Transcript Slide 1

EXAM 2 LECTURE DISCUSSION
CHAPTERS 5, 6, 7 8
CHAPTER 5 LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
Physical and Cognitive
Development in Early
Childhood
• How does the Italian city of Reggio Emilio
approach educating young children ?
• Extra credit opportunity to use
in GEC activity.
What are some physical changes
occurring in early childhood?
• Physical growth is most obvious
• Percentage of increase in height and weight
decrease with each passing year
• By end of preschool years, lose top-heavy
appearance of toddlers
• Body fat percentage decreases
What are features of brain
development during preschool years?
• Continuing development of brain and nervous
system
• Changes -
• begin to plan actions, pay attention more
effectively
• Improve language and ability
• Dramatic anatomical changes in
• amount of brain cells in some areas of the
brain and
• not others
• Early childhood increases in prefrontal area of
brain-
• responsible for
• a)planning and organizing new actions
• b)maintaining and sustaining attention
• Continuing 2 changes:
• A)increase in number and size of dendrites
• B)myelination – covering of fat cells
• results in increased speed and efficiency of
information processing
What are features of motor
development in early childhood?
• Gross motor skills become more automatic
• By age 3, hopping, jumping, running and
exploring
• By age 4-5, more adventurous and exploratory
• Fine motor skills:
• age 3, can pick up very small objects
• age 4, fine motor coordination increases,
more precise
• age 5, interest in building actual structures
such as churches and houses
Describe features of developing
handedness in early childhood
• Begin to show preferences for using right or
left hand
• Genetic influence on preference
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Implications of handedness preferences:
Left preference results in
a)more reading problems;
2)better visual-spatial skills,
3)more common in mathematicians, artists
and musicians
What are important aspects of
nutrition in early childhood?
• Obesity in children:
• categories developed for childhood and
adolescence
• Defined in terms of body mass index (BMI)
• Obesity becoming more serious problem
How can parents prevent or remedy
obesity in preschool children?
• must view food as way to satisfy hunger and
nutritional needs
• avoid using food as proof of love or reward
for good behavior
What are some consequences of
malnutrition in early childhood?
• Poor nutrition mostly affects children from
low-income families
• Link to cognitive deficiencies, physical growth
and complex thinking skills
• associated with hyperactivity and aggressive
behavior
What are some issues associated with illness
and death among preschool children?
• In US, accidents leading cause of death in
young children
• Also cancer and cardiovascular
• Parents smoking is additional health hazard
for children
Discuss cognitive changes
occurring in early childhood
• Piaget’s preoperational stage (ages 2-7)
• Begin to represent the world in words, images,
and drawings
• Develop understanding and use of stable
concepts or abstract ideas
• Use reasoning skills
• Egocentrism and magical beliefs
• In preoperational stage, do not yet use
operations or reversible mental actions
• 2 sub-stages in preoperational stage
• Symbolic function (2-4 years)
• ability to represent objects not physically
present
• limitations:
• egocentrism – unable to distinguish your
perspective from that of someone else
• animism – believing inanimate objects have
lifelike qualities and are capable of action
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intuitive thought:
use primitive reasoning
want to know answers to questions
emerging interest in reasoning and problem
solving
• intuitive – child seems sure about knowledge
and unaware how they know
• Centration and limits of preoperational
thought
• pay more attention to a single obvious feature
of a situation and ignore others
• evidence of not understanding conservation
•  awareness that changing appearance of
objects does not change other qualities or
properties, such as number, volume or mass
• failure at liquid and beaker task indicates
• thinking at preoperational level (unable to
reverse action mentally) and
• centration (focus on single obvious feature)
• What is Vygotsky’s social constructivist
approach?
• may be completed for extra credit as
part of the GEC bonus activity
• Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development:
• range of tasks too difficult for child to master
alone
• can be learned with guidance of adults and
more skilled children
• zpd:
• lower level can be achieved by working
independently
• upper level - achieved with guidance and
skilled assistance
• scaffolding (part of Vygotsky’s approach):
• changing level of support
• adjusting guidance to fit current performance
Describe developing use of language and
thinking in early childhood
• child begins to -
• use speech to solve problems and complete
tasks
• use speech to plan, guide and monitor
actions,
• use private speech for self-regulation
• use language to communicate with others
before focusing inward with inner speech
• communicate externally as practice before
transition to internal speech (form of thinking
• What are 5 teaching strategies based on
Vygotsky’s theory?
• How would you evaluate Vygotsky’s theory,
comparing and contrasting it with Piaget’s
approach?
