CH 7. The Preschool Years: Physical and Cognitive Development

Early Childhood - Physical Development

significant gains in motor skills and brain development

• foundation of lifelong learning, growth, and health

• impediments in health = problematic developmental issues and health concerns

• environmental factors play role in brain development

• toxic environment can be linked to poor physical and mental academic performance, maladaptive emotional adjustment

Individual differences - Physical Developmental

• slows down significantly in early childhood

• bodies become narrower, adult-like proportions

• boys = taller/heavier than girls at same age

• variability among growth and development

• standardized physical expectations, outliers have psychological/emotional concerns

Brain Growth - Physical Development Early Childhood

• affected by environment and experiences of the young child

• increase in # of dendrites and synapses, increase cognitive ability

• brain develops more rapidly than any other organ

Shonkoff - Brain Growth

genes determine design of brains, but environmental factors influence how the brain gets wired and design gets implemented

Positive environmental factors - brain growth

nurture the development of a sound foundation for learning across the lifespan

Negative environmental factors - brain growth

stress, abuse, and neglect can disturb optimal brain development and undermine future academic achievement and success

Brain damage

possible to find alternate pathways for the development of abilities

Thompson et al. - Brain Growth

• due to plasticity, injured brains in young children can compensate for problems associated with the injury and overcome early injuries

• plasticity greatest during childhood

• brain injury becomes more difficult to overcome as humans age

brain lateralization

two halves of the human house different functions

• lest side of brain = speech

• 95% right handed and 70% left handed people have left hemisphere lanauge dominance

Brain hemispheres

• left: language and logical processing

• right: spatial recognition, emotional processing, recognition of facial emotional patterns

handedness preference

by 3 years old, most children have demonstrated preference for using right or left hand

Motor Skills - Physical Development

toddler - 5, play is active and high-spirited

• importance of physical activity for preschool children

• large movement play is essential for gross motor and physical health, social skill and emotional well-being

• early childhood key time for fine motor skills that are used for manipulation and control

gross motor skills

developed in early childhood

• hopping, skipping, throwing, catching, galloping, sliding, tricycle

• movement patterns become goal driven and purposeful as children learn

• physical advances in later development

Rodriguez-Ayllon et al. - Motor Skills

physical activity not only enhances preschoolers’ health but can also increase self-esteem and social skills

fine motor development

• advances in drawing skills

• practice is important to proper development

• incorporate in daily schedule, cutting, holding a pencil, tracing, drawing, refined motor skills

• falling behind can increase behavioral problems and lower academic achievement later on

• early achievement in fine motor can predict higher literacy

Health - physical development

• Children are exposed to more viruses because they are more likely to interact with other children (and consequently more germs) in preschool and kindergarten settings.

• These minor illnesses are to be expected, and children usually bounce back from most illness within a couple of days

• measles and mumps are now controlled with vaccines.

• vaccine rates lag for minority children

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC

preschool age children:

• diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTaP); pneumococcal (PPSV); inactivated poliovirus (IPV); measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); varicella; hepatitis A (HepA); meningococcal (MCVU); and influenza

most common chronic diseases in childhood

• dental decay

• caries

• low SES most at risk

prevention strategies for disease in children

supervised brushing with a fluoride toothpaste and fluoridated water, educational programs for families, proper diet, and access to health care for children

obesity - health

most alarming, body mass index at or above the 95th percentile on growth charts

• CDC recommends programs through childcare settings that reach out to
  families to encourage healthy eating and physical activity.

• Such programs should include planned physical activities and information on healthy snacks, nutrition, and gardening

unintentional injury

three-quarters of unintentional injuries occur at home

• burns and scalds, poisoning, head injuries (e.g., lack of bike helmets), and pedestrian and street safety

• home fire appropriate installation sprinklers, smoke alarms, window locks, safe storage of medicine, cleaning supplies, sharp objects

• low SES at risk due to high cost of home safety

vision impairment

rare among children

• through damage to the eye, incorrect eye shape, or difficulties with brain processing of visual stimuli

• result of prenatal development problems, premature birth, and low birth weight. Vision impairment also tends to be co-morbid with other developmental disabilities

hearing impairments

• children are fostering foundational listening and literacy skills, as well as developing auditory-neural connections.

• screening and early diagnosis of hearing problems are essential to
  overall child development.

