Ch. 5

What is early childhood

• 3 to 5 years

• preschool years

Growth

• Height

  • Gain 2 ½ inches a year

• Weight

  • gain 5-7 lbs a year

  • 12.1% obese

• Appearance

  • more slender

  • head proportional

• Brain

  • growth slows

  • pruning continues

  • new connections

  • prefrontal cortex growth

  • contextual factors affect growth (poverty, parenting quality)

Motor Skills

• gross motor

  • doesn’t have to make much of an effort to stand up/move around

  • increased interactions with objects/environment/people

  • hop, jump, run (3)

  • going downstairs (4)

• fine motor

  • clumsy (3)

  • improvement (4)

  • hand/arm/body all under the command of the eye (5)

Nutrition and Exercise

• strongly influenced by caregivers’ behavior

• U.S. has the second-highest rating of childhood obesity

• obesity prevention guidelines

  • 5+ servings of fruits and veggies

  • less than 2 hours of screen time

  • at least 1 hour of physical activity

  • no sugar-sweetened drinks

Illness and Death

• leading causes of death in U.S.

  • accidents (drowning, motor vehicle)

  • congenital malformations

  • cancer

  • homicide

• environmental risk

  • tobacco smoke

• poverty — higher risk

• other countries

  • infectious diseases

  • improper nutrition

  • dirty water

Piaget’s Stages

Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth-2 years)

Stage 2: Preoperational (2-7 years)

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

• represent the world with words, images, and drawings

• form stable concepts and begin to reason

• Can’t yet perform operations, but can do them mentally

Symbolic Function Stage

• 2-4 years

• Ability to represent an object

  • draw pictures of things

• Egocentrism

  • assume others see, hear, feel, etc what they do

Symbolic Function Substage

• Animism

  • objects have lifelike qualities

• Symbolic play

  • pretend

  • dress up

Intuitive Though Substage

• 4-7 years

• Why? Why? Why?

• Doesn’t understand “what if?”

• Is sure of their answers but isn’t sure why

Other Key Characteristics

• concentration

• conservation

  • quantity

• doesn’t understand

Evaluating Stage 2: Preoperational

• underestimated abilities

• some argue that changes are more gradual and continuous

Vygotsky’s Social Constructivist Approach

• Construction of knowledge through social environment

  • parents, siblings, school, etc.

• range of tasks too difficult for the child alone but can be learned with guidance

• Scaffolding

  • change level of support/assistance provided

  • create supportive learning environment

Putting Vygotsky in Practice

• assess the child's ZPD

Evaluating Vygotsky

• fits the current beliefs

• not specific enough

Information Processing

• how key cognitive abilities change over time

  • attention

  • memory

  • executive function

Attention

• Executive attention

  • self-regulation (can look, plan, and move to obtain a goal)

• Sustained attention

  • vigilance (maintain attention on something and keep that going

Short-Term Memory

• increases over childhood years

  • 2 digits : 2-3 years

  • 5 digits : 5 years

Long-Term Memory

• skills increase (counting, letter id, and sounds)

• autobiographical memory increases (story, song, event)

• interview techniques can distort memories

Executive Function

• increases in

  • inhibition

  • flexibility

  • goal setting

  • delay of gratification — wait longer

Theory of Mind

• Child’s awareness of his/her and other’s mental processes

• age 2-3

  • perceptions differ

  • tell difference in positive and negative emotions

  • desires — people try to get what they want

• age 4-5

  • mind represent object

  • people have false beliefs

• age 5

  • continues to advance

Variations in Early Childhood Education

• child-centered kindergarten

  • physical, emotion, cognitive, social

  • learn best 1st hand

  • play is important

• Montessori approach

  • self-directed

Disadvantaged Children and Education

• Project head start

  • 3-5 years old

• Early head start

  • birth-3 years

• both are good for cognitive and social

• not clear how long effects last

• some research questions if they are good