• may be completed for extra credit
as part of GEC bonus activity
Information Processing
• Attention – focusing cognitive resources
• 2 ways to develop attention skills
• 1)salient (obvious, easy to perceive) and
relevant (important to solve problem or
complete a task) dimensions
• 2)Planfulness – how systematic or haphazard a
child is when completing a complex task
• child’s ability to control attention related to
level of
• -achievement skills and
• -social skills
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Memory –
encoding information
retaining information over time
retrieving information when needed
• can distinguish implicit and explicit memory
• implicit – automatic and intuitive
• explicit – conscious and purposeful
• Short-term memory
• remembering information (5-9 items; 20-30
seconds without rehearsal)
• short-term memory span increases during
early childhood --
• how do we increase short-term memory skills
in early childhood?
• rehearsal
• increased speed and efficiency of thought
• increased accuracy of short-term memory
• what influences on increased accuracy of
short-term memory in early hood?
• type of post-event information and guidance
• misleading or incorrect information can affect
preschool child’s short-term memory
Describe preschool child’s theory
of mind
• awareness of one’s own mental processes and
those of others
• changes occur at identifiable age levels:
• 2-3
• 4-5
• 5+
• 2-3 years
• beginning to understand 3 mental states -
• 1)perceptions – realizes that another person
sees what is in front of her and not necessarily
what the child sees (Piaget’s mountain task)
• 2)emotions – can distinguish between positive
and negative emotions
• 3)desires – understands if someone wants
something, he will try to get it; usually refer to
desires earlier than cognitive states
• 4-5 years
• begin to understand mind can represent
objects, actions and events accurately or
inaccurately
• realize people can have false beliefs develops
at about 5 years
• 5+ years
• increasing appreciation of mind itself
• mid- to late childhood – begin to see mind as
active constructor of knowledge
• Show belief that same event can be
interpreted in different ways
Children see – Children do
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
What are features of language
development in early childhood?
• Understanding phonology and morphology
• phonology – sound system of language,
sounds used and how combined
• morphology – units of meaning involved in
forming words
• preschool children begin
• using plural and possessive language forms
• using prepositions, articles and different verb
forms
may be completed for extra credit
as part of GEC bonus activity
• Jean Berko’s famous study of how a child
begins to understand morphological rules
• What was Dr. Berko’s research approach?
• What were Dr. Berko’s results?
• What conclusions did Dr. Berko make as a
result of her research?
• What did Dr. Berko’s research demonstrate?
• - children rely on rules, abstracted from
what they hear and applied to new situations
• example of wugs
• Changes in syntax and semantics
• syntax – rules about how words are combined
to form acceptable phrases and sentences
• semantics – meaning of words and sentences
• syntax example:
• to use wh- questions, child must know 2
important differences between wh- questions
and affirmative statements
• 1)wh- word must be added at beginning of
sentences
• 2) auxiliary (helping) verb position must be
inverted or exchanged with that of subject
• Semantics changes – dramatic development in
vocabulary during preschool years
• Pragmatics changes – appropriate language
use in different situations,
• such as increasing ability to talk about events,
experiences or objects not at present location
and at present time
• What could an effective literacy program
(increasing reading, writing and other
language skills) for preschool children include?
• may use for extra credit as part of
GEC bonus activity
Describe 3 variations in early
childhood education
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1) Child-centered kindergarten:
nurturing is key aspect
emphasize education of whole child
instruction organized around child’s needs,
interests and learning styles
• emphasize learning process rather than
content
• honor 3 principles:
• a)child’s unique developmental pattern
• b)young children learn best by first-hand
experience
• c)play is important in total development
• 2) Montessori approach:
• children given freedom and allowed
spontaneity in choosing activities
• child allowed to move from one activity to
another spontaneously
• teachers act as guides
• teachers demonstrate ways to explore
curriculum materials
• teachers show how to perform intellectual
activities
• teachers offer help on request
• What are some criticisms of the Montessori
approach?
• may be completed for extra credit as
part of the GEC bonus activity
• 3) Education for children from low-income
families:
• example – Project Head Start
• compensatory program
• designed to provide children opportunity to
develop skills and experiences necessary for
school success
• studies show varying quality of Head Start
programs
• What do evaluations, comparisons and
contrasts of different Head Start programs
show?
• may be completed for extra credit as
part of GEC bonus activity
What are 2 cross-cultural variations in
approaching early childhood education?
• 1) Japanese kindergartens –
• specific aims such as early musical training
• use Montessori education methods
• less emphasis on academic instruction than
in US
• 2)early childhood education in developing
countries –
• examples from Jamaica, China, Thailand and
Kenya
• lack emphasis on educating whole child
• teacher-centered approach rather than
child-centered
•  structured settings allowing few choices
• Are there any questions about Chapter 5?