• Effective screening methods are available for infants and young children, screening and early intervention are vital

sleep habits

fundamental to healthy development, and the establishment of healthy sleep habits in infancy and early childhood will set the stage for lifelong beneficial sleep practices

• bedtime routine

• security item, blanket, stuffed animal, self-soothing practices

• 5-10 yrs need 10-11 hrs o fsleep but get far less

sleep deprivation

cause depression, anxiety, irritability, inattention, and academic problems as children struggle to stay awake in school

Non-rapid eye movement (NREM)

quieter type of sleep characterized by slower breathing, lower heart rate, and less brain activity

Rapid eye movement (REM)

• sleep is typified by breathing and heart rates similar to waking states, eye movement, and increased brain activity

• REM sleep involves a light stage and a deeper stage, and dreaming occurs mainly during REM sleep

sleep disorders

difficulty falling asleep and frequent waking during the night with subsequent difficulties falling back asleep

• sleep disorders in infancy can alert parents, teachers, and physicians to be observant of potential behavior concerns

• be prepared to initiate early intervention for behavioral issues

co-sleeping

practice of children and parents sharing a bed, is a somewhat controversial issue, with strong opinions on both the pro and con sides of the argument

• for: increase bonding and sense of security

• against: dangers to infants, smothering and inability to self-soothe

• culture: positive experience for families, more common collective culture

• independent sleeping common in individualistic cultures

Jean Piaget - Cognitive Development

a profound influence on our conceptualization of the cognitive development of children and on the education of the preschool child

• developed experiments to assess child’s cognitive development

• learning and meaning are constructed through personal experience and process (constructivism)

• Piaget was a constructivist theorists

Pre-operational stage (Piaget) 2-7 yrs

characterized by symbolic thought, wherein children think in terms of images and symbols; this leads to the creative imaginative play that is a hallmark of the preschool child

• pre-conceptual, ages 2 through 4 years

  • is characterized by exploration and imagination

• intuitive stage 4 through 7 years

  • is characterized by intuitive thought rather than logic

  • “why” questions

intuitive stage of preoperational thought

children master the concept of conservation, the understanding that an object maintains its basic properties even if some attribute of the object changes.

• identical beakers with same amount of liquid, poured into to taller, which has more liquid

immanent justice

• Piaget postulated that children have an innate belief in a just world and would
  make causal connections between their own misdeeds and later adversity.

• Piaget believed immanent justice was based in egocentric thought and that it
  declined as children aged

• however, aspects of this type of reasoning can be found in older children, adolescents, and even some adults

schemes

infants enter the world with schemes or organized patterns of behavior through which they interact with the world;

assimilation

assimilation and accommodation are the mechanisms by which new schemas are developed and are thus intellectual adaptations

assimilated

• child encounters a new situation, the child initially applies an existing schema to the new situation.

• If the child discovers that an existing schema can be adapted to that situation,

• the child has assimilated the new information

accomodate

• child encounters a new situation that cannot be readily adapted into existing
  schemas

• the child must accommodate the new information and modify the current schema

equilibrium

children encounter new experiences that they can readily assimilate into their schemas, they feel a sense of equilibrium or balance

• driving force behind increasing cognitive development as the child accommodates new experiences and information

disequilibrium

unbalance signals the need to accommodate something new into
existing schemas

egocentric - pre-operational stage

meaning they believe everyone else knows and experiences the world as they do

• They are unable to realize the perspective of another

animism - pre-operational stage

tendency of children to believe that inanimate objects have the characteristics and feelings of living things, as in a child saying, “our house is sad when we aren’t home.”

artificialism - pre-operational stage

belief that natural phenomena such as rain or sunrise are caused by people

Concepts - Cognitive development

size, shape, spatial ability, object fitting and shape into appropriate hole, blocks and puzzles

• attainment of language including words such as “build” allows children to map the properties of objects improving their spatial abilities.

• manipulative toys enhance a child’s understanding of size and geometric shapes, particularly when these concepts are reinforced by adults interacting with children during play

Time perception - Piaget

• intuitive time

  • occurs after language acquisition at about age 4 years.

• 8 years

  • children can link events to the past or the future.

• 10 years

  • children have a fully organized concept of time

numeracy

• understanding of numbers and the ability to do mathematical operations; it is number sense.

• children learn to recognize numbers, count, add, subtract, and estimate

• home and preschool

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory - Cognitive Development

• knowledge and meaning are constructed through interaction with others.

• language as particularly important in cognitive development. He noted that young children use private speech, talking to oneself, or thinking out loud to self-regulate and guide action.

• Through private speech, children develop strategies, make decisions, and evaluate results. The language process not only regulates the child’s behavior; it also develops mental processes and increases cognitive functioning.

• education should be collaborative and that both teachers and peers should be actively involved in the scaffolding of the ZPD

Zone of proximal development - vygotsky

method by which development unfolds

• it is basically the difference between what one can do independently and what one can do with assistance from a more experienced person, such as a parent, teacher, or peer.

scaffolding - vygotsky

more experienced person helps or coaches a less experienced person to go beyond a current level of understanding and attain a new level of knowledge

• support system for the learner while a difficult task is performed and until new
  knowledge is internalized

Vygotsky application in counseling

used by school counselors in the realm of personal and social interventions and could also be a beneficial systemic perspective for family counselors

• relationship of language and cognitive functioning and mental processes may be very useful for counselors

information processing

model that illustrates the cognitive processes of how information is attained, stored, and used.

