Child Development

3 Domains of Development(3 ways humans change over time):

  1. Physical: Walking, crawling, riding a bike, etc.

  2. Cognitive: Change in thinking, problem solving, language (NOT THE BRAIN)

  3. Social and Emotional: Changes in emotions, controlling those emotions; relationships, self-perceptions (how we see and feel about ourselves and other people)

(Questions: What are the 3 domains of development? Define each domain. Give an example of each domain.)

When talking about the brain, we are talking about physical development

Stages of Development:

  • Prenatal Development: Conception-Birth

  • Infancy & ToddlerhoodL Brith-2 years old (Development is learned from senses such as touching, e.g., babies put things in their mouth; it’s critical and attachment - doesn’t have to be with a mother or father.)

  • Early Childhood: 3-5 years old (Their imaginations are out of the charts.)

  • Middle Childhood: 6-11 years old (Big focas in academics; self esteme increses and interests in friends increase dramatically)

  • Adolescents/Teens: 12 years old-adulthood (It appears that they shut down, but it has to do with significant rewiring in their brains and taking a lot of risks.)


5 Principles of Development:

  • Life-long = Early experiences affect later development. Attachment matters for the rest of your life. (e.g a teen learning skills to deal with anxiety will help them all of life.)

  • Multi-Directional = Gains in some areas, losses in others. Development isn’t just growing up and up. It can be declining as well, such as imagination and self-esteem. Things fluxuate

  • Multi-Dimensional = Changes across domains; a change in one domain can affect others. (e.g, a child learning to ride a bike, but if they crash, that affects their self-esteem. If they did it successfully, they can now go to friends and now develop new relationships)

Principles of Development cont.

  • Plasticity: Traits and abilities CAN change with support or new experiences. Children are not doomed if something happened to them; it can take only one person to help support a child so they thrive.)

  • Multi-Contextual: Both nature & nurture work together.

    • Nature is genes, and nurture is the environment around you. BOTH MATTER


Neuropsychology Example:

  • New mothers’ response to crying babies.

    • If their own infant was crying, the red area was activated

    • If they heard someone else’s baby crying, the blue area was activated

  • These mothers was geneticially connected to their babies’ cry


How does screen time affect children’s attention and learning? - How would we study how screen time affects children’s attention and learning?

Seven Research Methodologies: What are they & how are they different?

Type of Method

Definition

Strength

Weakness

Surveys:

Standard questions

Easy analysis

Response bias

Experiments:

Manipulating situations to tests hypotheses

Cause and effect

Design difficulty

Observational:

Natural setting

Descriptive, actual behaviors

No causation

Case Study:

Single participant/situation

Investigate unusual situations

Not generalizable

Longitdinal:

Same participants over time

Tracks changes over time

Time-consuming; drop-out

Cross-sectional:

Different age participants at one point in time

Compares age-related differences quickly & effeciently

Cannot track individual changes over time or control for cohort effects

Sequential

Longitudinal + Cross-sectional: multiple age groups over time

Can separate age-realated changes from cohort effects

More complex and resource-intensive than either design alone

Theories of Development:

  1. Piaget’s Cognitive Development

  2. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

  3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

  4. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory - Freud’s theories are controversial.

  5. Skinner’s Behaviorist Theory

  6. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

  7. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model