Child Development Mid-term
What are the major controversies or questions in the field of child development
Presently?
How do Nature and Nurture together shape development? Nature is our biological endowment ( how the genes we receive from our parents shape us) Nurture is a wide range of environments, both physical and social that influence our development BOTH MATTER.
The active child, How do children shape their development? A child's role in shaping their development through their choices, behavior, and actions Ex: choosing to play sports over theater
Continuity vs. discontinuity, In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous? Continuous development is the idea that changes with age occur gradually, in small increments, like a pine tree growing taller and taller. Discontinuous development is the idea that changes with age include occasional large shifts like that transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Mechanisms of change, How does change occur? How changes socially or biologically contribute to the development
The sociocultural context: How does the sociocultural context influence development? The physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that make up any child's environment. Ex: in many countries including Denmark, children sleep in their parent's bed for many early years in contrast to the US
Individual differences, How do children become so different from one another? Genetic differences, the difference in treatment by parents and others, defenses in reaction to similar experiences, and different choices of environment ex: parents tend to provide more sensitive care to easygoing infants
Research and child welfare, How can research promote children's well-being? Using research findings to improve the lives of children. Ex: a program for helping children deal with their anger
Know Rutter’s cumulative risk model.
0 or 1 = no increased risk for psychological disorder
2 = 4x higher chance of disorder
More risk factors = more chance for disorder
Resilience is the ability to adapt in the face of threats to development
Be able to talk about why predicting a child’s outcome is so difficult.
Understand the five criteria for good measures that we discussed in class.
Direct relevance to Hypothesis: needs to be specific / reliability and validity Reliability: The degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are constant
Validity: the degree to which the test measures what it is intended to measure
Inter-rater reliability: Do observers agree
Test-retest reliability: Does the measure consistently give the same results
Internal Validity: Are we measuring what we want to measure
External validity: the degree to which results can be generalized across a broad range
Be able to define the research designs that we covered, be able to give a brief
example of a study that would utilize each design, and know the strengths and
weaknesses of each design
Interviews and questionnaires: Self-report, or other resort from parent or teacher. Goes straight to the source
Benefits: useful for self-reports, large groups of participants
Limitations: kids may underreport, unaware, and parents may overreport
Ex: Interview on how a child is doing in school
2. Naturalistic observation: Watch kids in their usual setting. Used when the main goal is to describe how children behave in their usual environment.
Benefits: illuminating everyday social interactions
Limitations: not know previous family histories, not always able to watch and observe everything
3. Structured Observation: watch kids in a lab setting. Presents an identical situation to each participant and records their behavior.
Benefits: mix of the two others
limitations: does not provide extensive information that is individual like interviews open-ended scenes like naturalistic observations
What are the different types of studies used to examine behavioral genetics?
Descriptive: simply records behavior
Correlational: are variables associated
Perfect = 1 no correlation = 0 / correlation does not equal causation
Randomized control trial: each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each group within an experiment
Quasi - Experiment: addresses ethics. Experimental and control groups but no random assignment
Cross-sequential: compare children of different ages
Longitudinal: follow the same group over time
Cross-sectional: follow different age groups over time
Be able to define and give examples of the different ways that genes and the environment can interact and understand all relevant terminology covered in
Lecture
Range of reaction: unique, genetically determined response to the environment. Henes are setting the limits of a trait.
Canalization: heredity restricts development
Strong: motor development
Weak: intelligence, personality
Passive gene-environment effect: kids exposed to the environment provided by caregivers, who are influenced by one gene
Ex: musically talented family/ parent who is musically inclined set musical environment for kids to be raised in
Evocative effect: children's inborn traits evoke responses from others that reinforce genetic predisposition
Ex: bad baby may not get as much positive reinforcement, this reinstates their fussy genes
Active Effect: “Niche picking”
The child actively seeks out an environment that best fits inborn traits
Ex: some children are born more introverted and pick out more individual activities
Understand the four principles of physical development.
