Development Through the Lifespan

1
Physical and Cognitive Development inEarly
Childhood
2
Physical Development in Early Childhood

• Body Growth Slows
• Shape becomes more streamlined
• Skeletal Growth Continues
• New growth centers
• Lose baby teeth
• Asynchronies
• Brain, lymph nodes grow fastest

3
Influences on Physical Growth and Health

• Heredity and Hormones
• Growth hormone
• Thyroid-stimulating hormone
• Emotional Well-Being
• Psychosocial dwarfism
• Nutrition
• Infectious Disease
• Malnutrition
• Immunization
• Childhood Injuries

4
Eating in Early Childhood

• Appetite decreases
• Vary meal to meal
• Wariness of new foods is adaptive
• Need high-quality diet
• Limit fats, oils, salt, and sugar

5
Infectious Disease and Malnutrition

• Poor diet suppresses immune system
• Illness reduces appetite
• Diarrhea a danger

6
Immunizations

• Many American children lack full set
• Cost
• Schedules
• Misconceptions
• about vaccines

7
Factors Related to Childhood Injuries

• Gender and temperament
• Poverty, low parental education
• Births to teenagers not ready for parenthood
• Shortage of high-quality child care
• Societal conditions
• International differences

8
Motor Skill Development in Early Childhood

• Gross Motor Skills
• Balance improves
• Gait smooth and rhythmic by age 2
• Upper- and lower-body skills combine into more
  refined actions by age 5
• Greater speed and endurance
• Fine Motor Skills
• Self-help dressing, eating
• Drawing

9
Progression of Drawing Skills

• Scribbles during 2nd year
• First Representational Forms
• Label already-made drawings around age 3
• Draw boundaries and people
• 34 years
• More Realistic Drawings preschool to school age
• Early Printing Ages 35

10
Individual Differences in Motor Skills

• Genetics
• Size, shape
• Gender
• Practice
• Caregiver encouragement

11
Piagets Preoperational Stage

• Ages 2 to 7
• Gains in mental representation
• Make-believe Play
• Symbol-Real World Relations
• Limitations in thinking
• Egocentrism
• Conservation
• Hierarchical Classification

12
Early ChildhoodDevelopment of Make-Believe
With age, make-believe gradually becomes

• More detached from real life conditions
• Less self-centered
• More complex
• Sociodramatic Play

13
Benefits of Make-Believe Play

• Practice representational schemes
• Reflect on thinking, control behavior, and take
  anothers perspective
• Gain in social, language, and literacy skills
• Improve attention, memory, and logical reasoning
• Strengthen imagination and creativity

14
Egocentrism

• Failure to distinguish others views from ones
  own

15
Animistic Thinking

• Belief that inanimate objects have lifelike
  qualities

16
Educational Principles Derived from Piagets
Theory

• Discovery learning
• Sensitivity to childrens readiness to learn

• Developmentally appropriate practices
• Acceptance of individual differences

17
Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory and Early
Childhood

• Private Speech
• Zone of Proximal Development

18
Childrens Private Speech

• Piaget called this egocentric speech
• Vygotsky viewed as foundation for all higher
  cognitive processes
• Helps guide behavior
• Used more when tasks are difficult,
• after errors, or when confused
• Gradually becomes more silent

19
Zone of Proximal Development

• Scaffolding supports childrens learning
• Assisted discovery and peer collaboration also
  help children learn

20
Vygotsky and Education

• Assisted Discovery
• Teacher
• Guides learning
• Tailors help to
• Zone of Proximal
• Development
• Peer Collaboration

21
Vygotsky and Make-Believe Play

• Provides Zone of Proximal Development
• Imaginary substitutions help children separate
  thinking from objects
• Rules strengthen capacity to think before acting

22
Individual Differences in Early Childhood Mental
Development

• Factors Contributing to Individual Differences
• Home environment
• Quality of child care, preschool
• or kindergarten
• Child-centered versus academic
• Early intervention programs
• Television
• Educational TV

23
Features of a High-Quality Home Environment

• Stimulation
• Toys, games, reading
• Language
• Academic
• Physical organization
• Pride, affection, warmth
• Social modeling
• Variety
• No physical punishment

24
Types of Preschool

• Child-Centered
• Children select from wide variety of activities
• Learn through play

• Academic
• Teachers structure learning
• Formal lessons
• Letter, numbers, colors, shapes
• Repetition and drill

25
Benefits of High-Quality Preschool
26
Dangers and Benefits of TV

• Dangers
• Aggression
• Ethnic, gender stereotypes
• Consumerism
• Time away from other activities

• Potential Benefits
• Learning, make-believe play
• Educational shows
• Slow, easy stories
• Prosocial behavior

27
Learning with Computers

• Word processing
• Can support emergent literacy
• Games
• Practice basic skills

• Programming languages
• Problem solving, metacognition, collaboration