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.