The Importance of Play
JayLee23
DevelopmentalCh6-1.pptxEarly Childhood: The Social World
chapter six
Invitation to the Life Span
Kathleen Stassen Berger | Fourth edition
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Emotional Development (part 1)
Emotional regulation (effortful control)
Ability to control when and how emotions are expressed
Preeminent psychological task between 2 and 6 years of age
Self-concept developed within this process
Emotional regulation influences
Maturation
Learning
Family and culture
Effortful control, executive function, and emotional regulation are similar constructs, with much overlap, at least in theory ( Scherbaum et al., 2018 ; Slot et al., 2017 ). Executive function
emphasizes cognition; effortful control emphasizes temperament; both undergird emotional regulation. Many neurological processes underlie these abilities; all advance during early childhood.
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Emotional Development (part 2)
Initiative versus guilt
Erikson's third psychosocial crisis
Children undertake new skills and activities and feel guilty when they do not succeed at them.
Protective optimism encourages trying new things.
Optimistic self-concept protects young children from guilt and shame and encourages learning.
Emotional Development (part 3)
Pride
includes gender, size, and heritage (U.S.)
Involves cognition that supports understanding of group categories
Prejudice
Often involves feelings of superiority to children of other sex, nationality, or religion
Proud Peruvian In rural Peru, a program of early education (Pronoei) encourages community involvement and traditional culture. Preschoolers, like this girl in a holiday parade, are proud to be themselves, and that helps them become healthy and strong.
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Emotional Development (part 4)
Brain maturation
Neurological advances
Growth of prefrontal cortex at about age 4 or 5
Myelination of the limbic system
Improved behaviors and abilities
Longer attention span
Improved capacity for self-control
Emotional regulation and cognitive maturation develop together, each enabling the other to advance
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Emotional Development (part 5)
Emotional regulation and cognitive maturation develop together, each enabling the other to advance.
Maturation matters
Learning matters
Culture matters
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Emotional Development (part 6)
Motivation propels action and is derived from personal or social context.
Intrinsic motivation
Drive, or reason to pursue a goal
Comes from inside a person
Apparent in intrinsic joy, invented dialogues, and imaginary friends
Extrinsic motivation
Drive, or reason to pursue a goal
Arises from the need to have achievements rewarded from outside
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Emotional Development (part 7)
Praise
Distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is crucial in understanding how and when to praise something the child has done.
Effectiveness of praise tied to:
Praise of particular production and not general trait
Specific praise for effort and not generalized statement
The distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation may be crucial in understanding how and when to praise something the child has done.
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Play (part 1)
Play is the most productive and enjoyable activity that children undertake.
Play is universal.
Has occurred for many thousands of years
Reported in every part of the world
Vygotsky on play
Makes children “a head taller” than their actual height.
Real or Fake? This photo may be staged, but the children show the power of imagination—each responding to his or her cape in a unique way. Sociodramatic play is universal; children do it if given half a chance.
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Play (part 2)
Playmates
Young children play best with peers.
Most infant play: Solitary or with parent
Toddlers: Slowly become better playmates
Young children: Best with peers
Peers provide an audience, role models, and sometimes competition.
Play (part 3)
The historical context: A century ago
Families had more children and fewer working mothers.
Children played outside with neighboring children of several ages.
Older children looked out for the younger ones.
Games allowed each child to play at their own level.
As children grow older, play becomes more social, influenced by brain maturation, playmate availability, and the physical setting.
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Play (part 4)
Types of play: Parten (1932)
Solitary play
Onlooker play
Parallel play
Associative play
Cooperative play
Research on children today find much more age variation than Parten did.
Why do you think this occurs?
Solitary play: A child plays alone, unaware of any other children playing nearby.
Onlooker play: A child watches other children play.
Parallel play: Children play with similar toys in similar ways, but not together.
Associative play: Children interact, observing each other and sharing material, but their play is not yet mutual and reciprocal.
Cooperative play: Children play together, creating and elaborating a joint activity or taking turns.
Research on contemporary children finds much more age variation than
Parten did, perhaps because family size is smaller and parents invest heavily in each child, rarely telling them to “go out and play and come back when it gets dark.”
