Chapter Eight

1
Chapter Eight

• The Play Years
• Biosocial Development

2
Body and Brain

• Young childrens body and brain develop according
  to powerful epigenetic forces
• Biologically driven
• Socially guided

3
Body Shape and Growth Rates

• Lower body lengthens
• child becomes slimmer
• Steady increase in height and weight
• 3 inches in height per year
• 4 1/2 pounds in weight per year

4
Genes and Ethnic and Cultural Differences

• Genetic background prepares child to be
  experience-expectant
• Cultural patterns and differences guide
  development
• Most influential factors
• genes, health, nutrition
• Other influencing factors
• sex, birth order, geography

5
Eating Habits

• Food should be nutritious
• isnt alwaysoften far from ideal
• enough caloriesnot enough vitamins and
  mineralsmajor nutritional problems are
• iron-deficiency anemia
• too much sugar
• too much fat
• not enough fruits and vegetables

6
Brain Development

• Underlies rapidly expanding cognitive abilities
• by age 2, 75 of brain weight achieved
• by age 5, 90 of brain weight achieved
• pruning of dendrites has occurred

7
Speed of Thought

• Myelinationprocess by which axons become
  insulated with a coating of myelin, a fatty
  substance that speeds transmission of nerve
  impulses
• thoughts follow each other fast enough for
  children to perform one task after another
• fast processing essential for fast and complex
  communication
• experience affects rate of myelination

8
Connecting the Brains Hemispheres

• Corpus callosumnerve fibers that connect the two
  halves of the brain

9
Connecting the Brains Hemispheres, cont.
10
Connecting the Brains Hemispheres, cont.

• Left Side, Right Side
• lateralizationspecialization of the two sides of
  the brain
• left brain
• logical analysis, language, speech
• right brain
• visual and artistic skills
• Coping with Brain Damage

11
Planning and Analyzing

• Prefrontal cortex (or frontal lobe) is the final
  part of the human brain to reach maturity
• the area in the very front of the brain that is
  least developed in nonhumans
• mid-adolescence
• maturation occurs gradually and incomplete until
  advances at about age 3 or 4 make possible
  impulse control and formal education

12
Planning and Analyzing, cont.

• Perseverationthe tendency to persevere, to stick
  to a thought or action long after it is time to
  move on
• occurs normally in young childrenanother aspect
  of immature self- control

13
Educational Implications of Brain Development

• By age 6, children are ready for formal
  instruction
• before, brain not sufficiently developed in ways
  it needs to be, but now child can
• sit still for more than an hour
• scan a page of print
• balance sides of body
• draw and write with one hand
• listen and think before talking
• remember important facts
• control emotions

14
Educational Implications of Brain Development,
cont.

• The brain provides the foundation for education
• any impediments to normal growth of the brain can
  put academic achievement on shaky ground

15
Motor Skills and Avoidable Injuries

• Brain development allows for greater coordination
  and impulse control
• Physical maturation can make a child more
  vulnerable to injury

16
Gross Motor Skills

• Large body movements improve
• running, jumping, climbing, throwing
• Gross motor skills are practiced and mastered

17
Gross Motor Skills, cont.

• Motor skills develop as rapidly as brain
  maturation, motivation, guided practice, and
  innate ability allow
• Children learn basic motor skills by teaching
  themselves and learning from other children

18
Fine Motor Skills

• Small body movements are harder to master
• pouring, cutting, holding crayon, tying
• lacking the muscular control, patience, and
  judgment needed
• fingers short and fat
• confusion over which is dominant hand

19
Artistic Expression

• Childrens artistic endeavors are also their play
• drawings often connected to perception and
  cognition
• gradual maturation of brain and body is apparent
• artwork helps develop fine motor skills
• in artwork, many children eagerly practice
  perseveration

20
Serious Injuries

• Accidents are the most common cause of childhood
  death
• poison, fire, falls, choking, and drowning
• unintended injuries cause millions of premature
  deaths per year until the age of 40 then disease
  becomes greatest cause of mortality
• Injury control/harm reductionthe idea that
  accidents are not random, but can be made less
  harmful with proper control

21
Three Levels of Prevention

• Primary preventionactions that change overall
  background conditions to prevent some unwanted
  event or circumstance
• Secondary preventionactions that avert harm in
  the immediate situation
• Tertiary preventionactions taken after an
  adverse event to reduce the harm or prevent
  disability