• Read Chapter 6 for our discussion next time
CHAPTER 6 – LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD
1. Describe Craig Lesley’s complicated early
emotional and social life
• May be completed for extra credit as
part of the GEC bonus
2. What is the initiative versus guilt psychosocial
stage proposed by Erik Erikson?
• Child understands she is a person of her own
• Identifies with parents
• Uses perceptual, motor, cognitive and
language skills to make things happen -
• High levels of energy permitting easily
forgetting failures
• Conscience controls initiative
• Consequences of conscience can lead to
feelings of guilt and low self-esteem
3. How do self-understanding and understanding
others develop in early childhood?
• Self-understanding = self-representation and
content of self-concept
• Preschoolers can distinguish themselves from
others on basis of physical and material
characteristics (what I look like and objects I
have)
• Preschoolers describe themselves in terms of
activities (what I do) -
• Hear others’ descriptions including
psychological traits and emotional terms
• Example: “I’m not scared, I’m always happy.”
• Expressions may be unrealistically positive
because lack distinction between desired
competence and actual competence
• Individual differences in social understanding
link to conversations with caregivers and
opportunities to observe others talking about
feelings
4. What are self-conscious
emotions?
• Emotional experiences in which child refers to
himself
• Shows awareness of himself as different from
others
• Examples: pride, shame, embarrassment
5. How do young children use emotion language
and understand emotion?
• 2-4 years – child shows increase in number of
terms used to describe emotion
• Begin to learn about causes and consequences
of feelings
• 4-5 years: show increased ability to reflect on
emotions
• Begin to understand that different people can
feel differently about same event or
experience
• Show more awareness of need to manage
own emotions to meet prevailing social
standards
6. What are emotion-coaching and
emotion-dismissing experiences?
• Parents can use emotion-coaching or
emotion-dismissing language and actions
• Difference relates to how parents (or
caregivers) talk to children or act toward
children concerning emotions, especially
negative emotions
• Emotion coaching:
• associated with monitoring child’s emotions
• Use negative emotional experiences as
teaching opportunities
• Help to label emotions
• Coach in dealing effectively with (negative)
emotions
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Emotional coaching:
More nurturing
Use more scaffolding and praise
Children who receive it are better able to
soothe their own negative emotions
• Interactions reflect less rejecting behavior
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Emotion dismissing:
Deny emotions
Ignore emotions
Attempt to change emotions
7. What is moral development?
• Developing thoughts, feelings and actions
about rules and conventions concerning what
people should do interactions with other
people
• Developing decision-making skills about
whether some choice is right or wrong
8. What are moral feelings, moral
reasoning and moral behavior?
• Moral feelings: associated with how you feel
about choices and actions related to the
difference between right and wrong
• Young children have limited capacity for
empathy
• Empathy develops after age 2
• Empathy requires perspective-taking
• 2-4 year old child begins to learn how to
identify a wide range or emotional states in
others
• 2-4 year olds learn to anticipate actions and
their consequences
• Experience more advanced moral
development (-what would mommy or
daddy say about bouncing on the bed?)
• Moral reasoning:
• How you think about moral choices
• Piaget’s conclusions:
• 4-7 years: stage 1 (heteronomous morality)
• Justice and rules are unchangeable world
properties, uncontrollable by people
• 7-10 years: stage 2 (autonomous morality)
• Transition stage; show characteristics of both
stage 1 and stage 2
• 10 years and older: stage 2; (autonomous
morality)
• Show awareness that rules and laws are
created by people
• When judging an action can consider a
person’s intentions as well as the
consequences of the action
• Believe punishment occurs only if there is a
witness to the action and even then is not
inevitable
• Younger children usually show stage 1
thinking, judging actions by consequences
• Believe rules are unchangeable and
determined by powerful authorities
• Believe in immanent justice - idea that if a
rule is broken, punishment will follow
immediately
• How does transition between stage 1 and
stage 2 occur?
