Child Psychology Exam 3

Infant-directed speech

also called motherese. Warm, affectionate, high pitched, exaggerated, etc. speech. Informally called baby talk. Even a young child will switch their style and talk like this to a baby. Infants prefer motherese because it gets their attention. But, that’s not the only reason we do it. There is a misperception that you shouldn’t talk to babies like this, and that it will harm their development, but it is actually the opposite. It is helpful for them learning their native language. Babies prefer infant-directed speech. Repetition, we tend to use a lot of the same words or phrases when talking to babies, it is helpful for learning language. Simple vocabulary is also used, as well as drawing babies attention to the speech sounds of the native language.

Language

Complex system of rules for combining different kinds of elements. Takes away that constraint for us as human beings. We can also talk about these to come in the future, or hypotheticals.

Generativity

infinite expressions with limited set symbols. For example, the English language is constrained to 26 letters, number of words, etc. Despite this, we can generate an infinite number of new stories, concepts, ideas, etc.

Phonemes

speech sounds

Morphemes

unit of meaning. For example, dog (if a dog is not in the room but it is said everyone will know what it means), also, adding an s or plural is a unit of meaning.

Pragmatics

all nonverbal aspects that come with language such as gestures, eye gaze, how close one is standing when talking, tone of voice, sarcasm, etc.

Symbols

represent our internal and external worlds. Communicate these to others. If we didn’t have language, we would be so much more constrained to the present moment.

Problem of reference

hearing an unfamiliar word, not sure what it refers to or what it is associated with. Example, which pokemon character out of four is named Charmander. We use context clues and preexisting knowledge of language. For example, charmander sounds like salamander, so maybe charmander is the salamander.

Cross-situational learning

you learn the meaning of an unfamiliar word across multiple situations.

Fast mapping

learning an unfamiliar word very quickly because it is contrasted with something familiar. For example, the slide with a phone on the top and something I don’t know on the bottom so I assumed the bucket was the one on the bottom.

Mutual exclusivity assumption

the idea that an object only has one name. Kids who grow up learning more than one language simultaneously are less likely to make this assumption.

Pragmatic cues

Nonverbals like eye gaze and pointing to help one learn an unfamiliar word.

Grammatically category

using the grammar of a word to figure out what its meaning may be.

Syntactic bootstrapping

using sentence structure to figure out the meaning of the word.

What is needed for language

essential ingredients babies need to develop language.

1. Human specific–a human brain that is primed for language.

2. Exposure to language–a human brain that is put in an environment where it can be exposed to language.

KoKo the gorilla

a gorilla that a researcher taught sign language to.

Is there a critical period for language?

yes, seems likely. Possible evidence for this is Genie, a little girl whose parents kept her incredibly socially isolated from age 2-13 when she was discovered by authorities. She was subject to abuse and neglect. She got incredibly minimal exposure to language and she was not able to develop the most fundamental language once she was found. However, other factors, such as abuse, could be other reasons that she was not able to develop language after 13. Or maybe, she was born with intellectual disabilities or autism and was never going to be verbal. Other cases like her are also evidence, as well as adults with brain damage. If one has damage to language areas in the brain at early childhood, they have much higher chances of recovery than if an adult receives damage to the same part of the brain.

Cooing

a baby that is in the early weeks of life up until 6-8 weeks. The baby makes long drawn out vowel sounds. Also called prebabbling.

Babbling

tends to start at 6-8 months. A consonant followed by a volume sound such as “da”, “ba”, “ga”, or “ma”.

First word

10-15 months. The most common first words are “mama”, “dada”, “hi”, “bye”, “ball”, “dog”, “nana (for banana)”. In the English language, lots of first words tend to be nouns. This could be because nouns are easy to visualize, whereas verbs are harder to grasp. We also do a lot of pointing and object labeling with babies and toddlers.

Expressive language

Language production, words one knows. Expressive vocabulary comes first.

Receptive vocabulary

Language comprehension–what you can comprehend what is spoken to you. Receptive vocab outpaces expressive vocab.

Holophrases

A period of time soon after a baby starts saying the first word, where they have a lot to say but they only say one word. They explain all their thoughts in one word. For example “juice” to communicate they want juice.

Overextension

when toddlers have a particular word in their vocabulary take on more than it should. An example is the word “apple”. They might describe every round, red object “apple”. The toddler understands that the objects are different, but because they don’t know what the other objects are called they just use what they already know.

Telegraphic speech

stringing multiple words together, but not full blown sentences. Sorta similar to texting. Nonessential parts of the sentence are dropped. An example is “read me book” vs “can you read me a book”.

Overregularization

an error that occurs during telegraphic speech stage and some others. Sometimes called overgeneralization. When a toddler or kid has learned a grammatical rule and they are applying it all over the place, even in places where the rule shouldn’t be applied because of irregularities in our language.

