Midterm 2

Early childhood

Age 2 – 6 years

• Transformation: toddler to child ready to start school

  • Ex: sensory exploration of objects (age 2 years) → sophisticated pretending (age 4 years)

Physical changes → Motor skills

Growth happens a lot more slowly than in infancy (~5-8cm & 2.7kg/year)

• Steady motor development allowing increased independence and ability to explore

• Greater motor activity associated with greater ability to control and inhibit behaviour → “extraneous” motor activity may not be extraneous

• Linear relationship between motor activity levels and age, peaking ~7-9 years

Fine motor skills

Physical changes → Motor skills

_________________ - movements that develop the small muscles of the hands are still not yet skilled and take a lot of concentration

• Wait and see” strategy is not the best approach

• Early training starting at ~age 2.5 years can accelerate skill acquisition

• Even when accelerated, same developmental sequence occurs

• Understanding figures helps with training → older preschoolers benefit more from training

• Training helps understanding → physical and cognitive development = interactive processes

Physical changes → Brain + nervous system

_____________ - Brain growth, synapse formation, & myelinization continue at a slower pace

• Lateralization

• Reticular formation

• Hippocampus

• Handedness

Lateralization

Physical changes → Brain + nervous system

_________________ - division of brain functions between the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

• Corpus callosum grows and matures more during this period than any other

• Basic outline is genetically determined; specific timing is determined by genes and experience

Reticular formation

Physical changes → Brain + nervous system

________________ - regulates attention and concentration

Hippocampus

Physical changes → Brain + nervous system

__________________ - essential to formation of memory

• Both are myelinated during early childhood and hippocampus becomes more integrated with other cortical regions involved in memory

• Marks end of infantile amnesia – inability to remember much about first 3 years of life

Handedness

Physical changes → Brain + nervous system

______________ - preference for using one hand over the other

• Appears before age 1 but becomes well-established ~3-5 years

• Percentages have not changed from ancient to modern times

• Right-handedness likely result of genetic inheritance

• One dominant gene for right-handedness; another for degree to which individual depends on the dominant hand

Right-handedness likely a gene that they get from both sides of their family

Health and wellness

________________ - Higher frequency of illness in preschool with increased social interactions

• 6-7 colds and 1-2 gastrointestinal illnesses

• Continuation of well-baby checkups; though less frequent

• Periodic medical checkups and immunizations continue

• Growth and motor development continue to be monitored

Sleep

__________ - 3- to 5-year-olds require 10-13 hours of sleep (nighttime + napping)

• Problems are quite common (up to 50% of children)

• Nighttime fears, nightmares, sleepwalking, & sleep terrors

• Identification important to prevent negative consequences (e.g., daytime sleepiness, irritability, behavioural problems, learning difficulties)

Eating

_____________ - Grow more slowly and so seemingly eat less

• Food aversions often develop during preschool years

• Parent-child conflict often centres on eating

• Aversions linked to genetic profiles

  • Some individuals have genetic predisposition to prefer certain tastes

  • Others have predisposition to certain aversions

• Canadian children overconsume sugar (25% of daily energy intake vs. WHO recommended 10%)

• 1/3 of Canadian children at risk of obesity

  • Increase in obesogenic environments – social influences and context contribute to obesity

  • Children of lower SES and indigenous children are at increased risk

Eating + Technology

Eating

________________ - Association between watching TV and snacking

• Excessive screen time associated with learning delays

  • Skills practice not happening when passively viewing

    • Recommendation: preschoolers’ screen time should be limited to <1 hour/day

    • Reality: only ¼ of Canadian 3- to 4-year-olds are meeting this recommendation

  • Successfully changing children’s eating habits and activity levels require environmental changes

Screentime is far exceeding what is recommended, environmental changes are needed

Accidents

_________________ - Unintentional injuries account for ~1/5 deaths of Canadian children ages 1-4 years

• 90% of childhood injuries are preventable

• More than 50% of injuries happen at home

• Importance of home safety and childproofing

A high ranking cause of death, but very preventable by removing choking hazards, cleaning substances locked up... etc.

