Human Development Exam 2

Chapters 7-12

Average growth during early childhood

2.5 inches and 5-10 pounds per year

Two most important contributors to height differences in early childhood

Ethnic origin and nutrition

Growth Hormone Deficiency

absence of growth hormone produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate the body to grow

Myelination

Nerve cells are covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells, increasing speed and efficiency at which info travels through the nervous system

In what period are humans most active

Early childhood

When do simple movements like hopping, jumping, and running emerge

Age 3

When do athletic movements emerge

Age 4

When do adventurous, hair raising stunts emerge

Age 5

Recommended sleep for toddlers

10-13 hours without interruption

5210 Obesity Prevention Guidelines for Young Children

5+ servings of fruits/vegetables, 2 or less hours of screen time, 1+ hours of physical activity, 0 sugar-sweetened beverages

Leading causes of death in young children

Accidents

Congenital (from birth) Malformations

Malignant Neoplasms (tumors)

Homicide

Individual Characteristics that enhance young children’s safety

Social skills/emotion regulation, impulse control, use of personal protection

School/peer characteristics that enhance young children’s safety

Home/school partnerships, absence of playground hazards, injury prevention and safety promotion policies

Family/Home characteristics that enhance young children’s safety

Child management/parenting skills, parent protective behaviors, home safety equipment

Community characteristics that enhance young children’s safety

Positive activities for families, active surveillance of hazards, effective prevention policies

Preoperational Stage (Piaget)

2-7: Children represent the world with words, images and drawings; form stable concepts and begin to reason. Children do not yet perform operations.

Operations

Reversible mental actions that allow people to do mentally what they could formerly only do physically (adding and subtracting)

Symbolic Function Substage

2-4: Child gains ability to mentally represent an object that is not present, though is limited by egocentrism and animism

Egocentrism

Inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s.

Animism

Belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

Intuitive Thought Substage

4-7: Children use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to many questions

Centration (limits of preoperational thought)

Centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others

Conservation

Awareness that altering an object or substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties. Not experienced in preoperational thought.

Vygotsky’s Theory

Children think and understand primarily through social interaction

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but that can be learned with guidance

Scaffolding

Changing the level of support and instruction provided to best suit the ZPD

Vygotsky’s view of language development

Children use speech to communicate socially, solve tasks, plan/guide/monitor behavior

Private Speech

Use of language for self regulation

Inner Speech

Internalized egocentric speech that allows children to act without verbalizing.

Social Constructivist Approach

Emphasizes social contexts of learning and asserts that knowledge is mutually built and constructed (Vygotsky)

Criticisms of Vygotsky’s Theory

not specific about age-related changes, does not describe how socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development, overemphasized role of language in thinking

Attention

Ability to focus mental resources on select information

Executive Attention

Action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, dealing with novel/difficult circumstances

Sustained Attention

Focused and extended engagement with an object/task/event

short-term memory

Memory that is retained for up to 30 seconds without rehearsal

Autobiographical Memory

Memory of significant events and experiences in one’s life

Executive Function

higher-level cognitive processes linked to development of the prefrontal cortex

Developmental Advancements in executive function during early childhood

cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, goal-setting, delay of gratification

Theory of Mind

Ability to understand and ascribe mental states to oneself and others

What 3 mental states do children begin to understand between 18 months and 3 years

Perceptions, emotions, and desires

False beliefs

From 3-5, children understand that not everyone has the same beliefs or ideas and sometimes their beliefs or ideas are not true

Fast Mapping

Process in which young children learn the connection between a word and its referent quickly after limited exposure

Most successful way for young children to learn new words

Exposure on multiple occasions over multiple days

Six key principles of young children’s vocab development

learning the words they hear most often

learning words for things that interest them

learning better in responsive and interactive contexts

learning best in meaningful contexts

learning best with access to clear info about word meaning

learning when when grammar and vocab are considered

When do children begin changing speech style to suit the situation

4-5 years

Child-Centered Kindergarten

Emphasizes education of the whole child and concern for their physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. Emphasis on process of learning and engagement.

