Between ages 2-4, children begin to construct an autobiographical self: they can recall past events in their own lives and begin to understand that they exist in time, with a past and a future, as well as a present

As their improving language skills allow an increasing exchange of ideas with family members and playmates, they gradually expand their sense of history to include other people whom they know well

Children’s knowledge of history on a broader scale emerges largely as a result of formal instruction beginning in elementary school

Concrete and Simplistic

Ex: they may conceptualize the birth of the United States as resulting from a single, specific event or as involving nothing more than constructing new buildings and towns

One source of difficulty for elementary school children is a limited ability to understand historical time

May refer to events that happened “a long, long time ago” or “in the old days” referring to events from 2005

Tend to lump historical events into two categories: those that happened very recently, and those that happened many years ago

Around age 10, children acquire some ability to put historical events in sequence and to attach them to particular time periods

Systematic history instruction usually begins in fourth or fifth grade

Although they have little personal knowledge to build on, they have the knowledge of human beings

Many history text books describe historical events very one sided, when in reality historians often don’t know exactly how each particular event happened

The idea that history is often as much a matter of perspective and opinion as it is a matter of fact is a fairly abstract notion that students may not be able to fully comprehend until late adolescence

Students can benefit from reading multiple accounts of events as early as fourth grade

Different cultural groups are likely to put their own “spin” on historical events

Many children and adolescents have an overly simplistic epistemological belief about geography as a discipline

By age 3 or 4, children have some ability to recognize relationships between simple graphics and the physical locations that the graphics represent

Their ability to use maps to navigate through unfamiliar territory remains limited until adolescence

When children in the early elementary grades look at larger-scale maps, they tend to take what they see somewhat literally

Ex: they may think that lines separating states and countries are actually painted on the earth or that an airport denoted by a picture of an airplane has only one plane

Young children have trouble maintaining a sense of scale and proportion when interpreting maps

Maps are a good example of cognitive tools

Ex: children whose families travel extensively tend to have greater appreciation of distance, more familiarity with diverse landscapes, and a better understanding of how maps are used

A major goal of any geography curriculum must be to foster an understanding of the symbolic nature of maps

As early as age 2, some children begin to represent their experiences on paper

Ex: making a series of dots to mimic how an animal hops

Begin to experiment with geometric figures, especially lines and circles

Age 3: shapes begin to include squares, rectangles, triangles, crosses, and Xs, and they soon begin combining such shapes to create pictures

Many early drawings are of people which may consist of a circle with a few facial features and four lines extending from it

Later, they add hair, hands, fingers, and feet

Around age 4, children begin to combine drawings of several objects to create pictures of groups or nature scenes

Initially they may scatter things all over the page, but eventually placement of objects on the page is somewhat consistent with everyday reality

The tendency to depict the sky as a separate entity at the top of the page is quite common in 5 and 6 year olds

In elementary school grades, children become capable of producing a wide variety of shapes and contours, and their drawings and paintings become more detailed, realistic, and appropriately proportional

By upper elementary grades, children represent depth in their drawings

Some children draw and paint very little once they reach adolescence, especially if art is not a regular part of the school curriculum, and so their artistic skills may progress very little beyond this point

Try to convey mood and emotion by selectively using various shapes, hues, and intensities of color

Mother’s lively songs help keep infants on an even keel, perking them up a bit if they seem low on energy but soothing them if they are overly aroused

Young infants can hear subtle differences in spoken languages that adults don’t hear and can pick up subtle changes in music

By age 2, children begin to repeat some of the song lyrics they hear

They soon add rhythmic structure and up-and-down “melody” of sorts

By the time they are 5 or 6, most can sing a recognizable tune and keep it within the same key and meter

Music literacy: the ability to read and understand musical notion

As early as age 4, children can, when asked, invent ways to represent musical sounds with objects

They can also invent strategies for representing music on paper

About 4% of children in any age-group have amusia (tone deafness)

The ability to produce music draws from both nature and nurture

Some children with autism have exceptional instrumental talent

Nature and Nurture (History and Geography)The bodies of knowledge and cognitive tools that children acquire in history and geography are the result of nurture, as provided by both formal instruction in school and informal experiences within the family (trips to historical sites, use of maps on subway systems, ect.) However, maturational processes may partly determine the age at which children become able to think about historical time and understand the symbolic nature of maps

Universality and Diversity (History and Geography) Because children’s knowledge of history and geography is largely the product of the environment and culture in which they have been raised, universal acquisitions have not been identified. In industrialized societies, history is formally taught in school, and maps are widely used to aid navigation. In other cultures, however, children’s knowledge of history comes from hearing stories from their elders, and people navigate largely by locating distinctive landmarks in the physical terrain

Qualitative and Quantitative Change (History and Geography)A good deal of development in history and geography is quantitative, in that children acquire more information about historical events and geographical locations. Qualitative changes are seen in how children think about history and geography. For example, with appropriate instruction children gradually begin to realize that knowledge of history is comprised not only of what did happen but also of varying perspectives of what might have happened. And as children gain proportional reasoning, they become better able to understand the various scales with which maps are constructed

Nature and Nurture (Art and Music)Hereditary and maturational factors play some role in artistic and musical development. In the preschool years, children’s ability to draw depends largely on maturation of fine motor skills. Furthermore, most children seem to have an inborn appreciation for music from birth. And some children show exceptional talent in art or music even without formal instruction. For the most part, however, development in art and music is the result of training and practice

Universality and Diversity (Art and Music)Virtually all cultures have some form of art and music. Artistic styles and musical patterns differ considerably from culture to culture, however, and the children’s development in these areas varies accordingly. For instance, although preschoolers’ drawings tend to be quite similar across cultures (ex: early drawings of people may consist of circles with rudimentary facial features and four lines extending outward to represent limbs,) by middle childhood their artwork begins to mimic the styles and images they see in their environment

Qualitative and Quantitative Change (Art and Music)Many qualitative changes are seen in art and music development. For example, with growth and experience, children’s drawings begin to address composition (ex: creating an organized scene rather than a random collection of objects,) perspective, and texture. And in the preschool years, their songs begin to reflect a consistent rhythm and key. Quantitative change is seen in such things as children’s increasing knowledge of musical notion and increasing automaticity in playing a musical instrument