• Piaget proposed we become more
sophisticated in social thinking as we get older
• Social understanding develops from mutual
give and take in peer interaction
• In groups interacting with peers -power and
status are similar
• Plans are negotiated and coordinated
• Disagreements settled using reasoning
• In parent-child interactions:
• Parents have more power and status than
children
• Rules likely communicated in an authoritarian
(or possibly authoritative) way
• Lawrence Kohlberg followed Piaget’s ideas
• Emphasized moral reasoning with give and
take in peer relationships
• Concluded children begin as heteronomous
thinkers and moralists,
• Deciding choice is right or wrong based on
consequences
• More on Kohlberg’s ideas in chapter 8
• Moral behavior
• Based on behavioral and social cognitive
approach
• Reinforcement, punishment and imitation
influence moral behavior
• If child is rewarded for behavior, likely to
repeat behavior
• Children likely to imitate models of moral
behavior
• If child is punished for inappropriate behavior,
behavior is likely reduced or eliminated
• Ability to resist temptation is tied to
developing self-control and delaying
gratification
• Believe punishment occurs only if there is a
witness to the action and even then is not
inevitable
• Younger children usually show stage 1
thinking, judging actions by consequences
• Gender
• Gender identity - sense of being male or
female
• Gender role- sets of expectations
prescribing how females and males think, act
and feel
• Social influences
• What are 3 main social theories of gender?
• (may be used for extra credit in GEC bonus)
• Parental influences
• Mother’s socialization strategies- emphasize
daughters obedience more so than sons
• Place more restrictions on daughter’s
independence of thought and behavior
• Father’s socialization strategies:
• More attention to son’s activities than
daughter’s
• Engage in more activities with sons than
daughters
• Show more effort to promote son’s
intellectual development
• Peer influences:
• Extensively reward and punish gender
behavior
• Emphasis on whether child behaves in sexappropriate way
• Greater pressure for males to act in sexappropriate way
• How does gender influence peer
relationships?
• Gender composition- by age 3 begin to
prefer same-sex playmates
• Increases in age range 4-12
• Group size - from 5+ boys tend to associate
in larger clusters than girls and participate in
more organized activities
• Interaction with same-sex groups:
• Boys more likely to engage in rough play than
girls (competition, conflict)
• Girls more likely to use collaboration and
cooperation
• What is gender schema theory and how does
it explain gender development?
• May be used for extra credit as part of GEC
bonus?
Families
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What are 4 parenting styles?
Authoritarian-
Restrictive and punishing
Children expected to follow directions and
respect parents
• Firm limits and controls on child behavior
• Little verbal exchange -
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Authoritarian - continued
May spank frequently
Enforce rules strictly without explanation
Demonstrate anger openly
• Authoritative-
• Encourage independence in children while
placing firm and flexible limits
• Extensive verbal give and take
• Show pleasure and support in response to
child’s constructive behavior
• Expect independent , age-appropriate
behavior
• Authoritative – continued -
• Children likely cheerful, self-controlled and
self-reliant
• Neglectful -
• Uninvolved in child’s life
• Children develop sense that other aspects of
parents’ lives more important
• Child tends to be socially incompetent
• May have poor self-control and not handle
independence well
• Neglectful – continued -
• Children frequently show low self-esteem and
immature behavior
• Children may be alienated from family
• Adolescent children may show truancy and
delinquency
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Indulgent parenting -
Parents highly involved in children’s lives
Place few demands or controls
Children rarely learn respect for others
Show difficulty controlling behavior
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Punishment-
Corporal (physical): spanking
Associated with -
higher levels of compliance
Increased aggression
Lower level of moral internalization
Lower level mental health
• Reasons for not spanking-
• Parents who spank or yell at children
demonstrate out-of-control behavior model
• Physical punishment can result in fear, rage or
avoidance
• Punishment tells what not to do
• Punishment can be abusive
• Using time-out as alternative briefly removes
child from setting and offers positive
reinforcement
• Co-parenting -
• Support offered in jointly raising a child
• Lack of effective co-parenting puts child at risk
for future problems:
• Poor coordination between parents,
• undermining other parent,
• lack of cooperation and warmth,
• disconnection by one parent
• Maltreating children-
• 4 main types:
• Physical abuse – inflicting physical injury
resulting from punching, beating, kicking,
biting, burning shaking
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Child neglect –
failure to provide for child’s basic needs;
can be physical (abandonment),
educational (allowing truancy),
emotional (lack of attention to basic needs)
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Sexual abuse –
Fondling genitals
Intercourse
Incest,
Rape
Sodomy
Exhibitionism
Commercial exploitation
• Emotional abuse• Includes psychological or verbal abuse and
mental injury
• Acts or omissions causing serious behavioral
cognitive or emotional problems
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Context of abuse –
Combination of factors:
Culture
Family
Developmental characteristics
Contribute to child maltreatment
• Extensive violence in American culture
reflected in family violence
• Contrast in Chinese culture
• Physical punishment rarely used and incidence
of child abuse is low
• Family key part of abuse context
• Includes all family members
Developmental consequences of
abuse