22
Three Levels of Prevention, cont.

• An Example Pedestrian Deaths
• Primary prevention Better sidewalks, slower
  speeds, wider roads, longer traffic signals, etc.
• Secondary prevention Improving car brakes,
  having school-crossing guards, having children
  walk with adults, etc.
• Tertiary prevention Protective helmets, laws
  against hit-and-run driving, emergency room
  procedures, etc.
• Results show that these measures help to reduce
  unnecessary deaths

23
Parents, Education, and Protection

• SES is a powerful predictor of many accidents
• Prevention and protection crucial
• Parents need to institute safety measures in
  advance
• Parents job is protection

24
Child Maltreatment

• Sensational cases attract attention
• but dont represent the typical case
• still, we need to learn lessons about abuse in
  order to understand its causes and consequences

25
Changing Definitions of Maltreatment

• Abuse and neglect
• child maltreatmentintentional harm or avoidable
  endangerment to child
• child abusedeliberate action that is harmful to
  childs well-being
• child neglectfailure to meet childs basic needs

26
Changing Definitions of Maltreatment, cont.

• Types of abuse physical, sexual, emotional, and
  educational
• Neglect twice as common as abuse
• one sign is failure to thrive
• another is hypervigilance
• can be a symptom of post-traumatic stress
  disorder

27
Changing Definitions of Maltreatment, cont.

• Reported maltreatmentcases about which
  authorities have been informed
• 3 million per year
• Substantiated maltreatmentcases that have been
  investigated and verified
• 1 million per year

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Reported Cases of Child Maltreatment, United
States, 19762001
29
Rates of Substantiated Child Maltreatment, United
States, 19902001
30
Consequences of Maltreatment

• If not spotted early, then reported and stopped,
  maltreatment can affect every aspect of a childs
  development

31
Brain Damage and Consequences for Learning

• Types of possible brain damage
• shaken baby syndrome
• condition caused by maltreatment involving
  shaking a crying baby, with severe brain damage
  as result
• brain damage in despondent or terrorized child
• memory may be impaired logical thinking may be
  delayed

32
Brain Damage and Consequences for Learning, cont.

• Another brain disorder may appear in neglected
  child with clinically depressed mother unable to
  provide emotional support and guidance
• right prefrontal cortex develops more than left
  consequently, negative emotions dominate, with
  greater likelihood of depression occurring
• Inadequate essential nourishment also impedes
  normal brain development

33
Impaired Social Skills

• Maltreated childrens social skills
• less friendly, more isolated and aggressive
• the earlier abuse begins, the worse the
  relationship with peers

34
Three Levels of Prevention, Again

• Primary preventionprevents maltreatment before
  problem starts
• need for family support, e.g.,
• stable neighborhoods
• basic values
• SES

35
Three Levels of Prevention, Again, cont.

• Secondary preventionresponds to first symptoms
  or signs of risk
• spots and treats early problems
• identifies high-risk children
• potential disadvantages
• wrongfully stigmatizes family as inadequate
• undermines helpful cultural or family patterns
• creates sense of helplessness in families

36
Three Levels of Prevention, Again, cont.

• Tertiary preventionhalting harm after it occurs,
  then treating victim
• removal from family
• adoption
• Foster carelegally sanctioned, publicly
  supported plan that transfers care of maltreated
  child from parents to others

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Chapter Nine

• The Play Years
• Cognitive Development

38
How Young Children Think Piaget and Vygotsky

• PiagetSwiss developmentalist
• believed young children were limited by their
  egocentric perspective
• egocentrismPiagets term for type of centration
  in which child sees world solely from his/her
  personal perspective
• VygotskyRussian developmentalist
• recognized how childs social/cultural context
  helps shape his/her cognitive development

39
Piaget Preoperational Thought

• Preoperational thoughtPiagets term for
  cognitive development between 2 and 6 years
• characterized by centration, focus on appearance,
  static reasoning, and irreversibility

40
Obstacles to Logical Operations

• Centrationtendency to focus on one aspect of a
  situation
• Egocentrism or ego-centrationcontemplation of
  the world exclusively from childs personal
  perspective
• empathy is an exception

41
Obstacles to Logical Operations, cont.

• Focus on appearanceignores all attributes except
  appearance
• Static reasoningassumes that the world is
  unchanging
• Irreversibilityfails to recognize that reversing
  a process can sometimes restore whatever existed
  before transformation

42
Conservation and Logic

• Thinking is intuitive rather than logical
• Conservationprinciple that amount of substance
  is unaffected by changes in appearance
• applied to liquids, numbers, matter, length
• understanding develops after age 7, and then
  slowly and unevenly

43
Conservation and Logic, cont.
44
Vygotsky Children as Apprentices

• One Theory
• theory-theoryGopniks term for the idea that
  children attempt to construct a theory to explain
  everything they see and hear

