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7Prenatal Development And

BirthPhysical and Cognitive Development in Early

ChildhoodThis multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:

• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or part, of any images;• any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

• Changes in height and weight happen slowly during early childhood.– Child adds about 2 – 3 inches and 6 pounds

• Steady progress in major locomotor skills

• Manipulative skills improve.– Follows a developmental trend regardless of

training

Growth and Motor Development


• Lateralization

– Growth of the Corpus Callosum

– Helps create functional specialization of left and right hemispheres

The Brain and Nervous System


• Myelinization

– Reticular formation • Regulates attention and concentration

– Hippocampus • Accounts for improvements in memory functions

across the preschool years



• Handedness– 83% right-handed– 14% left-handed– 3% ambidextrous

– Appears very early in life– Research suggests a genetic link.



• Eating patterns– Often eat less than when babies

– Food aversions surface

– Eating behaviors bring on family conflicts

– May not consume the majority of daily calories at mealtime

Health and Wellness


• Illnesses and Accidents– Each year, 4 – 6 bouts of sickness

– High levels of family stress are more likely to produce sick children.

– 25% of children under 5 have one accident requiring medical treatment in U.S.

Health and Wellness


• Child abuse – Physical or psychological injury that results from an

adult’s intentional exposure of a child to potentially harmful stimuli, sexual acts, or neglect.

– Highest incidence between ages of 2 and 9

– Between 1% and 5% of children suffer physical abuse.

– 2000 infants and children die each year as the result of child abuse.

Abuse and Neglect


• Risk factors– Socio-cultural factors

• Personal or cultural values that regard physical abuse as morally acceptable

• Arise from cultural traditions of children as property

• Living in communities that support these beliefs increases abuse.

Abuse and Neglect


• Risk factors– Characteristics of the child

• Physical or mental disabilities• Difficult temperaments

– Characteristics of the abuser• Depressed• Lacking in parenting skills and knowledge• History of abuse themselves• Substance abusers• Live-in male partners whose children are not theirs

Abuse and Neglect


• Risk factors– Family stress

• Poverty• Unemployment• Interparental conflicts

– The presence of several factors increases the likelihood of abuse.

Abuse and Neglect


• Consequences of Abuse– Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

– Delays in all domains of development

• Children removed from the abusive situation appear to catch up.

Abuse and Neglect


Preventing abuse begins with education!

• Information to parents

• Discipline classes

• Identification of families at risk

• Protection of children from further injury

Abuse and Neglect


• Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

– Increased proficiency in the use of symbols

– Still have difficulty thinking logically

– Centration • Child’s tendency to think of the world in terms of

one variable at a time

Cognitive Changes


• Egocentrism– The child’s tendency to look at things from his

own perspective

– May lead to frustration in communication

– Three-mountain task – Figure 7.4

Cognitive Changes


Figure 7.4


• Piaget’s Preoperational Stage– Animism

• The belief that inanimate objects are alive

– Irreversibility• The inability to mentally reverse actions or ideas

– Inability to solve conservation tasks• See Figure 7.5

Cognitive Changes


• Children as young as 2 and 3 appear to have at least some ability to understand that another person sees things or experiences things differently than they do.

• Flavell’s perspective-taking ability– Level One – the child knows that other people experience things

differently. Begins at 2 – 3 years.

– Level Two – the child develops a whole series of complex rules for figuring out precisely what the other person sees or experiences. Begins at 4 – 5 years.

Challenges to Piaget’s Views


• Appearance and Reality– Older children understand the same object

can be represented differently, depending on point of view.

– False Belief Principle• Children can look at a problem from another’s point

of view and discern what information causes a person to believe something that isn’t true.

Challenges to Piaget’s Views


• Understanding thoughts, desires, and beliefs– 18 months – rudimentary beginnings

– Age 3 – some aspects of link between people’s thinking, feelings, and behavior

– Age 4 – basic principle that each person’s actions are based on her or his representation of reality

Theories of Mind


• 4 – 5 year olds– Cannot understand that other people can think about

them.

– Do not understand that most knowledge can be derived from inference. This understanding develops by age 6.

