Early childhood, 2-6 years old

Tendencies of growth

Tend to grow about 3 inches in height and gain 4-5 lbs each year as well as skeletal and motor coordination growth

Gender schema

Gender-based cognitive structure for organizing and processing information

Brain malnutrition

About 75% adult weight by 2 y/o and 95% by 6

• Myelination and the development of dendrites continues in the prefrontal cortex significantly

Toilet training

Typically occurs after 2 years old and 98% of them are trained by 36 months old

Appetite

Can decline due to slow growth

Common deficiencies

• Protein and iron (anemia)

• Calcium (nutrition)

What is poor diet associated with

Shorter stature, cognitive difficulties, and behavioral issues

Immunizations

Boosters at this age

Obesity

In 2015-16, 13.9% of 2-5 year olds were obese

• Disproportionately impacts children from low income families

Pre operational stage, 2-6

Gains in representational activity

• Symbols, pretend play, language development

Egocentrism

Only self perspective is taken into account

Animism

Giving objects life like properties

Centration

Focus on one limited aspect of a stimulus

Conservation error

Inability to understand that quality is unrelated to physical appearance

Classification error

Difficulty classifying objects in more than one way

Schemas

Assimilation and accommodation, fast mapping

3 years old skills

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Climbs well, runs easily, pedals a tricycle, walks up and down stairs

FINE MOTOR SKILLS

• Copies a circle, turn book pages, builds tower of 6+ blocks, screws/unscrews jar lids, and turns door handles

4 years old skills

GROSS

• Hops and stands on one foot for up to 2 seconds, catches a bounced ball most of the time

FINE

• Pours, cuts with supervision, and mashes own food, draws person with 2-4 body parts, uses scissors, and starts to copy capital letters

5 years old skills

GROSS

• Stands on one foot for 10+ seconds, hops and may be able to skip, can do a somersault, uses the toilet on their own, swings and climbs

FINE

• Draws with 6 body parts, can print some letters and numbers, triangles/other geometric shapes, forks, spoons, even table knives

Enuresis

Repeated voiding of urine into bed/clothes after 5 y/o

Encopresis

Repeated passage of feces into inappropriate places

Lack of reversability

Unable to reverse an action mentally

Centration

Thinking is centered/focused, on one aspect and neglecting others

Lack of hierarchical classification

Cant organize objects into classes/subclasses based on similarities and differences

Private speech, Vygotskys sociocultural

Children’s self directed speech. Not directed towards others but intended to help children regulate their own behavior, followed by inner speech (thoughts)

Zone of proximal development

Range of tasks too difficult to do alone but possible with help

Scaffolding

What you can do/learn by support

Information processing theory

Focus on contribution of factors, like attention and memory towards cognitive development

• Incoming info, sensory memory, STM/working memory, then rehearsing to LTM

Executive function of memory processing

Attention, maintenance rehearsal, and consolidation

Recogntion

Noticing that a stimulus is identical or similar to one that was seen before. 4-5 year olds perform this well

Recall

Generating a mental image of an absent stimulus

• Poorer than recognition and associated strongly with language development

Episodic memory

Scripts and autobiographical

Scripts

Descriptions of familiar, routine events

Autobiographical

Meaningful, one time events

Childrens understanding of the world

• Social intelligence of others mental states

• At 2-5 years old, children develop a theory of mind, the ability to think about other peoples thoughts

• Helps be empathetic, predict, be aware, and understand others in different ways

Fast mapping

Learning new words very quickly, often after first exposure

Recasts

Repeat something a child says with more detailed language or correction

Expansions

Adding more words to dhildren’s words to make it grammatically correct

Self esteem

Evaluate judgment about who we are

Initiative

• New sense of purposefulness

• Eagerness to try new tasks and join new activities

• Play promotes trying new skills

• Strides in conscious development

Guilt

• Overly strict superego/conscience, causing too much guilt

• Related to parental: Threats, criticism, punishment

• Children stop trying to master new tasks

Who influences gender socialization

Parents and peers, fathers do it more insistently

Authoritative/Permissive

Associated with the most favorable outcomes

Reciprocal/Bidirectional effects

More complex relationships with parenting styles and children’s development

Make believe play

• Detaches from real life conditions

• Become less self centered and more complex

Benefits if make believe play

• Executive functions

• Memory

• Logical reasoning

• Language and literacy

• Imagination and creativity

• Emotion regulation

• Taking in others perspectives

Unoccupied

Behavior seems more random, w/o specific goals, this is the least common form of play

Solitary

By themselves and not engaging/interacting with others

Onlooker

Only observe others play, but may comment/suggest

Parallel

Play alongside each other with similar things, but not playing directly together

Associative

Interact with each other snd play together, but NOT with a common goal

Cooperative

Work and play together, even on different tasks to achieve a common goal