Early Childhood Development Vocabulary

Early Childhood (Chapter 5)

Development of Independence

• From physical care to self-care & social compliance.

• Erikson's stages:

  • Autonomy vs. Doubt: 2-3 years (toddler stage).

  • Initiative vs. Guilt: 3-5 years (preschool stage).

Comparison: 1 & 4 Year Old Children

• One-year-old:

  • Goal is to master mobility.

  • Imitates sounds.

  • Manipulates physical world to learn.

  • Sense of self begins, connected to parents.

• Four-year-old:

  • Mobility is used for exploration and independence.

  • Masters spoken language, communicates thoughts.

  • Uses mental symbols.

  • Pursues relationships separate from parent.

Biophysical Dimension

• Girls develop gross and fine motor skills slightly before boys.

• Gross motor skills: running, jumping.

• Fine motor skills: building towers, zippers.

Biophysical Strengths & Hazards

• Strengths:

  • Nutrition: 1 in 3 children are obese before age 5 (above the 85th percentile on BMI).

  • Create family goals.

  • Physical play.

• Hazards:

  • Asthma.

Psychological Dimension: Cognitive Development

• Piaget: Pre-operational stage

  1. Symbolic Function (2-4 years):

     • Can mentally represent objects (e.g., playing house).

  2. Egocentrism:

     • Cannot distinguish others' perspectives from their own.

     • The Three Mountain Problem illustrates this.

Psychological Dimension: Intuitive Thought

• Intuitive Thought (4-7 years):

  • Primitive reasoning but not formal logic (e.g., 'how' and 'why' questions).

  • Conservation problems: Cannot understand that properties of an object remain the same even though aspects of the object change.

• Information Processing:

  • Learning to attend to relevant information.

  • Memory: Problems of storage rather than retrieval.

  • Infantile amnesia: No memory before age 3.

Psychological Dimension: Communication

• Comprehension before language.

• 3 years: Can talk about people/objects not present (vocabulary of about 900 words).

• 6 years: Vocabulary between 8,000 and 14,000 words.

• Universal grammar:

  • Structural facets of language, ground rules are innate; child’s mind is not a ‘blank slate.’

  • Individual languages are single pattern variations.

• Language development appears to be encouraged by the frequency and type of responses that adult speakers verbalize to children.

• Bilingualism does not cause speech or language problems; in fact, it may have cognitive advantages in the long term.

• Language disorder occurs in 3-5% of children; half will outgrow the problem.

Communication: Progression of Language Development

• First words appear around 9-12 months.

• Vocabulary spurt occurs around 18 months.

• Use of sentences begins around 21-24 months.

Psychological Dimension: Attitudes, Emotions & Regulation

• Emotional regulation.

• Emotional coaching: Process by which a parent or caregiver assists a child in recognizing his emotions and then uses the experience as a way for the child to learn about himself and to problem-solve.

• Five steps:

  1. Become aware of the child’s emotion.

  2. Recognize the emotion as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching.

  3. Listen empathically, validating the child’s feelings.

  4. Help the child find words to label the emotion he is having.

  5. Set limits while exploring strategies to solve the problem at hand.

Psychological Dimension: Fears

• Greater imagination with symbolic thought.

• Night terrors: Hold in emotions when awake.

• Preschoolers are at greatest risk following a disaster/loss.

• The Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) (Foa et al, 2001). For example, “Having feelings in your body when you think about or hear about the event (for example, feeling scared, angry, sad, guilty).”

Psychological Dimension: Aggression and Sharing

• Aggression peaks at age 4; it is a way of asserting themselves; hazardous substances during pregnancy increase risk.

• Temper tantrums are almost nonexistent after age 4.

• 2-3 year olds react aggressively to parents who have set limits, versus older children act aggressively to peer conflict.

• Young children use aggression to get something they want like a toy, versus older children use verbal aggression to hurt another.

• Sharing: By 4 years old, children have empathic sharing, but motivated as a means of getting their way.

Psychological Dimension: Parenting Styles

• Authoritative:

  • High in warmth, sets boundaries.

  • Disciplines through guidance, open communication.

• Authoritarian:

  • Strict, inflexible, high expectations.