Preoperational stage

Cognitive changes → Piaget

_____________ - enter this stage once develop semiotic function

• Second stage of cognitive development

• Become proficient at using symbols in thinking and communicating

• Using objects in pretend play is a universal phenomenon at ages 2-3 years

  • Still have trouble thinking logically because of egocentrism

  • Centration – tendency to think about the world one variable at a time

This stage is where pretend play and objects (riding a broom to symbolize riding a horse) correlate to symbolism. Centration is also an issue to logical issue (E.g: they know animals move, but then confuse any moving object as an animal)

Challenges to Piaget’s view

Cognitive changes → Piaget

• Conservation: Generally right

  • Younger children demonstrate some ability if the task is simple, but most children cannot consistently solve problems until age 5 years

• Egocentrism: Young children learn to regulate their emotional expression to conform to expectations

  • Preschool children use emotional expression to get what they want

• Perspective Taking: Children less than 1.5 years have some sense that others perceive things differently

  • 2-3 years: can adapt speech or play to their companion

  • Two levels have been proposed: level 1 = some ability; level 2 = development of rules for figuring out the other’s perspective

Theory of mind

Cognitive changes → Piaget

______________ - A set of ideas developed by an individual to explain other people’s beliefs, behaviours, desires, and ideas

• Inklings at 10 months; sophisticated theory developed by 4-to-5-years

• Key development: understanding that each person’s actions are based on their own representation of reality which may be different from what is “really” there

  • Method of study: False belief principle

Kid can figure out I see the world, someone else sees the world, but we might not see the same things.

• Reciprocal thinking develops between 5 and 7 years

• Development of theory of mind = good predictor of social skills

  • Age 6: Realization that knowledge can be derived through inference

    • Influences on development: correlation with Piaget’s tasks, pretend play, working memory, language development

False-belief principle

Cognitive changes → Piaget → Theory of mind

_______________ - The “Smarties” Task

• Looking at a situation from another POV, and looking at what type of signs may cause another person to interpret the situation differently.

• Four-yr olds will say “smarties” as they understand their friend may think the box has smarties, even they personally know it’s pencils.

Vygotksy’s Sociocultural Theory

Cognitive changes → Vygotsky

**study the stages - PNEI

________________ - Emphasis on social factors in cognitive development

• Problem-solving is a socially generated and learned process

• Social interaction = necessary for cognitive development

• Specific stages from birth to 7 years

  • Primitive stage

  • Naive psychology stage

  • Egocentric speech stage

  • Ingrowth stage

Changes in language

Cognitive changes

________________ - Word learning drives development

• 2.5-year-old knows ~600 words → 5-6-year-old knows ~15,000

• Age 3 years: shift in how children approach new words

  • Develop mental “slots” based on understanding of categories and then use those slots to organize new words

• Fast-mapping

Fast-mapping

Cognitive changes → changes in language

______________ - ability to categorically link new words to real-world referent

• Based on rapidly-formed hypotheses about a new word’s meaning, testing the hypothesis, and using feedback to judge whether the hypothesis was correct

Grammar explosion

Cognitive changes → changes in language

____________ - Grammatical features of child’s speech become more similar to those of adult speech (Occurs between 2 and 6 years)

• Addition of inflections

  • “ing” at 2.5-3 years

  • Prepositions → plural “s” on nouns → irregular past tenses → possessives → articles → ”s” to third-person verbs → regular past tenses → various forms of auxiliary words at 3-4 years

• Questions and negatives

  • Children start creating these types of sentences consistent with their set of rules instead of adult’s (e.g., “Where you are going now?”)

  • Demonstrates that language development is a rule-governed process, not a process of imitation

  • Children are using rules they have not heard

• Overregularization → Ex: Goed instead of went...

  • Using regular inflections for irregular words

    • 3-4 year olds apply basic rule to all irregular instances

• Complex sentences: Begin creating using conjunctions or embedded clauses

  • Contrast with two-word sentences like “Mommy coat” they were using 1.5 years earlier

Phonological awareness

Cognitive changes → changes in language

____________ - Sensitivity to, and understanding of, the sound patterns specific to the language being acquired

• Particularly important predictor of how easily a school-age child will learn to read and write

• Can be learned after entering school, but greater awareness before entering school will result in learning to read more quickly

• Develops primarily through word play and shared reading

• Children with strong phonological awareness often use invented spelling when trying to write

Language + numeracy

Cognitive changes → changes in language

______________ - knowledge and skills required to effectively manage the mathematical demands of diverse situations

• Both can be enhanced through early parental or caregiver influences

• Association between numeracy exposure at home and mathematical academic performance

• Language may play a role in child’s ability to master numbers

Measuring intelligence

Cognitive changes

_______________ - Intelligence testing is much more reliable among preschoolers (vs. infants) due to advancement in language skills

• Widespread use of tests is controversial, with debate about why scores are different and degree to which scores can be modified

• Original meaning of intelligence quotient (IQ) = mental age / chronological age X 100

  • Now, IQ is a comparison of a child’s performance with normative data of other same-age children

  • IQ ≥ 130 = gifted ; IQ ≤ 70 = intellectual disability – also must display problems with adaptive behaviour

WISC-V

Cognitive changes → measuring intelligence

Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (____) - Measures children’s general thinking and reasoning skills across five facets:

1. fluid reasoning

2. verbal comprehension

3. visual spatial reasoning

4. working memory,

5. and processing speed

• Looked at all together for total IQ score

• Look at individual indices to identify strengths and weaknesses

• Higher IQ score associated with higher academic achievement, high school completion, and pursuing post-secondary education

• Other factors matter too: motivation, interest, and persistence

• IQ scores generally stable over time; more fluctuation among young children and those with high IQ scores

Cons of intelligence tests

Cognitive changes → measuring intelligence

_________________ - Do not measure underlying competence, do not measure skills that are greatly important for getting along in the world

• Cultural biases, particularly associated with Indigenous children’s test results

Ignore Indigenous kids cultural skills, don’t consider cultural differences

Origins of Individual Differences in Intelligence

Cognitive changes → measuring intelligence

______________ - Strong hereditary influences on IQ

• Parents with high IQs are more likely to provide stimulating physical environment, talk to their children often using rich language, and respond appropriately to the child’s behaviour

Environment also influences – particularly socioeconomic status

• Formal education also influences IQ scores

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

________________ - Childhood stressors that increase the risk of negative health and social consequences across the lifespan

• Not interchangeable with child abuse, child maltreatment, neglect, or childhood adversity

13 types:

• Abuse: Physical, emotional, social

• Neglect: Physical, emotional

• Household dysfunction: mental illness, incarcerated relative, parent treated violently, substance abuse, divorce, peer victimization, living in foster care, community violence

Child abuse, neglect, maltreatment

• Child abuse:

  • Physical abuse

  • Sexual abuse

  • Emotional abuse

  • Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV)

• Neglect:

  • Physical neglect

  • Emotional neglect

• Child maltreatment:

  • Umbrella term for child abuse and neglect

Neglect is not technically a form of abuse, but it is a form of child maltreatment

Childhood adversity

______________ - broadest term. Includes child maltreatment (child abuse + neglect), and ACEs

• Additional things that do not currently – but may eventually – fall under ACEs (e.g., poverty)

• Allows for inclusion of adversities that are relevant in different cultural and global contexts

Stress is NOT what ACEs are

________________ - Two terms are NOT synonymous

• Stress = stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system

• Some degree of stress is part of a normal, typical childhood

• Stress can be good

• Increases resilience and development of coping skills

Anything that is stressful alone doesn’t constitute an ACE. Stress is a healthy part of learning that helps develop coping skills.

Prevalence of ACEs

_____________ - Most cases of child victimization in Canada go unreported

• Big discrepancy between formal reports and self-reports in research

• Only 14/1000 substantiated cases per year in Canada

History + theories of ACEs

_______________ - First publication on child abuse published in 1962

• Mandatory reporting of child abuse across provinces from 1965-1981

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989

• First ACEs publication in 1998

• 100+ publications/year on ACEs in last 10 years

Children were essentially viewed as "parental property"

• Four broad categories of causes: sociocultural factors, child characteristics, abuser characteristics, and household stresses

• Episodes are typically preceded by everyday interactions

• Causal factors interact to produce abusive response

• Number of risk factors differentiates abusive from non-abusive parents

Dose-response model

Long-term impacts

________________- the relationship between the extent of an exposure (dose) to a factor, such as trauma or stress, and the resulting impact on health and development (response)