45
Vygotsky Children as Apprentices, cont.

• Children do not strive alone their efforts are
  embedded in social context
• parents guide young childrens cognitive growth
  in many ways
• present new challenges for learning
• offer assistance and instruction
• encourage interest and motivation

46
Vygotsky Children as Apprentices, cont.

• Apprentice in thinkingchild whose intellectual
  growth is stimulated and directed by older and
  more skilled members of society
• Guided participationprocess by which young
  children, with the help of mentors, learn to
  think by having social experiences and by
  exploring their universe

47
How to Solve a Puzzle

• Guidance and motivation
• structure task to make solution more attainable
• provide motivation
• Guided participation
• partners (tutor and child) interact
• tutor sensitive and responsive to needs of child
• eventually, because of such mutuality, child able
  to succeed independently

48
Scaffolding

• Scaffoldingsensitive structuring of childs
  participation in learning encounters
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD) skills too
  difficult for child to perform alone but that can
  be performed with guidance and assistance of
  adults or more skilled children
• lower limit of ZPD can be reached independently
• upper limit of ZPD can be reached with assistance
• ZPD is a measure of learning potential

49
Scaffolding, cont.

• Private speechinternal dialogue when people talk
  to themselves through which new ideas are
  developed and reinforced
• verbal interaction is a cognitive tool
• Social mediationuse of speech to bridge gap
  between childs current understanding and what is
  almost understood

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Theory of Mind

• We each have our own personal understanding of
  human mental processes, and child develops this
  too
• complex interaction of human mental processes
• emotions
• thoughts
• perceptions
• actions

52
Emergence by Age 4

• Social referencing
• Sudden understanding that mental phenomena may
  not reflect reality
• people can be deliberately deceived or fooled

53
Contextual Influences on Theory of Mind

• Brain maturation (prefrontal cortex)
• General language ability
• An older sibling
• Culture that anticipates the future

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Language

• Emergent literacyskills needed to learn to read
• Is early childhood a sensitive or a critical
  period for language development?
• ages 2 to 6 do seem to be a sensitive perioda
  time when a certain type of development (in this
  case, emergent literacy) occurs most rapidly

56
Vocabulary

• 2 to 6 olds learn average of 10 words per day
• Fast mappingspeedy and not precise way a child
  assimilates new words by mentally charting them
  into interconnected categories
• logical extension, or application of newly
  learned word to other unnamed objects in same
  category, closely related to fast mapping
• fast mapping aided by the way adults label new
  things for children

57
Vocabulary, cont.

• Fast mapping, cont.
• children use basic assumptions about syntax and
  reference to fast map
• children cannot comprehend every word they hear
• difficulties may occur
• with words expressing comparisons
• with words expressing relationships of time and
  place

58
Grammar

• The grammar of a language includes the
  structures, techniques, and rules used to
  communicate meaning
• Young children learn grammar so well they tend to
  apply its rules when they should not, a tendency
  called overregularization
• examples plural nouns (foots), past tense
  (breaked the glass)

59
Learning Two Languages

• Two points of view
• bilingualism is an asset, even a necessity,
• child should become proficient in own 1st
  language
• How easy is it to be bilingual?
• many 6-year-olds have difficulty pronouncing
  certain sounds
• but auditory sensitivity helps young children
  master pronunciation over time, a much harder
  task if language learned after puberty

60
Learning Two Languages, cont.

• Best solution children become balanced
  bilinguals, fluent in 2 languages
• research confirms children can become equally
  fluent in 2 languages
• easiest way for child to become bilingual is if
  parents speak 2 languages
• ideally, each parent represents 1 language and
  helps child with mastery
• sending child to preschool where 2nd language
  taught also effective

61
Early-Childhood Education

• Controversy over whether, when, and where

62
Many Types of Programs

• Distinct educational curricula have been
  developed
• Maria Montessori (100 years ago) developed
  structured, individualized projects for poor
  children

63
Child-Centered and Readiness Programs

• Many newer programs are child-centered or
  developmental
• use a Piaget-inspired model that allows children
  to discover at their own pace
• Alternative programs stress academic readiness
• some readiness programs explicitly teach basic
  school skills

64
Reggio-Emilia

• Reggio-Emiliaa new form of early-childhood
  education pioneered in the Italian city of that
  name
• children encouraged to master skills not normally
  seen until age 7
• artistic expression, exploration of the
  environment, and collaboration between parents
  and teachers encouraged

65
Reggio Emilia, cont.

• Early childhood is the prime learning period for
  every child and some learn even more
• The above has led to conclusion nations should
  provide quality early education
• Head Start
• has provided half-day education for millions of 3
  to 5 year olds, boosting abilities and skills, at
  least temporarily and probably for longer

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Quality Learning

• Three research projects have shown excellent
  longitudinal data
• High/Scope (Michigan)
• Abecedarian (North Carolina)
• Child-Parent Centers (Chicago)
• Children in these programs have scored higher on
  math and reading achievement tests than other
  children from same backgrounds, schools, and
  neighborhoods

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Quality Learning, cont.

