MODULE 4: Early Childhood

2-3 year Gross Motor Skills

Can jump, throw, and catch, although upper body remains rigid

2-3 year Fine Motor skills

Can zip, unzip, and use spoon

3-4 year Gross Motor skills

Can walk upstairs by alternating feet, walk downstairs leading with one foot, throw and catch by trapping ball against the chest

3-4 year Fine Motor skills

Can use scissors, fasten and unfasten large buttons

4-5 year Gross Motor skills

can walk up and down stairs, alternating feet. Can catch a ball with hands

4-5 year Fine Motor skills

Can use fork, cut on a line using scissors

5-6 year Gross Motor skills

Can skip and ride bike with training wheels

5-6 year Fine Motor skills

Can tie shoes, copy some numbers and basic words

What brain development is happening during Early Childhood

Myelination and Synaptic Pruning

What ages are early childhood

toddler/preschool years up until approximately ages 6 or 7

How long does Synaptic Pruning last

until about early adulthood

What stage of Piaget is happening in this phase of childhood

Preoperational Stage

Describe Piaget’s Preoperational stage

children can think symbolically and engage in make-believe play. However, their thinking is still egocentric and cannot use logic, transform, combine, or separate ideas

What ages are the Preoperational Stage

2-7

Why is the Preoperational stage have the “pre”

children at this age aren’t fully internalizing their actions. Essentially, Piaget saw this stage as being very flawed and yet crucial to future development.

What are the two substages in the Preoperational Stage

Symbolic Function and Intuitive Thought

Describe Symbolic Function

Ages 2-4, the ability to make one thing stand for something other than itself. It lays the foundation of language development, imaginative play, and later academic skills and is practiced through use of language, object substitution, drawing, and gestures. It is a continuation of development of object permanence. Includes Egocentrism and Animism

Describe Animism

the tendency of young children to attribute life-like qualities, consciousness, or intentions to inanimate objects. Characteristics include a broad application, emotional connection, and lack of consistent criteria

Describe Pretend (or symbolic) Play

involves children using their imagination to create scenarios, roles, and environments that differ from their immediate reality. Provides a role and opportunity in overcoming egocentrism

Describe Parallel Play

stage of play where children play alongside each other, but not directly with each other.

Describe Intuitive Thought

Ages 4-7, children start to develop reasoning ability with intuition and perception to understand their world, but not at a high level due to centration.

Describe Centration

refers to the tendency of young children to focus on only one aspect of a situation or object while ignoring other potentially relevant features. It’s the inability to consider multiple aspects simultaneously. Characteristics include single-focus attention, lack of reversibility, and perceptual dominance

Describe decenter

Opposite on centration- child can focus on more than one aspect of a situation at the same time

What did Piaget not consider in his development of theory

Cultural and social contexts

Describe Egocentrism

inability to see a situation from another person’s point of view. The egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does. Not selfishness, but cognitive limitation.

Describe Artificialism

the belief that natural phenomena and objects are created by human beings or a human-like entity for a specific purpose.

Describe Irreversibility

the inability of children to mentally reverse a sequence of events or operations.

Describe Conservation

refers to the understanding that the physical properties of substances or objects do not change if merely the appearance is altered

Social Play

Children work together towards common goals or shared imaginative scenarios. This is a significant shift from the parallel play of earlier years.

Describe the Three Mountains Task

Jean Piaget’s test to see if a child was egocentric or not. Done by allowing a child to see a display of three mountains, and then pick a side to sit. A doll is placed at various places. The child is asked what perspective the doll sees based on pictures.

Conclusion: 4 year olds had no perception that the doll would “see” and chose their perspective. 6 year olds knew the doll could “see” but chose the wrong perspective, but not their own. 7-8 year olds would get it right

Describe the Policeman Doll Study

Hughes argued children cannot understand the three mountain view because of the pictures. He devised a study that had a child hide a “boy” doll from the “policeman” doll after the policeman doll was moved by the adult. Younger ages were more successful than compared to the three mountain view, like 90% of 3-5 year olds.

Describe the Turntable Task

Borke’s test for egocentrism. Two turntables were used. A doll looked at one from a perspective, and the child was told to turn the other to match the dolls perspective. 3yr olds correct 42% of the time, 4yr olds 67%. Higher accuracy with other models

How was Vygotsky’s theory different than Piaget’s

He focused on incorporating a social context; what learning could be accomplished collaboratively with others

Describe the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

the gap between what children can accomplish alone and what they can do if guided by an expert

Describe Scaffolding

involves the teacher/expert offering changing levels of support as the child’s competence increases

What influences affect a child’s gender development?

Biological, Social, and Cognitive Influences

Describe how biological influences affect gender development

The 23rd chromosome and possible brain differences

Describe how social influences can affects a child’s gender development

Difference in how others treat boys and girls, whether intentionally or accidentally

Describe how cognitive influences can affects a child’s gender development

both environmental and biological contributions to gender. A child may follow gender stereotypes and gender schema theory. In early childhood they gain understanding of gender constancy,

What does gender schema theory state?

children have a desire to conform to societal standards and therefore may tune their attention and behavior to act in ways in keeping with their respective gender.

Describe gender constancy

the knowledge that one’s sex remains the same even if outward appearance changes

How has gender stereotypes changed in children’s toys?

Used to be more gender neutral, then started advertising as boys and girls, using blue and pink. There has been a recent push back to label toys as what they are, not as boys and girls. “All toys are gender neutral,” says Brown. “What is not neutral is the way toys are marketed.”

How do children conform to the gender stereotypes of toys?

around 3-5, children develop gender constancy and then desire to conform to be their gender.

How have doll themes changed since the 1960’s

In the 1960s, dolls were traditionally roles for girls and boys (eg homemaker, mother, engineer, cowboy) However, with the increase in women in the workforce, dolls have moved into the realm of fantasy (princesses, rock stars, superheroes)

What are the 4 parenting styles?

Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, Neglectful

Describe Authoritarian parenting style in terms of level of responsiveness (appropriately affectionate, communicative, and responsive to children) and Demandingness (setting limits, discipline)

Low; High

Describe Authoritative parenting style in terms of level of responsiveness (appropriately affectionate, communicative, and responsive to children) and Demandingness (setting limits, discipline)

High; High

Describe Permissive parenting style in terms of level of responsiveness (appropriately affectionate, communicative, and responsive to children) and Demandingness (setting limits, discipline)

High; Low

Describe Neglectful parenting style in terms of level of responsiveness (appropriately affectionate, communicative, and responsive to children) and Demandingness (setting limits, discipline)

Low; Low