• People who experienced 4+ ACEs had 4-12x the risk of substance use issues, depression, and suicidality; 2-4x the risk of smoking, poor self-rated health, and risky sexual behaviour; and 1.4-1.6x the risk of physical inactivity and obesity

• Risk of numerous adult diseases increased with the number of ACEs exposed to

• Impact of ACEs on adult health status = “strong and cumulative”

• Children not typically exposed to just one ACE so the chance of those higher dose-response impacts are likely

Toxic stress

Long-term impacts

___________ - long-lasting or frequent stress without an adult buffer. When stress becomes unhealthy

• Stress system remains activated for prolonged period of time

• Can lead to lifelong changes in intelligence and learning ability; long-term behavioural, emotional, physical, and social problems; and long-term health problems

Problems measuring ACEs

_____________ - Typically: ACEs score – yes/no to each ACE and add them up

• 10 ACEs and ACEs score not psychometrically validated

• Cannot accurately capture complexity with a simple yes/no question

• Summing ACEs scores is not always appropriate

MUST recognize limitations when interpreting literature

What doesn’t get measured is how episodes are different— long-term impacts could be different

Gender differences

_______________ - Boys more likely to report any child abuse BUT this may be because physical abuse is more common than sexual abuse

• Girls more likely to report sexual abuse

• Boys more likely to report physical abuse

• Girls more likely to report experiencing multiple types of abuse

Sexual abuse is what has the most traumatizing outcomes

Risk + resilience factors

______________ - Research has historically focused on negative outcomes

BUT not all children who experience ACEs have negative outcomes

• Identifying why some children do not provides crucial information for intervention and resource planning

Resilience

________________ - Evolving definition, as resilience can be changed

• Now:

  • Assets: innate individual characteristics (e.g., genetic traits, personality)

  • Resources: external factors (e.g., family, culture, community)

    • Interaction between the two that allows person to become resilient over time

• *Can only exist in the face of adversity

Prior conceptualizations focused on individual characteristics = called assets. (Some genetic factors can play a part, but external factors (resources) can also affect it)

Protective factors

___________________ - Related but distinct. Provide a buffer against risk factors

• There are protective factors at the individual, family, community, and societal levels

  • Bronfenbrenner's bioecological Systems Theory

Why not EVERYONE gets PTSD but some do

Spanking

______________ - not associated with improved behaviour, actually associated with depression, anxiety, slower cognitive development, aggression and antisocial behaviour

• Childhood adversity researchers are strongly against the spanking law

• Not associated with improved behaviour

  • Emerging research that spanking may constitute an ACE

• Same harmful outcomes as physical abuse – are they different?

• United Nations has called for Canada to strike down the law/make spanking illegal

• Children are the only group in Canada who can be subjected to corporal punishment

• Advocates contend it is a violation of children’s human and charter rights

“The Spanking Law”

_______________ Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code - allows parents to use reasonable force to discipline children

• Specifications:

  • Force must be reasonable, minor, and “transitory and trifling”

  • Force must be intended to correct or educate the child

  • Objects (e.g., belts, rulers) can’t be used

  • Force must not be used on children younger than two years or older than 12 years

  • Force must not harm or degrade the child

  • Force must not be used in anger or retaliation

• There have been multiple attempts to repeal the section

  • 2004: 6/9 Supreme Court judges voted to uphold the section

  • They narrowed the scope, removing teachers’ ability to use physical force unless preventing the child from hurting themselves, placing the age restrictions, and disallowing use of objects

  • Justin Trudeau’s government committed to repealing the section in accordance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action

  • Multiple legislative attempts have been made through both the House of Commons & the Senate – none have been successful

Overview

_____________ - Ages 2-6, called "stepping out phase" as this is where you separate attachment from caregivers

• Social development arguably most notable change in early childhood

• Oppositional loners → Cooperative playmates

• “Stepping out” phase

Psychoanalytic theories

__________________ - Internal drives are the driving force behind developmental change in social and emotional domains

• With socialization, child must begin to adapt their driving inner forces to the social demands around them

• Early childhood: child has to learn to take responsibility for their behaviour

Psychosexual stages of development (OAPLG)

