Set 2: Early Childhood (Ch 6) - 26 terms

Malnutrition and illness

Weakens the immune system and increases vulnerability to illness

Main nutrient deficiency in the US

Calcium

Main nutrient deficiencies in developing countries

Protein and iron

Leading causes of early childhood death in developing countries

Disease (malaria, measles, pneumonia), with malnutrition indirectly involved in about half of deaths

Leading cause of early childhood death in developed countries

Injury, mostly accidents

Theory of mind

Understanding that others have thoughts, beliefs, and intentions different from your own

Theory of mind development

Develops across early childhood; tested with false belief tasks

How a false belief task works

Child is asked what another person who lacks key information will believe or do; passing means predicting from that person's false belief, not what the child knows

False belief task by age

Most 3 year olds fail; most 4 year olds pass

Factors affecting cultural learning opportunities

Time spent apart from family and complexity of adult work

Cultural learning in developed countries

Children spend most of the day apart from parents and adult jobs are too complex to learn by watching, so less guided participation

Cultural learning in other settings

Children learn through guided participation in chores, food prep, and shared work

Preschool quality markers

Teacher training, class size and ratio (no more than 20), age appropriate materials and activities, teacher and child interaction

Montessori preschool

Independence, child chosen activities, mixed ages

Teacher-led preschool

Teacher chooses and directs activities and instruction

Purpose of early intervention

Give disadvantaged children preschool, health, and family support to improve school readiness and later outcomes

High Scope Preschool Project

Smaller, intensive, full day two year program; better long term results like graduation, college, and adult income

Effortful control

Focusing attention on managing emotions

Undercontrol

Too little regulation; externalizing problems (aggression); more common in boys

Overcontrol

Too much regulation; internalizing problems (anxiety, depression); more common in girls

Authoritative parenting

High demandingness, high responsiveness; clear rules with explanations

Authoritarian parenting

High demandingness, low responsiveness; demands obedience

Permissive parenting

Low demandingness, high responsiveness; few rules

Disengaged parenting

Low demandingness, low responsiveness; minimal parenting

Dimensions of parenting styles

Compared by demandingness and responsiveness

Authoritative parenting across cultures

Not the most common style in all cultures; the model is based mostly on White middle class US families