Early Childhood

Enuresis

repeated involuntary urination atnight by children old enough to have bladder control

Symbolic Function

being able to think about something in the absence of sensory or motor cues

Deferred Imitation

children imitate an action at some point after observing it

Intuitive Thought

begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions

Transduction

they mentally link two events,especially events close in time, whether or not here is logically a causal relationship

Identities

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

Animism

tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive

Centration

the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others

Irreversibility

failure to understand that an action can go in two or more directions

Egocentrism

young children center so much on their own point of view that they cannot take in another’s

Conservation

the fact that two things are equal remain so if their appearance is altered,as long as nothing is added or taken away

Theory of Mind

the awareness of the broad range of human mental states – beliefs, intents, desires, dreams, and so forth – and the understanding that others have their own

Encoding

putting information in the memory

Storage

putting away in the filing cabinet where it is kept

Retrieval

searching for the information and take it out of the memory system

Sensory Memory

temporary storage for incoming sensory information

Working Memory

short-term storehouse for information a person is actively working on, trying to understand, remember, or think about

Long-Term Memory

storehouse of virtually unlimited capacity that holds information for long period of time

Phonological Loop

aids in the processing of verbal information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

maintains and manipulates visual information

Executive Function

the conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or to solve problems

Recognition

ability to identify something encountered before

Recall

ability to reproduce knowledge from memory

Generic Memory

begins at 2 years old, produces a script of a familiar, repeated event

Episodic Memory

refers to awareness of having experienced a particular event at a specific time and place

Autobiographical memory

refers to memories of distinctive experiences that form a person’s life history

Attention

defined as the focusing of mental resources on select information

Executive Attention

involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, etc.

Sustained Attention

focused and extended engagement with an object, tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances

Fast Mapping

allows a child to pick up approximate meaning of a new word after hearing it only once or twice in conversation

Syntax

a concept and involves the rules for putting together sentences in a particular language

Pragmatics

practical knowledge of how to use language to communicate

Social Speech

speech intended to be understood by a listener

Private Speech

talking aloud to oneself with no intent to communicate with other

Self-Esteem

self-evaluative part of the selfconcept, the judgement children make about their overall worth

Self-Concept

our total picture of our abilities and traits

Children whose self-esteem is contingen

on success tend to become demoralized when they fail

Children with noncontingent self-esteem

tend to attribute failure or disappointment to factors outside themselves or to the need to try harder

Emotional self-regulation

helps children guide their behavior and adjust their responses to meet societal expectations

Emotion-Coaching Parents

monitor their children’s emotions, view negative emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labelling emotions, and coach them in how to deal effectively with emotions

Emotion-Dismissing Parents

view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions

Social Emotions

involve a comparison of one’s self or one’s actions to social standards

Gender Identity

awareness of one’s femaleness or maleness and all it implies in one’s society of origin

Gender Differences

psychological or behavioral differences between males and females

Gender Roles

behaviors, interests, attitudes, skills, and personality traits that a culture considers appropriate for males or females

Gender-typing

the acquisition of gender role

Gender Stereotypes

preconceived generalizations about male or female behavior

Functional Play (Locomotor Play or Sensorimotor Play)

simplest level; begins during infancy, consisting of repeated practice in large muscular movements

Constructive Play (Object Play or Practice Play)

use of objects or materials to make something

Dramatic Play (Pretend Play, Fantasy Play, Imaginative Play)

involves imaginary objects, actions, or

Onlooker Behavior

child spends most time watching others play

Unoccupied Behavior

child does not seem to be playing but watches anything of momentary interest

Solitary Independent Play

child plays alone

Parallel Play

ays beside the other children independently

Associative Play

children talk, borrow, and lend toys, follow each other around and play similarly

Cooperative or Organized Supplementary Play

child plays in a group organized for some goal – to make something, play formal game, or dramatize a situation

Social Play

involves interaction with peers

Reticent Play

combination of Unoccupied and Onlooker categories is often a manifestation of shyness

Constructive play

combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation

Games

activities that children engage in for pleasure and that have rules

Gender Segregation

a phenomenon wherein girls tend to select other girls as playmates, and so boys

Discipline

refers to methods of molding character and of teaching self-control and acceptable behaviors

External Reinforcements

may be tangible or intangible; it must be seen as rewarding and received fairly consistently after showing desired behavior

Internal Reinforcements

a sense of pleasure or accomplishment

Corporal Punishment

the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child toexperience pain but not injury for thepurpose of correction or control of thechild’s behavior

Inductive Techniques

designed to encourage desirable behavior or discourage undesirablebehavior by settling limits, demonstratinglogical consequences of the action, explaining,discussing, etc.

Power Assertion

intended to stop or discourage undesirable behavior through physical or verbal enforcement

Withdrawal of Love

include ignoring, isolating, or showing dislike for a child

Physical Abuse

infliction of physical injury

Child Neglect

failure to provide child’s basic needs

Emotional Abuse

acts or omissions by parents or other caregivers that have caused or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, or emotional problems

Authoritarian

emphasizes control and unquestioning obedience, high control, low responsiveness

Permissive/Indulgent

make few demands, warm, noncontrolling, low control, high responsiveness

Authoritative

emphasizes child’s individuality but also stress limits, high control, high responsiveness

Neglectful or Uninvolved

parents neglect children; low control, low responsiveness

Altruism

motivation to help another person with no expectation of reward

Prosocial Behavior

voluntary, positive actions to help others

Instrumental Aggression

used aggression as a tool to gain access to a wanted object

Overt (Direct) Aggression

boys; tend to openly direct aggressive acts at a target

Relational Aggression

more subtle; indirect social aggression

Heteronomous Morality

children think of justice and rules as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people

Immanent Justice

the concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will happen immediately

Autonomous Morality

becomes aware with the rules and laws created by people, and in judging an action they consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences