Untitled Flashcards Set

THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
• Development: pattern of movement or
change that begins at conception and
continues through the human life span.
• The importance of studying life-span
development:
• Prepares us to take responsibility of children.
• Gives us insight about our own lives.
• Gives us knowledge about what our lives will
be like as we age.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
(PART 1)
Development is:
• Lifelong – there is no endpoint to development and no age period dominates
development either.
• Multidimensional – body, mind, emotions, and relationships are changing and
affecting each other at every age.
• Development has biological, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions; each with many
components.
• Multidirectional – throughout life, some dimensions (or components of dimensions)
expand while others shrink.
• Capacity to acquire a 2nd language decreases in development but decision-making abilities
increase.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
(PART 2)
• Plastic – plasticity refers to our capacity for change and adaptation
• Multidisciplinary – psychology, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience, and even
conventional medicine all share interest in researching the development
throughout the life span.
• Contextual – development occurs withing a context or setting. (families, schools,
peer groups, churches, cities, neighborhoods, universities, countries, etc.).
• There are historical, economic, social, and cultural factors in each setting.
• A process that involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss.

TYPES OF CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES
Normative age-graded influences: biological or environmental events that are similar for
individuals in a particular age group.
o Biological stages – puberty, menopause, andropause.
o Start elementary at 6, graduate high school at 18, graduate college in early 20s
o Average age for voluntary life changes – marriage, retirement
Normative history-graded influences: common for people of a particular generation, or cohort,
because of historical circumstances.
o Epidemics, wars, the state of the economy, etc.
Nonnormative life events: unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual’s life;
not related to chronological age.
o Negative – accident, illness
o Positive – winning the lottery, being promoted

CONTEMPORATY CONCERNS
Factors that are believed to have a significant effect in human
development:
• Health and well-being
• Parenting and education
• Sociocultural contexts and diversity
• Culture: behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group
that is passed on from generation to generation.

CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES
These studies compare aspects of 2 or more cultures. This comparison provides
information about how similar (or universal) development is across cultures, or what
aspects are culture-specific.
• Ethnicity – may include race and nationality
• Socioeconomic status
• The gender spectrum
• Religious affiliations (or lack thereof)
• Social policy – their government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare
of its citizens.
• Access to technology

Biological processes

Changes in an individual’s physical nature

Cognitive processes
• Changes in an individual’s thought,
intelligence, and language
Socioemotional processes
• Changes in an individual’s relationship with
other people, emotions, and personality
Socioemotional processes

PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
• Prenatal period – conception to birth
• Infancy – birth to 18-24 months
• Early childhood – 3-5 years
• Middle and late childhood – 6-10/11 years
• Adolescence – puberty to 18-21 years
• Early adulthood – 20s and 30s
• Middle adulthood – 40s and 50s
• Late adulthood – 60s to death

CONCEPTIONS OF AGE
• Chronological age – time elapsed since birth (months/years)
• Biological age – in terms of biological health
• Psychological age – adaptive capacities compared to those of
same chronological age
• Social age – based on societal expectations of an individual’s
involvement in social roles

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES
Nature-nurture issue: Debate about whether development is primarily
influenced by nature or nurture.
• Nature – organism’s biological inheritance
• Nurture – environmental experiences
Stability-change issue: Debates the direction of development.
• Do we become older renditions of our early selves?
Do we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier stage?

RESEARCHING DEVELOPMENT
Scientific method: a research approach that can be used to obtain accurate
information.
• Conceptualize a process or problem to be studied
• Collect research information
• Analyze data
• Draw conclusions and make claims
• Theory: interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain a phenomenon
and facilitate predictions.
• Hypothesis: specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine
their accuracy.

METHODS FOR COLLECTING DATA
• Observation
• Laboratory: controlled setting in which may of the complex factors of the real world are
removed.
• Naturalistic observation: observing behavior in real-world settings
• Survey and interview
• Standardized test: uniform procedures for administration and scoring purposes.
• Case study: in-depth look at a single individual
• Physiological measures

RESEARCH DESIGN
• Descriptive research: designed to observe and record behavior
• Correlational research: describes the strength and type of relationship between 2
or more variables.
• Argues mere association, not cause and effect.
• Experimental research: seeks a cause-and-effect relationship between variables
while 1 or more of the factors are manipulated and all other factors are held
constant.
• Independent and dependent variables
• Experimental and control groups

TIME SPAN OF RESEARCH
• Cross-sectional approach: individuals of different ages
are compared at one time.
• Longitudinal approach: same individuals are studied
over a period of time, usually several years or more.

THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
• Psychoanalytic theories
• Cognitive theories
• Behavioral and social cognitive theories
• Ethological theory
• Ecological theory
• An eclectic theoretical orientation

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by
emotion.
• Freud’s 5 stages of psychosexual development
• Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development

COGNITIVE THEORIES
Emphasizes on a developmental framework, the influence of family
relationships, and the conscious aspects of the mind.
• Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development
• Vygotsky’s theory on culture and social interaction guiding cognitive
development

BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES
Describe development in terms of behaviors learned through
interactions with surroundings.
• Pavlov’s classical conditioning
• Skinner’s operant conditioning
• Bandura’s social cognitive theory (observational learning)

THE EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE
•Focuses primarily on psychological
adaptations – mechanisms of the mind that
have evolved to solve specific problems of
survival or reproduction.
•Natural selection and adaptive behavior
•Evolutionary psychology

NATURAL SELECTION & ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
• Natural selection: evolutionary process by which those individuals of a species
that are best adapted are the ones that survive and reproduce and leave the
most fit offspring.
• Their characteristics are passed on to the next generations through
reproduction.
• Over generations, those best suited for survival will make up an increased
percentage of the population.
• Adaptive behavior: behavior that promotes an organism’s survival in its natural
habitat.
• Example: a close attachment between a caregiver and a baby increases the
infant’s chances of survival.

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
The field of evolutionary psychology emphasizes the importance of
adaptation, reproduction, and “survival of the fittest” in shaping behavior.
David Buss argues that just as evolution has contributed to our physical
features, it also influences psychological features such as:
• How we make decisions, how aggressive we are, our fears, and our
mating patterns.

E VA LUAT ION OF
E VOLUTIONARY
PSYCHOLOG Y
• Evolution gave us biological potentials,
but it does not dictate behavior.
• Evolutionary selection benefits
decrease as we age, and a need for
culture-based resources increase.
• E.g., cognitive skills, literacy, medical
technology, and social support.

GENETIC
FOUNDATIONS OF
DEVELOPMENT
The collaborative gene
Genes and chromosomes
Genetic principles
Chromosomal and gene-
linked abnormalities

THE COLLABORATIVE GENE
• The potential for human life begins as a single cell
• Nucleus of each cell contains chromosomes – threadlike structures
made up of DNA.
• DNA is a complex double-helix molecule that contains genetic
information.
• Genes are units of hereditary information; short segments of DNA
• Humans have about 30,000 genes.

GENES AND CHROMOSOMES (PART 1)
All cells in the body, except the sperm and egg, have 46 chromosomes
arranged in 23 pairs.
• These cells reproduce through mitosis – cell division process that
produces 2 identical “daughter” cells from a single “parent” cell, contain
the same DNA as the original cell.
• Meiosis – the process of cell division that forms sperm and eggs –
produces cells that are genetically unique from the “parent” cell and
contain only half as much DNA

GENES AND CHROMOSOMES (PART 2)
Fertilization is a stage in reproduction when an egg and a sperm fuse to
create a single cell, called a zygote.
• Combining the genes of two parents in offspring increases genetic
variability in the population.
• This is valuable as it provides more characteristics for natural selection.
• Genotype – genetic heritage
• Phenotype – the way genotype is expressed in observable and measurable
characteristics.

TWINS
Monozygotic twins
• Identical
• Develop from a single zygote
that splits into two genetically
identical replicas, each of
which becomes a person.
Dizygotic twins
• Fraternal
• Develop when two eggs are
fertilized by different sperm,
creating two zygotes that are
genetically no more similar
than ordinary siblings.

GENETIC PRINCIPLES
Genes are either dominant, recessive, or intermediate.
• Examples: eye color
• A dominant gene shows a strong effect in either the homozygous or heterozygous
condition.
• Brown eyes are more likely to occur in any type of gene.
• A recessive gene shows its effect only in the homozygous condition.
• Blue eyes will only occur if the gene was heterozygous (both parents had blue eye gene)
• An intermediate gene occurs in a phenotype where there is incomplete dominance
in the heterozygous condition.
• Green or hazel eyes are produced when the dominant color (brown) was incomplete

Chromosomal Abnormalities

Down Syndrome: an extra chromosome causes mild to server intellectual disability and physical abnormalities

Klinefelter syndrome(XXY): an extra X chromosome causes physical abnormalities

Fragile X Syndrome: an abnormality in the X chromosome can cause intellectual disability, learning disabilities, or short attention span.

Turner syndrome (XO): a missing X chromosome in females can cause intellectual disability and sexual underdevelopment

XYY Syndrome: an extra y chromosome can cause above-average height

Gene-linked abnormalities

Cystic fibrosis: glandular dysfunction that interferes with mucus productions; breathing and digestion are hampered, resulting in a shortened life span.

Diabetes: body does noy produce enough insulin, which causes abnormal metabolism of sugar

Hemophilia: delayed blood clotting causes internal and external bleeding

Huntington’s disease: central nervous system deteriorates, producing problems in muscle coordination and mental deterioration.

