Lifespan Development Exam 2 - PS320

What are the three main views of cognitive development?

Piaget’s, Vygotsky’s, and information processing theories

Preoperational Stage

According to Piaget, this is the second stage of development from ages 2-7 where a child develops symbolic thought and primitive reasoning. Includes the symbolic function and intuitive thought substages

Symbolic Function Substage

From ages 2-4 according to Piaget where a child gains the ability to mentally represent objects that are not present such as in pretend play or drawing

What are the limitations in the Symbolic Function Substage?

Egocentrism and Animism

Egocentrism

The inability to distinguish between ones own persecutive and someone else (ex: 3 mountains task) (this is a limitation in the first substage of the preoperational stage)

Animism

The belief that inanimate objects have life like qualities and are capable of action (this is a limitation in the first substage of the preoperational stage)

Intuitive Thought Substage

According to Piaget, this is the second substage in the preoperational stage from ages 4-7 where children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know answers to many “why” questions

What are the limitations to the Intuitive Thought Substage?

Centration and Conservation

Centration

When a child centers their attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others (this is a limitation in the second substage of the preoperational stage)

Conservation

The awareness that altering an object or substances appearance does not change its basic properties (this is a limitation in the second substage of the preoperational stage)

Conservation Tasks

A task that requires a child to mentally reverse a change in number, length, volume, or matter - children in early childhood will fail at these tasks

Vygotsky’s Theory of Early Childhood Development

Children actively construct their knowledge, but primarily through social interaction and culture through exposure to a zone of proximal development

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but can be learned with guidance from others - Vygotsky believed the heart of development occurred here

Information Processing Theory

A theory of early childhood development where it is believed that a child’s ability to pay attention to the environment, remember, develop strategies, and understand their own and others mental processes improves over time as their ability to process information increases with age due to increased in sustained and executive attention. Greatest increase in sustained attention during pre school years (this age likely to pay attention to salient information and lack systematic strategies though)

Sustained Attention

Attention involving focused/extended engagement

Executive Attention

Attention involving action planning and task management

What are the changes in brain development during early childhood? How could this affect other developments during early childhood?

• By age of 3, the brain reaches about 95% of the size of an adult brain - allows for more advanced thoughts and movements to be performed.

• More myelination occurs - where myelin sheaths form around axons, allowing information to travel through the brain more quickly and without as many errors

• From 3 to 6 experience very rapid growth in the frontal lobe occurs - child’s ability to plan, organize actions, and maintain attention

The Child’s Theory of Mind

The idea that children develop an understanding that people have different thoughts and feelings. They start developing this by age 4

False Belief Tasks

A method of testing if children understand that people have different thoughts and feelings - in this task they often don’t understand that people wont have the info they do and falsely remembering their own thoughts (ex crayons in band-aid box)

How do children in early childhood view the self?

They begin to develop self-understanding (a representation of the self) which at this age is generally described through physical attributes, material possessions, physical activities, and is unrealistically positive (ex - I am the best) -think of themselves as little super heroes

Self-Conscious Emotions

Emotions that are those affected by how we see ourselves and how we think others perceive us - increases in early childhood. Linked to increase in prosocial behavior, Allows children to understand the same event can elicit different feelings in different people. By 5, most children show more ability to reflect on and manage emotions

Emotion Coaching Parents

When parents monitor their children's emotions and view negative emotions as teaching opportunity, assist in labeling emotions, and coach how to deal effectively

Emotion Dismissing Parents

When parents view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions which may lead to bad regulation strategies in children

Moral Development

The process in which people begin developing morals - younger children focus on consequences and older children look at intentions

What are Piaget’s stages for moral development?

Heteronomous and Autonomous

Heteronomous Morality

(4-7) Where justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people

Autonomous Morality

(10 and older): Where children are aware that rules and laws are created by people, and that when judge an action, one should consider intentions

Gender

Characteristics that make people males and females – can get very exaggerates in pre school years – very rigid about it

Gender Identity

Sense of being male or female that is acquired in the third year of life

Gender Role

The cultural set of expectations that prescribes how senses should think, act, and feel

Gender Typing

The acquisition of traditional masculine or feminine role

Social Role Theory (by Alice Eagly)

Theory that believes that different gender roles in a society create and maintain gender differences in attitude and behaviors. Gender roles are based on the Social hierarchy and division of labor in society (Ex: Women have been responsible for children and home leading to more communal attitudes and behaviors)

Social Cognitive Theory of Gender

Theory that believes that gender development occurs through observation and imitation of gender behavior. Behavior is then encouraged or discouraged through a series of rewards and punishments from family, peer, school, media influences

Gender Schema Theory

Theory that believes that children gradually develop schemas of what is gender- appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture. Gender schema organizes the world in terms of male and female

Scaffolding

Process that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts

How does information processing change during early childhood? How does this affect the developing child?

• attention of a child improves - executive and sustained attention enable them to focus longer and to accomplish more difficult tasks

• develop strategies to help them remember information - they can now retain basic information into short-term memory more easily and will learn slightly more advanced information as a result

• executive function also advances -

• theory of mind advances - at ages 2-7 children develop perceptions (what they sense vs what others sense), emotions (positive and negative), and desires (what they want vs what others may want) in more advanced capacities.