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Play (part 5)
Social play
Two general kinds of play
Solitary
Social
Form of play changes with age, cohort, and culture.
Play with peers is one of the most important areas in which children develop positive social skills.
Finally Cooperating The goal of social play—cooperation—is shown by these two boys, who at ages 8 and 11 are long past the associative, self-absorbed play of younger children. Note the wide open mouths of laughter over a shared video game—a major accomplishment.
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Play (part 6)
Rough-and-tumble play
Mimics aggression through wrestling, chasing, or hitting with no intention to harm.
Contains expressions and gestures (e.g., play face) signifying that the child is “just pretending.”
Is particularly common among young males.
Advances children's social understanding but increases likelihood of injury.
May positively affect limbic system development.
Ample space, distant adults, and presence of friends increase likelihood of rough-and-tumble play.
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Play (part 7)
Sociodramatic play
Allows children to act out various roles and themes in stories that they create.
Sociodramatic play enables children to:
Explore and rehearse the social roles.
Test their ability to explain.
Practice regulating their emotions.
Develop a self-concept.
Joy Supreme Pretend play in early childhood is thrilling and powerful. For this dancing 7-year-old from Park Slope, Brooklyn, pretend play overwhelms mundane realities, such
as an odd scarf or awkward arm.
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Play (part 8)
Good Over Evil or Evil Over Good?
Boys everywhere enjoy “strong man” fantasy play, as the continued popularity of Spider-Man and Superman attests.
These boys follow that script. Both are Afghan refugees now in Pakistan.
Play (part 9)
Learning by Playing
Fifty years ago, the average child spent three hours a day in outdoor play.
Video games and television have largely replaced that, especially in cities.
Children seem safer if parents can keep an eye on them, but what are they learning?
The long-term effects on brain and body may be dangerous.
Do you agree or disagree?
Pediatricians, psychologists, and teachers all report extensive research that screen time reduces conversation, imagination, and outdoor activity ( Downing et al., 2017 ). Overall, the American Academy of Pediatrics (2016) recommends no more than an hour a day of any screen time for preschoolers and suggests that supervision prevents violent or sexual media, avoiding racist and sexist stereotypes. However, many young children watch more than recommended, unsupervised, not only in the United States but also in other nations.
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 1)
Styles of Caregiving
Parenting styles vary within nations, ethnic groups, neighborhoods—even families.
Baumrind’s categories
Parents differ on four important dimensions.
Expressions of warmth
Strategies for discipline
Communication
Expectations for maturity
On the basis of these dimensions, three parenting styles were identified. A fourth style was suggested by other researchers.
Expressions of warmth: From very affectionate to cold and critical
Strategies for discipline: Parents vary in whether and how they explain, criticize, persuade, ignore, and punish.
Communication: Some parents listen patiently to their children; others demand silence.
Expectations for maturity: Parents vary in the standards they set for their children regarding responsibility and self-control.
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 2)
Baumrind’s styles of caregiving
Authoritarian parenting: High behavioral standards, strict punishment of misconduct, and little communication
Permissive parenting: High nurturance and communication but little discipline, guidance, or control
Authoritative parenting: Parents set limits and enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their children.
See Table 6.1 for additional information.
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 3)
Problems with the research
Original sample had little economic, ethnic, or cultural diversity.
More focus was on attitudes than on daily interactions.
No recognition that some authoritarian parents are very loving toward their children.
No recognition that some permissive parents guide their children intensely, but with words, not rules.
Child's contribution to the parent-child relationship overlooked.
Challenges for Caregivers (part 4)
Discipline
Punishment rates increase dramatically from infancy to early childhood.
Most parents use several methods.
Physical (corporal) punishment
Discipline techniques that hurt the body of someone, from spanking to serious harm, including death.
Challenges for Caregivers (part 5)
Spanking opinions are influenced by past experience and cultural norms.
What does the research suggest?
Spanking is more frequent:
in the southern United States than in New England.
by mothers than by fathers.
among conservative Christians than among nonreligious families.
among African Americans than among European Americans.
among European Americans than among Asian Americans.
among U.S.-born Hispanics than among immigrant Hispanics.
in low-SES families than in high-SES families.