• High-quality early education is associated with
  positive outcomes for all children
• what is high-quality education?
• safety, adequate space, and equipment
• low adult-to-child ratio
• trained staff
• curriculum geared to cognitive development
• learning includes creative/constructive play

70
Chapter Ten

• The Play Years
• Psychosocial Development

71
Emotional Development

• Self
• Goals
• Emotions

72
Initiative vs. Guilt

• Eriksons 3rd Stage
• self-esteem emerges
• self-conceptunderstanding of the selfdevelops
• spontaneous play becomes goal directed
• attention span gets longer
• pride leads to concentration and persistence
• guilt is a negative consequence of this stage

73
Emotional Regulation

• Ability to direct or change ones feelings
• externalizing problemsdifficulties arising from
  childs tendency to externalize emotions outside
  the self, lashing out in impulsive anger and
  attacking other people or things
• internalizing problemsdifficulties arising from
  childs tendency to internalize emotions or
  inhibit their expression, being fearful and
  withdrawn

74
Neurons and Nurture

• Emotional regulation part of brain function
• also learned through social awareness
• Genetic variations
• some people naturally more emotionally expressive
• Early stress
• result of damage during brain development either
  prenatally or postnatally
• via maternal drug use, illness, stress, or if
  infant malnourished, injured, or frightened

75
Neurons and Nurture, cont.

• Care History
• secure attachment easier emotional regulation
• parenting practices
• securely attached regulate emotions, show
  empathy
• insecurely attached respond abnormally to other
  childrens distress
• ability to modulate and direct emotion essential
  to emotional intelligence

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Cognition and Emotions

• First step to emotional regulation awareness of
  own emotions and the emotional response of others
• Emotional intelligenceGolemans term for the
  understanding of how to interpret and express
  emotions
• develops throughout life, but crucial in early
  childhood
• amygdalaemotional hotspot in prefrontal cortex
  of brain that children need to govern if they are
  to become balanced and empathic adults
• parents can use childrens natural attachment to
  teach them how and when to express feelings

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Empathy and Antipathy

• Empathyunderstanding another persons emotions
• leads often to prosocial actions
• helping another without obvious benefit to
  oneself
• Antipathydisliking or hating someone else
• may lead to antisocial behavior
• injuring another person or destroying something
  that belongs to another

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Empathy and Antipathy, cont.

• Sharing
• freely done or directed by others
• Aggression
• instrumentalused to obtain an object such as a
  toy
• reactiveinvolves retaliation for an act whether
  or not it was intentional
• relationdesigned to inflect psychic (mental)
  pain
• bullying aggressionunprovoked attack

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Learning Social Skills Through Play

• Peersothers of the same age and status
• peers make the best playmates
• play is most adaptive and productive activity of
  children

81
Active Play

• Rough-and-tumble play
• helps child develop muscle strength and control
• caregivers should look for a play face when
  attempting to figure out if child is playing or
  fighting

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Imaginative Play

• Sociodramatic play
• helps child explore and rehearse social roles
  he/she has seen
• helps child test ability to convince others
• helps child regulate emotions through imagination
• helps child examine personal concerns in
  nonthreatening way

83
Parenting Patterns

• Parenting patterns influence childs emotions

84
Baumrinds Three Styles of Parenting

• Baumrinds 4 important dimensions that influence
  parenting
• expression of warmth or nurturance
• strategies for discipline
• quality of communication
• expectations for maturity

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Baumrinds Three Styles of Parenting, cont.

• 3 Styles
• authoritarianhigh standards and expectations
  with low nurturance
• children likely to become conscientious,
  obedient, and quietbut not happy
• permissivelittle control, but nurturing
• children likely to lack self-control and are not
  happy
• authoritativelimits and guidance provided but
  willing to compromise
• children are more likely to be successful,
  articulate, intelligent, and happy

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Baumrinds Three Styles of Parenting, cont.