Cephalocaudal = from head to tail
proximodistal= growth from the center of the body before the periphery (trunk before hands and feet)
Differentiation= physical structures more specialized over time
Grows in spurts
Be able to describe various threats to prenatal development.
Teratogens: external agents cause damage or death during the prenatal period - and can also impact birth
Sensitive period: period of time when developing organism is most sensitive
Dose-response relation: The effect of exposure to an element increases with the extent of exposure.
Fetal programming: belated emergence of effects on perinatal experience show up in adulthood/adolescence (fewer nutrients in the womb)
Individual differences: a substance may trigger problems in individuals whose genes make them affected
Sleeper effects: not apparent until older age
Physical agents, drugs and chemicals, diseases and disorders, environmental pollutants
Parental factors -
Age: too young or too old not good
Nutrition: folic acid early is crucial
Stress and mental health: maternal depression
For physical development, be sure to know about reflexes.
Reflexes: unlearned, involuntary movements
Rooting: head turns towards stimulation (feeding)
Sucking: finger w/ pad up in mouth - rhythmic sucking
Moro: startle; arches back with arms and legs outward, then pulls arms back in
Hand grasp: fingers flex around an object
Stepping: hold underarms in standing, take a few steps
Crawling: on stomach moves arms and legs in a crawling motion
Babinski: stoke stole of foot from toe to heel, toes fan out and curl, and foot twists inward
Motor milestones (months)
0 - 1: lists head
2-4: prone, chest up, uses arms for support
2-4.5: rolls over
3-6: supports some weight with legs
4.5-7.5: sits without support
5-10: stands with support
6-10: pulls self to stand
7-13.5: walks using furniture for support
10-14: stands alone easily
12-14: walks alone easily
Be able to compare the two major theories of motor development.
Maturational theory:
Motor development is genetically predetermined
The environment doesn't matter
Criticism: tasks practice, poverty, and nutrition make a difference
Dynamic systems:
Motor development = biology and environment
Reaching milestones brings changes in the environment which brings changes in development
Ex: stepping reflex becomes environ. Dependant
Know about each of the different senses that we talked about in class and how
well developed they are at birth and during the first few years of life
Vision:
The least developed of all senses when born
20/400 t birth - 20/20 by 3-5 years
Uncoordinated eyes for the first two months
Like high-contrast objects
By 8 weeks, recognize mom's face
Developed after birth
Hearing:
Take a hearing screen within the first few days after birth
Can recognize mom's voice in utero
Important for babies to hear the voices of caregivers - will help build attachment bonds.
Shows preferences for certain musical sounds - prefers songs that go up and down than flat monotone songs.
Developed before birth
Touch:
Message = lower stress cortisol levels and increased weight gain
Touch - hormones - food absorption
Skin-to-skin content with caregivers is important - especially for babies in the NICU.
Human touch decreases cortisol levels - if levels are always high then the baby cannot fight off diseases.
Developed After birth
Taste:
Present in utero
Fetus prefers certain flavors of amniotic fluid
Sweet > sour
Developed before birth
Smell:
Doctors report amniotic fluid has distinct smells to what mothers ingested
Newborns prefer mothers' scent
Developed before birth
What is the nature of the debate about how kids acquire language?
Language development is universal: children reach language milestones at about the same time suggesting it is an innate skill.
If a child is not exposed to language, often it doesn't develop - which suggests language is learned.
GENIE
How does a theorist like Skinner differ from Chomsky in explaining language?
Developments?
Skinner: “father of behaviorism”
Imitation and operant conditioning
Child reinforced for different stages of language development
Ex: learning to ask for a cookie - reward and punishment
This would mean that kids would have to repeat only words said or have someone constantly reinforcing them
Chomsky:
Children can not learn language so quickly unless biologically prepared
Hearing spoken language triggers the LAD
Can learn any language
What is the support for Chomsky’s nativist theory of language development?
Deaf children can invent language
Sensitive period for language
Animals can't reach the level of human language. Development
Specific areas of the brain specialized for language (derricks area and Broca's area)
How does the interactionist perspective build upon Chomsky’s theory?
