/fill in sequences of change] )

– Pencil; slugs crawling

The Falling Pencil & Transformation

Children in the preoperational period are not able to understand the successive transformations that the pencil follows. They cannot see the intermediary steps.

A number of advances in thought

occur in the preoperational stage. 1) INTUITIVE THOUGHT – (ages 4-7) the use of

primitive reasoning and avid acquisition of knowledge about the world; simply put: CURIOSITY

– Leads children to think they know all the answers for how the world operates, but no logical basis yet

(advances in thought occur in the preoperational stage, continued)

2) Children begin to understand functionality - the concept that actions, events and outcomes are related to one another in fixed patterns.

• Pushing pedals moves bike faster, remote button changes channels on TV

(advances in thought occur in the preoperational stage, continued)

3) They begin to understand the concept of identity - that certain things stay the same regardless of changes in shape, size and appearance

• Clay stretched out is the same amount of clay rolled into a ball

According to Piaget, understanding identity necessary for children to develop an understanding of conservation (which is required for the child to transition to the next stage in his theory)

Conservation: Learning that Appearances are Deceiving

• Preschoolers do not understand CONSERVATION - the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects

Types of Conservation Problems• Number

– Rearranging elements– The type of conservation

task grasped the earliest!• Substance

– Altering shape (clay, water)

• Length– Altering shape,

configuration

• Area– Rearranging

figures• Weight

– Altering shape

• Volume– Altering

shape (water in container)

Evaluating Piaget’s Approach to Cognitive Development

• Critics of Piaget's theory argue that he seriously underestimated children's capabilities.

– They argue that cognition develops in a continuous manner, not in stages.

– They believe that training can improve performance in conservation tasks.

– They also argue that Piaget focused too much on the deficiencies of young children's thought.

Information-Processing Approaches to

Cognitive Development

• View information processing as changing during the preschool years

• 2 domains of cognitive development focused on :

1) Understanding of numbers 2) Memory development

(Information-Processing Approaches to Cognitive Development, continued)

Understanding of numbers Information-processing theorists consider

preschoolers understanding of numbers as sophisticated (although not totally firm)

• The average preschooler is able not only to count, but to do so in a fairly systematic, consistent manner (aware that one number goes with each item, although may get names wrong).

• By age 4, most can do simple addition and subtraction and compare quantities.

(Information-Processing Approaches to Cognitive Development, continued)

Memory development• AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY,

memory of particular events from ones‘ own life, is not very accurate until after three.

• Preschoolers‘ autobiographical memories fade, they may not be accurate (depending when they are assessed), and they are susceptible to suggestions

(Memory Development in Information-Processing Approaches, continued)

• Preschoolers have difficulty describing certain information and oversimplify recollections which may have implications for eye witness testimony.

• Young children are susceptible to suggestions from adults.

• Questioning children right after the event and outside the courtroom may produce more accurate recollections.

The information processing approach to understanding Cognitive Development

• According to information-processing approaches, cognitive development consists of gradual improvements in the ways people perceive, understand and remember.

• Preschoolers begin to process information with greater sophistication.

• They have longer attention spans, attend to more than one dimensions of an object and can better monitor what they are attending to.

Information processing provides a clear, logical, and full account of cognitive development.

• Reliance on well-defined processes that can be tested is one of this perspective's most important features.

But, there are some criticisms…• Information processing theorists pay little

attention to social and cultural factors. • Information processing theorists pay too

much attention to detailed, individual sequence of processes that they never paint a whole, comprehensive picture of cognitive development.

Vygotsky's View of Cognitive Development: Taking Culture

into Account

Culture and societies influence cognitive development.

• Cognition proceeds because of social interactions where partners jointly work to solve problems (contrasts with Piaget’s emphasis on individual figuring things out alone).

Cognition proceeds because of social interactions where partners jointly work to solve problems…

• The partnership is determined by cultural and societal factors– Institutions that promote

development (play groups, preschools)

– Emphasizing certain tasks (school, work)

According to Vygotsky, children's cognitive abilities increase when information is provided within their ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD), the level at which a child can almost, but not fully, perform a task independently, but can do so with the assistance of someone more competent..

Sample Zones of Proximal Development (ZPD) for Two Children

The two children have similar performances on task completed without assistance. With assistance, their performance improves. The second child improves even more, and therefore has a larger ZPD.

(Vygotsky’s ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD), continued)

• The assistance provided by other is called SCAFFOLDING, the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth.

• The aid that more accomplished individuals provide to learners comes in the form of cultural tools ( the actual physical items such as pencils, paper, calculators, and computers)

• Vygotsky's view has become increasingly influential in the last decade.

• It helps explain a growing body of research attesting to the importance of social interaction in promoting cognitive development.

Criticisms…• The zone of proximal development is not

precise and not easily testable. • His theory is silent on how basic cognitive

functions such as attention and memory develop.

The Growth of Language and Learning During the Preschool Years: Language Development

• During the preschool years, language skills become more sophisticated

• Young children begin this period with reasonably good linguistic (language) capabilities, but gaps in both language production (speech) and comprehension (understanding)

• By the end of the preschool years, they can hold their own with adults—language skills develop

(Language Development, continued)

• Between late twos and mid-threes, sentence length increases.

• SYNTAX (the ways words and phrases are combined to make sentences) doubles each month.

(Language Development, continued)

• By age three, children use plurals and possessive forms of nouns (boys/boy's), employ the past tense (adding -ed), use articles (the/a), and can ask and answer complex questions ("Where did you say my book is?").

