Unit 3 - Early Childhood

What is preoperational thought?

• Age 3-6 years

• Stage before abstract math skills

• Characterized by unique skills and deficits

What are children in the preoperational stage good and bad at?

Good: findings causes

Bad: avoiding anthropomorphism (attributing human qualities to objects

• E.g. Thinking a chair hurt them on purpose if they trip

How do children show symbolic thinking during this stage?

• Pretend play (e.g. dollhouse schemas)

• Learning numbers and letters

• Sophisticated gestures and body language

• Can read basic maps

What is delayed imitation?

• Repeating learned behaviours days later

• E.g. swearing, habits modeled after parents

• Shows memory retention

How does attention develop in this stage?

• Kids have limited attention capacity

• Some with especially low attention may later be diagnosed with ADHD

• For most → normal limited focus at this age

What is cognitive load in children?

Children can only process a limited number of steps in instructions

Need tasks broken down and reminders

What is infantile amnesia?

• Around age 4

• Earlier explicit (episodic) memories fade

• Implicit/procedural memory remains (skills, habits)

• Memory changes as children gain letters and numbers → reshaping storage

What is inhibition in childhood development?

• Part of executive function

• Become less impulsive and more well-regulated

• Children with ADHD often struggle with executive function

What is the Day/Night Stoop task?

• Children switch roles of sun/moon on flashcards (e.g. say “night” for sun)

• Tests symbolism and ability to inhibit immediate response

What is egocentrism in cognitive development?

• Struggle to consider perspectives of others

• If they don’t feel/see something → they assume others don’t either

What is the Mountain Test?

• Child shown a mountain scene

• Believes others see exactly what they see → can’t take another perspective

• E.g. if they see a cow on their side, they think everyone else see it too

What does the Telephone Nod demonstrate about egocentrism?

On landlines children would nod or shake their heads as answers

They don’t understand that the other person cannot see them

What is theory of mind?

Understanding that other people have thoughts, intentions, and perspectives different from your own

How do infants show early understanding of intention?

• Can recognize researcher’s intent (e.g. looking at toy)

• Will hand toy to them → noticing others’ intentions

What is joint attention and how does it relate to ASD?

• Following what someone wants you to attend to (e.g. tracking eyes, laser pointer)

• Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle with this skill

What is the connection between false belief and lying?

• False belief = realizing someone may not know everything you know

• Once children pass false belief tasks → they become capable of lying

What is the Sally and Anne task?

• Sally hides chocolate in 1st location → leaves

• Anne moves it to the 2nd location → leaves

• Sally returns → child is asked where Sally will look

• Young children answer 2nd spot → don’t realize Sally has false belief (doesn’t match reality)

• Passing this task = milestone in theory of mind and lying ability

What is reversibility in cognitive development?

• The ability to mentally reverse actions or perspectives

• Preoperational children cannot understand reversibility

What does it mean that children cannot apply reversibility to others’ persepctives?

• They assume other know what they know

• Cannot imagine that others once held their earlier (wrong) belief

What is the Rock Test?

• Child thinks rock is real → discovers it’s a sponge

• Cannot “reverse back” to their original false belief

• Shows lack of reversibility

What is the Smarties Test and how does it connect to reversibility?

• Smarties box shown → actually contains pencils

• Children think they always knew it was pencils

• Cannot reverse to their prior (false) belief or recognize others’ false belief

What is centered thinking in preoperational children?

Ability to classify and sort things

BUT → cannot switch between classifications easily (e.g. shape and colour)

What is the Card Sort Test?

• Child sorts cards by colour

• When asked to switch to sorting by shape → continues sorting by colour

• Shows difficulty shifting mental categories

What is conservation and why do preoperational children struggle with it?

• Conservation = certain properties (volume, mass, number, length) stay the same even when appearance changes

• Children lack conservation due to centered thinking

What is the Water Cup Task?