Phenylketonuria (PKU): Metabolic disorder that, left untreated, causes intellectual disability and hyperactivity.

Sickle-cell anemia: blood disorder that limits the body’s oxygen supply; it can cause joint swelling, as well as heart and kidney failure.

Spina bifida: neural tube disorder that causes brain and spine abnormalities.

Tay-Sachs disease: deceleration of mental and physical development caused by an accumulation of lipids in the nervous system

REPRODUCTIVE
CHALLENGES
AND CHOICES
Prenatal diagnostic
tests
Infertility and
reproductive
technology

PRENATAL DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
Diagnostic Test Uses
Ultrasound Sonography Can detect abnormalities in the fetus and give clues to the
baby’s sex; can determine if there is more than one fetus.
Brain Imaging Techniques Fetal MRI can diagnose fetal malformations providing detailed
images of the body’s organs and structures.
Amniocentesis Sample of amniotic fluid is withdrawn and tested for
chromosomal and metabolic disorders
Maternal Blood Screening Identifies pregnancies that have an elevated risk for birth
defects such as spina bifida and Down syndrome
Fetal Sex Determination Small sample of the placenta can determine the sex of the fetus
at some point from 11 to 13 weeks of gestation.

INFERTILITY AND REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY
• Approximately 10-15% of couples in the US and 8-12% globally
experience infertility.
• The inability to conceive a child after 12 months of regular intercourse
without contraception.
• Can be due to genetic or environmental factors
• In vitro fertilization (IVF) – eggs and sperm are combined in a
laboratory dish; once fertilized, the egg is transferred into the
uterus.

HEREDITY-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION
Behavior genetics is the field that seeks to discover the influence of heredity and
environment on individual differences in human traits and development.
• Nature vs nurture debate – what influences human behavior? Genetics or the environment and
their life experiences?
Researchers tend to study:
• Twin studies have compared the behavioral similarity of identical and fraternal twins to infer
contributions of heredity and environment
• Adopted children and their resemblance to their biological parents, to infer hereditary
influences
• Identify if specific genes are linked to some behaviors

PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
The course of prenatal development can be
divided into three periods:
• Germinal
• Embryonic
• Fetal

GERMINAL PERIOD
• The germinal period takes place in the first 2 weeks after conception
Includes:
• The creation of the fertilized egg – zygote
• Rapid cell division – mitosis
• The attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall – implantation

EMBRYONIC PERIOD
• The embryonic period takes place 2 to 8 weeks after conception.
Includes:
• The specialization of cells to perform specific tasks – cell differentiation
• The mass of cells is now considered an embryo, and it is conformed of 3 layers
of cells.
o Endoderm – the inner layer which will develop into the digestive and respiratory
systems.
o Mesoderm – the middle layer which will become the circulatory system, bones,
muscles, excretory system, and reproductive system.
o Ectoderm – the outermost layer which will become the nervous system and brain,
sensory receptors, and skin parts (e.g., hairs and nails).

FETAL PERIOD
• The fetal period lasts about seven months, it is the prenatal period between 2
months after conception and birth (in typical pregnancies).
3 months (13 weeks) fetus is about 3in long and weight about of an ounce.
4 months (17 weeks) growth spurt in body’s lower parts, may begin to feel movement.
5 months (22 weeks) fetus is about 12in long and weighs close to 1lb, fetus shows preference
for particular positions in the womb.
6 months (24-25 weeks) fetus has chance of surviving outside the womb, but the lungs will not
fully mature until after 37 weeks.
Last 2 months prenatal development continues focusing on the development of fatty
tissues and the functioning of various organ systems (e.g. heart, kidneys).

TERATOLOGY AND
HAZARDS TO
PRENATAL
DEVELOPMENT
•A teratogen is any agent that can
potentially cause a birth defect or negatively
alter cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
•Dose, genetic susceptibility, and the time of
exposure to a teratogen influence both the
severity of the damage to the embryo/fetus,
and the type of defect.

TERATOGENS
• Prescription and nonprescription drugs: antibiotics, analgesics, asthma
medications, some antidepressants, certain synthetic hormones, and
Accutane.
• Psychoactive drugs: caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin.
• Synthetic opioids and opiate-related pain killers: fentanyl, OxyCotin, and Vicodin.
• Environmental hazards: toxic waste, chemical pollutants, x-ray radiation,
fertilizers, and pesticides.

OTHER HAZARDS TO PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
Maternal diseases
• Rubella
• Syphilis
• Genital herpes
• AIDS
Other parental factors
• Maternal diet and nutrition
• Parental age
• Maternal emotional states and
stress
• Parental genetic factors

THE BIRTH PROCESS
There are 3 main stages of birth:
• 1st stage – uterine contractions are 15-20 minutes apart and last up
to 1 minute.
• 2nd stage – begins when the baby’s head starts to move through the
cervix and birth canal.
• Ends when the baby completely emerges from the mother’s body.
• 3rd stage – afterbirth; when the placenta, umbilical cord, and other
membranes are detached and expelled.