Psychoanalytic theory → Freud

___________ - Two stages during this period: anal stage (1-3 years) and phallic stage (3-6 years)

• Anal stage = toilet training

• Phallic stage = foundation for gender and moral development by identifying with same-sex parent

Early childhood = time when young children 1) gain control of bodily functions; 2) renegotiate relationship with parents in preparation for entering peer relationships

Psychosocial stages of development

Psychoanalytic theory → Erik Erikson

_______________ - Agreed with Freud's view on bodily control and parental relationships— Different emphasis, this time with a desire for autonomy & initiative

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt stage: centres on toddler's desire for autonomy driven by newfound mobility

• Initiative vs. guilt stage: centres on desire to take initiative driven by new cognitive skills, especially ability to plan

  • Developing conscience determines boundaries of initiative

Key to healthy development: balance between child's desire for autonomy and emerging skills, and parents' need to protect child and control child's behaviour

_{Social-cognitive perspectives}

_______________ - Social and personality development in early childhood are related to cognitive improvements

• Development of metacognition and theory of mind are particularly relevant

• Person perception

Person perception

_{Social-cognitive perspectives}

_{_______________ -} ability to classify others

• Age 5 years:

  • Can use simple trait labels to describe others

  • Make judgements similar to those of adults

  • Make statements about other people's patterns of behaviour

  • Use observations to classify others into groups

  • Observations and categorizations are much less consistent than those of older children because based on most recent interactions

  • Use observable characteristics to categorize others

  • Cross-race effect: more likely to remember faces of people of own race

  • Recognize themselves as "little kids"

  • Self-segregation by gender

Understanding rule categories

_______________ - Children start to respond differently to violations of social conventions and moral rules (Begins at 2-3 years)

• View certain violations of rules more seriously than others – just like adults

• Say that stealing and physical violence are wrong, even if there is no explicit rule against them at preschool or in home

• Develops because of increasing ability to classify and because of adults’ tendency to place more emphasis on moral transgressions (vs. social-convention violations) when punishing them

Understanding intentions

• Piaget thought young children could not differentiate; later research showed he was wrong

• Understand that intentional wrongdoing is punished more than unintentional rule transgression

• Children can make judgements about others’ intentions in face of abstract problems and personal motivation to avoid punishment

• Limitation: will factor in outcomes when determining intention

Family relationships and structure

_____________ - Arguably the most influential factors in early childhood development. Tension between continuity and change – still as attached as when an infant while also trying to establish independence

• Start of individuation – process of becoming distinct, separate person

• Age 2-3 years: attachment as strong but less obvious

  • Wandering further from safe base

  • Manage separation anxiety by creating shared plans

• Attachment quality predicts behaviour

• Attachment relationship changes ~4 years

  • Understand that relationship keeps existing when caregiver isn’t there

  • Internal model generalizes

• New sources of conflict

  • 2 years: recognize that independent contributor to caregiver-child relationship

• Still comply with caregiver requests most of the time; struggle most with requests to delay or engage in self-care

Parenting

_________________ - Families respond differently to increasing demands for independence

• Early conceptualization by Baumrind determined four dimensions of family functioning

  • Warmth/nurturance

  • Clarity and consistency of rules

  • “Maturity demands” or level of expectations

  • Communication between parent and child

Children with warm/nurturant parents are more securely attached and fare better on a range of outcomes. Children whose parents clearly and consistently apply rules are less likely to be defiant

• Optimal control: not overly restrictive, explain reasoning, avoid use of physical punishments, and have high expectations

• Open and regular communication between parent and child associated with positive outcomes

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles (PAAN)

Parenting

__________________ - Four types -

1. Permissive/indulgent: high in nurturance; low in maturity demands, control, and communication

2. Authoritarian/power-assertive: high in control and maturity demands; low in nurturance and communication

3. Authoritative/reciprocal: high in nurturance, maturity demands, control, and communication

4. Neglectful/uninvolved: low in nurturance, maturity demands, control, and communication

Macoby & Martin proposed variation: two dimensions

• Degree of demand or control

• Amount of acceptance vs. rejection

3 intersect well with Baumrind’s fourth type

Discipline

Parenting

_____________ - to help the child develop self-control, moral character, and proper conduct

• Problems:

  • Hard to establish the types of punishment that are effective, and the intensity and frequency that are effective.