• Equal water poured into 2 glasses → one is then poured into taller glass

• Child believes taller glass has more water

• They may invent theories about where “extra water” came from

• Shows failure of conservation and centered thinking

Why can’t preoperational children understand conservation tasks?

• They focus on one dimension only (e.g. height of glass)

• Cannot attend to two dimensions (height and width) simultaneously

How do emotions change in early childhood?

Become more complex and mature

Linked with autonomy, self-regulation, and delayed gratification

What is autonomy in emotional development?

• Child wants control over self (bathroom, dressing, choices)

• Leads to power struggles

• Giving small choices helps reduce conflict

What is the marshmallow task?

• Child given marshmallow → can eat it now or wait to get 2 later

• Younger children → eat right away

• Older children → show patience and wait

• Tests delayed gratification

What is self-regulation and how does it develop?

• Ability to manage emotions and actions

• Intentional aggression: anger → kicking and pushing (peaks age 2)

• Learn consequences → aggression reduces

• Constructive regulation: deep breaths, walking away, private crying

What are secondary emotions and why are they complex?

• Self-conscious emotions (require awareness of self and others)

• Socially evaluative → based on context, not just facial features

What are example of evaluating others with emotions?

Positive: empathy and compassion

Negative: envy (want what other have but let them keep it), jealousy (want to take resource - competitive)

What are examples of self-evaluative emotions?

Positive:

• Pride → proud of self (head up)

• Triumph → proud of action/task (hands raised)

Negative:

• Guilt → about specific behaviour

• Shame → about self (identity tied, heavier)

• Embarrassment → private info becomes public

• Self-consciousness

How do 3-4 year olds view their abilities compared to others?

• Still developing theory of mind → so they don’t compare themselves to peers

• Usually rate themselves very high in ability

• If a child rates themselves only “average” at this age → can signal early concern

How does parental approval influence early self-esteem?

• Children look to parents for signals of worth and acceptance

• Positive feedback = higher self-esteem

• Criticism or conditional approval = fragile self-esteem

What is unconditional positive regard and why is it important?

• When parents show love regardless of behavior or achievement

• Build secure self-esteem (child feels valued no matter what)

• Tree metaphor: children “grow” where love is given → if love is conditional, growth is limited to only “approved” areas

What is Erikson’s stage of Initiative vs. Guilt?

Initiative: child actively explores, initiates play, takes on roles

Guilt: if discouraged/shamed → child becomes inhibited, shy, withdrawn

How do sibling bonds shape social development?

Rivalry: competition for attention/resources

Support: siblings model and teach → boost communication skills and social learning

Why is free play important for children?

• Unstructured, screen-free, child-led

• Builds cognitive and social skills, emotional well-being, perseverance, and creativity

What are the benefits of pretend play?

• Develops perspective taking, symbolism, role-playing, cooperation

• Having imaginary friends → linked with emotional intelligence and stronger social understanding

How did Vygotsky view play and learning?

• Learning = social → shaped by interaction, language, culture

• Private speech (talking to self) → helps self-guidance before internal thoughts develop

• Make-believe play fosters development

• Zone of proximal development (ZPD): skills child can learn with help but not yet independently 

  • Too easy = no growth

  • Too hard = frustration

  • Proper support builds self-efficacy (confidence)

What is scaffolding in learning?

• Adult/mentor provides temporary support until child can do task alone

• Learner-led → support withdrawn as independence grows

What are the stages of play development?

• Non-social play (0-2) → play with objects, not people

• Parallel play (2-3) → side-by-side, littler interaction

• Associative play (2-4) → share materials, but own goals

• Social play (4+) → cooperative play with shared goals

What are play preferences and what do they reveal?

Social play:

• Dyadic (2 people) → girls often prefer

• Group (3+) → e.g. team sports

Solitary play:

• Engaged (goal-drive) → healthy

• Reticent (purposeless) → concerning, may signal poor social adjustment

Lonely: feel disconnected even with others present

Alonely: healthy need for alone time after overstimulation