Early Childhood

Physical Development

o   Head is till large, but the other parts of the body continue to catch up as body proportions steadily become adult-like

o   Growth Hormone Deficiency – absence or deficiency of growth hormone produced by pituitary gland to stimulate the body to grow

o   Sleep problems are occasional and usually outgrown

o   Many of sleep problems issues are the result of ineffective parenting

o   Persistent sleep problems may indicate emotional, physiological, or neurological condition that needs to be examines

o   Night terrors generally peach at about 1 ½ years and are common between 2 ½ and 4 years of age

o   Sleepwalking, sleeptalking, and night terrors are common when children are sleep deprived, have fever or on medications, or when conditions are noisy

o   Nightmares are common during early childhood

o   Enuresis – repeated involuntary urination at night by children old enough to have bladder control

§  Genetics may play role

o   Motor coordination in childhood tends to be relatively stable over time

o   Handedness – the preference of using one hand over the other

§  Left-handedness run in families

o   41 million children under age 5 were obese in 2016

o   Stunted Children – normal weight but shorter than they should for their age and may have cognitive and physical deficiencies, visible in developing countries

o   Food Allergies are more prevalent in children than in adults and most of them outgrow their allergies

o   Car accidents are the most commonly reported cause of accidental death for children over the age of 4

o   Children exposed to tobacco smoke are more likely to develop wheezing symptoms and asthma, and have a higher risk for high-blood pressure

o   Other common causes of death in early childhood: cancer, congenital abnormalities, and chromosomal disorders, assault, heart disease, respiratory disease and septicemia

o   Contextual factors such as poverty and parenting quality are linked to the development of the brain

Cognitive Development

Preoperational Stage by Jean Piaget

o   Jean Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development

o   Lasting from ages 2 to 7, characterized by the expansion in the use of symbolic thought

o   Children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings

o   Dominated by egocentrism and magical beliefs

o   Does not yet perform Operations (which are reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what before they could do only physically)

o   Preoperational Thought – beginning of the ability to reconstruct in thought what has been established in behavior

o   Divided into Symbolic Function and Intuitive Thought

1. Symbolic Function – being able to think about something in the absence of sensory or motor cues

§  Can use symbols, or mental representations such as words, numbers, or images to which a person has attached meaning

§  Deferred Imitation – children imitate an action at some point after observing it

§  Pretend Play – fantasy play, dramatic play, or imaginary play; children use an object to represent something else

§  The most extensive use of symbolic function is language

§  Occurs between ages of 2 and 4

2. Intuitive Thought – begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions

§  Occurs approx. 4-7 yrs of age

o   Children also begin to able to understand the symbols that describe physical spaces

o   Piaget believed that children cannot yet reason logically about causality

o   Transduction – they mentally link two events, especially events close in time, whether or not here is logically a causal relationship

o   Identities – the concept that people and many things are basically the same even if they change in outward form, size, or appearance

o   Animism – tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive

o   Centration – the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others

§  Children cannot Decenter (think about several aspects of a situation at one time)

§  Involves on focusing on one dimension while ignoring the other

§  Irreversibility – failure to understand that an action can go in two or more directions

o   Egocentrism – young children center so much on their own point of view that they cannot take in another’s

o   Conservation – the fact that two things are equal remain so if their appearance is altered, as long as nothing is added or taken away

o   Theory of Mind – the awareness of the broad range of human mental states – beliefs, intents, desires, dreams, and so forth – and the understanding that others have their own

§  Allows us to understand and predict the behavior of others and makes the social world understandable

Information-Processing Approach: Memory

o   Memory can be described as a filing system that has three steps:

1.       Encoding – putting information in the memory

2.      Storage – putting away in the filing cabinet where it is kept

3.      Retrieval – searching for the information and take it out of the memory system

o   Three types of Storage:

A.     Sensory Memory – temporary storage for incoming sensory information

B.     Working Memory – short-term storehouse for information a person is actively working on, trying to understand, remember, or think about

§  Located partly in the prefrontal cortex

C.     Long-Term Memory – storehouse of virtually unlimited capacity that holds information for long period of time

o   The central executive also retrieves information from LTM, assisted by:

1)      Phonological Loop – aids in the processing of verbal information

2)     Visuospatial Sketchpad – maintains and manipulates visual information

o   Executive Function – the conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or to solve problems

§  Enables children to plan and carry out goal-directed mental activity

o   Recognition – ability to identify something encountered before

o   Recall – ability to reproduce knowledge from memory

o   Generic Memory – begins at 2 years old, produces a script of a familiar, repeated event

o   Episodic Memory – refers to awareness of having experienced a particular event at a specific time and place (if repeated, it becomes generic memory)

o   Autobiographical memory – refers to memories of distinctive experiences that form a person’s life history

§  Generally emerges between ages 3 to 4

§  The more unique an event is, the more children remember it better

o   Attention – defined as the focusing of mental resources on select information

§  Executive Attention – involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, etc.