  • Any form of discipline that is too extreme or frequent can constitute child abuse

• Best practice recommendation in Canada: minimal nonphysical interventions, limiting situations that will require intervention

Family structure

_______________ - Dominant structure in Canada = children living with married parents

• Most children raised in a single parent family have good outcomes, though outcomes differ by child's age

  • No association with problems in children aged 2-3 years

  • Associated with twice the rates of several negative outcomes in children aged 4-11

  • Single parents report high levels of chronic stress which may contribute

  • Strengths: strong parent-child bonding, and high resilience, maturity, problem-solving, and emotion regulation in children

• Difficult to explain higher rates of problems among children raised by grandparents because often precipitated by trauma

Same-sex parents:

• No poorer outcomes compared to heterosexually-partnered parents

• Strengths: children are better psychologically adjusted and have better academic performance; parents are more welcoming of diversity, less likely to impose gender stereotypes, and more nurturing of young children

• Key variable: how parents interact with child

Divorce

Family structure

____________ - Prevalence has declined— Most happen during child-rearing period. Very difficult for children = ACE

• Some negative effects are because of factors that existed prior to this

• Divorce difficult due to numerous related factors

• Generally, children living post-separation do well, though they do have a higher prevalence of psychological, emotional, and behavioural problems

• Often problems in first few years post-separation

• Can influence long-term outcomes

Peer relationships

_______________ - Age 2-6 years = critical period in social skills development. Play is important for social skills development

• Group entry: observing others to figure out what they are doing and then trying to become a part of it

• Parten (1932) identified the social dimensions of play through an observational study:

  • Solitary play

  • Onlooker play

  • Parallel play

  • Associative play

  • Cooperative play

Group entry

Peer relationships

________________- observing others to figure out what they are doing and then trying to become a part of it

Types of Play (SOPAC)

Peer relationships

_______________ - Parten (1932) identified the social dimensions of play through an observational study:

• Solitary play: playing alone

• Onlooker play: watching another child play

• Parallel play: playing side by side

• Associative play: pursuing own activity but engaging in short, spontaneous social interactions

• Cooperative play: working together with several others to accomplish a goal

1) Solitary play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

____________ - playing alone

2) Onlooker play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

______________ - watching another child play

3) Parallel play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

______________ - playing side by side

4) Associative play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

_______________ - pursuing own activity but engaging in short, spontaneous social interactions

5) Cooperative play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

_______________ - working together with several others to accomplish a goal

Aggression

________________ - behaviour intended to harm another person or damage an object – intentionality is key.

Almost all young children engage in some aggressive behaviour towards adults, peers, and siblings

• Patterns of aggression:

  • Physical aggression peaks at ~2 years and declines during preschool years

  • Indirect aggression: increases through preschool years – 11 years

  • Physical aggression predicts indirect aggression

Causes of aggression

Aggression

______________ - Genetics, reinforcement, modelling, potential heredity basis, epigenetics

• Apparent genetic component – runs in families

• Harsh punitive parenting

  • Predicts across childhood

  • True regardless of gender and family income

  • Increase or decrease in punitive parenting corresponds with increase or decrease in aggression

  • Unclear which way the association goes

• Reinforcement

• Modelling

  • Real-life aggressive models (vs. violent media) has more impact

  • May learn that aggression is a way to solve problems

• Potential hereditary basis

• Epigenetics

  • Opposite premise: children are inherently aggressive

  • Environmental factors can modify this tendency

Prosocial behaviour

_______________ - voluntary behaviour intended to help another person (Emerges at 2-3 years)

• Some increase with age while others decrease

• Children with better emotion regulation display more empathy and altruism

• Variations associated with different types of parenting

  • Modelling prosocial behaviour, drawing child's attention to the feelings of others, clear explanations and rules about what to do and not to do, & providing prosocial attributions = more altruistic children

Friendships

_______________ - Playmate preferences begin as early as 18 months

• Age 3 years: ~20% have a stable playmate

• Preschool-age children show more mutual liking, reciprocity, extended interactions, positive behaviour, and supportiveness with friends