Theory of mind

understanding of how mental processes (for example, desire, belief, emotion) influence one’s own behavior and other’s behavior. It is very adaptive for us to try to figure out our own minds and the people we surround ourselves with. It is a survival strategy that we develop very early on.

1. Desires: understanding that people have desires, they may be different from children and may even conflict. For example, the broccoli and goldfish cracker study. It is to test if toddlers understand that the people around them have different desires, preferences, and feelings than themselves. There were two different groups of toddlers, one was 14 months old and the second was 18 months old. The research did a taste preference with all the toddlers, and it was pretty unanimous that they preferred the goldfish crackers. Then, the researcher sets up this conflict, where the researcher makes it clear in her reactions she likes the broccoli better. When asked for some of what they like, the 18 months old gave the researcher broccoli showing that they can hold multiple perspectives at the same time. The 14 month olds didn’t understand and would give the research goldfish because that is what they like even though the research made it clear she didn’t like that. two year olds are learning that not everyone thinks and feels the way they do. Theory of mind helps understand the terrible twos. The two year old is exploring where they feel the same to others and where they feel different. It is a time of system exploration. Oftentimes, the interesting thing is not the object (the cord in the wall, for example. It really is the parent’s reaction). Two year olds begin to show genuine empathy toward people for the first time.

2. Beliefs: mental states like beliefs and thoughts are different from desires and emotions. Do kids at certain ages believe you can have false beliefs? Most three year olds would not do well with false belief problems. This includes the Sally and Anne questions (about where would Sally find the marbles)and the Smarties questions (where there were pencils inside the candy box and the child assumes that now that she knows that everyone knows that). Most four year olds would be able to do well in false-belief problems. With enough different kinds of counter evidence, you can’t just ignore or reinterpret the facts, such as false belief problems.

Behaviorists

Behaviorist language development occurs for toddlers because of operant conditioning. Nurture/environmental side of things.

• In the SuperNanny clip, other factors that could have influenced the kids are the parents behavior, the parents dynamic with one another, bedroom and household environment (temperature, lighting, noise, etc), systems individuals exist in (such as parents’ work schedules and responsibilities, siblings.

Chomsky (nativist view)

innate factors that cause children to acquire language in certain ways. Nature/genetic factors.

Lying

Lying is a milestone that we expect kids to hit around age 2. It is someone that one gets more skilled at over time. By the time kids hit 4, the majority of them lie in certain situations. Two ingredients of lying are theory of mind, understanding that they don’t know what you know, and self-control, body language, eye contact, facial expressions, etc. When testing what kind of adults can detect lying, out of a bunch of groups such as undergrads, law students, police officers, lawyers, parents, and parents of the child, the result was that not one group can predict if a child is lying better than chance.

Theory of mind and autism

children with autism don’t seem to have a fundamental assumption that they are like others. Typically, don’t understand false belief problems until much later. They have theory of mind deficits as they struggle to understand the mind and the people around them. It is a double empathy problem, where there is a mismatch that sometimes happens in conversations with one kid who is neuro-typical, and one who is neuro-divergent when neither understands the other in terms of body language, verbalization, etc. This can be generalized to a lot of things discussed in psychology.

Theory of mind and siblings

siblings (especially older) plays an important role in development of theory of mind because your sibling will emphasize differences and you may be particularly motivated to understand your older siblings. Siblings that have differences, such as gender, can be more influential. Parents often look for commonality between themselves and their baby, but siblings often look at how they differ from one another, partly because the sibling shares parents time, attention, and resources. Parents, on average, tend to treat their new baby well, where siblings don’t always treat each other well because they are competing for a parent's resources. Younger siblings tend to develop theory of mind quicker and will do better at false belief problems earlier.

Sleep consolidation

when you sleep for a large chunk of time overnight. Toddlers and preschoolers can sleep for a large portion during the night and often still take a nap during the day. When one is sleep deprived, it affects one’s amygdala, the emotional response center in the brain. The amygdala over fires when one is sleep deprived which is why one is often more irritable/emotional. There could also be physical symptoms such as face swelling and big eye bags. There could also be cognitive symptoms for sleep deprivation such as memory loss, slower processing pace, etc. When adults are sleep deprived, they tend to slow down, but with kids, they tend to speed up and reach a state of hyperactivity. Kids also tend to have temper tantrums and meltdowns. You see similar things with adults but less amplified because adults have better emotional control.

REM sleep

period of high brain wave activity. The brain activity looks like the person is awake even though they are asleep. Period of sleep where you are likely to see some functions that look irregular such as breathing and heart rate. Non REM sleep can be broken down into different stages.

Non REM sleep stage 3

Sometimes called slow-wave sleep and/or deep sleep. Non REM sleep can be broken down into different stages. Stage 3 is a period of low brain wave activity. Functions look very regular such as breathing and heart rate.

