LD Psych: Early Childhood and Preschool Years *finish*

Obesity

body weight that is more than 20% higher than average weight for a person of particular age and height

optimal strategy

have a variety of low-fat and high-nutrition foods available for preschoolers

greatest risk to preschoolers

accidents

brain development (2 ways)

1. Number of interconnections increases

• facilitates the acquisition of cognitive skills

2. The amount of myelin increases

• facilitates the speed of neural processing

What happens to the Corpus collosum

becomes thicker

Facilitates coordination between hemispheres

lateralization

each hemisphere develops specialized functions

• left: verbal tasks

• Right: non-verbal tasks

gross motor skills

Bike, ski, climb

signs of readiness for toilet training

staying dry 2+ hours of day

Waking up dry after naps

Regular bowel movements

fine motor skills

involve delicate and smaller body movements

handedness

preference for using one hand over the other

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (4)

1. Sensorimotor

2. Preoperational stage

3. Concrete operational stage

4. Formal operational stage

Sensorimotor stage

birth-2 years

Use sensory and motor schemes to act on world

preoperational stage

2-7 years

Acquire symbolic schemes like language and fantasy and use to think and communicate

concrete operational stage

7-11 years

Begin to think logically and become capable of solving problems

formal operational stage

11+ years

Learn to think logically about abstract ideas and hypothetical situations

Children’s play and cognitive development (6)

1. Sensorimotor play (12 months)

2. Constructive play (2 years)

3. First pretend play (between 15-21 months)

4. Substitute pretend play (2-3 years)

5. Sociodramatic play (preschool years)

6. Rule governed play (5-6 years)

egocentrism

a belief among young children that everyone sees and experiences the world the way they do

centration

a tendency among young children to think of the world in terms of one variable at a time