CHILDBIRTH SETTINGS AND ATTENDANTS
In 2020 in the United States:
o 98% of births took place in hospitals
o 1.26% in homes
o 0.74% in free-standing birth centers
Midwifery is a profession that provides health care to women during pregnancy,
birth, and the post partum period.
A doula is a caregiver who provides continuous physical, emotional, and educational
support for the mother before, during, and after childbirth.
• Unlike midwives, doulas do not have medical training and cannot be used as substitute
for a doctor in delivering a baby.

METHODS OF CHILDBIRTH (PART 1)
Natural childbirth is a method that aims to reduce mother’s pain by decreasing
fear through:
• Education about childbirth
• Relaxation techniques during delivery
• Medicated and non-medicated
Prepared childbirth includes a special breathing technique to control pushing in
the final stages of labor, as well as detailed education about anatomy and
physiology.

METHODS OF CHILDBIRTH (PART 2)
Cesarian delivery is a surgical procedure in which the baby is removed from
the uterus through an incision made in the abdomen.
Although some may choose a scheduled cesarian as their birth plan, other’s may
require one if the baby is in breech position – baby’s buttocks are the first
part to emerge from the vagina.

ASSESSING THE NEWBORN
Almost immediately after birth, a newborn is taken to be weighed, cleaned up, and
tested for signs of developmental problems that may require urgent attention.
The Apgar Scale evaluates an infant’s heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone,
body color, and flex irritability of a newborn at 1 and 5 minutes after birth.
• Obstetrician or nurse evaluates and gives newborn a score of 0, 1, or 2 in each of
the 5 health signs.
• Total score of 7-10 indicates condition is good, score of 5 indicates there may be
developmental difficulties, score of 3 or below signals emergency and indicates baby
may not survive.

PRETERM AND LOW BIRTH WEIGHT INFANTS
• Low birth weight infants – those that weigh less than 5½lbs at
birth.
• Preterm infants – those born before the completion of 37 weeks
of gestations.
• Small for date infants – those whose birth weight is below
normal when the length of pregnancy is considered.
• May be preterm or full term

THE POSTPARTUM
PERIOD
Physical adjustments
Emotional and
psychological adjustment
Bonding

PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENTS
Period after childbirth lasts until the mother’s body has completed its adjustment and
has returned to a nearly prepregnant state.
Body makes numerous physical adjustments in the first days and weeks after
childbirth.
• After delivery, the body undergoes sudden and dramatic changes in hormone production.
• May have a great deal of energy or feel exhausted and let down.
• Fatigue can undermine their sense of well-being and confidence in their ability to cope
with a new baby.
• Loss of sleep is a big concern as it can contribute to stress and impaired decision making.

EMOTIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENTS
Emotional fluctuations are common in the postpartum period.
For some, these fluctuations decrease within several weeks after delivery, but others
may experience more long-lasting mood swings.
• About 70% of new mothers experience the postpartum blues.
• 2-3 days after birth, they feel slightly depressed, anxious, and upset.
• May come and go for several months and tend to peak at 3-5 days after birth.
• Other may develop postpartum depression, which involves a major depressive
episode that typically occurs about 4 weeks after delivery.
• Strong feelings of sadness, anxiety, or despair that last for at least 2 weeks.

BONDING
Bonding is the formation of a connection, especially a physical bond between parents
and the newborn in the period shortly after birth.
Some hospital practices deter bonding:
• Drugs given to the mother at a high dose can make them drowsy and unable to respond to
or stimulate newborn
• Parents and newborns are often separated shortly after delivery
• Preterm infants are isolated from their parents even more than full-term infants.
• Many hospitals offer a rooming-in arrangement, in which baby remains in the room most of
the time during the hospital stay. Testing procedures can also occur in the room.
PATTERNS OF GROWTH
• Cephalocaudal pattern is the sequence in which the earliest
growth always occurs at the top – the head.
• Infants’ eyes and brains grow faster than their jaw.
• Proximodistal pattern is the sequence in which growth starts at
the center of the body and moves toward the extremities.
• Infants control the muscles of their trunk and arms before they
control their hands and fingers.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
• Most newborns are 18 to 22 inches long and weigh between 5 and 10
pounds.
• Infants grow about 1 inch per month during the first year
• By 2 years of age
• Approx weight – 26 to 32 pounds
• Approx height – 32 to 35 inches

THE BRAIN
• Contains approximately 100 billion neurons at birth.
Because the brain is still developing rapidly in infancy, the head should
be protected from falls and other injuries.
• Shaken baby syndrome – brain swelling and hemorrhaging
• Newborn’s brain is about 25% of its adult weight.
• By the 2nd birthday, it is about 75% of its adult weight.
• However, the brains areas do not mature uniformly.