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Poor emotional control and regulation
Attachment problems
Peer relationship difficulties
Problems adjusting to school
Depression and delinquency
Difficulty establishing and maintaining healthy
adult relationships
Preventing child abuse
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Home visitation –
Emphasizing improved parenting
Coping with stress
Increased support for mother
• Parent-infant psychotherapy –
• Focuses on improving maternal-infant
attachment
Sibling relationships and birth
order
• What parents do when siblings have verbal or
physical confrontation
• Intervene and try to resolve conflict
• Admonish or threaten
• Do nothing
• If siblings 2-5, most likely do nothing
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Other sibling interactions –
Helping,
playing
sharing
teaching
3 important characteristics of sibling
relationships
• Emotional quality – intensive positive or
negative emotions expressed
• Familiarity and intimacy – provide support or
tease and undermine each other
• Variation – some more positive than others
How birth order affects
development in 2-5 year age range
• First born more likely to be adult-oriented,
helpful, conforming and self-controlled
• Excel academically and professionally
• Feels more guilt, anxiety and difficulty coping
with stress
• Only-children often achievement-oriented and
have desirable personality traits
How parent employment affects
development
• Can produce positive and negative effects
• Nature of employment important
• If poor working conditions (long hours, stress,
lack of autonomy) -
• Parents likely more irritable and show less
effective parenting
Effect of divorce on children in
early childhood
• If parents divorce, children likely show poorer
adjustment
• More likely to show academic problems
• More likely to act out, show delinquent
behavior, experience anxiety and depression
Effects of divorce - continued
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Less socially responsive
Less competent in intimate social relationships
More likely to be sexually active at earlier age
More likely to use recreational drugs
Show low self-esteem
Effects of divorce - continued
• Divorce can help if disruptive parental
relationship interferes with child’s well-being
• Divorce can hurt if decreased resources and
incompetent parenting results
Factors influencing individual
child’s response to divorce
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Adjustment level before divorce
Personality characteristics
Temperament
Gender
Custody situation
Better adjustment if socially mature and
responsible with easy temperament
Role of socioeconomic status in
effects of divorce
• Income loss affects custodial mothers more
negatively than custodial fathers
• Increased workload,
• Increased job instability
• Move to less desirable neighborhood
5 guidelines for communicating
with children about divorce
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Explain the separation
Emphasize separation is not child’s fault
Explain may take time to feel better
Keep door open for future discussion
Provide as much continuity as possible
Gay and lesbian parents
• Very greatly as to whether single or have
partners
• Many children of GL parents born from
heterosexual relationships that ended in
divorce
• Some children born as result of donor
insemination, surrogates or adoption
• Research indicates few differences when
comparing children of GL parents and
heterosexual parents
What do cross-cultural studies show about
developmental trends in early childhood development?
• Extra credit opportunity associated with GEC
bonus
Role of ethnicity and socioeconomic status in
developmental differences in early childhood
• Extra credit opportunity associated with GEC
bonus
Role of play in early childhood
development
• Functions of play –
• Psychodynamic view emphasizes mastering
anxiety and conflicts
• Play therapy allows working out frustration,
analyzing conflict and developing new ways to
cope
• Piaget’s view: play advances cognitive
development;
• cognitive level can restrict how child plays
• Play provides setting to practice using
cognitive structures (schemas)
• Vygotsky’s view:
• Play provides effective setting for cognitive
development
• Believed symbolic and make-believe play
advances creative thinking
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Berlyne’s view –
Play can be pleasurable and exciting in itself
Play satisfies exploratory and curiosity drives
Play allows safe exploration and seeking new
information
5 types of play
• (1)Sensorimotor and practice play –
• Sensorimotor usually limited to infancy
• Gives pleasure through exercising
sensorimotor schemes
• Begins at 4-6 months
• Practice play continues throughout life
• Repetition of behavior after new skills learned
• Supports physical or mental mastery and
coordinated skills required for games and
sports
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(2)Pretend and symbolic play –
Transforms physical environment into symbols
Appears between 9 and 30 months
Substitute certain objects for others
Act as if substituted objects are the actual or
real objects
• (3)Social play –
• Involves interaction with peers
• (4)Constructive play –
• Combines sensorimotor and practice play with
symbolic representation
• Self-regulated
• Creates a product or a solution
• Appears sometime in preschool years
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(5)Games –
Activities that give pleasure and have rules
May involve competition
May be social and involve reciprocity and
taking turns
Effects of television on early
childhood development
• Extra credit (GEC bonus) opportunity
CHAPTER 7
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN
MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD
Body Growth and Change during
Middle and Late Childhood
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Slow consistent growth
Grow 2-3 inches per year
Gain 5-7 lbs per year
Weigh gain mainly because of increased size
of skeletal and muscle systems
• Muscle mass and strength gradually increase
