Early Childhood Development

Early Childhood Overall Physical Growth

Children (2-6 years) grow about 3 inches in height and gain 4-5 pounds annually.
Growth occurs in spurts.
Average 2-year-old: 23-28 pounds, 33-35 inches tall.
Average 6-year-old: 40-50 pounds, 44-47 inches tall.
Torso lengthens, body proportions become more adult-like by age 6.
Reduced appetite between 2-6 years; children need 1,000-1,400 calories (2-3 years) and 1,200-2,000 calories (4-8 years).

Brain Maturation

Brain is about 75% of its adult weight by age three and 95% by age six.
Myelination and dendrite development continue in the cortex.
Prefrontal cortex development enables inhibition of emotional outbursts and improved game-playing.
Left hemisphere grows dramatically between ages 3 and 6 (language skills).
Right hemisphere continues to grow (spatial skills).
Corpus callosum growth spurt between ages 3 and 6 improves coordination between hemispheres.

Motor Skill Development

Early childhood is a key time for acquiring basic locomotion and object control skills.
Gross motor skills improve (running, jumping).
Fine motor skills are refined (pouring, drawing, buttoning).
2-year-olds run with better coordination but struggle with tricycles.
4-year-olds can dress themselves more easily.

Children’s Art

Drawings evolve from scribbles at age 2 to recognizable images by ages 4-5.
Tadpole drawings are common around age 3.
Cultural variations exist in drawing size, detail, and emotional expression.

Toilet Training

Typically occurs between 24-36 months.
Girls average 29 months, boys 31 months; 98% trained by 36 months.
Physical and emotional readiness are more important than age.
Daytime bladder control is usually mastered first.
Elimination disorders include enuresis and encopresis.

Sleep

Sleep needs vary widely (15-16 hours for 2-year-olds, 7-8 hours for 6-year-olds).

Sexual Development in Early Childhood

Physical dimension of sexual arousal is present from birth.
Self-stimulation is common for both boys and girls.
Curiosity about bodies is natural.
Parents should respond without undue alarm, teaching appropriate times and places.

Nutritional Concerns

Smaller appetite and reticence to try new foods are common.
"Just right" phenomenon: desire for consistency and routines.
Balanced diet advice: pleasant mealtimes, sound nutrition, avoid power struggles.

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

Children use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas.
Engage in pretend play but cannot understand adult logic.
Two substages: symbolic function (2-4 years) and intuitive thought (4-7 years).
Egocentrism: Inability to take others' perspectives.
Conservation errors: Inability to recognize that rearranging matter does not change quantity; characterized by centration.
Classification errors: Difficulty understanding an object can be classified in multiple ways.
Animism: Attributing life-like qualities to objects.
Critique: Piaget underestimated children's capabilities; specific experiences influence conservation abilities.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Culture impacts cognitive development; social interactions facilitate learning.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Teaching should occur when a child can almost perform a task with assistance.
Scaffolding: Temporary support given to help a child complete a task.
Private Speech: Children talk to themselves to solve problems.
Contrast with Piaget: Vygotsky emphasized instruction, while Piaget emphasized discovery.

Information Processing

Focus on attention skills, working memory capacity, and executive functions.
Attention: Divided, selective, and sustained attention improve with age.
Memory: Sensory, short-term/working, and long-term memory.
Executive Function (EF): Self-regulatory processes that enable adaptive responses.
Memory Strategies: Young children do not rehearse effectively.
Declarative and Non-declarative memory, also Semantic, Episodic and Autobiographical memory.

Children’s Understanding of the World

Constructivism: Children actively try to understand the world.
Theory-Theory: Children generate theories to explain everything.
Theory of Mind: Ability to think about others’ thoughts.
False belief task: Assesses understanding that others can hold beliefs based on false information.

Language Development

Vocabulary growth from 200 to over 10,000 words between ages 2-6 via fast-mapping.
Literal meanings: Children take expressions literally.
Overregularization: Applying grammar rules inappropriately.
Training: Scaffolding helps language development.

Bilingualism

Most children worldwide are bilingual.
Dual language learners are a fast-growing population.
Language competency depends on quantity, quality, and opportunity to use the language.
Advantages: improved cognitive executive function skills.

Preschool

Universal preschool: an important lobbying point.
NAEYC criteria for high-quality preschools include positive relationships, a supportive curriculum, and qualified teachers.
Types of preschool programs: Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, High Scope, Parent Co-Ops and Bank Street.
Head Start: Provides preschool education for children in poverty.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Characterized by deficits in social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors.
Symptoms appear early and cause serious impairments.
Not the same as intellectual disability but can occur together.
Rates have increased dramatically.
Appears to be strongly influenced by genetics and environmental factors.

Erikson: Initiative vs. Guilt

Children desire to take initiative and think of ideas.
Reinforce initiative with praise.

Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

Self-concept: Self-description based on various qualities.
Self-esteem: Evaluative judgment about who we are.
Focus on external qualities (categorical self).
Preschool children tend to have a positive self-image.
Negative self-evaluations can arise from insecure attachments.

Self-Control

Includes response initiation, response inhibition, and delayed gratification.
Self-control starts developing in early childhood.
"Marshmallow Test": ability to delay gratification predicts later success.

Gender

Gender identity: Sense of self as male or female.
Gender roles: Expectations of being male or female.
Social learning theory: Behavior is learned through observation, modeling, reinforcement, and punishment.
Gender schema theory: Children develop conceptions of attributes associated with maleness or femaleness.
Transgender children: Identify with the gender opposite their natal sex.

Parenting Styles

Authoritative: High expectations, warm, responsive.
Authoritarian: Strict rules, less warmth.
Permissive: Few expectations, warm, communicative.
Uninvolved: Disengaged, non-responsive.

Spanking

Associated with increased aggression, antisocial behavior, and mental health problems.
Many alternatives are advocated.

Sibling Relationships

Play an important role in social skill development.
Can teach empathy, sharing, and cooperation.
Sources of conflict often depend on age.
Play: unoccupied, solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative and cooperative play.

Imaginary Companions

Varying definitions and estimates of prevalence.
Often change over time.
Not necessarily indicative of poor social skills.

Media

Excessive television adversely affects behavior, health, and achievement.
AAP recommendations for screen time.

Child Care

Most mothers of school-aged and preschool-aged children work outside the home.
More educated mothers spent more time in child care.
Higher quality care results in higher cognitive performance.
Improving quality of childcare is important.

Child Abuse

Neglect, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, and sexual abuse.
Professionals are the most alleged child abuse and neglect report.

Stress on Young Children

Toxic stress can have long-lasting effects.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment.
Separating families at the United States Border: detrimental to a child.