4A33 Explain Development in Early Childhood

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4A33 Explain Development in Early Childhood

• Review Com Pac.
• Review greensheet.
• Review slides covering SLO 1.

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S L O 1

• Discuss Physical Development

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What are some of the general physical changes of
early childhood?

• GROWTH IN BODY SIZE
• (Children become longer and leaner.)
• IMPROVED MOTOR COORDINATION
• (Movements become refined and include climbing,
  jumping, galloping, and skipping.)
• REFINEMENTS IN PERCEPTION (Gains are evidenced in
  fine motor skills.)
• (Berk, 4th ed. p. 294)

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Body Proportions

• Look again at the photo on page 294 (288 of the
  5th ed.) of your text.
• It is clear that the statement following the
  photo is true.
• During early childhood, body fat declines, the
  torso enlarges to better accommodate the internal
  organs, and the spine straightens. (Berk, 4th,
  p.294)

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Skeletal Growth

• 45 epiphyses emerge Growth centers in which
  cartilage hardens into bone.(Berk, 295)
• Primary or baby teeth will begin to loosen and
  fall out around the ages of 5 6 years.
• -This age can be delayed by environmental
  influences such as malnutrition.(Berk, 296)
• Growth Curves See figure 8.3 (8.2 in 5th ed.).
  This graph simply represents that the systems of
  the body mature at different rates.
• (Berk, 4th, p. 297)

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Other Changes

• Between ages 2 and 6, the brain increases from
  70 90 percent of its adult weight.
• Preschoolers improve in a wide variety of
  skills-physical coordination, perception,
  attention, memory, language, logical thinking,
  and imagination.
• Measures of neural activity in various cortical
  regions reveal especially rapid growth from 3 to
  6 years in frontal-lobe areas devoted to
  attention and to planning and organizing
  behavior.
• (Berk, 5th ed., p. 290 291)

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Brain Development

• Several terms are used which should be defined
  and explained in order to assist your
  understanding of the material.
• These include Neuron
• Synapse
• Myelinate
• Plasticity
• Synaptic Pruning
• Lateralization
• Handedness
• http//xnet.rrc.mb.ca/eceworkplace/

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The Neuron

• Cell body
• Dendrites
• Axon
• Axon terminals
• Back to terms
• Back to myelin
• (Retrieved from http//www.pfizer.com/brain/etour2
  .html on October 24, 2005.)

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Synapse

• The gaps between neurons, across which chemical
  messages are sent.
• (Berk, G-11)
• Back to terms
• Read more about synapses

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Observe an animation of a synapse in action
Retrieved from http//www.gpc.edu/bbrown/psyc1501
/brain/synapses.htm on October 24, 2005.)
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Myelinate

• A process in which neural fibers are coated with
  an insulating fatty sheath (called myelin) that
  improves the efficiency of message transfer.
• (Berk, G-7) Click to see myelin
• Back to terms

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Plasticity

• Ability for the brain to reorganize itself,
  especially in response to stimuli, experience,
  etc.
• (BCS 260)
• In children there are an overabundance of
  synapses (that) serve identical functions,
  helping to ensure that the child will acquire
  certain abilities even if some areas are
  damaged.
• (Berk, 297)
• Back to terms
• (See Science of ECD clip on Plasticity.)

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Synaptic Pruning

• Loss of connective fibers by seldom-stimulated
  neurons, thereby returning them to an uncommitted
  state so they can support the development of
  future skills.
• (Berk, G-11)
• Back to terms

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Lateralization

• Specialization of functions of the two
  hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.
• (Berk, G-7)

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Why does lateralization relate to cognitive
development?

• There are differences in the rate of development
  of the two hemispheresof the cerebral cortex.
• Examples given
• Language skills (left cortex) increase rapidly
  during early childhood.
• Spatial skills (right cortex) develop gradually
  over childhood and adolescence.
• (Berk, 297-298)

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What behavior might you expect in relation to
lateralization during early childhood?

