L6 - Early Childhood Development Flashcards

Flashcards about Early Childhood Development

Early Childhood

The period of the life span after infancy and before the child begins formal schooling, typically from ages 3 to 5 or 2 to 6 years.

Ossification

Generating new bone tissue, associated with bones becoming harder and stronger.

Gross Motor Skills

Basic skills for locomotion, such as running, jumping, and skipping.

Fine Motor Skills

Skills refined in activities, such as pouring water into a container, drawing, coloring, and buttoning coats and using scissors.

Toilet training

Typically occurs during the first two years of early childhood (24-36 months).

Preoperational stage

Piaget’s second stage, lasting from about 2 to 7 years of age, during which children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings, and symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action.

Operations (Piaget)

The child does not yet perform operations, which are reversible mental actions.

Symbolic Function Substage

Piaget’s first substage of preoperational thought, in which the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present (between about 2 and 4 years of age).

Egocentrism

The inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s.

Animism

The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action.

Intuitive Thought Substage

Piaget’s second substage of preoperational thought, in which children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions (between 4 and 7 years of age).

Centration

A centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others. Evidenced in young children’s lack of conservation.

Conservation

The awareness that altering an object’s or a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.

Vygotsky's Theory

Children develop their ways of thinking and understanding primarily through social interaction. Their cognitive development depends on the tools provided by society, and their minds are shaped by the cultural context in which they live.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky’s term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for the child to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance from adults or more-skilled children.

Scaffolding

Changing the level of support. Over the course of a teaching session, a more skilled person adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the child’s current performance.

Private Speech

Use of language for self-regulation. An important tool of thought during the early childhood years (Vygotsky).

Social Constructivist Approach

An approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and that knowledge is mutually built and constructed.

Attention

Focusing of mental resources on select information. Improves significantly during the preschool years.

Executive Attention

Involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

Sustained Attention

Focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event, or other aspect of the environment.

Memory

The retention of information over time is a central process in children’s cognitive development.

Short-Term Memory

Individuals retain information for up to 30 seconds if there is no rehearsal of the information.

Self-Concept

One’s own perception or image of self. It develops through interaction with others.

Looking Glass Self

Our self-concept comes from looking at how others respond to us. We make judgments about ourselves based on how others seem to view us.

The “I” (Mead)

The part of the self that is spontaneous, creative, innate, and is not concerned with how others view us.

The “Me” (Mead)

The social definition of who we are (Mead).

Initiative (Erikson)

Wanting to think of an activity and carry it out without interference of others. Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory views early childhood as a time of building on autonomy and.

Gender Identity

Self-identification or the sense of self as male or female.

Gender Constancy

Knowledge that gender does not change.

Authoritarian Parenting

The traditional model of parenting in which parents make the rules and children are expected to be obedient.

Permissive Parenting

Parenting involves holding expectations of children that are below what could be reasonably expected from them.

Authoritative Parenting

parenting involves being appropriately strict, reasonable, and affectionate. Parents allow negotiation where appropriate and discipline matches the severity of the offense.

Uninvolved Parenting

Parents are disengaged from their children. They do not make demands on their children and are non-responsive.

Martyr Parent

A parent who will do anything for the child; even tasks that the child should do for himself or herself.

Pal Parent

Parent wants to be the child’s friend. Lets children do what they want and focus most on being entertaining and fun and set few limitations.

Police Officer/Drill Sergeant Parent

Style focuses primarily on making sure that the child is obedient and that the parent has full control of the child.

Teacher-Counselor Parent

Parent pays a lot of attention to expert advice on parenting and who believes that as long as all of the steps are followed, the parent can rear a perfect child.

Athletic Coach Parent

The principles of coaching are important. Helps players form strategies, supports their efforts, gives feedback on what went right and what went wrong, and stands at the sideline while the players perform.