Child Development

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Chapter 3

• Child Development

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Heredity

• Developmental Psychology The study of
  progressive changes in behavior and abilities
• Heredity (Nature) Transmission of physical and
  psychological characteristics from parents to
  their children through genes
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) Molecular structure,
  shaped like a double helix that contains coded
  genetic information

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Genes

• Genes Specific areas on a strand of DNA that
  carry hereditary information
• Dominant The genes feature will appear each
  time the gene is present
• Recessive The genes feature will appear only if
  it is paired with another recessive gene

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Fig. 3.1 This image, made with a scanning
electron microscope, shows several pairs of human
chromosomes. (Colors are artificial.)
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Fig. 3.2 (Top left) Linked molecules (organic
bases) make up the rungs on DNAs twisted
molecular ladder. The order of these molecules
serves as a code for genetic information. The
code provides a genetic blueprint that is unique
for each individual (except identical twins). The
drawing shows only a small section of a DNA
strand. An entire strand of DNA is composed of
billions of smaller molecules. (Bottom left) The
nucleus of each cell in the body contains
chromosomes made up of tightly wound coils of
DNA. (Dont be misled by the drawing Chromosomes
are microscopic in size and the chemical
molecules that make up DNA are even smaller.)
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Fig. 3.3 Gene patterns for children of
brown-eyed parents, where each parent has one
brown-eye gene and one blue-eye gene. Since the
brown-eye gene is dominant, 1 child in 4 will be
blue-eyed. Thus, there is a significant chance
that two brown-eyed parents will have a blue-eyed
child.
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Temperament and Environment

• Temperament The physical core of personality
  includes sensitivity, irritability,
  distractibility, and typical mood
• Easy Children 40 relaxed and agreeable
• Difficult Children 10 moody, intense, easily
  angered
• Slow-to-Warm-Up Children 15 restrained,
  unexpressive, shy
• Remaining Children Do not fit into any specific
  category

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Environment

• Environment (Nurture) All external conditions
  that affect a person and perhaps his/her
  development
• Sensitive Periods A period of increased
  sensitivity to environmental influences also, a
  time when certain events must occur for normal
  development to take place
• Congenital Problem A problem or defect that
  occurs during prenatal development birth
  defect
• Genetic Disorder Problem caused by inherited
  characteristics from parents e.g., cystic
  fibrosis

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Teratogens

• Anything capable of causing birth defects (e.g.,
  narcotics, radiation, cigarette smoke, lead, and
  cocaine)
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Caused by repeated
  heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
  Infants
• Have low birth weight, a small head, body
  defects, and facial malformations
• Lack Cupids Bow, the bow-shaped portion of the
  upper lip (look in the mirror to see)

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How to Minimize Prenatal Risks

• Maintain good nutrition during pregnancy
• Learn relaxation and stress reduction techniques
  to ease transition to motherhood
• Avoid teratogens and other harmful substances
• Get adequate exercise during pregnancy
• Obtain general education about pregnancy and
  childbirth

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Childbirth

• Medicated Birth Traditional mother is assisted
  by physician and given drugs for pain
• Prepared Childbirth Parents learn specific
  behavioral techniques to manage pain and
  facilitate labor. Lamaze method is most famous

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Deprivation and Enrichment

• Deprivation Lack of normal stimulation,
  nutrition, comfort, or love
• Enrichment When an environment is deliberately
  made more complex and intellectually stimulating
  and emotionally supportive

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CNN - Miscarriage Depression
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The Mozart Effect Real or Nonsense?

• Rauscher Shaw (1998) claimed that after college
  students listened to Mozart they scored higher on
  a spatial reasoning test
• Original experiment done with adults tells us
  nothing about infants
• What effect would listening to other styles of
  music have?
• Most researchers unable to duplicate the effect
• Conclusion Those who listened to Mozart were
  just more alert or in a better mood

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Newborns (Neonates) and Their Reflexes

• Grasping Reflex If an object is placed in the
  infants palm, shell grasp it automatically (all
  reflexes are automatic responses i.e., they come
  from nature, not nurture)
• Rooting Reflex Lightly touch the infants cheek
  and hell turn toward the object and attempt to
  nurse helps infant find nipple or food
• Sucking Reflex Touch an object or nipple to the
  infants mouth and shell make rhythmic sucking
  movements
• Moro Reflex If a babys position is abruptly
  changed or if he is startled by a loud noise, he
  will make a hugging motion

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Fig. 3.5 Infant imitation. In the top row of
photos, Andrew Meltzoff makes facial gestures at
an infant. The bottom row records the infants
responses. Videotapes of Meltzoff and of tested
infants helped ensure objectivity. (Photos
courtesy of Andrew N. Meltzoff.)
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Fig. 3.7 Motor development. Most infants follow
an orderly pattern of motor development. Although
the order in which children progress is similar,
there are large individual differences in the
ages at which each ability appears. The ages
listed are averages for American children. It is
not unusual for many of the skills to appear 1 or
2 months earlier than average or several months
later (Frankenberg Dodds, 1967 Harris
Liebert, 1991). Parents should not be alarmed if
a childs behavior differs some from the average.
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Maturation