• Recent studies have found link between parenting
  styles and child behavior less direct than
  Baumrinds original research indicated
• impact of childs temperament
• influence of community and cultural differences
  on childs perception of parenting
• in poor or minority families, authoritarian
  parenting tends to be used to produce
  high-achieving, emotionally regulated children
  strict and warm can be successful

88
Punishment

• Discipline an integral part of parenting

89
Techniques of Discipline

• Culture is a strong influence
• expectations
• offenses
• punishments
• In United States
• time-out is used
• child stops all activity and sits in corner or
  stays inside for a few minutes

90
Techniques of Discipline, cont.

• In deciding which technique to apply, parents
  should ask How does technique relate to child?
• childs temperament, age, and perceptions crucial
  considerations

91
What About Spanking?

• Reasons for parenting variations
• culture, religion, ethnicity, national origin
• parents own upbringing
• Developmentalists fear children who are
  physically punished will learn to be more
  aggressive
• domestic violence of any kind can increase
  aggression between peers and within families

92
The Challenge of Video

• Dilemma for parents about letting children watch
  television and play video games
• parents find video a good babysitter
• parents believe video can sometimes be
  educational tool
• Experts suggest parents turn off the TV to avoid
  exposing children to video violence

93
The Evidence on Content

• Exposure to violence greatgood guys and bad guys
  show violent behavior
• All good guys male no non-white heroes
• Women/females portrayed as victims or adoring
  friendsnot as leaders
• Content of video games even worse than than that
  of television
• more violent, sexist, racist

94
The Evidence on Content, cont.

• Children, especially males, who watched
  educational television became teens who earned
  higher grades, read more
• Children, especially females, who watched violent
  television had lower grades

95
The Evidence on Content, cont.

• Content of video games crucial reason behind
  great concern of developmental researchers
• research shows that violent TV and video games
  push children to be more violent than they
  normally would be
• computer games probably worse, as children are
  doing the virtual killing

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The Evidence on Content, cont.

• Developmentalists look at the following to
  evaluate poor content
• perpetuation of sexist, ageist, and racist
  stereotypes
• depiction of violent solutions for every problem
  and no expression of empathy
• encouragement of quick, reactive, emotions rather
  than thoughtful regulation of emotions

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Boy or Girl So What?

• Male or femaleimportant feature of self-concept
• Sex differencesbiological differences between
  males and females
• far less apparent than in adulthood
• Gender differencesculturally imposed differences
  in roles and behaviors
• more significant to children than to adults

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Development of Gender Awareness

• By age 2, awareness of gender-related
  preferences and play patterns
• By age 3, cognitive awareness of own gender
• By age 4, awareness of gender appropriate toys
  or roles
• By age 6, well-formed ideas and prejudices about
  own sex and the other sex

99
Theories of Gender Differences

• Psychoanalytic
• Freuds view sexual attraction to opposite-sex
  parent
• phallic stageaccording to Freud, 3rd stage of
  psychosexual development occurring in early
  childhood when penis becomes the focus of
  psychological concern and physiological pleasure

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Theories of Gender Differences, cont.

• Oedipus complexaccording to Freud, occurring in
  the phallic stage, in which boys have sexual
  desire for their mothers and hostility towards
  their fathers guilt and fear resolved by gender
  appropriate behavior
• Identification
• Superegopersonality part that is self-critical
  and judgmental
• Electra complexgirls understanding they cant
  replace mother, so want to be like her

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Behaviorism

• Gender-appropriate behavior learned through
  observation and imitation
• Children learn gender-appropriate behavior by
  modeling it after that of people they want to
  imitate
• Especially for young boys, conformity to gender
  expectations rewarded, punished, modeled

102
Cognitive Theory

• Gender typing occurs after concept of gender has
  developed
• Once gender consistently conceived, child
  organizes world based on that understanding
• Gender schema organizes the world in terms of
  male and female
• internal motivation to conform to gender-based
  cultural standards and stereotypes guides
  attention and behavior

103
Sociocultural Theory

• Gender values strenuously kept
• Many traditional cultures emphasize gender
  distinctions
• To break through restrictiveness of cultural
  expectations, some embrace the idea of
  androgynya balance of male and female
  psychological characteristics
• true androgyny possible if supported by whole
  culture

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Epigenetic Theory

• Every aspect of human behavior a mix of genetics
  and environment
• environment shapes, enhances, or halts genetic
  impulses
• Differences between male and female brains
• Environmental influences

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Conclusion Gender and Destiny

• 5 theories lead to 2 conclusions and 1 question
• Gender differences are not simply cultural or
  learnedbiological foundation much greater than
  originally suspected
• Biology is not destinyenvironment and
  experiences shape children