module 5 pt 1

Early Childhood Age Range

2 to 6 years old

Physical Growth Rate in Early Childhood

Grow about 3 inches per year and gain 4-5 pounds per year

What happens to baby fat during early childhood?

Children begin to lose some baby fat

Percentage of American children ages 2-5 who are overweight or obese

About 1 in 5

Why are caregivers important in nutrition development?

They help establish children's taste preferences

How can caregivers promote healthy nutrition?

Provide balanced nutrition and limit sugary snacks and drinks

Brain weight by age 6

About 95% of adult weight

Myelination

Development of myelin around neurons that improves communication speed

Synaptic Pruning

Loss of unused synapses to make neural processing more efficient

Brain area responsible for planning and emotional control

Prefrontal cortex

Which hemisphere shows major language growth?

Left hemisphere

Which hemisphere is associated with spatial skills?

Right hemisphere

Corpus Callosum

Connection between the brain hemispheres that grows rapidly in early childhood

What happens to visual pathways in early childhood?

They become more mature

Gross Motor Skills

Skills involving large muscle groups

Example of a gross motor skill

Running, jumping, climbing

Fine Motor Skills

Skills involving precise movements

Example of a fine motor skill

Writing, drawing, buttoning clothes

How many primary teeth does a child usually have by age 6?

20 primary teeth

Modern view of childhood sexuality

Normal responses to physical sensations and comfort, not adult sexuality

Self-stimulation in early childhood

Is a normal part of development

Why should caregivers discuss body safety?

To teach when it is appropriate for others to see or touch their bodies

Piaget's stage during early childhood

Preoperational Stage

Age range of the Preoperational Stage

2 to 7 years

Main characteristic of the Preoperational Stage

Use of language and symbolic thinking

Egocentrism

Belief that everyone sees the world the same way as the child

Precausal Thinking

Using personal ideas to explain cause-and-effect relationships

Animism

Belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities

Artificialism

Belief that environmental features are caused by human actions

Transductive Reasoning

Failure to understand true cause-and-effect relationships

Syncretism

Belief that two events occurring together are causally related

Centration

Focusing on one characteristic while ignoring others

Conservation

Understanding that appearance changes do not alter basic properties

Example of Conservation Error

Thinking more water exists in a tall glass than a short glass

Irreversibility

Difficulty mentally reversing a sequence of events

Why do preoperational children make conservation errors?

They rely heavily on visual representations

Transitive Inference

Using previous knowledge to determine a missing relationship

Do preoperational children demonstrate strong transitive inference?

No

Theory of Mind

Understanding that people have beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions

By what age do most children develop Theory of Mind?

Around age 4

How does Theory of Mind help social development?

It helps understand others' perspectives and needs

Theory of Mind and Autism

Children with autism often have difficulty recognizing others' mental states

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Persistent deficits in social communication and interaction with restricted behaviors and interests

Possible autism sign by 12 months

No babbling

Possible autism sign by 12 months

No gesturing

Possible autism sign by 16 months

No single words

Possible autism sign by 24 months

No two-word phrases

Sally-Anne Test

Test used to assess Theory of Mind

Who often fails the Sally-Anne Test?

Children younger than 4 and many individuals with autism

Vocabulary growth from ages 2 to 6

About 200 words to over 10,000 words

Fast-Mapping

Rapid learning of new words through context

How do children often learn grammar?

Both explicitly and intuitively

Overregularization

Applying grammar rules too broadly

Example of Overregularization

Saying "goed" instead of "went"

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Range of tasks a child can complete with support

Who developed the Zone of Proximal Development?

Vygotsky

Scaffolding

Providing support while a child learns a new skill

Who is most associated with scaffolding?

Chomsky

Piaget's view of self-talk

Egocentric speech

Vygotsky's view of self-talk

Private speech used for problem solving

Hart and Risley Study

Families from different socioeconomic backgrounds expose children to different numbers of words

Original estimated word gap by Hart and Risley

30 million words

More recent estimate of the word gap

About 4 million words