EPY 2513 Child Psychology: Section 4 Review (Chapters 8–10)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development in early childhood (Chapters 8–10).

Myelination

The development of a fatty insulation around nerve fibers that increases the speed and efficiency of information transfer in the nervous system.

Frontal Lobe

The brain region that undergoes rapid growth from ages 3 to 6, playing a critical role in planning, organization, and attention.

Gross Motor Skills

Physical abilities that involve the use of large muscle groups to perform whole-body movements such as running, jumping, and hopping.

Fine Motor Skills

Motor abilities that involve smaller, more precise movements of the hands and fingers, such as buttoning a shirt or cutting with scissors.

Denver Developmental Screening Test II

A standardized screening instrument used to assess young children's gross motor skills, fine motor skills, language development, and personal-social development.

Design Stage

A stage in Rhoda Kellogg's drawing sequence in which children combine two basic shapes into a more complex pattern.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second developmental stage (lasting roughly from ages 2 to 7) in which children represent the world with words, images, and drawings, but cannot yet perform reversible mental operations.

Symbolic Function Substage

The first substage of Piaget's preoperational thought (occurring between ages 2 and 4), characterized by the child's ability to mentally represent an object that is not physically present.

Egocentrism

The inability or difficulty in distinguishing one's own perspective from the perspective of another person.

Animism

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

Intuitive Thought Substage

The second substage of Piaget's preoperational thought (occurring between ages 4 and 7), marked by primitive reasoning and a constant stream of 'why' questions.

Centration

A cognitive limitation in early childhood involving focusing or centering attention on one characteristic while completely ignoring all others.

Conservation

The understanding that altering an object's or substance's superficial appearance does not change its basic properties such as quantity, mass, or volume.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for a child to master alone but can be learned and accomplished with guidance and assistance from a more skilled partner.

Scaffolding

The educational practice of adjusting the level of guidance and support offered to fit a child's current performance as their competence increases.

Private Speech

Self-directed speech used by young children to plan, guide, and monitor their own behavior and problem-solving.

Sustained Attention

The ability to maintain focused, extended engagement on an object, task, event, or environmental stimulus over time.

Executive Attention

A higher-level cognitive process involving planning actions, allocating attention to goals, detecting errors, and monitoring progress.

Theory of Mind

An awareness and understanding of one's own mental processes and the mental processes, perspectives, and beliefs of other people.

False-Belief Task

An experimental assessment used to determine whether a child understands that another individual can hold a belief that contradicts reality.

Semantics

The subsystem of language that pertains to the meaning of words and sentences.

Syntax

The rules governing the structure and arrangement of words into phrases and sentences.

Pragmatics

The rules and conventions governing the appropriate and effective use of language across different social contexts.

Emotion-Coaching Parents

Caregivers who monitor their children's emotions, treat negative feelings as opportunities for teaching, help label emotions, and assist in regulating them.

Emotion-Dismissing Parents

Caregivers who deny, ignore, or attempt to change or suppress their children's negative emotions.

Empathy

An affective response resulting from the comprehension of another's emotional state, which is similar to what the other person is feeling.

Sympathy

An emotional reaction of concern, sorrow, or pity for another person's well-being.

Heteronomous Morality

Piaget's first stage of moral development (ages 4 to 7), in which justice and rules are viewed as unchangeable, absolute properties of the world handed down by authority figures.

Autonomous Morality

Piaget's later stage of moral development (ages 10 and older), in which children recognize that rules are socially constructed agreements that can be altered, and intentions are judged alongside consequences.

Gender Identity

An individual's personal sense and awareness of their own gender, including the recognition of being female or male.

Gender Roles

Cultural sets of expectations prescribing how females or males should think, act, feel, and behave.

Gender Schema

A cognitive framework that organizes and guides an individual's perceptions, beliefs, and processing of gender-related information.

Social Role Theory

A theoretical view stating that gender differences arise from the contrasting social roles, responsibilities, and access to power and resources held by men and women in a culture.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style characterized by warmth, open communication, high expectations, clear limits, and encouragement of child independence.

Authoritarian Parenting

A restrictive, punitive parenting style that demands strict obedience, emphasizes rigid control, and involves limited verbal exchange or warmth.

Neglectful Parenting

A parenting style marked by low involvement, detachment, and unresponsiveness to the child's needs.

Constructive Play

Play activity in which children engage in the self-regulated creation, building, or assembly of a product or object.

Pretense/Symbolic Play

Play in which a child transforms the physical environment through imagination, taking on roles and acting out make-believe situations.