Montessori Approach

Children are given freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities, fostering independence and cognitive skills

Criticisms of Montessori Approach

deemphasizes verbal interaction, restrict imaginative play, may not allow for creativity and variety of learning styles

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)

Emphasis on creating settings that encourage active learning and reflect children’s interests. based on age- and individual-appropriateness.

Project Head Start

Compensatory program designed to provide children from low-income families the opportunity to acquire skills and experiences important for success in school

Initiative vs Guilt Ages

3-5

Initiative

Children use perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make things happen. Trying without excessive fear of failure or mistakes to develop ambition

Guilt

Shame over failing to complete a task successfully, provoking irritation, or feeling embarrassed over attempting something. Resists trying new things

Self-Understanding

The representation of the self, the substance and content of self-conceptions

How do young children describe themselves

In terms of physical or material characteristics

When do children begin to understand joint commitments

Leading up to 3rd birthday

Self-conscious emotions becoming more prevalent in early childhood

pride, guilt

When do children understand that the same event can elicit different feelings in different people

by 5

Emotion-Coaching

Monitoring children’s emotions, viewing negative ones as teaching opportunities, helping children label emotions, and coaching them in dealing with emotions

Emotion-Dismissing

Denying, ignoring, or changing negative emotions

Moral Development

Development of thoughts, feelings, and behavior regarding riles and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with others

Freud’s Moral Development

Anxiety and guilt are central to moral development, children form superego to reduce anxiety and avoid punishment

Heteronomous Morality (Piaget)

4-7: Justice and riles are believed to be unchangeable properties of the world, lacking understanding of intention, belief in immanent justice

autonomous morality

10+: older children become aware that rules and laws are created by people, and that when judging an action, one should consider the intentions as well as the consequences

Moral behavior view

Situation also influences behavior

Gender

The characteristics of people as males and females

Gender identity

Sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by age 3

Gender role

cultural set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act, and feel

Gender typing

Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

Estrogens

Hormones that influence the development of female characteristics

Androgens

Hormones that promote the development of male characteristics

Social Role Theory

Gender differences result from the contrasting roles of women and men

Psychoanalytic theory of gender

The preschool child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite sex parent

Social cognitive theory of gender

children’s gender development occurs through observation and imitation of others’ words and actions

Mother’s socialization strategies

encourage daughters to be obedient and responsible and restrict their autonomy

Father’s socialization strategies

Give more attention to sons and put forth more effort to promote their intellectual development

Gender Schema Theory

Children gradually develop gender schemas of what is gender-appropriate and -inappropriate in their culture

Gender schema

Organizes world in terms of female and male

Authoritarian Parenting

Restrictive, punitive style in which child is to follow directions and respect parents’ work and effort

Authoritative Parenting

Encourages children to be independent but still places limits and controls on their actions

Neglectful parenting

Parent is uninvolved in the child’s life

Indulgent parenting

parents are highly involved with their children but place few demands or controls on them

If physical punishment is used, it must be

mild, infrequent, age-appropriate, used in context of a positive relationship

Co-parenting

support that parents provide one another in raising a child

Types of child maltreatment

physical abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, emotional abuse

Two treatments effective in reducing child maltreatment

home visitation emphasizing improved parenting, parent-infant psychotherapy that focuses on improving maternal-infant attachment

Three important aspects of sibling relationships

Emotional quality, familiarity/intimacy, considerable variation

Tendencies of low-SES parents

concern that children conform to societal expectations, make it clear that parents have authority

tendencies of high-SES parents

concern for developing child’s initiative, children are more equal participants, parents less likely to use physical punishment and are less directive and more conversational

Peers

Children of the same age or maturity level

Sensorimotor Play

When infants derive pleasure from exercising their existing sensorimotor schemes

Practice Play

Repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned or when mastery is required

Pretense/Symbolic Play

Transforms the physical environment into symbols

Social Play

involved interaction with peers

Constructive Play

Combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation

Games

activities engaged in for pleasure that have rules

Negative influences of screen time

children become passive learners, become distracted from homework, and learn stereotypes, violent models of aggression, and unrealistic views of the world

Average growth in middle/late childhood

2-3 inches, 5-7 pounds per year

Cause for improved motor skills during childhood

myelination of central nervous system

Leading cause of death in middle/late childhood

accidents and injuries, mostly motor vehicles