Ch 7: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

height and weight

avg growth is 2.5 inches and 5-10 pounds per year during early childhood

growth patterns vary individually

the two most important contributors:

• ethnic origins

• nutrition

growth hormone deficiency

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

true or false. the brain reaches 95% of adult volume by 6 years

true. brain growth is slow during early childhood

myelination

nerve cells are covered and insulated w/ a layer of fat cells

• this increases speed and efficiency

true or false most preschool children are more active than they will ever be at any later period in the life span

true

Gross motor skills require an effort to stay upright and move around

• Simple movements, like hopping, jumping, and running at age 3

• Athletic movements at home and school at age 4

• Adventurous, hair-raising stunts in gyms and on playground equipment at age 5

fine motor skills

• still clumsy at 3 years

• improved fine motor coordination at 4 years

• body coordination by 5 years

perceptual development

• age 4-5: detection of boundaries between letters

• by first grade, children can focus the eyes and sustain attention effectively on close-up objects.

recommended sleep

10-13 hours each night without interruption

• problems include narcolepsy, insomnia, and nightmares

Sleep problems are linked with negative outcomes:

• Attention problems

• Worse school readiness profiles

• Being overweight

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

more daily screen time is associated with a decrease in sleep time.

true or false. eating behaviors are influenced at school.

false. eating behaviors are strongly influenced by caregivers’ behavior

what are categories for obesity, overweight, and at risk for being overweight are determined

body mass index (BMI)

what country has the second highest rate of childhood obesity

USA

Obesity prevention guidelines, daily, for young children:

• Five or more servings of fruits and vegetables

• Two hours or less of screen time

• Minimum of one hour of physical activity

• Zero sugar-sweetened beverages

Malnutrition in young children from low-income families:

• Eleven million preschool children are experiencing malnutrition

• One common nutritional problem is iron deficiency anemia.

In 2019 in the United States, the leading causes of death in young children were

• accidents (unintentional injuries)

• homicide

• congenital malformations

• deformations and chromosomal abnormalities

• cancer

true or false. children in poverty are not at risk for accidents, death, and asthma.

false. Children in poverty have higher rates of accidents, death, and asthma than do children from higher-income families.

true or false. children exposed to tobacco smoke are more likely to smoke.

false. Children exposed to tobacco smoke in the home are more likely to develop asthma and high blood pressure.

Individual characteristics that enhance a young child’s safety

• social skills and emotion regulation

• impulse control

• use of personal protection

family/home characteristics that enhance a young child’s safety

• child management and parenting skills

• parent protective behaviors

• home safety equipment.

school/peer characteristics that enhance a young child’s safety

• home/school partnerships

• absence of playground hazards

• injury prevention and safety promotion policies/programs

community characteristics that enhance a young child’s safety

• positive activities for families

• active surveillance of hazards

• effective prevention policies

state of illness and health of the world’s children

• Devastating effects on the health of young children occur in countries with high poverty rates

• A dramatic increase in deaths has resulted from HIV/AIDS, especially in poor countries.

preoperational stage

piaget’s second stage, 2-7 years of age

• children represent the world w/ words, images, and drawings

• they form stable concepts and begin to reason

children do not yet perform operations; reversible mental actions that allow them to do mentally what they formerly did physically

piaget’s preoperational stage: symbolic function substage

the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present

• between 2 and 4 years of age

• children’s thought is still limited by egocentrism and animism

• egocentrism: the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s

• animism: the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

piaget’s preoperational stage: intuitive though substage

children use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to many questions

• 4 - 7 years of age

piaget’s preoperational stage: centration and the limits of preoperational thought

• centration: a centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others

• conversation: the awareness that altering an object or substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties

the three mountains task

View 1 shows the child’s perspective from where they are sitting. View 2 is an example of one of the photographs the child would be shown, along with other photographs taken from different perspectives. It shows what the mountains look like to a person sitting at spot B. When asked what a view of the mountains looks like from position B, the preoperational child selects a photograph taken from location A, the child’s view at the time. A child who thinks in a preoperational way cannot take the perspective of a person sitting at another spot.

the symbolic drawings of young children

(a) A 3½-year-old's symbolic drawing. Halfway into his drawing, the 3½-year-old artist said it was a “pelican kissing a seal.”