§  Sustained Attention – focused and extended engagement with an object, tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances

§  Preschool children are likely to pay attention to stimuli that stand out (salient)

§  Preschool children tend to use haphazard comparison strategy, not examining all of the details before making a judgement

Intelligence: Psychometric Approach and Lev Vygotsky

o   3-5 yr old children are more proficient with language than younger children

o   Two most commonly used individual tests for preschoolers are:

1.       Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales – used for ages 2 and up, taking 45 to 60 mins

§  Child is ask to define words, string beads, build blocks, etc.

§  Measure fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, etc.

2.      Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence – individual test taking 30 to 60 mins

§  Yields verbal, performance, and combined scores

§  Includes subtests designed to measure both verbal and nonverbal fluid reasoning, etc.

o   According to Vygotsky, children learn by internalizing the results of interactions with adults

o   Zone of Proximal Development – the imaginary psychological space between  what children can do or know by themselves and what they could do or know with help

§  Can be assessed by Dynamic Tests

§  Combined with Scaffolding – supportive assistance that a more sophisticated interaction partner provides, and ideally it should be aimed at ZPD

§  Takes a social constructivist approach (social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interaction)

Language

o   Fast Mapping – allows a child to pick up approximate meaning of a new word after hearing it only once or twice in conversation

§  Nouns are easier to fast map than verbs

o   Syntax – a concept and involves the rules for putting together sentences in a particular language

o   Pragmatics – practical knowledge of how to use language to communicate

o   Social Speech – speech intended to be understood by a listener

o   Private Speech – talking aloud to oneself with no intent to communicate with others (Egocentric Speech)

§  Immature (Piaget)

§  Learning Process (Vygotsky)

o   Emergent Literacy – development of fundamental skills that eventually lead to being able to read

§  Social interaction promotes emergent literacy

Early Childhood Education

o   Child-centered Kindergarten – emphasizes the education of the whole child and concern for his or her physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development

o   Montessori Method – based on the beliefs that children’s natural intelligence involves rational, spiritual, and empirical aspects

§  Children have given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities

o   Reggio Emilia Approach – less formal than Montessori; teachers follow children’s interest and support them in exploration

o   Developmentally Appropriate Practice – based on knowledge of the typical development of children within an age span as well as the uniqueness of the child

Psychosocial Development

Self

o   Self-Concept – our total picture of our abilities and traits

o   Children’s self-definition typically change between ages 5 and 7

o   At about 7, children will be able to describe themselves in terms of generalized traits

o   Self-Esteem – self-evaluative part of the self-concept, the judgement children make about their overall worth

§  Children’s self-esteem tends to be unidimensional (either good or bad)

§  Children whose self-esteem is contingent on success tend to become demoralized when they fail

§  Children with noncontingent self-esteem tend to attribute failure or disappointment to factors outside themselves or to the need to try harder

o   Emotional self-regulation helps children guide their behavior and adjust their responses to meet societal expectations

o   Emotion-Coaching Parents – monitor their children’s emotions, view negative emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labelling emotions, and coach them in how to deal effectively with emotions

o   Emotion-Dismissing Parents – view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions

o   Social Emotions – involve a comparison of one’s self or one’s actions to social standards

§  Guilt, shame and pride

§  Developed after they gain self-awareness and accept the standards of behavior their parents have set

o   Preschool children can do-and want to do-more and more. At the same time, they are learning that some of the things they want to do meet social approval, whereas others do not

o   Purpose – the courage to envision and pursue goals without being unduly inhibited by guilt or fear of punishment

o   Maladaptive Tendency: Ruthlessness – don’t care who they step in just to achieve their goals

o   Malignant Tendency: Inhibition – too much guilt to do anything so nothing would happen

Gender

o   Gender Identity – awareness of one’s femaleness or maleness and all it implies in one’s society of origin

o   Gender Differences – psychological or behavioral differences between males and females

o   Boys and girls do equally well on tasks involving basic mathematical skills and are equally capable of learning math but show variations in specific abilities

o   Gender Roles – behaviors, interests, attitudes, skills, and personality traits that a culture considers appropriate for males or females

o   Gender-typing – the acquisition of gender role

o   Gender Stereotypes – preconceived generalizations about male or female behavior

o   Gender differences were purely cultural inventions

o   Theory of Sexual Selection – the selection of sexual partners is a response to differing reproductive pressures early men and women confronted in the study for survival

o   Identification – adoption of characteristics, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of the parent of the same sex

o   According to Kohlberg, Children actively search for cues about gender in their social world

o   Gender Constancy – a child’s realization that his or her gender will always be the same

§  Gender Identity – awareness of one’s own gender and that of others, which typically occurs ages 2 and 3