• Definition Physical growth and development of
  the body, brain, and nervous system
• Increased muscular control occurs in patterns
  order of maturation is almost universal
• Cephalocaudal From head to toe
• Proximodistal From center of the body to the
  extremities

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Fig. 3.8 Psychologist Carolyn Rovee-Collier has
shown that babies as young as 3 months old can
learn to control their movements. In her
experiments, babies lie on their backs under a
colorful crib mobile. A ribbon is tied around the
babys ankle and connected to the mobile.
Whenever babies spontaneously kick their legs,
the mobile jiggles and rattles. Within a few
minutes, infants learn to kick faster. Their
reward for kicking is a chance to see the mobile
move (Hayne Rovee-Collier, 1995).
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Emotional and Social Development

• Basic Emotions Anger, fear, joy appear to be
  unlearned
• Social Smile Smiling elicited by social stimuli
  not exclusive to seeing parents
• Self-Awareness Awareness of oneself as a person
  can be tested by having infants look in a mirror
  and see if they recognize themselves
• Social Referencing Observing other people to get
  information or guidance

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Fig. 3.9 The traditional view of infancy holds
that emotions are rapidly differentiated from an
initial capacity for excitement. (After K.M.B.
Bridges, 1932. From Emotional Development in
Early Infancy. Reprinted by permission of the
Society for Research in Child Development.)
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Fig. 3.10 Infants display many of the same
emotional expressions as adults do. Carroll Izard
believes such expressions show that distinct
emotions appear within the first months of life.
Other theorists argue that specific emotions come
into focus more gradually, as an infants nervous
system matures. Either way, parents can expect to
see a full range of basic emotions by the end of
a babys first year. Over the first 2 years,
children become increasingly active in initiating
emotional exchanges with parents (Grolnick,
Cosgrove, Bridges, 1996).
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Imprinting (Lorenz)

• Definition Rapid, relatively permanent type of
  learning that occurs during a limited time period
  early in life
• Lorenz (an ethologist) studied natural behavior
  patterns of animals
• Hatched baby geese in an incubator when geese
  were born, first moving object they saw was
  Lorenz
• They followed him around and acted as though he
  were their mother!

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Mary Ainsworth and Attachment

• Separation Anxiety Crying and signs of fear when
  a child is left alone or is with a stranger
  generally appears around 8-12 months
• Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth)
• Secure Stable and positive emotional bond
• Insecure-Avoidant Anxious emotional bond
  tendency to avoid reunion with parent or
  caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent Anxious emotional bond
  desire to be with parent or caregiver and some
  resistance to being reunited with Mom
• Contact Comfort (Harlow) Pleasant and reassuring
  feeling babies get from touching something warm
  and soft, especially their mother

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Fig. 3.11 In the United States, about two thirds
of all children from middle-class families are
securely attached. About 1 child in 3 is
insecurely attached. (Percentages are
approximate. From Kaplan, 1998.)
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Fig. 3.12 An infant monkey clings to a
cloth-covered surrogate mother. Baby monkeys
becomes attached to the cloth contact-comfort
mother but not to a similar wire mother. This is
true even when the wire mother provides food.
Contact comfort may also underlie the tendency of
children to become attached to inanimate objects,
such as blankets or stuffed toys. However, a
study of 2- to 3-year-old blanket-attached
children found that they were no more insecure
than others (Passman, 1987). (So, maybe Linus is
okay after all.)
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Play and Social Skills

• Solitary Play When a child plays alone even when
  with other children
• Cooperative Play When two or more children must
  coordinate their actions
• Affectional Needs Needs for love and affection

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Optimal Caregiving

• Proactive Maternal Influences A mothers warm,
  educational interactions with her child
• Goodness of Fit (Chess Thomas) Degree to which
  parents and child have compatible temperaments
• Paternal Influences Sum of all effects a father
  has on his child

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Parenting Styles (Baumrind, 1991)

• Authoritarian Parents Enforce rigid rules and
  demand strict obedience to authority. Children
  tend to be self-absorbed as adults and have
  higher rates of drug abuse and violence
• Overly Permissive Give little guidance. Allow
  too much freedom, or dont hold children
  accountable for their actions. Children tend to
  be dependent and immature and frequently
  misbehave
• Authoritative Provide firm and consistent
  guidance combined with love and affection.
  Children tend to be competent, self-controlled,
  independent, and assertive

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CNN Brain Conference
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Types of Child Discipline

• Power Assertion Using physical punishment or a
  show of force, e.g., removing toys or privileges
• Withdrawal of Love Withholding affection
• Management Techniques Combine praise,
  recognition, approval, rules, and reasoning

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Spanking

• Gershoff (2002) Parents should minimize or avoid
  entirely
• No long-term damage if backed up by supportive
  parenting
• Frequent spanking leads to increased aggression
  and to an increase in behavioral problems

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Language Acquisition

• Cooing Repetition of vowel sounds by infants
  typically starts at 6-8 weeks
• Babbling Repetition of meaningless language
  sounds (e.g., babababa) uses consonants B, D, M,
  and G starts at 7 months
• Single-Word Stage The child says one word at a
  time
• Telegraphic Speech Two word sentences that
  communicate a single idea (e.g., Want cookie)