  • Punishes rather than disciplines.

• Permissive:

  • Nurturing, affectionate, few or inconsistent boundaries.

  • Takes the role of 'friend' rather than 'parent'.

• Uninvolved:

  • Emotionally detached, self-absorbed.

  • Inconsistent or no boundaries, little interaction.

Psychological Dimension: Strategies

• Modeling.

• Cognitive Strategies.

• Positive Reinforcement.

• Skills Practice.

• Teaching children social skills.

Psychological Strengths & Hazards: Disorders

• Disorders fall into 3 categories:

  • Developmental delays: Slowed rate of skill acquisition (e.g., speech, toilet training).

  • Developmental disorders: Disruption in the performance of skills (e.g., ADD, autism).

  • Developmental psychopathology: Healthy adaptation is impeded (e.g., anxiety).

Psychological Strengths & Hazards: Specific Disorders

• ADHD:

  • Persistent inattention and/or hyperactivity.

  • Most common childhood behavioral disorder, affecting 11% of children aged 4-17.

  • Most effective treatment is a combination of medication and behavior management.

• Autism:

  • Pervasive difficulties in social communication and interaction across multiple settings that impairs functioning.

  • Screening can be used as early as 18 months.

  • More than half of children with autism do not speak.

Social Dimension: Parenting Styles (Elaborated)

• Parents are the primary social context.

• Authoritarian: Restrictive, punitive style; low in warmth.

  • Consequences: social and cognitive capabilities average, vulnerable to stress.

• Authoritative: Negotiation; high in warmth.

  • Consequences: high social and cognitive capabilities, self-reliant.

• Permissive: Lax control; maybe very involved (indulgent) or uninvolved (neglectful).

  • Consequences: poor social and cognitive capabilities, low self-control.

Parenting in Low SES Families

• These parents tend to be more authoritarian in their child-raising practices.

• Does this make lower-income parents less desirable or effective?

• They may be facing more stress.

• Many mothers are young and may not have received adequate prenatal care; thus, babies are more difficult to care for.

• Parents may feel that authoritarian parenting is necessary to protect their children from a tough environment.

Parenting in Nontraditional Families

• Children raised by same-sex parents show no psychological or adjustment differences from children raised in ‘traditional’ families.

• Critical differences:

  • Less support from extended family members.

  • Experience greater stress.

• What impacts a child the most is:

  • Quality of the parent-child relationship.

  • Relationship between the two parents.

Parenting: Core Parenting Practices

• Playing with your children

• Encouraging your children to play

• Being consistent in the approaches you use with your children

• Using established routines for your children around meals, play, and sleep times

• Setting clear limits for your children

• Being physically active and eating healthily with your children

• Reading to your children

• Counting with your children

• Being attentive to your children and responding to their needs

• Spending time talking and listening to your children

Social Dimension: Play

• Play: good learning environment, sex-typed behavior/toys; father/mother play vs. peer play.

• Play Behavior (Parten, 1932):

  • Unoccupied play

  • Solitary play

  • Onlooker play

  • Parallel play

  • Associative play → typical 5 years old

  • Cooperative play → typical 5 years old

Incidence of Child Abuse & Neglect

• Maltreatment of children: physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, educational neglect, and psychological abuse.

• In 2000, 1 million children (12 out of 1,000) were victims of maltreatment.

• 52% of boys and 48% of girls were victims of child maltreatment.

• Youngest children (<3 years old) have the highest rate of abuse.

• Two-thirds of perpetrators were parents.

Prevalence & Types of Child Abuse & Neglect

• Neglect: 62.8%

• Physical Abuse: 19.3%

• Sexual Abuse: 10.1%

• Psychological Maltreatment: 7.7%

Risk Factors Associated with Child Abuse & Neglect

• Parent or caregiver factors:

  • Personality and psychological well-being

  • History of child abuse/neglect

  • Substance abuse

  • Age

• Family Factors:

  • Family structure

  • Marital conflict and domestic violence

  • Stress

  • Parent-child interaction

• Child Factors:

  • Age

  • Disabilities

• Environmental Factors:

  • Poverty

  • Unemployment

  • Social isolation

  • Lack of social support

  • Violent communities