• sensory register

• short-term or working memory

• long-term memory.

Memory

• move sensory information into the working memory, a person must pay attention to it

• People filter new information through their previous experiences and then select what is important and what to focus on in working memory

• This perception filter also influences which information gets stored into long-term memory and how that information is elaborated and coded for storage

working memory

• Attention moves the information into working memory

• working memory is where we reason, comprehend, and problem solve

• it has a limited capacity and a short duration, about 20 seconds

• Adults can hold approximately seven (plus or minus two) items or chunks of information in working memory, usually through processes such as rehearsal (repetition) or visual imagery

• After age 5 years, working memory capacity and processing speed increase

chunking

• hold more information in working memory

• chunking associated items, making one item into several

• adults hold 7 chunks

• preschool hold 4

long term memory

large capacity and long, perhaps unlimited, duration.

• Once information is stored in long-term memory, it can be accessed through
  retrieval pathways.

• Forgetting result of not being able to access retrieval pathways

• cross-reference memory, and the more ways we use and enrich information during the learning process, the more pathways we have to access this information.

• Our senses are a particularly strong memory prompt

proutstian memories

involuntary memories

rote memorization

store information in long-term memory, most common but least effective

• does not create elaborate cross-referenced retrieval pathways in the brain; therefore, recalling rote-memorized information can be challenging

• don’t cram the night before for ran exam

Strategies for long term memory retrieval

• concept or mind mapping, organized presentaiton of material, self-regulation, self-explanation

• encoding using sentences

• preschoolers remember repeated events (dinner, scripts)

• autobiographical memories (bday parties, first day of school)

• adults asking children to recite memories helps, senses boost memory attainment

Language Development

language is considered as a symbolic system that allows the organization and transmission of thought, a case can be made that language is what most distinguishes humans from all other species.

• There are five major components of language acquisition: phonemes, morphemes, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics

• All of these factors must come together for a child to understand language and to construct meaningful verbal expression.

phoneme

speech sound and is the smallest unit of language. There are about 50 phonemes in the English language, and phonological awareness is the ability to distinguish phonemes.

• A preschool child’s capacity to recognize phonemes is not only important for verbal language development; it is essential for providing the foundation for reading

morpheme

smallest unit that has meaning; morphemes can be divided into two categories:

• open class, which include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

• closed class, which include conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions

semantics

refers to the use of words to express meaning and thought

syntax

how words are arranged in a language - rules within language that govern order and organization of a phrase or sentence

pragmatics

use of language within social context, such as asking a question, giving a command, or using a nonverbal cue

Tamis-LeMonda - language

five language milestones in children’s development of language: “. . . first imitations, first spontaneous words, achievement of 50 words, combinational speech and the use of language to talk about the past.”

• Preschool children learn roughly nine new words each day, and by age 6 years they have attained a vocabulary of
  approximately 14,000 words

Jaconson and Schwarts (2005) - Language

preschool children, upon learning basic language rules, tend to over-generalize and stringently apply grammatical rules.

• wo- and 3-year-old children can sometimes produce interesting grammatical constructions

english language learners - bilingual children

may be silent as they adjust to the new environment and concentrate on listening

• But after this slight delay, ELL preschoolers begin to learn English at a rapid rate

• lack of funds to pay for school and lack of transportation, shortage of early childhood bilingual teachers; most ELL preschool children are in settings without bilingual instruction.

• best wya to learn is within social context, games and activities not language dependent

Preschool literacy skills

• literacy skills, antecedents to reading and writing, are usually evident by age 3 years

• approach age 5 years and kindergarten, the literacy skills developed during the preschool years will provide the foundation for reading, writing, and ultimate academic success

progression of preschool literacy skills:

• age 2 years

  • books serve mainly as a prop during play; however, infants and toddlers who have been read to are aware of how to hold a book.

• By age 3 years

  • children recognize images and are aware of content and may recognize some words.

• By age 4 years

  • they may echo or mimic reading and use pictures as cues to comprehend content.

• By age 5 years

• they understand content by images and words and may be able to read print with scaffolding.

education - cognitive development

• high-quality childcare has beneficial outcomes for children

• low-quality childcare can be unhelpful or even harmful

• Longitudinal studies indicate that individuals who had quality preschool education were more likely to graduate from high school and be more successful in their careers and relationships

High-quality child care

• (Burchinal et al.) involves a low student/teacher ratio, educational and
  social opportunities, well-trained and educated staff, as well as good communication between the family and school

• Couchenour and Chrisman stated that high-quality childcare also includes responsive interactions between children and adults, a developmentally appropriate curriculum, and assessment