Executive Function

The ability to manage one’s thoughts and goal-directed behavior through using self-control

Theory of Mind

Refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them. At ages 2-7 children develop perceptions (what they sense vs what others sense), emotions (positive and negative), and desires (what they want vs what others may want) in more advanced capacities.

How does language development change during early childhood? What fosters vocabulary development during early childhood?

• learn about syntax and semantics

• basic understanding of pragmatics, or what type of language is appropriate to use and when

What helps children learn language?

Children will have an easier time learning words when they are heard often, interest them, include interactive and/or meaningful contexts, when the meaning of the word is apparent, and when grammar and vocabulary are thoroughly considered. When it comes to reading, it is unsurprising to note that helpful practices in language development are similar to helpful practices in reading development. For instance, a book will be most helpful when it involved more interaction with a child such as what and why questions. Also, when the child is interested through exciting language such as rhymes, they are also more likely to gain more development through the reading.

Parental Acceptance/ Responsiveness

Extent to which parents are warm, supportive, and sensitive to child’s needs

Parental Demandingness/ Control

How much control over decisions lies with parents as opposed to the child

Authoritarian Parenting

Parenting style high in demandingness and low in responsiveness. Children exposed to this form of parenting often are obedient, but lack Social skills and self esteem, rarely take initiative, are unhappy, anxious or fearful, and may be more likely to engage in bullying behaviors and child maltreatment

Authoritative Parenting

Parenting style high in demandingness and high in responsiveness. Children exposed to this form of parenting often have better Social skills and peer relations, self-control and self-reliant, tend to be happy and higher self-esteem, and are more achievement-orientated

Permissive/Indulgent Parenting

Parenting style low in demandingness and high in responsiveness. Children exposed to this form of parenting often have a difficult time controlling behavior, lack of respect for others, and have a difficult time in peer relations

Neglectful Parenting

Parenting style low in demandingness and low in responsiveness. Children exposed to this form of parenting often have poor Social skills and self-control, lack of self- esteem, and risk delinquency and behavior problems

What are the effects of socioeconomic status on parenting?

Middle class and lower-class parents often pursue different goals and emphasize different values in raising children. Lower and working-class parents tend to stress obedience and respect for authority, be more restrictive and authoritarian, reason with their children less frequently, show less warmth and affection, and use more punishments

What is the importance of play in early childhood?

It is a setting for the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional well-being of children to develop

Pretense/Symbol Play

Play in which the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol (starts at 18 and peaks at 4- 5)

Social Play

Play involving social interactions (increases in pre school)

Constructive Play

Play that manipulates something to create something (increases in preschool)

What can inhibit play time?

Media and screen time (only 1 hour a day is generally recommended)

Why are there differences in parenting between lower and middle class?

• Most explanations focus on the stresses associated with low income living and the demands of their socio-cultural setting

• Skills needed by workers in different

  occupations. Parents from lower SES groups may emphasize obedience to

  authority figures because their job demands it

  • Middle and upper-class parents may reason with their children and stress

    individual initiative, curiosity and creativity more because these are the attributes

    for business professionals and other white-collar workers.

Learning Disability

A disorder that results in learning challenges that are not caused by low intelligence, problems with hearing/vision or lack of education opportunities. Difficulty in understanding or using spoken or written language or moth

What is the differences between boys and girls being diagnosed with learning disabilities?

Boys 3x more likely to classified than girls because there is a difference in biological vulnerability or referral bias

Dyslexia

A learning disability where it is hard to read or spell. See words the same as everyone else but have issues with manipulating it. Time must be spent decoding words because brain relies more on right hemisphere – delay processing. Effects 1/5 people and occurs along a continuum. -Also a genetic component

Dysgraphia

A learning disability where it is hard to use handwriting well - it is hard to write coherently

Dyscalculia

A learning disability where it is hard to perform math computation

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

AKA ADHD - a disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity - boys 2x more likely to be diagnosed

Why is controversial that the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD has increased in recent years?

• It may be hard to find where disorder starts and personality ends

• Meds that help focus may be able to help anyone -self diagnosis

• Premature diagnosis – energy doesn’t necessary = ADHD

  • It is not one size fits all- different symptoms and treatments

Causes of ADHD

• Genetics

• Brain damage during prenatal or postnatal development

• Cigarette and alcohol exposure is prenatal

• High maternal stress in prenatal

• Low birth weight

  • Delays in prefrontal cortex and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine

Treatments of ADHD

• Medication (Ritalin or adderall)

• Behavior management

• Neurofeedback

• Mindfulness

  • Exercise

Autism Spectrum Disorders

A spectrum of disorder ranging in severity from high functioning to severe. Often characterized by an onset in first 3 years of life, social and communication deficits, lack eye contact, repetitive and stereotypes patterns of behavior, and a hard understanding emotions and Social cues. 5 X more often in boys than girls

Asperger Syndrome

A relatively mild form of autism spectrum disorder where people have good language skills and milder nonverbal language problems but a restricted range of interests and relationships now obsessive, repetitive routines and subject interests

What are the causes of autism?

