Early Childhood

Physical Development: Key Highlights

Bodily Growth and Change

Sleep Patterns and Problems

Sleep terror: The abrupt awakening of a child or adult from deep sleep in a state of panic, usually about one hour after falling asleep. The person typically remembers nothing about the episode in the morning. Also known as a nightterror.

Enuresis: Repeated urination in clothing or in bed.

Physical Development: Key Highlights

Motor Skills

Gross motor skills: Physical skills that involve the large muscles.

Fine motor skills: Physical skills that involve the small muscles and eye-hand coordination.

Systems of action: Increasingly complex combinations of skills, which permit a wider or more precise range of movement and more control of the environment.

Handedness: Preference for using a particular hand.

I. PIAGET: THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD

Preoperational stage: In Piaget’s theory, the second major stage of cognitive development in which children become more sophisticated in their use of symbolic thought but are not yet able to use logic.

Cognitive Development

Advances of Preoperational Thought

The Symbolic Function

Symbolic function: Piaget’s term for ability to use mental representations (words, numbers, or images) to which a child has attached meaning.

Deferred imitation: Imitation of an action at a later time, based on a mental representation of the observed action.

Pretend Play: Play involving imaginary people and situations.

Understanding of Objects in Space

Understanding of Causality

Transduction: In Piaget’s terminology, a preoperational child’s tendency to mentally link particular experiences, whether or not there is logically a causal relationship.

Familiar settings helps advance causality.

Understanding of Identities and Categorization

Identities: The concept that people and many things are basically the same even if they change in form, size, or appearance.

Animism: Tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive.

“The cloud is smiling at me!”

Familiarity increases accuracy.“I know that a person is alive and that the kitchen table is

not alive.”

Immature Aspects of Preoperational Thought

Egocentrism: Piaget’s term for the inability to consider anotherperson’s point of view.

Three-mountain task: A child sits facing a table that holds three large mounds, with a doll in the opposite chair. The child is asked how the “mountains” would look to the doll.

Conservation: Piaget’s term for the awareness that two objects that are equal according to a certain measure remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added to or taken away from either object.

Irreversibility: Piaget’s term for a preoperational child’s failure to understand that an operation can go in two or more directions.

Focus on successive states: In Piaget’s theory, the tendency for preoperational children to focus on the end states rather than the transformations from one state to another.

Do Young Children Have Theories of Mind?

Theory of mind: Awareness and understanding of mental processes.

Knowledge about Thinking and Mental States

False Beliefs and Deception

What do you think is in the Crayon box?Crayons!

What is actually in the Crayon box?Candy!

What do you think Joe will say is in the Crayon box?

Candy!

Distinguishing Between Appearance and Reality

Distinguishing Between Fantasy and Reality

In What Order Do Theory-of-Mind Abilities Develop?

Influences on Individual Differences in Theory of MindDevelopment

II. INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH:MEMORY DEVELOPMENT

Basic Processes and Capacities

Encoding: Process by which information is prepared for long-term storage and later retrieval.

Storage: Retention of memories for future use.

Retrieval: Process by which information is accessed or recalled from memory storage.

Sensory Store: the very brief storage of sensory information and is the first stage of memory processing.

Short-Term (Working) Memory: the temporary storage of recent events.

3 main components:

Phonological loop: which stores and rehearses speech information.

Visuospatial sketchpad: stores and manipulates visual and spatial information.

Central Executive: governs shifts of attention.

Long-term memory: a relatively permanent storage of mostly meaningful information.

Recognition: Ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus.

Recall: Ability to reproduce material from memory.

Forming Childhood Memories

Generic: Produces ‘scripts’ –general outlines of repeated and familiar events.

Episodic: Remembering a specific event at a specific time.

Autobiographical: Memories that form a person’s life history; tend to be specific and long-lasting.

Children as Eyewitnesses

Effective strategies in interviewing young children…

Use of simple questions.Maintenance of a non-threatening atmosphere during the interview.Avoidance of suggestions or pressure.Schedule the interview as soon as is reasonable after the event.

Social Interaction, Culture, and Memory

Social interaction model: A model, based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, which proposes that children construct autobiographical memories through conversation with adults about shared events.

III. INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests: attempt to measure an individual’s probable performance in school and similar settings.

Stanford-Binet IQ test The average IQ score for all age groups is designated as 100. Items are ordered by difficulty and classified by age level.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) The Verbal Comprehension Index

The Perceptual Reasoning Index

The Working Memory Index

Processing Speed

Intelligence: a combination of general abilities and practiced skill.

IV. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Vocabulary

Fast mapping: Process by which a child absorbs the meaning of a new word after hearing it once or twice in conversation.

Grammar and Syntax

Children start using plurals, possessives, and past tense.Know the difference between I, you, and we.Most sentences are declarative.

I want this. I did this.Errors with irregular verbs.