These are general trends, but do not stereotype.
Contrary to these generalizations, some African American mothers living in the South never spank, and some secular, European American, high-SES fathers in New England routinely do. Local norms matter, but individual parents make their own decisions.
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 6)
Culture powerfully affects caregiving style.
Difference apparent in multiethnic nations
Differences between majority and minority U.S. families should not be exaggerated.
Parents of all groups usually show warmth to their children.
Harsh, cold parenting appears harmful in every group.
Challenges for Caregivers (part 7)
Spanking
Physical punishment increases obedience temporarily, but increases the possibility of later aggression, bullying, and abusive adolescent and adult behaviors.
Children who are not spanked are more likely to develop self-control.
Cultural influence, background, and context are notable across the U.S. and the world.
Some researchers believe that physical punishment is harmless; some do not.
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 8)
Alternatives to spanking
Psychological control
Disciplinary technique that involves threatening to withdraw love and support and that relies on a child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents.
Time-out
Disciplinary technique in which a child is separated from other people and activities for a specified time.
Induction
Disciplinary technique in which parent tries to get the child to understand why a certain behavior was wrong. Listening, not lecturing, is crucial.
Becoming Boys and Girls: Sex and Gender
Sex differences are biological differences between males and females, in organs, hormones, and body shape.
Gender differences are differences in male and female roles, behaviors, clothes, and so on that arise from society, not biology
Children who identify as transgender present parents with special challenges.
Recent research suggest that most adults thought parent should encourage their children to play with toys associated with the other sex.
The highest disagreement was expressed by men regarding boys: 43 percent of the men thought boys should not be encouraged to do things usually stereotyped for girls, such as care for dolls, jump rope, or wear bracelets
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Sex and Gender
Gender differences
Pervasive and lifelong
Age 2: Gender labels used
Age 4: Gender assignment to toys and roles
Age 6: Gender detectives
Rigid male-female roles may be adopted
Regarding sex and gender, scientists need to “treat culture and biology not as separate influences but as interacting components of nature and nurture” ( Eagly & Wood, 2013 , p. 349).
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Theories of Gender Role Development (part 1)
Psychoanalytical Theory
Phallic stage: Freud's third stage of development, when the penis becomes the focus of concern and pleasure
Oedipus complex: The unconscious desire of young boys to replace their fathers and win their mothers' exclusive love
Identification: Considering the behaviors, appearance, and attitudes of someone else to be one’s own
Theories of Gender Role Development (part 2)
Behaviorism
Gender differences
Product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment
Are learned through all roles, values, and morals.
"Gender-appropriate"
Rewarded more frequently than "gender-inappropriate" behavior
Social learning theory (extension of behaviorism)
Children notice the ways men and women behave and internalize the standards they observe.
Theories of Gender Role Development (part 3)
Cognitive theories
Cognitive theory
Offers an alternative explanation for the strong gender identity that becomes apparent at about age 5.
Gender schema
Child's cognitive concept or general belief about sex differences
Based on his or her observations and experiences
Young children categorize themselves and everyone else as either male or female and then think and behave accordingly.
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Theories of Gender Role Development (part 4)
Evolutionary theory
Sexual attraction is crucial for basic urge to reproduce.
Males and females try to look attractive to the other sex in gendered ways.
Young boys and girls practice becoming attractive to the other sex.
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Which developmental theory is best?
Challenges for Caregivers (part 9)
Teaching right from wrong
Sense of right and wrong is outgrowth of bonding, attachment, and cognitive maturation.
Protecting, cooperating, and sacrificing are part of species survival.
Innate moral impulses strengthened through cognitive advances and peer interactions.
Challenges for Caregivers (part 10)
Moral development
Prosocial behavior
Extending helpfulness and kindness without any obvious benefit to oneself: Increases with maturity
Empathy
Antisocial actions
Deliberately hurting another person, including people who have done no harm: Declines with maturity
Antipathy
Pinch, Poke, or Pat—Antisocial and prosocial responses are actually a sign of maturation. Babies do not recognize the impact of their actions. These children have much more to learn, but they already are quite social.