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN ML
CHILDHOOD
• Total brain volume stabilizes
• Significant changes in brain structures and
regions
• Especially nerves involving attention,
reasoning, and cognitive control
• Thickening of cerebral cortex in temporal and
frontal lobes, associated with language
• Shift from diffuse, large areas to focal smaller
areas
• Increased efficiency in cognitive control
affecting attention
• Reducing interfering thoughts
• Inhibiting some muscle responses
• Increased cognitive flexibility in switching
between mental and physical choices
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN ML
CHILDHOOD
• Muscle skills smoother and more coordinated
• Especially running, climbing, swimming,
bicycle riding
• Increased myelination continues, resulting in
better fine muscle coordination
• By age 10-12, manipulative skills similar to
those in adulthood
EXERCISE IN ML CHILDHOOD
• Need to be active
• Increased fatigue by sitting compared to
running, jumping and climbing
• Physical action necessary for refining muscle
skills
• Practical ways to increase exercise level:
• Improve school activities
• Offer more physical activity coordinated by
volunteers
• Have children plan school and community
activities interesting to them
• Encourage families to focus on shared physical
activities
ACCIDENTS AND INJURIES DURING
ML CHILDHOOD
• Injuries leading cause of death in MLC
• Most common: motor vehicle accidents
• Also injuries involving use of bicycles,
skateboards, and other sports equipment
• Most injuries occur near home or school
• Prevention: teach children about safe use of
equipment and hazards of taking risks
CANCER DURING ML CHILDHOOD
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Second leading cause of death in MLC
Mainly affect:
white blood cells,
brain, bones,
kidneys,
lymph system,
muscles and
nervous system
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IN ML
CHILDHOOD
• Uncommon in children
• Risk factors in childhood can lead to problems
in adult life
OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN ML
CHILDHOOD
• Defined in terms of BMI (body mass index)
• Includes relative proportion of fat tissue to
lean muscle tissue
• Obesity diagnosed if child is at 95th percentile
or higher
• At risk for obesity if at 85th percentile
• Girls more likely to be overweight than boys
• Obesity increases risk for medical and
psychological problems
• Causes of obesity:
• increased intake of high calorie, low nutrient
foods combined with
• Low level exercise
• Genetic factors also contribute
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
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Learning disabilities:
Definition- minimum IQ level
Significant difficulty in school-related area
Exclusion of severe emotional disorders, secondlanguage related background, sensory disabilities
and/or specific neurological problems
• More boys than girls diagnosed with learning
disabilities
• Explanation:
• Biological vulnerability
• Referral bias associated with troublesome
behavior
• Common problem in learning disability:
• Reading difficulty
• Also often difficulty with handwriting, spelling
or composition problems
• Dyslexia: characteristic of children with severe
impairment with reading and spelling
• Possible causes:
• Families with one or both parent having a
disability
• Environmental factors
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
• Symptoms:
• Inattention – difficulty focusing on any one
activity
• Hyperactivity – high levels of activity
• Impulsivity – inability to inhibit behavior when
requested to do so
• Different diagnoses:
• ADHD with predominantly inattention
• ADHD with predominantly
hyperactivity/impulsivity
• ADHD with both inattention and
hyperactivity/impulsivity
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No definite causes identified
Possible causes:
Low levels of certain neurotransmitters
Prenatal and postnatal abnormalities
Hereditary factors
• Treatment:
• Stimulant medication (Ritalin or Adderall)
which improves attention
• Combination of medication and behavioral
management
• Exercise may also help
• Educational issues:
• 1975- Public law 94-142 Education for All
Handicapped Children Act
• Required all students with disabilities be given
free, appropriate public education
• 1990- PL 94-142 changed to Individuals with
Disabilities Act (IDEA)
• IDEA- mandatory services for students with
all disabilities:
• Evaluation and eligibility determination
• Appropriate education
• Individualized education plan (IEP)-
• IEP:
• Written statement describing program
specifically tailored for student with
disabilities
• Associated with least restrictive environment
(LRE):
• Educational setting as similar as possible to
one used for students without disabilities
Cognitive changes in ML childhood
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Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory:
Concrete operational stage-
Approximately 7-11 years of age
Can perform concrete operations
Ability to reason logically if applied to speicif
or concrete examples
• Operations- mental actions that are
reversible
• Concrete operations- operations applied to
real objects and situations
• Conservation tasks (chapter 5) demonstrate
ability to complete concrete operations
• Example- conservation of volume using
beakers with liquid task
• By age 7-8, usually can see volume does not
change in beakers with liquid task
• Requires being able to mentally pour liquid
back into original container
• Concrete operations allow children to consider
several characteristics of a problem rather
than a single, obvious property
• Concrete operational thinking shows person
has ability to classify or group things or people
into different sets or subsets
• Family tree example (page 204)
• Other conservation-related beliefs:
• Seriation-ability to order objects along a
quantitative dimension such as length
• Transivity- ability to logically combine
relations and understand specific conclusions,
such as having 3 sticks of different lengths
(A,B,C)
• Does child understand if A>B and B>C, then
A>C?