(b) This 11-year-old’s drawing is neater and more realistic but also less inventive.

piaget’s conservation task

The beaker test is a well-known Piagetian test to determine whether a child can think operationally— that is, can mentally reverse actions and show conservation of the substance.

(a) Two identical beakers are presented to the child. Then the experimenter pours the liquid from B into C, which is taller and thinner than A or B.

(b) The child is asked if these beakers (A and C) have the same amount of liquid. The preoperational child says “no.” When asked to point to the beaker that has more liquid, the preoperational child points to the tall, thin beaker.

some dimensions of conservation:

number, matter, and length

vygotsky'‘s theory

children think and understand primarily through social interaction

zone of proximal development (ZPD): the range of tasks too difficult for the child alone but that can be learned w/ guidance

• linked closely to scaffolding: changing the level of support and instruction provided

  • as competence increases, less guidance is given

vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development has a lower limit and an upper limit. Tasks in the ZPD are too difficult for the child to perform alone. They require assistance from an adult or a more-skilled child. As children experience the verbal instruction or demonstration, they organize the information in their existing mental structures so that they can eventually perform the skill or task alone.

vygotsky'‘s theory: language and thought

children use speech to communicate socially and to help them solve tasks

young children also use language to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior

• private speech refers to this use of language for self-regulation

• when they gain the skill to act w/o verbalizing, they have internalized their egocentric speech in the form of inner speech

• private speech plays a positive role in development

vygotsky'‘s theory: teaching strategies

• assess the child’s ZPD

• Use the child’s ZPD in teaching

• Use more-skilled peers as teachers

• Place instruction in a meaningful context

• Transform the classroom with Vygotskian ideas

evaluating vygtosky’s theory

takes a social constructivist approach: an approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and asserts that knowledge is mutually built and constructed

criticisms:

• not specific enough about age-related changes

• does not adequately describe how changes in socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development

• overemphasized the role of language in thinking

vygotsky’s theory vs paiget’s theories

attention

The ability to focus mental resources on select information improves significantly in the preschool years

executive attention

a good predictor or self-regulation, involves:

• action planning

• allocating attention to goals

• error detection and compensation

• monitoring progress on tasks

• dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

sustained attention

focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event, or other aspect of the environment

• also called vigilance

attention is still deficient in at least two ways

• salient versus relevant dimensions

  • planfulness

children are better able to understand their environment, they can sustain attention for longer periods

advances in comprehension and language development are particularly significant

memory

The retention of information over time is central to cognitive development

short-term memory

individuals can retain information up to 30 seconds with no rehearsal

• The memory-span task assesses short-term memory using a short list of stimuli—usually digits—presented at a rapid pace, after which subjects are asked to repeat the list

• Short-term memory increases during early childhood

development changes in memory span

In one study, from 2 to 7 years of age children’s memory span increased from two digits to five digits (Dempster, 1981). Between 7 and 13 years of age, memory span had increased on average only another two digits to seven digits.

How accurate are young children’s long-term memories?

• there are age differences in children’s susceptibility to suggestion

• There are individual differences in susceptibility

• Interviewing techniques can produce substantial distortions in children’s reports about highly salient events.

• The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is dependent on type, number, and intensity of the suggestive techniques experienced.

autobiographical memory

• Autobiographical memory involves memory of significant events and experiences in one’s life

• In some areas (remembering a story, a song, or interesting event or experience), young children have been shown to have reasonably good memories

executive function

consists of higher-level cognitive processes linked to the development of the brain’s prefrontal cortex.

in early childhood, involves developmental advances in:

• cognitive inhibition

• cognitive flexibility

• goal setting

• delay of gratification

Mischel and colleagues’ studies using the “marshmallow experiment” linked delay of gratification in preschool with later academic success, coping, and competence

theory of mind

awareness of one’s own mental processes and the mental process of others

from 18 months to 3 years, children begin to understand three mental states

• perceptions

• emotions

• desires

from 3-5 years, they come to understand false beliefs

developmental changes in false-belief performance

the child’s understanding that a person may have a false belief that contradicts reality—dramatically increases.