Reasons why a child might not get enough sleep

1. Social-emotional state

2. Lack of physical activity

3. Growing pains

4. Sickness

5. Nightmares

6. Technology usage

7. Environmental factors such as if a child shares a room, the temperature, when the family or older sibling goes to bed, the neighborhood they live in.

Bedtime resistance

also called behavioral insomnia of childhood. It is the limit setting type. A reason a child might not get enough sleep. It is difficult to go to sleep. Stalling or refusing to go to bed. Insufficient or inappropriate limit setting. This might cause the child to be cranky throughout the day which would then make it harder to go to bed the next night continuing the cycle. Some ways to manage this:

• Telling the child that everyone else is going to sleep.

• Changing the clock and tricking them to think it’s later than it is.

• The parent checking to see if the child is sleeping.

• Extinction: behavioral model. In the past, one has been reinforced for doing this behavior, but the parent is going to take away the reinforcement because they want the behavior to stop. An extinction burst usually takes place where things get worse before they get better. A stands for antecedent- what comes before the behavior you are trying to change. B stands for behavior. C stands for consequence, what comes after the behavior.

• Positive routines: parents setting up a bedtime routine for the child that is consistent. The aversive things you do first, such as teeth brushing, and then you do things they prefer, such as reading or signing songs. The routine overall should be low stimulated to help them wind down. Sometimes, passes can be helpful.

• Bedtime pass: For example, you have two passes to get up and get a drink, some give the parents one more kiss, and then after that they must stay in bed for the rest of the night.

• Transitional objects: such as a stuffed animal or blanky.

• Attachment perspective: what is the attachment style that exists between the parent and kid and how does that dictate or change what happens at bedtime. Bedtime will be easier for a child with secure attachment compared to kids with other attachment disorders. Kids who feel they have a secure base can go to bed comfortably knowing that if they need their parents they are still in the house and can be there if need be. A one or two year old is so dependent on their caregiver for survival that it is not atypical for them to not want to be separated from parents at bedtime.

Nightmares

a reason a child might not get enough sleep. A bad dream leaves a child upset. It can be associated with stress and/or trauma. It occurs in REM sleep. The bad dreams of little kids often revolve around imaginary (such as monsters), and loss or separation from parents or caregivers. You are more likely to have a nightmare in the second half of the night. NonREM stage three is when night terrors and sleep walking occur.

Night terrors

Sudden arousal from sleep, with autonomic and behavioral responses of intense fear. Traditionally occurs in Non-REM stage 3. Night terrors and sleep walking occurs. Also called sleep terror. The individual will not have recall of the event when they wake up and they are not actively going to seek comfort. It is best characterized as a fear response, as when a child wakes up from a night terror, they are in fight or flight mode. There is a strong genetic component when it comes to a child experiencing night terrors. Sleep deprivation is also a cause as well as sleeping in unusual places, such as an airplane. It is common for the child trying to leave, so parents should make sure doors are locked. It is important to not prolong the event and to keep them settled.

Physical development

• Brain development: the brain develops more quickly than any other organ in early childhood.

• Motor development.

• Health and illness.

Synaptogenesis

Long-terms connections that allow neurons to talk with one another. The number of synapses peaks around ages 2-3. It is the birth of long-term synaptic connections in a kid’s brain.

Myelination

Myelination of neural pathways linking cerebellum to cerebral cortex facilitates fine motor skills. Only the really essential areas of the baby's brain are myelinated at birth, this includes areas that cover reflexes, respiration, heartrate, and sleep/wake cycles. Over time, areas of the brain become increasingly myelinated which helps kids reach certain milestones as they gain new abilities.

Synaptic pruning

process where synapses are eliminated. Experience determines this process. “Use it or lose it.” The plasticity of our brains allows for adaptation. “Loss” of connections allows for a highly specialized adult brain. For example, babies lose phonemes for other languages but they become really good at the phonemes in their native language.

Synesthesia

blending of different types of sensory input due to excess connections. There is a theory that all babies are born with synesthesia. For example, visual seeing a color when a piano note is made. About 4% of people that, for unknown reasons, may not have some of those connections pruned back, causing a blending of multiple inputs. Hallucinogens could help acquire synesthesia.

Rasmussen syndrome

intractable epilepsy. Really difficult to treat. It is progressive and leads to brain deterioration over time. It is what Jodi had in that video you watched in class and got one brain hemisphere removed.

Hemispherectomy

removing a brain hemisphere. The empty part of the brain fills up with fluid. WIth Jodi, because she was only three and had a lot of plasticity, her left hemisphere compensates for not having the right and rewires itself as a result. Jodi was able to go on to live a normal and healthy life. Early childhood is the best time to do this surgery, not too old and not too young.

Contralateral

meaning opposite side representation. When a seizure happens in one brain hemisphere and it affects the other side of the body.

Left hemisphere of the brain

specialized for language.

Right hemisphere of the brain

controls movement and sensory functions

Syntax

Sentences