Chapter 7: physical and cognitive development in early childhood

Dominant cerebral hemisphere

Greater capacity of one side of the brain carry out skilled motor action

Cerebellum

At the rear and base of the brain a structure that aids in balance and control of body movement

Reticular formation

A Structure in the brainstem that maintains alertness and consciousness

Hippocampus

An inner brain structure plays a vital role in memory and in images of space that help us find our way

Corpus callosum

A large bundle of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres

Pituitary gland

Located at the base of the brain plays a critical role by releasing two hormones that induce grow

Growth hormone GH

Is necessary for developing of all body tissues except the central nervous system and genitals

Thyroid stimulating hormone TSH

A secondary pituitary hormone prompts the thyroid gland in the neck to release thyroxine which is necessary for Brain development and for GH to have its full impact on body size

Preoperational stage

Which spans the years 2 to 7 the most obvious change is an extraordinary increase in representational or symbolic activity

Socio-dramatic play

The make-believe with others that is underway by the end of the second year and increases rapidly in complexity during early childhood

Dual representation

Viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol

Egocentrism

Failure to distinguish other's symbolic viewpoints from one's own

Conservation

Refers to the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes

Centration

They focus on one aspect of the situation neglecting other important features

Irreversibility

an ability to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then reversed direction returning to the starting point

hierarchical classification

The organization of objects into classes and subclasses on the basis of similarities and differences

Private speech

As a result children's self directed speech is now called private speech instead of egocentric speech

Scaffolding

Adjusting the support offered during a teaching session to fit the child's current level of performance

Guided participation

A broader concept of scaffolding it refers to shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants without specifying the precise features of communication

Memory strategies

Deliberate mental activities that improve our chances of remembering

Episodic memory

Memory for every day experiences

Scripts

General descriptions of what occurs and when it occurs in a particular situation

Metacognition

Thinking about thought

Emergent literacy

Their active efforts to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences

Phonological awareness

The ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language

Ordinality

Order relationships between quantities

Cardinality

That the last number in a counting sequence indicates the quantity of items in a set

Child centered programs

Teachers provide a variety of activities from which children select and much learning takes place to play.

Academic programs

Teachers structure children's learning, teaching letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and other academic skills through formal lessons, often using repetition and drill

Project Headstart

The most extensive of these federal programs provide children with a year or two of preschool, along with nutritional and health services. Parent involvement is central to the Headstart philosophy

Fast mapping

Connect new words with their underlying concepts after only a brief encounter

Overregularization

Sometimes over extend the rules to words that are exceptions; a type of error

Pragmatics

Children must learn to engage in effective and appropriate communication practical social side of language

Recasts

Restructuring inaccurate language into the correct form

Expansions

Elaborating on children's speech increasing its complexity