Empathy
Understanding emotions and concerns of another person, especially when they differ from one's own
Antipathy
Feelings of dislike or even hatred for another person
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Challenges for Caregivers (part 11)
General types of aggression
Instrumental
Reactive
Relational
Bullying
All forms of aggression usually become less common from ages 2 to 6, as the brain matures and empathy increases.
Children learn to use aggression selectively, and that decreases both victimization and aggression.
See Table 6.2 for additional information about types, definition, and comments about aggression.
Instrumental aggression: Hurtful behavior that is intended to get something that another person has and to keep it.
Reactive aggression: An impulsive retaliation for another person's intentional or accidental action, verbal or physical.
Relational aggression: Nonphysical acts, such as insults or social rejection, aimed at harming the social connection between the victim and other people.
Bullying aggression: Unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves.
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Harm to Children (part 1)
Injury
Injury control/harm reduction: Reducing the potential negative consequences of behavior
More children harmed by deliberate or accidental violence than any specific disease, especially 2-to 6-year-olds.
Why are young children so vulnerable?
Impulsivity (prefrontal cortex immaturity)
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Harm to Children (part 2)
Child maltreatment
Now refers to intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age
Is neither rare nor sudden
Most often involves one or both parents
Getting Better?
As you can see, the number of victims of child maltreatment in the United States has declined in the past decade. The legal and social-work response to serious maltreatment has improved over the years, which is a likely explanation for the decline. Other less sanguine explanations are possible, however.
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Harm to Children (part 3)
Definitions
Child abuse
Deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual well-being.
Child neglect
Failure to meet a child’s basic physical, educational, or emotional needs.
Substantiated maltreatment
Harm or endangerment that has been reported, investigated, and verified
Reported maltreatment
Harm or endangerment about which someone has notified the authorities
Harm to Children (part 4)
The 5-to-1 ratio of reported versus substantiated cases occurs because:
Each child is counted only once.
Substantiation requires proof.
Mandated reports are required signs of possible maltreatment.
Some reports are screened out.
Some reports are deliberately false.
Harm to Children (part 5)
Frequency of maltreatment
Not all instances are noticed, reported, substantiated, but positive trends are fluctuating.
Things to consider
Definitions
National awareness (more effective reporting and prevention) Growing rich-poor gap in families
Differences in willingness to report
Young ages of victims
Harm to Children (part 6)
Still Far Too
Many The number of substantiated cases of maltreatment of children under age 18 in the United States is too high, but there is some good news: The rate has declined significantly from its peak (15.3) in 1993.
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Harm to Children (part 7)
Symptoms of maltreated children coincide with PTSD.
Some maltreated children suffer from PTSD, with signs of neurological, emotional, and behavioral damage.
See Table 6.3 for signs of maltreatment in children aged 2 to 10
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Harm to Children (part 8)
Consequences of Maltreatment
Effects of maltreatment are devastating and long-lasting.
Mistreated and neglected children
Regard people as hostile and exploitative.
Are less friendly, more aggressive, and more isolated than other children.
Experience greater social deficits.
May experience large and enduring economic consequences.
See Table 6.3 for additional information about signs of maltreatment in children aged 2 to 10.
Children who were neglected also experience greater social deficits than abused ones because they were unable to relate to anyone, even in infancy.
Abused and neglected children experience large and enduring economic consequences.
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Harm to Children (part 9)
Preventing harm
Levels of prevention
In primary prevention, the overall conditions are structured to make harm less likely. Laws and customs are crucial to reduce injury for people of every age.
Secondary prevention is more targeted, averting harm in high-risk situations or for vulnerable individuals.
Tertiary prevention begins after an injury has already occurred, limiting damage.
Harm to Children (part 10)
All levels of prevention require helping caregivers to provide a safe, nurturing, and stable home.
When a child is removed from home and entrusted to another adult/s
Foster care
Kinship care
Harm to Children (part 11)
Adoption difficulties
Judges and biological parents are reluctant to release children for adoption.
Most adoptive parents prefer infants.
Some agencies screen out families not headed by heterosexual couples.
Some professionals insist that adoptive parents be of the same ethnicity and/or religion as the child.