MAPPING THE BRAIN
• Frontal lobe is involved in thinking, decision
making, personality, and intentionality.
• Occipital lobe functions in vision.
• Temporal lobe facilitates hearing, language
processing, and memory.
• Parietal lobe plays important roles involving
spatial location, attention, and motor control

EARLY EXPERIENCE AND THE BRAIN
Children who grow up in a deprived environment may have
depressed brain activity.
• Sensory stimuli is important
• Observational learning
However, the brain tends to demonstrate both flexibility and
resilience.
• Studies have shown specific cases in which the effects of
deprived environments were reversible.

SLEEP & NUTRITION
Typical newborn sleeps approximately 18 hours a day.
• The most common infant sleep-related problem is nighttime waking
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) occurs when an infant stops breathing, usually at
night
• Infant dies suddenly without an apparent cause
Nutritional needs and eating behavior:
• Infants should consume approximately 50 calories per day for each pound they weigh
• As motor skills improve, infants change from using suck-and-swallow movements to chew-
and-swallow movements with semisolid and then complex foods

MOTOR
DEVELOPMENT
• Reflexes
• Gross motor skills
• Fine motor skills

REFLEXES
Reflexes are built-in reactions to stimuli
• They are automatic and govern the newborn’s movements
o Rooting reflex occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth
is touched.
• Infants turns their head trying to find something to suck
o Sucking reflex occurs when newborns automatically suck an object placed in their
mouth
o Moro reflex is a neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a sudden,
intense noise or movement
o Grasping reflex occurs when something touches the infants’ palms

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS
Gross motor skills
involve large-muscle
activities:
• Lifting head
• Rollin over
• Sitting
• Crawling
• Walking
FINE MOTOR
SKILLS
Fine motor skills involve
finely tuned movements:
• Grasping a toy
• Using a spoon
• Buttoning a shirt
• Any activity that requires
finger dexterity

WHAT ARE SENSATION AND PERCEPTION?
Sensation occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors – the eyes,
ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin.
Perception is the brain’s interpretations of what is sensed.
• At birth, the nerves and muscles and lens of the eye are still developing.
• Newborns cannot see small things that are far away.
• Faces are the most important visual stimuli in children’s social environment;
they extract a lot of information from other’s faces.

VISION
By 8 weeks, infants can discriminate between some colors; by 4 months, they have
color preferences.
Perceptual constancy is the perception of an object as constant even though our
sensation of the object changes.
• Perception of size and shape of an object remains the same even if the distance or
orientation of the object has changed .
• Presented in babies as young as 3 months of age.
Depth perception is the ability to judge if objects are nearer or farther away then
other objects.
• This begins to develop around the 5th month but will not be fully developed after 2 years
of age.

THE VISUAL
CLIFF
EXPERIMENT
Faces as the most
important visual stimuli
even in the absence of
depth perception

COGNITIVE PROCESSES
What processes do children use as they build their knowledge of the world?
Piaget developed several concepts to answer this question:
• Schemes
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
• Organization
• Equilibration – equilibrium and disequilibrium

SCHEMES
As an infant seeks to construct an understanding of the world, their
developing brain creates schemes – actions or mental representations that
organize knowledge.
• Piaget’s theory argues that baby’s schemes are structured by simple actions that
can be performed on objects.
• Sucking, looking, and grasping.
• Older children will have schemes that include strategies and plans for solving
problems.
• Completing a puzzle; starting with the edge pieces and working towards the
center.

ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION
To explain how children use and adapt to their schemes, Piaget offered two
concepts:
• Assimilation – occurs when children use their existing schemes to
deal with new information or experiences.
• Accommodation – occurs when children adjust their schemes to take
new information and experiences into account.

EXAMPLE OF ASSIMILATION & ACCOMMODATION
A toddler learns the word “CAR” to identify the family vehicle.
Toddler begins to call all moving vehicles “car” including motorcycles, trucks,
and buses.
• Child has assimilated these objects to their existing scheme.
However, the child soon learns that motorcycles, trucks, and buses are not
“cars,” so they fine-tune the category to exclude these objects.
• Child has accommodated their scheme for what a “car” is.

ORGANIZATION
To make sense of their world, Piaget suggested that children cognitively
organize their experiences.
Organization is the grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a
higher-order system.
• As the child learns the difference between cars and buses, they can now
pick out the similarities and differences between them very easily.