from 2 ½ years of age through the middle of the elementary school years. In a summary of the results of many studies, 2 ½ year-olds gave incorrect responses about 80 percent of the time (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). At 3 years, 8 months, they were correct about 50 percent of the time, and after that, they gave increasingly correct responses.

the sally and anne false-belief task

In the false-belief task, the skit above in which Sally has a basket and Anne has a box is shown to children. Sally places a toy in her basket and then leaves. While Sally is gone and can’t watch, Anne removes the toy from Sally’s basket and places it in her box. Sally then comes back, and the children are asked where they think Sally will look for her toy. Children are said to “pass” the false-belief task if they understand that Sally looks in her basket first before realizing the toy isn’t there.

At 5 to 7 years, children develop a deepening appreciation of the mind itself rather than just mental states

• They can see the mind as an active constructor of knowledge

• They realize the same event can be open to multiple interpretations.

Individual differences and factors that influence theory of mind:

• Executive function and prefrontal cortex functioning

• Language development

• Socioeconomic status

children w/ autism have difficulty developing a theory of mind

ambiguous line drawing

In one study, children saw an ambiguous line drawing—a drawing that could be seen as either a duck or a rabbit. One puppet told the child she believed the drawing was a duck, while another puppet told the child he believed the drawing was a rabbit. Before the age of 7, children said that there was one right answer and that it was not okay for the two puppets to have different opinions

During the preschool years, most children become:

• sensitive to the sounds of spoken words

• capable of producing all the sounds of their language.

As they move beyond two-word utterances, they demonstrate a knowledge of morphology rules

• plural and possessive forms of nouns

• appropriate verb endings

• prepositions, articles, and forms of to be

stimuli in berko’s study of young children’s understanding of morphological rules

In Jean Berko’s (19 58) study, young children were presented cards, such as this one with a “wug” on it. Then the children were asked to supply the missing word; in supplying the missing word, they had to say it correctly, too. “Wugs” is the correct response here. Berko, J. (19 58). The child’s learning of English morphology. Word, 14, 154. Copyright 19 58 by Jean Berko Gleason. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

fast mapping

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

Six key principles describe young children’s vocabulary development:

• Children learn the words they hear most often

• Children learn words for things and events that interest them

• Children learn words better in responsive and interactive contexts than in passive contexts

• Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful

• Children learn words best when they access clear information about word meaning

• Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered

advancdes in pragmatics

• Children learn culturally specific rules of conversation and adapt their speech in different settings

• As they get older, they become increasingly able to talk about things that are not here and not now

• Around 4 to 5 years of age, they learn to change their speech style to suit the situation

Early precursors of literacy and academic success include:

• language skills

• phonological and syntactic knowledge

• letter identification

• conceptual knowledge of print conventions and functions.

Strategies for using books:

• Use books to initiate conversation

• Use what and why questions

• Encourage children to ask questions about stories

• Choose some books that play with language

child-centered kindergarten

emphasizes education of the whole child and concern for their physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development

• Experimenting, exploring, discovering, trying out, restructuring, speaking, and listening

montessori approach

children are given freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities

• Fosters independence and cognitive skills

• Critics suggest it deemphasizes verbal interaction, restricts imaginative play, and may not allow for creativity and for a variety of learning styles

developmentally appropriate practice (DAP): focuses on the typical developmental patterns of children and the uniqueness of each child

• age appropriateness and individual appropriateness

• the emphasis is on the process of learning

generalizing about DAP is challenging b/c it is an evolving concept, and individual programs vary

• recent changes give more attention to sociocultural factors, the teacher’s involvement, and to what degree academic skills should be emphasized.

project head start

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

• not all created equal

• improved parenting engagement and skills are linked to children’s success

Evaluations support the positive influence of quality early childhood programs

• In terms of both the cognitive and social worlds of disadvantaged young children

curriculum controversy

academic approaches pressure young children to achieve, don’t provide chances to actively construct knowledge, and don’t focus on cognitive and socioemotional development.

universal preschool education

Critics of the idea argue, it is more important to improve preschool education for disadvantaged children