• Having a friend in early childhood is associated with social competence

Personality/temperament

_____________ - combination of innate temperament with knowledge gained about temperament-related behaviour during childhood

• Through social interactions, children learn that certain behaviours result in rejection and others in acceptance

• Operant conditioning → Motivated by behaviours that will allow you to be accepted in a group versus behaviours that do not

Self-concept (CES)

________________ - three types of understanding self

• 18-24 months: starting to develop categorical and emotional selves

• 2-6 years: continues + addition of social self

• Gender differences begin to appear

1. Categorical self

2. Emotional Self

3. Social Self

1) Categorial self

Self-concept (CES)

_____________ - Describe themselves on a range of dimensions in a very concrete way

• Internal working model for social relationships

2) Emotional self

Self-concept (CES)’

__________________ - Better at understanding their own emotion

Association between labeling and explaining emotions and vocabulary

• Acquisition of emotional regulation

• Empathy

• Moral emotions

3) Social self

Self-concept (CES)

_____________ - Increasing awareness of self as an actor in social interactions

• Scripts develop by age 2 – now child begins to understand their role in these scripts

• Begins to understand their place in the family

• Helps child become more independent

Sex

___________ - the biological traits you are born with

Gender

_____________ - self-identity, who you are attracted to, etc.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Gender Development

Social-cognitive theories (gender)

_________________ - Emphasize the caregivers’ role in shaping sex-role behaviours and attitudes

• Gender identity: Label own sex correctly and identify others by gender (2yrs)

• Gender stability: Understanding that people stay the same gender throughout life (4yrs)

• Gender constancy: Understanding that someone stays the same gender even though they may change their appearance (<4yrs)

Gender Schema Theory

Social-cognitive theories (gender)

__________________ - Information-processing approach. Development of gender framework is basis of gender development

Begins as soon as child recognizes differences between male and female and can recognize own gender

• Once schema starts to form, will assimilate many experiences to it

• Underlies gender scripts and sex-typed behaviours

Gender stereotypes

Gender and sex

________________ - Stereotyped ideas develop soon after infancy

• Rigidity emerges late in early childhood; by age 9 years, understand there is a difference between what is usual and what is wrong

• At 5-6 years children essentialize gender as significant; they later understand that these rules are conventions and so gender-role concepts become more flexible

• Between ages 5-11 years: gender stereotyping declines though knowledge and spontaneous stereotyping are still high

Sex-typed behaviour

Gender and sex

______________ - Different patterns of behaviour exhibited by boys vs. girls

• Emerges earlier than ideas about sex roles

• Preference for sex-stereotyped toys by 18-24 months - before can identify own sex or gender

Gender + peer interactions

Gender and sex

______________ - Same-gender interactions differ in quality

Interactions involve instruction and modelling of gender-appropriate behaviour

• Girls: take an enabling style

  • Supporting, expressing agreement, making suggestions

  • Fosters more equality and intimacy and keeps the interaction going

• Boys: take a constricting or restrictive style

  • Inhibits the partner and shortens or ends the interaction

• Boys don’t respond to girls’ enabling style → conditioning → avoiding future interactions with boys

Cross-gender behaviour

Gender and sex

________________ - Behaviour atypical for their gender in their culture. More common among girls than boys because more tolerated by others

• Tomboyishness may foster assertiveness in girls

• Sex-typed behaviours are stable across early and middle childhood

• Cross-gender behaviour in early childhood predicts feelings of differentness from peers in adolescence

• Children as young as two identify as trans

• Best practice is to support and affirm their identities

Middle childhood

_______________ - School-age children up to adolescence

• 6 to 12 years

Physical changes

_______________ - Less obvious but still significant (5-8cm & 2.75kg/year)

Continued improvement in large-muscle, hand-eye, and fine motor coordination

• Sex differences:

  • Girls’ rate of growth is faster

  • Girls have more fat and less muscle tissue

  • Girls’ wrist bones mature faster → better fine motor coordination

  • Skeletal and muscle coordination: girls more coordinated but slower and weaker

Brain and nervous system

________________ - Diff. parts

• Myelinization: Continues at steady pace

  • Early on, happens rapidly in sensory and motor areas

  • Later, reticular formation and nerves linking it to frontal lobes

• Frontal lobe growth → logic and planning

• Selective attention

• Association areas – areas of the brain where sensory, motor, and intellectual functions are linked become almost fully myelinated

• Lateralization of spatial perception

• Spatial cognition

Selective attention

Brain and nervous system

____________ - ability to focus cognitive activity on important elements of a problem or situation

Lateralization of spatial perception

Brain and nervous system

______________ - ability to identify and act on relationships between objects in space

• Imagining how furniture could look in a different position

Spatial cognition

Brain and nervous system

__________________ - ability to infer rules from, and make predictions about, movement of objects in space

• Boys are better in this likely due to play like building blocks, etc.