EQUILIBRATION
In trying to understand the world, the child inevitably experiences cognitive conflicts, or
disequilibrium.
The child is constantly faced with counterexamples and inconsistencies of their existing
schemes.
• Example: a child believes that pouring water from one glass to another changes the
amount of water if the glasses are of different shape/size.
The need for equilibrium creates motivation for change; the child will seek to adjust old
schemes, create new ones, and reorganize old and new knowledge.
Equilibration is the mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the
next.

PIAGET’S FOUR
STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years old)
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years old)
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years old)
• Formal operational stage (12 years and older)

SUBSTAGES OF THE SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
Age Substage Description
Birth to 1 month Simple reflexes Newborn develops reflexes
1-4 months First habits and primary circular
reactions
Begins to develop simple motor functions; reproduce
events that first happened by chance (thumb sucking)
4-8 months Secondary circular reactions Begins to imitate simple behaviors seen in others; repeats
behaviors they find interesting
8-12 months Coordination of secondary circular
reactions
Develops behaviors to achieve goals; hand-eye
coordination; begins to understand object permanence
12-18 months Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and
curiosity
Understanding of object permanence matures; becomes
intrigued by properties and uses of an object
18-24 months Internalization of schemes / early
symbolic thought
Develops the ability to use symbols and form mental
representations; engage in imaginative play

OBJECT
PERMANENCE
• Object permanence is the
understanding that objects
continue to exist even when
they cannot be seen, heard,
or touched.
• According to Piaget,
acquiring this sense is one of
the infant’s most important
accomplishments.

LEARNING,
REMEMBERING , AND
CONCEPTUALIZING
Conditioning
Attention
Memory
Imitation

CONDITIONING
According to Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning, the consequences of a
behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence.
If an infant’s behavior is followed by a rewarding stimulus, the behavior is
likely to occur again.
• Infant makes a cute noise, and it makes the parent laugh, the child is
very likely to make the noise again.

ATTENTION
Attention – the focusing of mental resources on select information – improves
cognitive processing on may tasks.
In the first year, attention is dominated by an orienting/investigative process.
• Involves directing attention to a potentially important location in the
environment and recognizing objects and their features.
• Find “where” to look for “what.”

MEMORY
Memory is the retention of information over time.
• Attention plays an important role in memory.
Implicit memory refers to memory without conscious recollection – memories of
skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically.
• May remember something but not remember when or how it was learned
Explicit memory refers to the conscious remembering of facts and experiences.
• Most babies do not show explicit memory until after 6 months .
Most adults can remember very little, if anything, from their first 3 years of life; this is
called childhood amnesia

Age Group and Length of Delay

6 month old: 24 hours

9 month old: 1 month

10-11month old: 3 months

13'-14: 4 to 6 months

20 months old: 12 months
IMITATION
Can infants imitate someone else’s emotional expressions?
If an adult smiles, babies often respond with a smile too.
Deferred imitation is a process in which a child will observe someone, usually
an adult, complete an action; then, after a period of time, the child will imitate that
action.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Language is a form of communication – whether spoken, written, or signed – that is
based on a system of symbols.
Before they begin to learn words, infants can easily recognize different language sounds
• Babbling and practice making sounds to communicate or attract attention.
• Crying, cooing, babbling
Infants start using gestures, such as showing and pointing, at about 7-15 months of age.
Additionally, infants understand their first words earlier than they can speak them.

FIRST WORDS
A child’s first words include those that name…
• Important people – mama, dada
• Familiar animals – kitty, name of their pet
• Toys – ball
• Food – milk
• Body parts – eye
• Greeting terms – bye

TWO-WORD UTTERANCES
By the time they are 18-24 months of age, children usually speak in two-word
utterances.
Identification – see doggie
Location – book there
Repetition – more milk
Negation – not wolf
Possession – my candy
Attribution – big car
Agent-action – mama walk
Question – where ball?

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Emotion: feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or
interaction that is important to them.
Especially in infancy, emotions play a role in:
1) Communication with others
• Emotions communicate joy, sadness, interest, and fear.
2) Behavioral organization
• Emotions influence social responses and adaptive behaviors as they
interact with others

INFLUENCES
• Emotions are influenced by biological foundations, cognitive processes,
and a person’s experiences.
• Toddlers observing how parents interact (arguing/yelling vs
laughing/playing) allows them to develop emotional coping skills.
• A child that hides when their parents argue, might turn into an
adult that avoids confrontation.

EARLY EMOTIONS
• Primary emotions appear in the first 6 months of infant’s
development.
• Surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust
• Self-conscious emotions require self-awareness, especially
consciousness and a sense of “me.”
• Jealousy, empathy, embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt.
• Occur for the first time after the 6-months mark or within the 2nd
year

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
• The ability of infants to communicate
allow better interactions with their
caregivers and form the beginnings of
emotional bonds.
• Cries and smiles are 2 emotional
expressions that infants display when
interacting with parents.

