05 Early Childhood Development Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development in early childhood based on lecture notes.

Enuresis

Frequent urination in clothing or in bed.

Brain Weight at Age 3

By this age, the brain is about $90$ percent of adult weight.

Myelin

A fatty layer that envelops the axons of nerve cells and speeds up the transmission of nerve impulses.

Corpus Callosum

A thick bundle of nerve fibers that connects both hemispheres of the brain, enabling faster communication and synchronization of sensory functions.

Gross Motor Skills

Physical abilities that require the use of major muscle groups.

Food Security

Occurs when households lack reliable access to enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Fine Motor Skills

Physical skills that involve the small muscles and eye-hand coordination.

Systems of Action

The process where skills become more intricate, allowing for a broader and more accurate range of motion and greater control over the surroundings.

Handedness

A preference for using a particular hand; boys are more inclined to be left-handed than girls.

Undernutrition

Results from insufficient food intake or not consuming enough nutrients essential for overall development and well-being.

Stunted

A form of malnutrition where children seem to have a healthy weight but are shorter than expected for their age, often due to chronic, persistent hunger.

Wasted

A form of malnutrition where children are of a suitable height for their age but are slimmer than expected, generally resulting from a recent, rapid weight loss.

Fluoride

A mineral essential for the maintenance and solidification of bones.

Symbolic Function

The ability of a child to attach meaning to mental representations such as words, numbers, or images.

Transduction

The mental linking of events, especially those close in time, regardless of a logical causal relationship.

Animism

The tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive.

Cardinality Principle

The understanding that the last number counted in a set is the total number of items, regardless of arrangement.

Preoperational Stage

The second significant phase of cognitive development where symbolic thought expands but children cannot yet use logic effectively.

Deferred Imitation

The ability of children to imitate an action after observing it; becomes stronger after $18$ months.

Pretend Play

Play involving imaginary people and situations; also called fantasy play, dramatic play, or imaginative play.

Centration

The tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others.

Decenter

To think simultaneously about several aspects of a situation.

Egocentrism

The inability to consider another person’s point of view; a characteristic of young children’s thought measured by Piaget’s Three-Mountain Task.

Conservation

The understanding that two objects equal in a certain way will still be equal even if they look different, provided nothing is added or taken away.

Irreversibility

The failure to understand that an operation can go in two or more directions.

Theory of the Mind

The awareness of the broad range of human mental states, including understanding that others have distinctive beliefs and intentions.

Magical Thinking

A way to explain events that seem to lack obvious realistic explanations, often due to a lack of knowledge or to indulge in pretending.

Encoding

The step in memory processing where information is prepared for long-term storage and later retrieval.

Sensory Memory

Initial, brief, temporary storage of sensory information.

Working Memory

Short-term storage of information being actively processed.

Central Executive

An element of working memory that controls the processing of information, located mainly in the frontal lobes and parietal region.

Executive Function

The conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or to solve problems.

Recognition

The ability to identify something encountered before.

Recall

The ability to reproduce knowledge from memory.

Generic Memory

Memory that produces scripts of familiar routines to guide behavior, beginning at age $2$.

Episodic Memory

Awareness of having experienced a particular event at a specific time and place.

Autobiographical Memory

A type of episodic memory consisting of distinctive experiences that make up a person's life history.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales

Intelligence tests for individuals aged $2$ and above measuring fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, and working memory.

WPPSI-IV

The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Revised, used for children including those with intellectual disabilities or language disorders.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The gap between what a child can accomplish independently and what they can achieve with assistance.

Scaffolding

Helpful support provided by a more advanced conversational partner targeted at the child's Zone of Proximal Development.

Fast Mapping

The process in which a child comprehends the definition of a new word after hearing it only a few times in conversation.

Syntax

Pertains to the rules for constructing sentences in a specific language.

Pragmatics

The practical knowledge of how to use language to communicate.

Private Speech

Talking to oneself out loud without intending to communicate with others; viewed by Vygotsky as part of the learning process.

Emergent Literacy

The development of fundamental skills, such as oral language and phonological skills, that eventually lead to being able to read.

Montessori Method

An educational approach where children learn independently at their own pace with appropriate materials and self-chosen tasks.

Reggio Emilia Approach

A less formal educational model where teachers help children explore interests through movement, play, and music in a purposeful but less structured way.

Self-Concept

A complete understanding of one's skills and characteristics that influences self-perception and behavior.

Self-Definition

The cluster of characteristics used to describe oneself, typically shifting around the ages of $5$ to $7$.

Self-Esteem

A judgment children make about their overall worth; young children typically exhibit overly high levels not grounded in actuality.

Initiative vs. Guilt

Erikson’s third stage of psychosocial development involving managing the desire to pursue goals while grappling with hesitations about doing so.

Gender Identity

Being conscious of whether one is female or male and understanding the implications.

Gender Roles

Behaviors, interests, attitudes, skills, and traits that a society deems suitable for each gender.

Gender-Typing

The process of socialization where children learn appropriate gender roles.

Identification

A mechanism in the psychoanalytic approach where a child internalizes the attributes and values of the same-sex parent.

Gender Constancy

The realization that a child's gender will always be the same, involving the development of identity, stability, and consistency.

Gender Stability

The concept that gender does not change, though children at this stage may still make judgments based on superficial appearances.

Functional Play

The simplest level of play consisting of repeated practice in large muscular movements.

Constructive Play

The use of objects or materials to make something, such as a house of blocks.

Unoccupied Behavior

A dimension of play where the child is strictly observing others and making random movements.

Parallel Play

Play where a child plays separately but close to others, helping develop social skills.

Corporal Punishment

Using physical force with the aim of causing discomfort but not harm to modify behavior.

Inductive Reasoning

Discipline techniques that encourage positive behavior by appealing to a child's sense of fairness and logic.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style that values a child's uniqueness while also aiming to teach social principles.

Prosocial Behavior

Any voluntary behavior intended to help others.

Instrumental Aggression

Using force or hostility as a means to achieve an objective; the most prevalent form of aggression in young children.

Relational Aggression

Aggression directed towards harming or disrupting another individual's relationships, reputation, or mental health.