Both biology and the environment
Information process theory
Born with the ability to “crunch data” - learning how to separate words
Understanding language learned, but innate
What would we expect language development to look like at different ages from
birth through middle childhood?
Crying: Infancy
Cooing: 2-4 months
Babbling: 4-6 months
6-8 months: consonant-vowel strings
10 months: reflects intonation of native language
Pointing and gesturing: 9 - 12 months
Word production and combining words with gestures: 12 months
Two-word phrases: 18 months
200-500 words: 2 years
What are the common language mistakes that toddlers and preschoolers make?
Underextension:
Apply words too narrowly
Ex: A dog is the family’s only pet
Overextension:
Apply words too broadly
Ex: all animals with 4 legs are horses
Over-regulation:
Applying language rules too often (and incorrectly)
Ex: I eated a cookie
What can be done in the environment to promote children’s language
Development?
Joint attention and labeling objects: parents promote joint attention - better attention span, understanding more, more gestures, faster vocab growth
By repeating and recasting
Child Directed Speech (CDS): even deaf parents sign using CDS - when parents use CDS - better toddler language comprehension
How does SES play a role in language development for some children?
By age 4, kids hear 30 million fewer words in low SES
Is there a drawback to being raised bilingually?
Bilingual children reach language milestones at about the same pace as other children.
Doesn't give kids cognitive advantages BUT may lead to specific skill improvements.
Shit more easily between tasks
Increased creativity
Better problem solving
Make sure you know each of the different stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development. Understand how he went about testing his theory (i.e., what were
the experiments he did) to the extent that we talked about them in class.
Constructive approach - active child
Stage theory
Fixed order/ none skipped
Stages universal
Biologically prepared to move through stages - environment influences rate
Think about learning broadly not just school learning
Princess of developing “schemas”
Automatic mental frameworks: first through direct interaction, eventually cognitive representation
Two processes
Adaptation: (2 ways)
Assimilation: using current schemas to interoperate the world
Ex: the child has a schema for a dog having fur and four legs - so when it sees a cat thinks it is a dog
Accommodation: create new schemas to adjust for the old ones
Ex: after learning more and seeing more cats, the child adjusts their schema to add cats as separate from dogs
Organization: linking together
Ex: dogs and cats both have fur and four legs but are different animals
Equilibrium: assimilation and accommodation = best learning together
The Sensorimotor Stage: birth to 2 years
At birth know too little about the world to purposefully explore it
Major achievements: from reflexes to goal-directed behavior 8-12 months, from the body to the outside world, development of object permanence, from action to mental representation
Develop circular reactions: babies learn to purposefully repeat motor activities
The Preoperational Stage: 2-7 years
Lack of “operations” - mental actions that follow symmetric rules
Don't think in a logical way
Major accomplishments: the ability to use symbols through fantasy play, language, and drawings
Sill have limitations
Magical thinking: believing thoughts or feelings can cause things to happen or be true “It raining because I'm sad”
Egocentrism: can't see things from someone else's perspective (Sally Anne task, mountain and doll task)
Animism: give human characteristics thoughts or feelings to inanimate objects
Lack conservation: don't know if basic quantity (mass, volume) stays the same regardless of changes in its appearance
The Concrete Operational Stage: 7-12 years
Can think logically, rather than magically
Major accomplishments:
Reversibility: able to reverse mental operations 1+1=2 then 2-1=1
Classification: Able to put objects into larger categories
Limitations:
Can't think abstractly
The formal Operational Stage: 12+ years
Major accomplishments
Development of abstract thinking (advanced concepts ex democracy, start to reason using hypothesis)
Limitations:
Adult egocentrism: still can't see others' perspectives
Imaginary audience: NOT in a judgemental way
Personal fable: belief that their experiences are unique and nothing bad could ever happen to THEM
Critiques of Piaget:
Does cognitive development really end with formal operations? Can there be another stage?
Are the ages correct? - research shows more gradual
Is cognitive development really universal?