EVALUATING PIAGET’S THEORY
• GEC ITEM POSSIBILITY
INFORMATION PROCESSING
• Memory-
• Short term memory does not improve much in
MLC
• Long term memory does increase in MLC,
reflecting increased knowledge and increased
use of cognitive strategies
• Knowledge and expertise-
• Most research compares expert and novice
performance
• Expert: extensive knowledge about particular
content area(s)
• Knowledge influences what person notices
and how organize, represent and interpret
information
• Level of expertise affects ability to remember,
reason and solve problems
• Novices: low level of expertise in a particular
area
• Expertise in particular content area associated
with improved memory in that area
• Cognitive strategies- deliberate mental
activities to improve information processing
• Long term memory depends on mental
processes used when acquiring and
remembering information
• 2 important strategies-
• Creating mental imagery:
• Mental imagery can help young school
children remember pictures
• Using mental imagery to improve memory for
verbal information more successful with older
students
• Elaborating on information-
• Involves more extensive processing of
information
• Makes information more meaningful
• Use changes developmentally such that
adolescents more likely to use elaboration
spontaneously
• Fuzzy trace theory:
• GEC possibility
• Memory best understood considering 2 types
of memory representations-
• Verbatim memory trace – specific details
• Gist – central idea of information
THINKING
• Manipulating and transforming information in
memory
• 2 types: critical and creative
• Critical thinking-
• Evaluating evidence
• Contributes to deep understanding of
concepts and ability to rethink previously held
ideas
• Schools may overemphasize finding one
correct answer, compared to finding new
ideas
• Perhaps-
• Too much reciting, defining, describing,
stating, listing
• Not enough inferring, connecting,
synthesizing, criticizing, creating, evaluating,
thinking and rethinking
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Creative thinking-
Think in novel and unusual ways
Find unique solutions to problems
Distinguishes convergent and divergent
thinking
• Convergent produces one correct answer
• Divergent produces many different answers
any or all of which may be correct
• Strategies for increasing children’s creative
thinking-
• Provide children with environment that
stimulates creativity
• Provide exercises and activities encouraging to
find insightful solutions
• Avoid excessive controlling, such as
evaluations requiring one correct answer
• Allow children to select their own interests
• Encourage internal motivation
• Remember that excessive use of prizes and
gold stars can inhibit creative thinking
• Avoid undermining intrinsic pleasure in
activities
• Introduce children to creative people
• Invite creative guests to describe what helps
them be creative
• Ask children to engage in brainstorming, a
problem solving technique in which children
generate creative ideas in a group without
criticizing
• Metacognition-
• Awareness of you or others know
• Increased focus on metamemory or
knowledge about memory
• Metamemory:
• Includes
• general knowledge (recognition easier than
recall)
• Personal knowledge (knowing about own
memory)
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Young school children know about memory:
Familiar items easier to learn than unfamiliar
Short lists easier than long lists
Recognition easier than recall
Forgetting likely occurs over time
• Young school children’s memory limitations:
• Don’t realize related items easier to
remember than unrelated ones
• May not know remembering gist is easier than
remembering verbatim details
• May have inflated beliefs about personal
memory
• Knowledge about cognitive strategies:
• Skilled thinkers routinely use strategies and
effective planning in learning
• Know when and where to use strategies
INTELLIGENCE
• Involves problem solving skills
• Requires ability to learn from and adapt to life
experiences
• Research often focuses on individual
differences (stable and consistent ways people
are different and
• assessment
• Binet tests-
• Binet and associates devised way to identify
children needing special help in school
• Developed concept of mental age (MA) or
level of mental development relative to others
your age
• William Stern developed concept of IQ-
• Mental age/chronological age x 100
• American version of Binet test – Stanford
Binet incorporated idea of IQ
• Wechsler Scales -
• Developed in 1940’s
• Provide overall IQ, verbal IQ and performance
IQ
• Allow creating profile describing cognitive
strengths and weaknesses
• Example items page 211
Types of intelligence-
• Sternberg’s triarchic theory:
• Intelligence in 3 forms
• Analytical intelligence – analyze, judge,
evaluate
• Creative intelligence – create, design, invent,
originate novel ideas
• Practical intelligence – using, applying
implementing ideas
• Children with different triarchic patterns have
different levels of success in school
• Those with high analytic intelligence often
perform better on many school tasks
• Gardner’s eight frames of mind or types of
intelligence
• Verbal – thinking in words and use language to