• 5 – 7 year olds– Understand the reciprocal nature of thought

Theories of Mind


• Influences on Development of a Theory of Mind

– Correlated with performance on Piaget’s tasks

– Pretend play

– Shared pretense with other children

– Discussion of emotion-provoking events with parents

– Language skills

– Children with disabilities

Theories of Mind


• Neo-Piagetian Theories– Robbie Case

• Short-term storage space (STSS)– Refers to child’s working memory

• Operational efficiency– Limited number of schemes to which a child can attend– Improves through practice and brain maturation

• Matrix Classification– Requires the child to place a given stimulus in two

categories at the same time

Alternative Theories of Early Childhood Thinking


Figure 7.6


• Information Processing Theories– Metamemory

• Knowledge about and control of memory processes.

– 2 – 6 year olds have poor strategies for memory

– Metacognition• Knowledge about and control of thought processes

– Enables the child to generate strategies to solve problems



• Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory– Stages of Cognitive Development

• Primitive stage– Infant possesses mental processes similar to animals.

• Naïve psychology stage– Learns to use language to communicate but does not understand

symbols.

• Private Speech stage– Uses language as a guide to solve problems.– Becomes internalized by 6-7.

• Ingrowth stage– Logical thinking results from internalization of speech acquired from

children and adults in a social world.



• Fast-mapping

– Ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents

– Rapidly form a hypothesis about a new word’s meaning

Changes in Language


• Inflections– Additions that change meaning– Earliest inflection in English is the addition of –ing: “Where

going?”

• Questions and Negatives– Use a particular set of rules

• Overregularization– Using rules when they don’t apply

• Complex sentences– Use conjunctions to combine two ideas or using imbedded

clauses

Grammar Explosion


• A child’s sensitivity to the sound patterns that are specific to a language

• Awareness of sounds being represented by letters

– Can be learned in school through instruction

– The greater a child’s phonological awareness, the faster he/she learns to read.

– Primarily develops through word play• Nursery rhymes• Games involving repetitive words• Invented spelling – attempting to write

Phonological Awareness


Figure 7.7


• Measuring Intelligence– Alfred Binet

• Identify children who might have difficulty in school

– Lewis Terman• Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

– Mental age/chronological age x 100 = IQ– 2/3 of children exhibit an IQ between 85 and 115

– Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC IV)• Ten different problems

– Verbal scale– Performance scale

Differences in Intelligence


Figure 7.8


• Stability and Predictive Value of IQ Scores– Correlation between an IQ score and future grades is

about .50 – .60.

– Consistent with social classes and racial groups

– IQ scores are quite stable.

– IQ tests do not measure underlying competence.

Differences in Intelligence


• Heredity– Twin and adoption studies show the strong influence of heredity.– Roughly half the variation in IQ within a population is due to heredity.

• Family Influences– Adoption studies also provide support for environmental influences.

• Children adopted in higher social class homes had higher IQ scores.

– Parents of higher social class provide interesting and complex learning environments.

• Play areas and toys• Warm and appropriate responses to behavior• Quick in answering questions• Talk to children often• Avoid being excessively restrictive, punitive, or controlling

Origins of Individual Differences in Intelligence


• Preschool Influences– Formal education programs help.– Head Start aids poor children and supports intellectual

development.

• Provide intellectual stimulation

• Help children to acquire new vocabulary.

• Children show a gain of about 10 IQ points.

• Long term impact on children– Less likely to be placed in special education, repeat a grade– More likely to graduate from high school

Origins of Individual Differences in Intelligence


• Chinese and Japanese children– Consistently demonstrate higher performance on achievement

tests

• African American children consistently score lower than white children.– Maybe as low as 10 points

– Falls within the reaction range of scores that are possible with different environments

– May reflect poverty differences

– Mixed-race adoptions studies support environmental influence

– Cultural differences in schools may increase effect

Racial Differences in Intelligence Test Scores


• Piaget sees the child as the little scientist who works on her own to discover knowledge. Vygotsky suggests children learn from skilled social partners in a social setting. Which theory describes children the best? Why?

• What makes Head Start a successful program?

Questions to Ponder

http://www.ablongman.com/bee4e Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

7Prenatal Development And

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This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or part, of any images;• any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

http:// © allyn & bacon 2006 7 prenatal development and birth physical and cognitive...

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