Child Development and Play Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the stages of child development, types of play, language acquisition theories, and developmental domains as presented in the lecture notes.

Child Development

The scientific, usually naturalistic study made by expert observers of children's challenging abilities and characteristics within constant social contexts.

Maturation

Changes in children due to a genetic plan.

Learning

Changes in children due to experiences.

Infancy

The developmental stage from birth to $2\,yrs$ involving dramatic changes in motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities, and the development of language.

Early Childhood

The developmental stage from $2\,yrs$ to $6\,yrs$ where thought and language expand, and morality becomes evident.

Later Childhood

The developmental stage from $6\,yrs$ to $12\,yrs$ characterized by improvements in athleticism, logical thought, literature, and friendships.

Adolescence

The stage from $12\,yrs$ to $20\,yrs$ acting as a bridge between childhood and adulthood where an adult-sized body develops and personal values are defined.

Cognitive Development

The domain of development focusing on thinking and intellectual processes, including attention, memory, knowledge, problem solving, and creativity.

Bioecological Model

Bronfenbrenner's (1989) model that recognizes humans bring their biological selves into development and that social contexts function as interacting ecosystems.

Play

Considered the 'work' of children; activities done for self-amusement and internal rewards that are spontaneous and child-directed.

Guided Play

The middle ground of play where adults support the activity but the child explores freely.

Unoccupied Play

Parten's stage ($0-2\,yrs$) involving random movement and observation without a clear goal.

Solitary Play

Parten's stage ($2-2.5\,yrs$) where a child plays alone, building independence.

Parallel Play

Parten's stage ($2.5-3.5\,yrs$) where a child plays near others but not with them, with no social interaction.

Associative Play

Parten's stage ($3.5-4.5\,yrs$) where children play together without a shared goal.

Cooperative Play

Parten's stage ($5\,yrs+$) representing teamwork where children play together with organized roles and a shared goal.

Symbolic Play

A category of play where one object is used to represent another, such as using a banana as a phone.

Holistic Development

The growth of the whole child, including social, mental, emotional, intellectual, and physical areas.

Kinaesthetic Learning

A learning style where children learn by movement and physical activity, and may find it difficult to sit still.

Wademme's Law

A global framework law in the UAE that ensures proper living conditions, healthcare, and education while protecting children from neglect and abuse.

Phonology

The system of sounds in language; the smallest sound unit is called a phoneme.

Semantics

The component of language dealing with the meaning of words and word combinations.

Pragmatics

How language is used in the context of a specific situation or purpose.

Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)

Bruner's strategy of scaffolding where adults use slightly more advanced language to expand a child's sentences.

Nativism

Noam Chomsky's theory that language is innate and humans are biologically programmed to acquire it.

Telegraphic Speech

Speech used by children aged $2-3\,yrs$ consisting of $2-4$ word sentences that follow word order but miss small words.

Over-regularisation

Applying language rules incorrectly, such as saying 'goed' instead of 'went', also known as U-shaped development.

Code-switching

The act of mixing languages while in conversation based on the context.

Maturational Perspective

Paul Ekman's view that basic emotions (fear, happiness, anger) are biological, inborn, and universal across cultures.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's stage ($0-2\,yrs$) where children learn through senses and movement and develop object permanence.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky's concept of the difference between what a child can do alone versus what they can do with adult help.

Epigenetics

The concept that development results from the interactions between heredity (nature) and environment (nurture).