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Fig. 3.14 Mother-infant and father-infant
interactions. These graphs show what occurred on
routine days in a sample of 72 American homes.
The graph on the left records the total amount of
contact parents had with their babies, including
such a actions as taking to, touching, hugging,
or smiling a the infant. The graph on the right
shows the amount of care-giving (diapering,
washing, feeding, and so forth)done by each
parent. Note that in both cases mother-infant
interactions greatly exceed father-infant
interactions. (Adapted from Belsky et al., 1984)
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Noam Chomsky and the Roots of Language

• Biological Disposition Presumed readiness of ALL
  humans to learn certain skills such as how to use
  language
• Chomsky Language patterns are inborn
• Parentese (Motherese) Pattern of speech used
  when talking to infants
• Marked by raised voice short, simple sentences
  and repetition

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Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development

• Piaget believed that all children passed through
  a set series of stages during their cognitive
  development like Freud, he was a Stage Theorist
• Transformations Mentally changing the shape or
  form of a substance children younger than 6 or 7
  cannot do this
• Assimilation Application of existing mental
  patterns to new situations
• Accommodation Existing ideas are changed to
  accommodate new information or experiences

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Jean Piaget and the First Stage of Cognitive
Development

• Sensorimotor (0-2 Years) All sensory input and
  motor responses are coordinated most
  intellectual development here is nonverbal
• Object Permanence Concept that objects still
  exist when they are out of sight

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Jean Piaget and the Second Stage of Cognitive
Development

• Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years) Children begin
  to use language and think symbolically, BUT their
  thinking is still intuitive and egocentric
• Intuitive Makes little use of reasoning and
  logic
• Egocentric Child is unable to accommodate
  viewpoints of others

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Jean Piaget and the Third Stage of Cognitive
Development

• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11Years) Children
  become able to use concepts of time, space,
  volume, and number BUT in ways that remain
  simplified and concrete, not abstract
• Conservation Mass, weight, and volume remain
  unchanged when the shape of objects changes
• Reversibility of Thought Relationships involving
  equality or identity can be reversed

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Fig. 3.17 Children under age 7 intuitively assume
that a volume of liquid increases when it is
poured from a short, wide container into a
taller, thinner one. This boy thinks the tall
container holds more than the short one. Actually
each holds the same amount of liquid. Children
make such judgments based on the height of the
liquid, not its volume.
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Jean Piaget and the Last Stage of Cognitive
Development

• Formal Operations Stage (11 Years and Up)
  Thinking now includes abstract, theoretical, and
  hypothetical ideas
• Abstract Ideas Concepts and examples removed
  from specific examples and concrete situations
• Hypothetical Possibilities Suppositions,
  guesses, or projections

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Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

• Childrens cognitive development is heavily
  influenced by social and cultural factors
• Childrens thinking develops through dialogues
  with more capable people
• Zone of Proximal Development Range of tasks a
  child cannot master alone even though they are
  close to having the necessary mental skills they
  need guidance in order to complete the task
• Scaffolding Framework or temporary support.
  Adults help children learn how to think by
  scaffolding, or supporting, their attempts to
  solve a problem or to discover principles
• Scaffolding must be responsive to a childs needs

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Effective Parenting

• Have stable rules of conduct (consistency)
• Show mutual respect, love, encouragement, and
  shared enjoyment
• Have effective communication
• I-Message Tells children the effect their
  behavior had on you (Use this)
• You-Message Threats, name-calling, accusing,
  bossing, criticizing, or lecturing (Avoid this)

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Consequences

• Natural Consequences Effects that naturally
  follow a particular behavior intrinsic effects
• Logical Consequences Rational and reasonable
  effects

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How Has New Knowledge About Genetics Affected
Parenthood?

• Artificial Insemination Medically engineered
  conception.
• Sperm cells from an anonymous donor are used to
  impregnate a woman
• Test-Tube Babies Occurs through in vitro
  fertilization
• Fertilization of an ovum outside a womans body
• Used for infertile couples
• Child will share both mothers and fathers genes
• Human Genome Project A map of the entire set of
  human genes
• Genetic Counseling Examines family history of
  each future parent and thus calculates risk of a
  genetic disorder

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Fig.3.20 During in vitro fertilization, ova from
the woman or a donor are mixed with sperm from
the man or donor. In the advanced techniques
shown here, a sperm cell is placed inside an
ovum. If both the egg and sperm are donated,
both nominal parents are genetically unrelated to
the test-tube baby.
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How Has New Knowledge About Genetics Affected
Parenthood? (cont.)

• Amniocentesis Sample of amniotic fluid is taken
  from mothers womb can identify fetal sex and
  detect some genetic defects
• Usually done at 15th week of pregnancy
• Can detect Downs Syndrome
• Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) Performed
  between 6th and 8th week of pregnancy
• Small piece of placenta is taken for analysis

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The Future

• Eugenics Selective breeding for desirable
  characteristics
• Cloning Production of an entire organism from a
  single cell
• Not likely to happen for many years
• The Raels were a hoax

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