• Increased control over behavior due to language
  skills.
• A gradual increase over childhood and adolescence
  in the ability to find ones way from place to
  place, draw pictures, and recognize geometric
  shapes.
• Strengthening of hand preference.
• (Berk, 298)
• Back to terms

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Handedness

• A strong hand preference to carry out skilled
  motor action.
• This results from the greater capacity of one
  side of the brain (known as the dominant cerebral
  hemisphere)
• (Berk, 298)
• Back to terms

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Other areas of the brain that demonstrate growth
in early childhood include

• Cerebellum - balance and body control
• Reticular Formation - alertness and consciousness
• Corpus Callosum connects two cortical
  hemispheres, ensures smooth coordination
• (Berk, 5th ed., p. 293)
• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/3d/

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Factors that affect overall growth and health

• Heredity and Hormones
• Emotional Well-Being
• Sleep Habits and Problems
• Nutrition
• Infectious Disease
• Childhood Injuries
• (Berk, 4th ed., pp. 300 309)

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Heredity and Hormones

• Childrens physical size and rate of growth are
  related to their parents.
• -This is related to hormone production and in
  particular GH and to a lesser degree T-SH.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p. 300) Back to factors.

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Emotional Well-Being

• Stressful home lives have been linked to
  preschoolers with more respiratory and intestinal
  illnesses and unintentional injuries.
• Extreme emotional deprivation can interfere with
  the production of GH and lead to deprivation
  dwarfism.(Berk, 4th ed., p. 300)
• The 5th ed. of Berk calls this psychosocial
  dwarfism.
• Back to factors.

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Sleep Habits and Problems

• Sleep contributes to body growth, since GH is
  released during the childs sleeping hours.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p. 302)
• Back to factors.

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Nutrition

• Preschoolers require the same foods that make up
  a healthy adult dietonly smaller amounts.
• Examples
• Iron (prevents anemia)
• Calcium (supports the development of bones and
  teeth.)
• Vitamin A (helps maintain eyes, skin, and some
  internal organs.)
• Vitamin C (facilitates iron absorption and wound
  healing.)
• (Berk,4th ed., p. 302) Back to factors.

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Infectious Disease

• Disease and Malnutrition are very related.
• In industrialized nations, childhood diseases
  have declined dramatically during the past
  half-century, largely due to widespread
  immunization of infants and young children.
• (Berk, 4th ed. p. 304) Back to factors.

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Childhood Injuries

• Unintentional injuriesare the leading cause of
  childhood mortality in industrialized nations.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p.307) Back to factors.

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Motor Development

• An explosion of new motor skills occurs in early
  childhoodchildren integrate previously acquired
  skills into more complex, dynamic systems of
  action.
• (Berk, 5th ed., p. 304)

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Gross motor development

• As childrens bodies become more streamlined and
  less top heavybalance improves greatly.
• Being more balanced allows children to
  experiment with locomotion (running, jumping,
  hopping, galloping, skipping) and more refined
  actions such as throwing and catching balls,
  steering tricycles and swinging on bars.
• By the end of the preschool years, all skills
  are performed with greater speed and endurance.
• (Berk, 5th ed., p. 304)

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Fine Motor Development

• Two areas where fine motor progress is most
  apparent include self-help skills and in
  drawing/writing.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p. 312)

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Typically drawing progresses through the
following sequence

• Scribbles
• First representational forms
• More realistic drawings.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p. 313)

See this website http//www.learningdesign.com/Po
rtfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html
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The ability to draw will be affected by

• The level of fine motor control
• The cognitive abilities to realize that pictures
  can be symbols and gains in planning skills and
  spatial understanding
• Exposure to pictorial images.
• (Berk, 4th ed., p. 313)
• See 5th ed. figure 8.10 p. 309 to see variations
  in 3-yr-old grip of a pencil.

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How can adults assist preschoolers to develop
gross and fine motor skills?

• Children master the motor skills of early
  childhood naturally, as part of their everyday
  play.
• (Berk, 5th ed., p. 310)

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Information from Beaty. Skills for preschool
teachers. 6th ed. Chapter 4.

• All children pass through the same sequence of
  stages in their physical growth, but some do it
  more quickly or evenly than others. Since
  individual children in a single classroom will be
  at many different levels of physical development,
  the teacher should determine at the outset each
  childs physical capacities in order to provide
  appropriate activities to promote this growth.
• (p. 86)

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• View this video for more on preschool physical
  development.
• Homework
• Use readings to complete information sheet 1 pp.
  6 - 7 compac.
• Complete Berk readings for SLOs 2 3.