CRYING
Crying is the most important mechanism newborns have for communicating.
• The first cry verifies that baby’s lungs have filled with air.
Babies have at least three types of cries:
Basic cry Rhythmic patterns consisting of a cry, followed by a briefer silence, then a shorter
whistle that is higher in pitch than the main cry, then another brief rest before the
next cry.
Hunger is one of the conditions that incite the basic cry.
Anger cry Variation of the basic cry in which more excess air is forced through the vocal
cords.
Pain cry Sudden long, initial loud cry followed by breath holding. No preliminary moaning or
fussiness is present.

SMILING
Smiling is a key social signal and very important aspect of positive social
interactions.
Two types of smiling can be distinguished in infants:
Reflective
smile
Does not occur in response to external stimuli and appears
during the first month after birth, usually during sleep
Social smile Occurs in response to external stimuli, typically a face in the
case of a young infant. Begins to occur as early as 2 months of
age.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Emotions and temperament form key aspects of personality – the enduring
personal characteristics of individuals.
Characteristics that are considered to be central to personality development
during infancy:
• Trust
• The development of self
• Independence

TRUST
Erikson proposed that the first year of life is characterized by the trust-
versus-mistrust stage of development.
• Infants learn trust when they are cared for in a consistent and warm
manner.
• If the infant is not well fed and kept warm, a sense of mistrust is likely
to develop.
• If the issue of trust vs mistrust is not resolved in the first year of life,
it will arise again at each successive stage of development.

THE DEVELOPING SENSE OF SELF
It is difficult to study the development of a sense of self in infants.
• The mirror test (or rouge test) found that most children younger
than 1 year old do not recognize themselves in the mirror.
Late in the second year and early into the third year, toddlers show
other emerging forms of self-awareness.
• Refer to themselves by making “me/I” statements, declaring things
are theirs.

INDEPENDENCE
Erikson stressed that independence is an important issue in the second year of life.
The second stage of development is autonomy vs shame and doubt.
• Autonomy builds as the infant’s mental and motor abilities develop.
• Infants can walk, climb, open and close, drop, push and pull, and hold and let go.
• Potty training is one of the biggest milestones of this stage.
• Infant feels pride in each task when caregiver is supportive.
• However, if the caregivers are impatient and consistently criticize accidents, shame
and doubt develop.

ATTACHMENT AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
Attachment is a close emotional bond between two people.
• In infants, this lasting psychological connectedness is between a child and their
primary caregiver.
There are many theories about infant attachment:
• Freud – infants become attached to the person that provides oral satisfaction
• Harlow – contact comfort is preferred over food
• Erikson – trust arises from physical comfort and sensitive care

SOCIAL CONTEXT
The 2 main social contexts in which
infants explore their emotional and
personality development, as well as
attachment are:
• The family
• Childcare

THE FAMILY
The family can be thought of as a constellation
of subsystems
Each family member participates in several
subsystems.
• Father-child / mother-child / mother-father
/ mother-father-child
CHILD
FATHERMOTHER

CHILD
CARE
Many children
experience multiple
caregivers

THE SELF-
RECOGNITION
MIRROR TEST
Children of different ages
are placed in front of a
mirror with a mark on
their nose or forehead

BABY GROWTH
Height and weight:
• Average child grows 2½ inches in height and gains 5-10 pounds a year during
early childhood.
• Growth patterns vary individually with ethnic origin and nutrition being the 2
most important contributors in height differences.
The brain:
• The brain and nervous system continue to develop but not as rapidly as it did in
infancy.
• By 3 years, the brain is 75% of its adult size
• By age 6, the brain is closer to 95% of its adult size.

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Most preschool children are more active than they will ever be at any later period
in the lifespan.
Gross motor skills:
• Simple movements at age 3
• Hopping, jumping, and running back and forth
• More adventurous at age 4
• Display athleticism in jungle gyms
• Hair-raising risks at age 5
• More complex stuns and competition (e.g. racing their peers or parents)

FINE MOTOR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
• At age 3, most children can pick up tiny objects between their thumb and
forefinger, but they are still somewhat clumsy at it.
• Building tall block towers is nearly impossible as they don’t place them in a straight
line.
• At age 4, fine motor skills improve and are more precise.
• Can build higher block towers but may knock over the existing stack as they
attempt to place each block perfectly.
• At age 5, body coordination has improved substantially.
• Hand, arm, and body all move together under better command of the eye; building
block towers is easier.

