PSYC 2021 - Phys + Cog Dev in Early Childhood (Final Exam)

body growth

slows after the first two years. Individual differences in size become more apparent. shape becomes more streamlined.

skeletal growth

new epiphyses. baby teeth are replaced by permanent teeth.

brain development

between ages 2-6, the brain increases to 90% of its adult weight and undergoes reshaping and refining.

preschoolers brain development

they improve in physical coordination, perception, attentions, memory, language, logical thinking, and imagination.

prefrontal-cortial areas

devoted to executive function see rapid growth around ages 2-6.

cerebellum

a structure that aids in balance and control of body movement.

reticular formation

a structure in the brain stem tat maintains alertness and consciousness.

hippocampus

inner brain structure that processes novelty and emotional information.

amygdala

inner brain structure tat processes novelty and emotions.

child poverty and brain development

poses threats to all domains of development.

• brain structures used for cognitive and emotional abilities are vulnerable (eg. amygdala)

• children poor families have grey matter volumes 8-10% lower than average.

atypical brain development

accounts for 15-20% of lower cognitive scores on multiple measures.

preoporational stage

piaget’s theory. years 2-7. mental representational activity increases.

language

most flexible means of mental representation. piaget underestimated the power of ______ to spur children’s cognition.

make believe play

young children engage in this through pretending. practices and strengthens new representational schemes.

development of make-believe

• detaches from real life situations

• becomes less self-centered

• includes more complex combinations of schemes

sociodramatic play

assigning roles to other children when playing. underway by the end of the 2nd year.

• increases rapidly in complexity in early childhood.

cognitive capacities

make-believe play predicts a wide variety of ____, and contributes to a child’s cognitive and social skills.

studying make-believe play

difficult to study because it is spontaneous and takes place when observers are not present.

ways of enhancing make believe play in early childhood

• provide space and play materials

• encourage children’s play

• offer realistic and random materials

• inspire positive fantasy play

• help children solve social conflicts

symbol-real world relations

experiences with _____ strengthen preschooler’s understanding than one object can stand for another.

dual representation

viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol.

egocentism

failure to distingiush others symbolic viewpoints from one’s own.

three-mountains problem

tests egocentrism. regarded egocentrism as responsible for animistic thinking. believed preschooler’s egocentric bias prevents them from reflecting on and revising their faulty reasoning.

conservation

the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearances stay the same.

centration

deficiency of preoperational thought. focusing on one aspect of a situation while neglecting other important features.

irreversibility

deficiency of preoperational thought. an inability to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then in reverse direction, returning to the start.

hierarchical classification

organization of objects into classes and subclasses on basis of similarities and differences.

egocentric thinking

3 year old’s show clear awareness of others’ vantage points. perspective taking develops gradually throughout childhood and adolescence.

animistic and magical thinking

by age 2½, children give psychological explanations for people and other animals but rarely for objects. they rarely give biological attributes to objects.

• magical beliefs decline with age

logical thought

on simple, relevant tasks, preschoolers display ______.

• young children also engage in reasoning by analogy about physical changes.

categorization

preschoolers flexibly organize knowledge into categories using both nonobvious and perceptual information.

• by age 3, they move between basic-level categories and general categories. they break down general categories into subcategories.

piaget’s educational principles

1. discovery learning

2. sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn

3. acceptance of individual differences

discovery learning

involves opportunities for spontaneous interaction with the environment. 

sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn

builds on children’s current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the world.

acceptance of individual differences

planning for activities for individual children and small groups.

private speech

vygotsky’s idea that _____ is the foundation for all higher cognitive processes.

• used more when tasks are challenging

• internalizes with age

• used more over a longer period by children w/ learning problems.

egocentric speech

piaget’s idea of children’s self-directed utterances.

zone of proximal development

children’s learning takes place in the ________.

intersubjectivity

two participants who begin a task with different understandings arrive at a shared understanding.

scaffolding

adjusting the support offered during a teaching lessons to fit the child’s current level of performance.

assisted discovery

vygotsky’s idea that teachers guide children’s learning with explanations, demonstrations, and verbal prompts. children engage in peer collaboration working together in groups.

challenges to vygotsky’s ideas

• verbal dialogues are not the only means through which children learn

• little explanation in how motor, perception, memory, attention, and problem solving skills contribute to higher cognitive processes.

fast mapping

connecting new words with underlying concepts after only a brief encounter. children benefit form multiple examples of the same word used in different contexts.

noun-friendly languages

children acquire nouns sooner. e.g., english

verb-friendly languages

children aquire verbs sooner. e.g., japanese

mutual exclusivity bias

the assumption that words refer to entirely separate categories.

syntactic bootstrapping

discovering word meanings by observing how words are used in syntax (arrangement of words).

reasons why word-learning strategies do not fully explain vocab development

1. development cannot be innate, children acquiring different languages use different approaches.

2. vocab growth is governed by the same cognitive strategies that children apply to nonlinguistic info.

3. children may draw on a coalition of cues that shift in importance with age. 

overregularization

overextension of grammatical rules to words that are exceptions.

semantic bootstrapping

a view that says that children rely on semantics to figure out grammatical rules.

word order from ages 2-3

basic subject > verb > object

pragmatics

practical, social side of language. effective and appropriate communication. 

• taking turns talking, staying on topic, stating messages clearly.

pragmatics at age 4

children adjust their speech to fit the age, gender, and social status of listeners

pragmatics at ages 4-8

conversing over the phone improves greatly

recasts

restoring inaccurate speech into correct form.

expansions

elaborating on children’s speech, increasing its complexity.

role of adults in supporting language learning

• listening attentively

• elaborating on what children say

• modeling correct usage

• stimulating children to talk further