express meaning
• Mathematical – carry out math operations
• Spatial – think 3-dimensionally
• Body-kinesthetic – manipulate objects and be
physically adept
• Musical – sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm
and tone
• Interpersonal – understand and interact
effectively with other people
• Intrapersonal – understand oneself and your
limitations and strengths
• Naturalist - observe patterns in nature and
understand natural and human-made systems
• Evaluating multiple intelligence approach –
GEC possibility
• Culture and intelligence – GEC possibility
• Interpreting differences in intelligence-
• Genetics:
• Heritability: part of variation in population
attributed to genetic factors
• Heritability index expressed using correlation
techniques
• High heritability = .70+
• Flaws in using heritability index – GEC
possibility
• Environmental influences-
• Difference in how parents in welfare-level and
middle-income families communicate with
young children (ML>WL parents)
• School influence on intelligence:
• Strongest influence when large groups of
children deprived of education for long
periods of time, resulting in lower level of
measured intelligence
• Rapid increase in average IQ comparing test
scores from early 20th century to late 20th
century
• Higher average IQ scores in later part of 20th
century
• Why?
• Possibly because of higher average education
level and higher exposure to information
• Concern for improving early environment of
children at risk for lower level intelligence
• Many low-income families have problems
providing intellectually stimulating
experiences for their children
• Research conclusions-
• High quality child care center based
interventions result in higher level measured
intelligence
• Intervention most successful with children
from families with low income and low level
education
• Positive benefits continue into adolescence
• Programs continuing into MLC have most
success
• Group differences in intelligence – GEC
possibility
• Culture-fair tests of intelligence – GEC
possibility
• Using intelligence-
• Avoid stereotyping and expectations
• Consider IQ scores a measure of current
performance
• Realize IQ is not ultimate human value
• Use caution in interpreting overall IQ score
• Usually best to consider intelligence as several
domains rather than one general ability
• Extremes of intelligence-
• Mental retardation = limited mental activity
associated with low IQ (<70) with difficulties
in adaptive living skills
• Several categories:
• Mild – can live independently and work at
variety of jobs
• Moderate – attain 2nd grade skill level and
perform labor-type jobs
• Severe – can learn to talk and accomplish
simple tasks
• Profound – require constant supervision
• Causes of mental retardation-
• Organic retardation caused by genetic
disorder or brain damage
• Cultural/familial retardation – no evidence of
organic brain damage or disease; often history
of growing up in a background of below
average intellectual environment
• Giftedness-
• Above average IQ test performance and/or
show superior talent in some area(s)
• 3 criteria for giftedness:
• Precocity – master area of content or skill
earlier than those their age
• March to own drummer – learn in
qualitatively different way; need minimum
assistance or scaffolding
• Passion to master – motivated to understand
domain of high ability; intense obsessive
interest and ability to focus
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
• Children in MLC begin to categorize
vocabulary in terms of parts of speech –
younger say “eat…lunch”; older children say
“eat…drink”
• Advances in grammar – improves with
increased logical reasoning and analytical skills
• Use and understand more complex language
sentence constructions-
• Use language in more connected way
• Relating sentences to produce definitions and
descriptions
• Metalinguistic awareness – knowledge about
language, such as what a preposition is or how
to discuss different sounds
• Allows improvement in pragmatics, using
language in culturally appropriate way
• Reading -
• Requires using language to talk about things
not present
• Recognize sounds and talk about them
• Helps to have strong vocabulary skills
• 2 approaches to teaching reading-
• Whole-language approach –
• Stresses instruction should parallel natural
language learning
• Children taught to recognize whole words and
sometimes whole sentences
• Use context to guess meaning
• Reading connected to listening and writing
skills
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Phonics approach –
Reading instruction emphasizes basic rules
Early phonics uses simplified materials
After learning rules of language, then given
more complex materials
BILINGUALISM AND SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING
• Children learn second language easier than
adolescents and adults
• Ability to speak language with native accent
decreases significantly after age 10-12
• If fluent in 2 languages, perform better in
tasks:
• Controlling attention
• Forming concepts
• Analytical reasoning
• Cognitive flexibility
• Cognitive complexity
• What are issues associated with bilingual
education?
• GEC possibility