Understand Vygotsky’s ideas about the Zone of Proximal Development and
Scaffolding – be able to give examples
Zone of proximal development: Abilities/ skills a child can form with little help
Scaffolding: what an adult or more experienced peer does to help move through ZPD
Ex: can wash windows on the ground floor but to get to the taller ones, need support but still knows how to wash windows.
What is the role of private speech according to Vygotsky? Is this a good thing or
a bad thing in Vygotsky’s view?
Private speech: The child internalizes learning from scaffolding and can talk themself through problems
It's a good thing!
In what way does the information-processing model of cognitive development
liken cognitive processing to a computer? What are the critiques of this model?
Input devices (sensory memory) - processor (working memory) - output (response to stimuli)
⏫
Hard device storage (long-term memory)
mind = computer
To learn has to actively: encode info, recode info to store, retrieve info
Requires: memory and executive functioning
How do children come to improve the effectiveness of their cognitive strategies?
Strategies depend on:
Task difficulty - demand
Task outcome- reward, consequence, no outcome
Memory devices: strategies for storing info
Rehearsal
Chunking
Elaboration: art (artery) was so thick in the middle that he had to wear elastic waistbands
Acronyms: Evil Gummy Bears Die First
Typically can use multiple strategies at once
With age, comes more strategies
Seigler’s model of strategy choice:
Challenging problem - generate strategies
With more experience = some strategies are more prominent
Strategies never really die off
Ex: see a toy out of reach. They use a variety of objects to reach turtle ex ruler, rake, spoon
Why is it hard for most of us to remember things from early childhood?
Most of us: don't have memories before 3 or 4 years and remember little overall before age 7
Babies don't have good memories BUT as young as 6 months store them in long-term memory months preschoolers can remember things from years ago.
Partially because the brain is still developing - the hippocampus developing until at least age 7
Language plays a role, kids who are better able to verbally describe events can remember them better later.
Kids and teens have earlier memories than adults - the problem seems to be maintaining, not forming memories.
Does intelligence seem to be due more to genes or environment?
Intelligence is highly genetic
Identical twins: R = .86
cousins : R = .15
HOWEVER
The environment also plays a role in intelligence
Genes set upper and lower limit
Environment influences whether the potential is achieved
Ex: the Bell curve book- claims that African Americans have a lower mean IQ than Caucasians - but the environment was not taken into account
Are there true differences in IQ scores among kids of different racial/ethnic
Groups?
IQ tests: African American groups had lower IQs than Caucasian kids
BUT
A lot of overlap in scores - the difference is likely due to environment, not genes.
Genes set upper and lower limit
Environment influences whether the potential is achieved
How has our conceptualization of the different factors that make up intelligence
changed over time (i.e., to the extent that we talked about this in class, know-how
different scholars like Spearman, Cattell, Sternberg, and Gardner have
conceptualized intelligence)? What does the research say about whether IQ is one
factor or multiple factors?
Charles Spearman: “You are either smart across the board or you are not smart at all”
School children's grades in seemingly unrelated areas correlated
This led to the idea of generalized intelligence “g”
Doing well on one type of cognitive task = doing well on another
Raymond Cattel: Two Types of Intelligence
Crystalized intelligence: accumulated knowledge and experience
ex: vocab
Increases with age
Fluid intelligence: basic info processing skills
Ex: processing speed
Decreases with age
Sternberg: Triarchic theory
analytical intelligence: information processing
Creative intelligence: generating useful solutions to new problems
Practical intelligence: adaptive thinking, shaping situations, selecting new contexts to meet goals, street smarts
Each type is distinct, but need all 3 to be successful
Gardners: theory of multiple intelligences (at least 8)
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Musical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Visual-spatial
Naturalistic
Logical-mathematical
Linguistic literacy
Has become extremely influential, especially in school systems
What does research say about how well IQ predicts to later IQ and
Achievement?
Young children: IQ does NOT = future IQ
Young kids: develop quickly, slows down with age
School: kids learn good test-taking skills
Some kids show fluctuations in IQ (ex poverty causes decrease)
HOWEVER
IQ is a valid predictor of adjustment
Grades- job- money