Transcript Chapter 3 Tools for Exploring the World

Chapter 7:
Early Childhood:
Physical & Cognitive
Development
Growth Patterns:
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Growth rate slows during the preschool
years.
Height: 2-3 inches/yr
Weight: 4-6 lbs./yr
Children become more slender as they
get taller and lose baby fat.
Boys generally become slightly taller
and heavier than girls.
Brain Development:
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By 2: 75% of adult weight
By 5: 90% of adult weight
This growth due to continued
myelinization.
Myelinization of the corpus
collosum allows integration of
logical and emotional
functioning
Brain shows plascticity
What is Brain Plasticity?
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The brain’s ability to compensate for
injuries to particular parts of the brain
Plasticity greatest at 1 to 2 years of age;
preschoolers with damage to language
areas can overcome them due to plasticity
Sprouting (growth of new dendrites) may
contribute to brain’s plasticity; redundancy
of neural connections may also contribute
Brain Plasticity (a real
example!)
Gross Motor Development:
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Movement which involves the large muscles
used in locomotion.
As nervous system matures, movements
become more precise and coordinated.
Boys and girls are similar in motor skills:
Girls slight advantage in: balance and precision
Boys slight advantage in: throwing and kicking
Gross Motor Development,
Cont.
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Rough and tumble
play: Running,
chasing, hitting
w/open hand,
laughing, making
faces.
Helps develop
physical and social
skills.
Q: Is rough and tumble play
the same as aggression?
 No!
 What is aggressive
behavior?
Hitting, pushing, taking,
grabbing, angry looks.
(Rough and tumble play
helps develop physical
and social skills in
children; aggression
does not)
Physical Activity:
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Preschoolers spend an average of 25 hours a
week in large muscle activity; decreases as
child ages
The more physically active the parent, the more
physically active the child
Twin studies suggest heredity component of
activity
Fine Motor Development:
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Fine motor skills include control of wrists and
fingers; develop slowly and lag behind gross
motor skills; consist of buttoning, tying
shoelaces, stacking blocks
Handedness:
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Handedness emerges during infancy; by 7 to 11
months preference for particular hand increases;
by age 4 clear preference for handedness.
Left-handedness associated with dyslexia,
stuttering, high blood pressure, epilepsy,
schizophrenia and depression; ALSO associated
with higher math ability, success in athletics,
success in musical fields, architectural fields and
the arts
Heredity contributes to handedness
Nutrition
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4 to 6 year olds need 1,400 calories a day; 1 to
3 year olds need 1,000 to 1,300
Appetite becomes erratic during 2nd and 3rd year
of life
Children are often fed too much salt and sugar
Food preferences are somewhat environmental
Repeated exposure to a food increases the liking
of it; parents are the role model for which types
of food a child will like to eat
Preoperational Stage
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Lasts from age 2 to age 7
Characterized by the use of symbols to
represent objects and relationships among
them.
Language ability greatest symbolic activity
during this stage; scribbling/drawing
begins at start of this stage
Symbolism is also expressed as symbolic or
pretend play.
The Preoperational Stage is
Characterized by:
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1.
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3.
4.
5.
Symbolic play
Egocentrism
Precausal thinking
Conservation
Appearance as reality.
1. Symbolic “Pretend” Play
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Engaged in from 15 months of age; increases in
complexity as child ages
Requires cognitive sophistication because it requires
child to use and recollect symbols (things he has
learned about or experienced)
First engage in pretend play at:
12-13 mo: Perform familiar activities (feed self)
15-20 mo: Feed a doll (shift focus from self to others)
30 mo: Doll is feeding self
Older preschooler: comb doll hair, have a teaparty, help
doll drink it, etc.
2.Egocentrism:
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Children do not
understand that
others do not see the
world as they do.
One dimensional
thinking
Measured by the
three mountains test.
3. Precausal Thinking:
Reasoning about events that is egocentric and
not based on science.
Exhibited 3 ways:
1. Transductive reasoning: reasoning by going
from one specific isolated event to another
2. Animism: attribution of life and intentions to
inanimate objects
3. Artificialism: assumes environmental factors
such as rain and thunder have been designed
and made by people
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4. Conservation:
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Preoperational age children can only focus on
one dimension at a time, called Centration.
Conservation — law that holds that
properties of substances such as volume,
mass and number remain the same even if
you change their shape or arrangement
The preoperational child has not mastered
“reversibility”
5. Appearance as Reality:
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Appearance-reality distinction —
understanding the difference between
real events and mental events
A belief that an objects appearance tells
you what the object is really like.
Class Inclusion:
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Including new objects or categories in
broader mental classes or categories;
requires child to focus on two aspects
of a situation at once; this skill not
observed during preoperational stage
Class Inclusion Example:
Q: Are there more dogs, or animals?
What are the 3 Factors That
Influence a Child’s Cognitive
Development?
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Scaffolding — temporary support provided by a
parent or teacher to learning children; guidance
by adult decreases as child is capable of carrying
out task on their own.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD) — the
gap between what children are capable of doing
alone and what they could do with help from
others; adults or older children help in guiding by
gearing assistance to children’s capabilities
What are the 3 Factors That
Influence a Child’s Cognitive
Development?, cont.
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Inner Speech: At first children’s
thoughts are spoken out loud, which
serves to regulate her behavior.
Gradually the thoughts become
internalized, which is the ultimate binding
of language and thought.
Effects of Early Childhood
Education:
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Preschool education enables
children to get an early start on
achievement in school
Higher the SES, the greater the
performance of standardized
intelligence tests, because of this,
preschool programs such as Head
Start began in 1960’s
Environmental enrichment as well
as parent education can enhance
cognitive development of
economically disadvantaged
Development of Memory:
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By age 4 children can remember events
from 1 1/2 years earlier
Young children form scripts when
describing what happens during a
particular event; the script becomes more
elaborate as it is told
Autobiographical memory (episodic
memory) — memory for specific events is
facilitated by children talking about them
with others.
What are the Factors That
Influence Memory?
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Order: Children remember events that
follow a logical order more easily
Interest: Children remember according to
what interested them
Cues from others: Younger children depend
on older children or parent for cues to help
them retrieve their memories
Know!
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 Parental interest and questioning
increases preschooler’s memory.
Language Development:
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Preschoolers learn an average of 9
new words a day.
Word learning does not occur
gradually.
Fast-mapping — process where
child quickly attaches a new
word to its appropriate concept
Development of Grammar:
Children’s sentence structure increases during
3rd year of life, due to a grammar explosion.
Including:
 Articles (a, an, the)
 Conjunctions (and, but, but, or)
 Possessive adjectives (your, her)
 Pronouns (she, him, one)
 Prepositions (in, on, over, around, under,
through)
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Grammar, cont.
Overregularization — children acquire
grammatical rules as they learn language;
young ages apply rules rigidly even in
cases where there are exceptions.
Ex:
“Mommy sitted down”
“The sheeps I seed at the farm”
“The childs I saw at the park”
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Asking Questions:
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First question tend to be telegraphic and
characterized by a rising pitch.
After 3 certain Wh questions (what, who,
where) appear earlier than others (why,
when, which, how)
Later the child will add the verbs is, did,
and will to indicate whether the question
concerns the present, past or future.
Pragmatics:
Practical application of language;
children demonstrate pragmatics when
they adjust speech to fit the social
situation
“Social language”
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