Sleep + immunization

______________ - Sleep: Poor sleep patterns are common

• 9-11 hours of uninterrupted sleep/night = recommended amount

• Use of electronics in the bedroom associated with poorer sleep quality and amount

Immunization: Hepatitis B if not administered in infancy, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) should be considered between 9-13 years

Unintentional injuries

________________ - 2/5 fatalities among children age 5-9 years

• Increases with age

• Higher for males

• Playground accidents = ~1/2 of traumatic brain injuries

• Reduction in hospitalizations due to unintentional injuries because of reduced activity

Healthy bodies and weights

_________________ - Primary measure is body mass index (BMI)

• 12.3% of boys and 8.5% of girls are obese

  • Risk factors: overweight parents, large size for gestational age at birth, and early onset of being overweight

  • Overweight or obese children are at higher risk for a range of health and socioemotional problems

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

________________ - Third stage; children construct schemes that allow them to think logically about objects and events in the real world

• Concrete operations = set of schemes that emerge during this stage

• Decentration: thinking that takes multiple variables into account

  • Opposite of centration

• Reversibility: ability to mentally undo a physical or mental transformation

• Develop ability to use inductive logic: inferring general principles from specific experiences

• Not yet good at deductive logic: predicting a specific outcome from a general principle

Tests of Piaget’s theory

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

_______________ - Horizontal decalage and Siegler’s approach

Horizontal decalage: it takes years for children to apply their newfound cognitive skills to a variety of problems → Piaget was right that concrete operational schemes are gradually acquired between 6-12 years old

Siegler’s approach crosses Piaget’s theory with information-processing theory

• Concrete operational stage task performance conceptualized in terms of problem-solving

• Cognitive development = acquiring set of basic rules and applying them to more and more types of problems through experience

• No stages, only sequences

• Problem-solving rules emerge from trial-and-error experimentation

• Child’s position in logic sequence depends on specific experience with given set of material – not on age

Advances in info-processing skills

________________ - Memory improves the more you use it. Improved memory skills allow information and skills to be acquired much more quickly and with greater understanding

• Processing efficiency

• Automaticity

• Executive processes

Rehearsal

Memory strategies

____________ - Mental or vocal repetition

Organization

Memory strategies

_______________ - Grouping ideas, objects, or words into clusters to help remember them

Elaboration

Memory strategies

______________ - Finding shared meaning or a common referent for two or more things that need to be remembered

Mnemonic

Memory strategies

______________ - Pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that help remember something

Systematic searching

Memory strategies

____________ - Scanning memory for domain in which piece of information might be found

Expertise

Advances in info-processing skills

______________ - how much someone knows impacts how efficiently their information-processing system works

• Children's knowledge about a topic influences their creativity

• Expertise supersedes age differences in strategy use or memory ability

• Information-processing skills may be entirely dependent on the quantity and quality of relevant information stored in long-term memory

Language

_______________ - Develop greater skill at managing finer points of grammar

Learn how to maintain a topic of conversation, how to create unambiguous sentences, and how to speak politely or persuasively

• Age 9 years: can engage in fluent conversation with speakers of any age; speech rates approach those of adults

• Add 5,000 – 10,000 new words per year

Schooling

__________________ - Formal education is one of most important influences on cognitive development in middle childhood

• Authoritative teaching style = most effective

• Literacy is focus of education during middle childhood

• Phonological awareness continues to increase and is foundation for later-developing skills that predict reading comprehension ability in later childhood

• Effective beginning reading programs include systematic and explicit phonics instruction

• Balanced approach: reading instruction that combines explicit phonics instruction with other strategies for helping literacy acquisition