SLEEP
Recommended sleep for children around 3-4 years of age is 10-13 hours
of good quality sleep, with consistent sleep and wake times.
• May include mid-day naps.
Children can experience a number of
sleep disorders:
• Narcolepsy – extreme daytime
sleepiness
• Insomnia – difficulty going to sleep or
staying asleep
• Nightmares
Sleep problems can lead to negative
outcomes.
• Attention problems
• Worse school readiness (also linked to
increased screen time)
• Being overweight
• Social problems

NUTRITION AND EXERCISE
Children’s nutrition is strongly influenced by caregiver’s behaviors.
Eating habits and activity levels at this stage can strongly influence the
risk for:
• Obesity, malnutrition, disordered eating, etc.
• The US has the second higher rate of childhood obesity
• Eleven million preschool children are experiencing malnutrition

Enhancing Children’s Safety:

Individuals: Development of social skills and ability to regulate emotions. Impulse control (such as not darting out into a street to retrieve a ball).

Frequent use of personal protection (such as bike helmets and safety seats).

School/Peers: Promotion of home/school partnerships. Absence of playground hazards. Injury prevention and safety promotion policies and programs.

Family/Home: High awareness and knowledge of child management and knowledge of child management and parenting skills. Frequent parent protective behaviors (such as use of child safety seats). Prescence of home safety equipment (such as smoke alarms and cabinet locks)

Community: Availability of positive activities for children and their parents. Active surveillance of environmental hazards. Effective prevention policies in place (such as pool fencing)

PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
Preoperational stage:
• Second stage
• Ages 2 to 7 years
• Children represent the world with words, images, and drawings.
• Can form stable concepts and begin to reason
• Cognitions are dominated by magical beliefs and egocentrism – inability to
distinguish one’s own perspective from someone else’s

SYMBOLIC FUNCTION
SUBSTAGE
•Occurs between the ages of 2 and 4.
•Young child gains the ability to mentally
represent an object that is not present.
•Child is less concerned with reality. Their
drawings tend to be fanciful and inventive.
o 3½-year-old drew “a pelican kissing a seal.”
o 11-year-old’s Christmas tree is neater and
more realistic, but also less inventive

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY
This theory argues that children think and understand primarily through social
interaction, especially instruction.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD): range of tasks that are too difficult for
the child alone but can be learned with guidance.
• Lower limit – level of skill reached by child working independently
• Upper limit – level of additional responsibility child can accept with assistance of
an instructor.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Toddlers move quickly from producing two-word utterances to creating three-,
four-, and fire-word combinations.
• Between 2 and 3 years of age, children transition to saying more complex
sentences.
Children also demonstrate knowledge of morphology rules.
• Plural and possessive nouns: dogs and dog’s
• Verb endings: -ed for past tense and –ing when in action
• Prepositions: in and on
• Various forms of the verb to be: “I was going to the store”

EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Some of the best evidence for changes in children’s use of morphological
rules occurs in their overgeneralization of them.
Preschool child says “foots” instead of “feet,” or “goed” instead of “went.”

Berko’s (1958) experiment
presented preschool children and
first-grade children with cards (as
shown).
• Children were asked to supply the
missing word.

WORD LEARNING
There are six key principles in young children’s vocabulary development.
1. Learn the words they hear most often
2. Learn words for things and events that interest them
3. Learn words better in responsive and interactive contexts than in passive
contexts
4. Learn words best in contexts that are meaningful
5. Learn words best when they access clear information about word meaning
6. Learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered

VALUE OF BOOKS
Books can be valuable in enhancing children’s communication skills.
• Use books to initiate conversation in young children.
• Asking them what they would do/think/feel if they were the character in
the story.
• Use what and why questions.
• Asking what they think will happen next in a story.
• Choose some books that play with language.
• Books about the alphabet or those that use rhymes.
• Encourage them to ask questions about stories.

VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (PART 1)
There are many variations in the way young children are educated.
The child-centered kindergarten – emphasizes the education of the whole child and
concern for their physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development.
• Instruction is organized around child’s need, interests, and learning styles.
• Emphasis on the process of learning rather than what is learned.
• Honors these 3 principles:
• Each child follows a unique developmental pattern
• Young children learn best through firsthand experiences with people and materials
• Play is extremely important in the child’s total development

VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (PART 2)
The Montessori Approach is a philosophy of education in which children are given
considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities.
• Children can move from one activity to another as they desire.
• Teacher is a facilitator rather than a director.
• Shows how to perform intellectual activities
• Demonstrates interesting ways to explore curriculum materials
• Offers help when child requests it
Montessori programs seek to develop self-regulated problem solvers who can make
choices and manage their time effectively.
• By encouraging children to make decisions from an early age.

CONTROVERSIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Controversy surrounds the topic of early childhood education curriculum.
• One side has the child-centered, constructive activists.
• On the other are those who advocate an academic, direct-instruction approach.
Another controversy focuses on whether preschool education makes a difference,
especially for children who are not disadvantaged.
• Disadvantaged children may include those from lower-income households where all possible
caregivers must return to work and cannot provide the children with the necessary
interactions for learning and development.