Holded instead of held

I. THE DEVELOPING SELF

The Self-Concept and Cognitive Development

Changes in Self-Definition: The 5 to 7 Shift

Self-definition: Cluster of characteristics used to describe oneself.

1. Single representations: First stage in development of self-definition, in which children describe themselves in terms of individual, unconnected characteristics and in all-or-nothing terms. “I can climb trees and I can count to 100.” “I have a mother and a father and a sister and I like chocolate cake.” “You can’t be happy and scared.”

Psychosocial Development

Children can’t differentiate between their…

Real self (self-concept): Knowledge of who you really are.

And their…

Ideal self: Knowledge of who you would like to be or thinkyou should be.

2. Representational mappings: Second stage in development of self-definition, in which a child makes logical connections between aspects of the self but still sees these characteristics in all-or-nothing terms.

“I can throw far, run fast, and jump high. I’m going to be on a basketball team someday.”

3. Representational systems: Third stage in developmentof self-definition, in which a child begins to integrate specific features of the self into a general, multidimensional conceptand to articulate a sense of self-worth.

“I’m good at math, but not very good at reading.”

Cultural Differences in Self-DefinitionParents transmit cultural ideas and beliefs about

how to define the self.

Chinese parents encourage:Compliance with authority Sense of communityEuropean-American parents encourage:Individuality and self-expressionSelf-esteem

Self-esteem: The judgment a person makes about his or her self-worth.

Erikson: Initiative Versus Guilt

Initiative versus Guilt: Erikson’s third crisis in psychosocial development, in which children balance the urge to pursue goals with moral reservations that may prevent carrying them out.

Purpose: In Erikson’s third crisis, the courage to envision and pursue Goals without being excessively inhibited by guilt or fear of punishment.

Virtue attained…

Understanding and Regulating EmotionsEmotions Directed Toward the Self

Ability to recognize…Guilt, Shame, Pride

Begins to develop around age 3 through a gradual

progression to age 8.

II. GENDER

Gender identity: Awareness, developed in early childhood, that one is male or female.

Gender differences: Psychological or behavioral differences between males and females.

Sex differences: physical differences between males and females.

Different from…

Often developed through…

Identification: the process in which children attempt to be similar to their same-sex parent, incorporating the parent’s attitudes and values.

Gender stereotypes: Preconceived generalizations about male or female role behavior.

Biological Approach

There are similar gender roles in many cultures.Genetic, hormonal, and neurological evidence.Gender reassignment often fails.

Cognitive Approach

Children classify themselves as male or female. Adopt behaviors they perceive as consistent with their gender.Develop Schemas of what it means to be male or female.

Socialization-Based Approach

Family, Peer, and Cultural Influences

Perspectives on Gender Development

III. PLAY: THE BUSINESS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

Cognitive Levels of Play

Functional play: the lowest cognitive level of play, involving repetitive muscular movements.

Constructive play: the second cognitive level of play, involving use of objects or materials to make something.

Pretend play: the third cognitive level of play, involving imaginary people or situations.

Formal games with rules: the fourth cognitive level of play,involving organized games with known procedures and penalties, such as hopscotch and tag.

The Social Dimension of Play

How Gender and Culture Influence Play

Parallel play: action in which children play with similar toys,in a similar manner, but do not interact with each other.

Onlooker play: action in which children simply watch othersat play, but do not actually participate themselves.

Associative play: play in which two or more children actuallyinteract with one another by sharing or borrowing toys ormaterials, although they do not do the same thing.

Cooperative play: play in which children genuinely interactwith one another, taking turns, playing games or devisingcontests.

Power assertion: Disciplinary strategy designed to discourage undesirable behavior through physical or verbal enforcement of parental control.

Inductive techniques: Disciplinary techniques designed to induce desirable behavior by appealing to a child’s sense of reason and fairness.

Withdrawal of love: Disciplinary strategy that may involve ignoring, isolating, or showing dislike for a child.

Psychological aggression: Verbal attacks on a child by aparent that may result in psychological harm.

Forms of Discipline

IV. PARENTING AND CHILD BEHAVIOR

Parenting Styles

Authoritarian: relentlessly imposing rules and demanding obedience.

Permissive: parenting style emphasizing self-expression and self-regulation.

Authoritative: have rules and control, but explain why it is necessary in a loving and caring way.

Uninvolved: do whatever you want.

Prosocial Behavior vs. Altruism

Prosocial behavior: Any voluntary behavior intended to help others.

Altruism: Any voluntary behavior intended to help others out of inner concern and without the expectation of an external reward.

Aggression

Instrumental aggression: Aggressive behavior used as a means of achieving a goal.

Hostile aggression: Action intended to hurt another person.

Overt aggression: Aggression that is openly directed at its target.

Relational aggression: Aggression aimed at damaging or interfering with another person’s relationships, reputation, or psychological well-being.

Sources of Aggression: Nature and Nurture

FearfulnessSystematic desensitization: Therapeutic technique involving gradual exposure to a feared object or situation.