Likely brain dysfunction involving abnormalities in brain structure and neurotransmitter - Genetic factors

What are the treatments for autism?

Behavioral modification

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget’s stage from 7-11 where children develop the ability to perform mental operation and thoughts using concrete concepts. They get better at understanding the perspectives of others but still lack abstract thinking

Conservation

Developed in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as the understanding that something stays same in quantity even though its appearance changes - includes volume, number, matter, and length

Decentration

Developed in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as the ability to pay attention to multiple attributes of an object or situation

Reversibility

Developed in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as the understanding that things that have been changed can return to original state

Classification

Developed in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as the ability to sort objects into groups and can sort into specific groups using comparisons

Seriation

Developed in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as the ability to mentally arrange items along a quantifiable dimension, such as height or weight

Transitivity

A limitation in the concrete operational stage from 7-11, this is defines as ability to recognize logical relationships among elements in a serial order (ex: if x taller man y, and y taller than L then who is taller X or L?)

What changes in memory strategies occur in middle and later childhood?

They develop better strategies. Rehearsal: Repeating items in trying to remember (by 7, more than half do this). Organization: classifies into meaningful groups (chunking) (mastered later than rehearsal). Elaboration: creating meaning links between items (mastered after organization)

Metacognition

Very young children overestimate what they know and don’t think strategies will work. As children become older, they learn more effective strategies that help them perform cognitive tasks more effectively - knowledge about what you know

Knowledge Base

Knowledge of a content area to be learned affects memory. Even though adults do better than children on memory tests, this is reversed if children have more expertise

Creative Thinking

The ability to think in a novel way and to develop new solutions to problems

Convergent Thinking

Thinking to produce one correct answer

Divergent Thinking

Thinking that produces many answer to the same question - this decreases as people go through schooling due to focus on convergent thinking

Whole-Language Approach

Reading instruction centers around the idea that teaching should parallel children’s natural language leaning. They are taught words and even entire sentences in an effort to parallel how they would typically be spoken to

Phonics Approach

Reading instruction approach where reading is taught through basic rules for translating basic written symbols into sounds

Is there a sensitive period for learning a second language?

A child’s ability to pronounce second language words with a native-like accent decreases with age with a sharp drop around 10-12 years. However, if they start learning before this drop, even though they are likely to learn slower than adults, their maximum language achievement has the potential to be very high. With effort late learners can gain fluency in a new language, but they will have fat more difficulty in new sounds and grammar than with vocabulary. All in all, there is a sensitive period for learning a second language, but learning the language later in life is by no means impossible, some aspects simply become a bit more difficult

What is the best way to teach children a second language?

A dual-language approach is the best way to teach children a second language. This teaching style is enacted when children are instructed in two languages – their home language and the language they want to learn. This approach will generally need to occur for 3-5 years before immigrant children can fully learn a second language and 7 years to develop good reading. Despite the length of time it takes it is still believed to be better than an unknown language only approach because children will not understand instruction in that language and participation will be much lower.

How does a child’s perception of self change in middle to later childhood?

While the preschool child is focused on concrete and physical traits, school-aged children are more likely to focus on psychological characteristics and trats. They are more likely to describe themselves using adjectives or recognize social aspects of themselves (ex. clubs and grade)

Self-Concepts

An idea of the self constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of other. Domain specific evaluations of self

Self-Evaluations

When people evaluate and assess their achievements in academic, athletic, social, appearance, etc. aspects

Self-Esteem

Evaluation of your overall worth as a person

Industry vs. Inferiority

Accosting to Erik Erikson during elementary years children face this task as they start comparing themselves to other. They develop sense of pride or inferiority which makes this an especially hard time for children falling behind. To help children through this: focus on praise for accomplishments and guidance

Moral Reasoning

The thinking process involved in deciding whether an act is right or wrong. Focus on why we do what we do not on what

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning

A theory that focused on universal stages and scenarios to see how children would come to conclusions. Includes preconventional, conventional, and postconventional reasoning

Preconventional Reasoning

First stage in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, thinking in this stage focuses on a perspective of self dominates and avoiding getting a punishment or getting a reward

Conventional Reasoning

Second stage in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, thinking in this stage focuses on developing social expectations and standards of others such as parents or laws

Postconventional Reasoning

Third stage in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, thinking in this stage focuses on flexible thinking and a perspective that goes beyond a particular authority and begins to take in the perspective of all individuals

What are the criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning?

There is lot of criticism due to it being too simplistic

Prosocial Behavior

Voluntary behavior intended to benefit another. There is a greater focus on behavioral, aspects of moral development. Moral development involves individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that includes positive relations to others

Antisocial Behavior

Actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others. Develop immoral behaviors such as lying and moral behaviors such as empathy

What are the levels of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development?

Individual, microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, and macrosystem

Microsystem

Includes things an individual interacts with frequently - family peers, school, neighborhood

Mesosystem

Where all of a child's immediate influences/contexts (family, school, community, church, etc.) interact

Ecosystem

How a child’s influences/contexts indirectly effect them (parents work, mass media, school system, etc)