Illustrates the acquisition of some of the rules of Language and supports Chomsky's claims of an inborn ability to find grammatical structure.

wugs

(Language Development, continued)

• By six, the average child has a vocabulary of 14,000 words.

• Preschoolers begin to acquire the principles of GRAMMAR, the system of rules that determine how our thoughts can be expressed .

Some more aspects of language development during the preschool years… Preschoolers engage mostly in

PRIVATE SPEECH, speech by children that is spoken and directed to themselves.

• Vygotsky argues that private speech facilitates children's thinking, helps them control their behavior, solve problems and reflect (private speech = cognitive development)

• 20 to 60 % of what children say is private speech

(language development during the preschool years continued)

• SOCIAL SPEECH (speech directed toward another person and meant to be understood by that person) increases.

– Children speak to others rather than babbling/speaking to self

– Want others to listen– Become frustrated when unable to make

themselves understood– Adapt their speech to others

The language children hear at home significantly influences their language

development.

• Hart and Risley (1995) researched the effects of poverty on language.

How?

Studied the language patterns used by parents of different economic levels as they interacted with their children over a 2 year period

Hart and Risley (1995) found:

• Economic level was a significant factor in the amount of parental interactions, types of language children were exposed to, and kinds of language used.

• Poverty was also related to lower IQ scores by age five

• The longer children lived in poverty, the more severe the consequences

Differential Language Exposure

Parents at different economic levels provide different language experiences. Professional parents and working parents direct more words toward their children than welfare parents? Why could this be so?

Television: Learning From the Media

• Average preschooler watches 20 to 30 hours of TV a week!

• Consequences of TV viewing are unclear. • Children do not fully understand the plots. • They may have difficulty separating fantasy

from reality. • Some information is well understood by young

viewers, i.e. facial expressions. • Yet, much of what is viewed is not

representative of events in the real world.

Television Time

Television may be harnessed to facilitate cognitive growth.

• Sesame Street is the most popular educational program in U.S.

• Viewers had significantly larger vocabularies.

• Lower income viewers were better prepared for school, scored higher on tests of cognitive ability, and spent more time reading.

Television: learning from the media?

• Critics of Sesame Street suggest that viewers may be less receptive to traditional modes of teaching.

• There are difficulties in assessing the effects of educational viewing, (e.g. the effects may be related to parenting).

**BUT overall the results of watching sesame street seem to be positive +

Early Childhood Education • 3/4 of children in U.S. are enrolled in

some kind of care outside the home.• Implicit or explicit teaching of skills

• Major factor is working parents. • Evidence suggests that children can

benefit from early educational activities.

– “good” preschools = clear cognitive and social benefits according to developmental psychologists

There are a variety of early education programs.

• DAY CARE CENTERS are places that typically provide care for children all day, while their parents work.

– Some are home-care. – Others are provided by organized

institutions• Community centers, churches,

synagogues,etc.• Often more stable/regulated.

(early education programs, continued)

• PRESCHOOLS (“nursery schools” provide care for several hours a day, and are designed primarily to enrich the child's development.

– More limited time (only 3-5 hours per day)

– Mainly serve those in middle and higher socioeconomic levels• Montessori preschools

(early education programs, continued)

• SCHOOL DAY CARE is a child-care facility provided by some local school systems in the United States– About ½ the states in U.S. fund

prekindergarten programs– Often targeted at

disadvantaged children– Often high quality care

Care Outside the Home

About 75% of children in the U.S. are enrolled in some form of care outside the home.

There are pros and cons of attending early education programs

Advantages include increases in :

• verbal fluency• memory and

comprehension tasks• self-confidence• independence• knowledge about the

social world

Disadvantages found include children being

• less polite• less compliant• less respectful of

adults • sometimes more

competitive and aggressive.

The key factor in determining the effects of early education programs is quality.

• Well-trained care providers. • Overall size of the group and the child-care

provider ratio. • Curriculum. ~ No one knows how many programs in the U.S.

can be considered high quality, but there are far fewer than desired!

• The U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations in the quality, affordability, and availability of childcare.

Preschools Around the World

• In France & Belgium, access to preschool is a legal right!

• In Sweden & Finland, preschool care is provided automatically if needed

• Russia has an extensive childcare system

~This contrasts with the U.S., which has no national policy on preschool education or the general care of children!

The Purpose of Preschool

The main purpose of preschool is very different in different cultures!

In the United States, preschools are viewed as important in making children independent and giving them a good start.

The best-known program designed to promote future academic success is Head Start

• Designed to serve the "whole child", including physical health, self-confidence, social responsibility, and social andemotional development.

Is Head start successful?

• Success is controversial!• Although graduates of Head StartTend to show immediate IQ gains,

these increases do not last.

• BUT participants are more ready for future schooling and have better

scholastic adjustment(spend less time in special education,

less likely to be held back)

Should we seek to improve cognitive skills during the preschool years?

Developmental psychologist David Elkind argues that U.S. society tends to push children so rapidly that they begin to feel stress and pressure at a young age.

• Better to provide an environment where learning is encouraged, not pushed.

• Children require developmentally appropriate educational practice, based on both typical development and the unique characteristics of a given child.

BUT…• Pushing children to succeed may

only be overdone in middle and higher socioeconomic groups, where more resources are available

• For poorer children, the benefits of formalized early learning programs probably outweigh the drawbacks

(can compensate for lack of economic resources and less stimulating home environments)

DON’T fOrGet:

• Keep up with your reading!