§  Gender Stability – awareness that gender does not change

§  Gender Consistency – the realization that a girl remains a girl even if she has a short haircut and plays with trucks, typically occurs between ages 3 and 7

o   Gender-Schema Theory – it views children as actively extracting knowledge about gender from their environment before engaging in gender-typed behavior

§  Place more emphasis on the influence of culture

§  Children match their behavior to their culture’s view of what boys and girls are supposed to be and do

o   According to Walter Mischel, children acquire gender roles by imitating models and being rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior

o   Social Cognitive Theory – observation enables children to learn much about gender-typed behaviors before performing them

Play

o   Play is vitally important to development and has significant current and long-term functions

o   Enables children to engage with the world around them, use imagination, to discover flexible ways to use objects and solve problems, and to prepare for adult roles

o   Cognitive Levels of Play:

1.       Functional Play (Locomotor Play or Sensorimotor Play)– simplest level; begins during infancy, consisting of repeated practice in large muscular movements

2.      Constructive Play (Object Play or Practice Play) – use of objects or materials to make something

3.      Dramatic Play (Pretend Play, Fantasy Play, Imaginative Play) – involves imaginary objects, actions, or roles

o   6 Types of Play by Parten (1932)

a.      Unoccupied Behavior – child does not seem to be playing but watches anything of momentary interest

b.      Onlooker Behavior – child spends most time watching others play

c.      Solitary Independent Play – child plays alone

d.      Parallel Play – plays beside the other children independently

e.      Associative Play – children talk, borrow, and lend toys, follow each other around and play similarly

f.       Cooperative or Organized Supplementary Play – child plays in a group organized for some goal – to make something, play formal game, or dramatize a situation

o   Reticent Play – combination of Unoccupied and Onlooker categories is often a manifestation of shyness

o   Social Play – involves interaction with peers

o   Constructive play – combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation

o   Games – activities that children engage in for pleasure and that have rules

o   Sex Segregation is common among preschoolers and becomes more prevalent in middle childhood

o   Gender Segregation – a phenomenon wherein girls tend to select other girls as playmates, and so boys

Parenting

o   Discipline – refers to methods of molding character and of teaching self-control and acceptable behavior

o   External Reinforcements – may be tangible or intangible; it must be seen as rewarding and received fairly consistently after showing desired behavior

o   Internal Reinforcements – a sense of pleasure or accomplishment

o   Punishment, if consistent, immediate, and clearly tied to the offense, may be effective

§  Administered calmly, in private, and aimed at eliciting compliance not guilt

§  Effective when accompanied with short explanation

§  The desired behavior should be clear

§  Corporal Punishment – the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain but not injury for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior

o   Inductive Techniques – designed to encourage desirable behavior or discourage undesirable behavior by settling limits, demonstrating logical consequences of the action, explaining, discussing, etc.

§  To consider how her actions would affect others

o   Power  Assertion – intended to stop or discourage undesirable behavior through physical or verbal enforcement

o   Withdrawal of Love – include ignoring, isolating, or showing dislike for a child

o   Types of Child Maltreatment

1)      Physical Abuse – infliction of physical injury

2)     Child Neglect – failure to provide child’s basic needs

3)     Sexual Abuse

4)     Emotional Abuse – acts or omissions by parents or other caregivers that have caused or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, or emotional problems

o   Parenting Styles

a.      Authoritarian – emphasizes control and unquestioning obedience, high control, low responsiveness

b.      Permissive/Indulgent – make few demands, warm, noncontrolling, low control, high responsiveness

c.      Authoritative – emphasizes child’s individuality but also stress limits, high control, high responsiveness

d.      Neglectful or Uninvolved – parents neglect children; low control, low responsiveness

o   Altruism – motivation to help another person with no expectation of reward

o   Prosocial Behavior – voluntary, positive actions to help others

o   Instrumental Aggression – used aggression as a tool to gain access to a wanted object

§  Overt (Direct) Aggression – boys; tend to openly direct aggressive acts at a target

§  Relational Aggression – more subtle; indirect social aggression

Relationships with other children

o   The quality of siblings relationships tends to carry over to relationships with other children and the other way around

o   Only children are more motivated to achieve and to have slightly better self-esteem

Moral Development

o   Involves thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people

o   According to Freud, children attempts to reduce anxiety, avoid punishment, and maintain parental affection by identifying with parents and internalizing their standards of right and wrong, thus forming Superego

o   Piaget’s Moral Reasoning

1.       Heteronomous Morality – children think of justice and rules as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people

§  4-7 years of age

§  Consider its consequences, not its intentions

§  “law is law”

§  Immanent Justice – the concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will happen immediately

§  From 7-10 yrs old, children are in transition showing some features of the first stage of moral reasoning and some stages of the second

2.      Autonomous Morality – becomes aware with the rules and laws created by people, and in judging an action they consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences

§  10 yrs and older

§  Intentions are considered

o   Conscience – refers to an internal regulation of standards of right and wrong that involves integration of all three components of moral development

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