lifespan 7-8 discussion
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psyc2314_ppt_ch07.pptxLIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT 17e
John W. Santrock
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Chapter 7
Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter Outline
Physical Changes
Cognitive Changes
Language Development
Early Childhood Education
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Physical Changes
Body growth and change
Motor development
Sleep
Nutrition and exercise
Illness and death
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Body Growth and Change (1 of 2)
Height and weight
Average growth is 2.5 inches and 5–10 pounds per year during early childhood.
Growth patterns vary individually.
Two most important contributors to height differences
Ethnic origin
Nutrition
Growth hormone deficiency: absence of growth hormone produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate the body to grow
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Body Growth and Change (2 of 2)
The brain
Brain growth slows during early childhood.
Brain reaches 95 percent of adult volume by 6 years.
Changes in child’s brain structure
Myelination: nerve cells are covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells
Increases speed at which information travels through nervous system
Rapid, distinct spurts of growth, especially in the frontal lobes
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A Myelinated Nerve Fiber
©Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source
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Motor Development (1 of 3)
Most preschool children are more active than they will ever be at any later period in the life span.
Gross motor skills
Simple movements at age 3
More adventurous at age 4
Hair-raising risks at age 5
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Motor Development (2 of 3)
Fine motor skills
Still clumsy at 3 years
Improved fine motor coordination at 4 years
Body coordination by 5 years
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Motor Development (3 of 3)
Perceptual development
Age 3–4 years: detection of boundaries between colors
Age 4–5 years: children can focus eyes and sustain attention effectively on close-up objects
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Sleep
Recommended sleep: 11–13 hours each night without interruption
Disorders: narcolepsy, insomnia, nightmares
Sleep problems and negative outcomes
Attention problems
Worse school readiness
more so with increased screen time
Being overweight
Social problems
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Nutrition and Exercise (1 of 2)
Overweight young children
Serious health problems in early childhood
Strongly influenced by caregivers’ behavior
Categories for obesity, overweight, and at risk for being overweight
Determined by body mass index (BMI)
United States has second highest rate of childhood obesity.
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Nutrition and Exercise (2 of 2)
Malnutrition in young children from low-income families
11 million preschool children are experiencing malnutrition.
Biggest problem is iron deficiency anemia
Exercise should occur daily.
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Illness and Death (1 of 2)
The United States
Leading causes of death in U.S. children are
Accidents (unintentional injuries)
Congenital malformations
Deformities
Chromosomal abnormalities
Children’s safety
Environmental tobacco smoke
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Illness and Death (2 of 2)
State of illness and health of the world’s children
Devastating effects of health occur in countries with high poverty rates.
Dramatic increase in deaths due to HIV/AIDS, especially in poor countries.
©Kent Page/AP Images
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Cognitive Changes
Piaget’s preoperational stage
Vygotsky’s theory
Information processing
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Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (1 of 3)
Preoperational stage
Piaget’s second stage
Ages 2–7 years
Children represent the world with words, images, and drawings.
Form stable concepts and begin to reason
Cognitions are dominated by egocentrism and magical beliefs
“The Symbolic Drawings of Young Children,” Courtesy of D. Wolf and J. Nove. Copyright Dennie Palmer Wolf, Annenberg Institute, Brown University. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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A 3 year old draws a symbolic pelican and an 11 year old draws a realistic tree.
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Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (2 of 3)
Operations: reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they formerly did physically
Symbolic function substage: child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present
Egocentrism: inability to distinguish one’s own perspective from someone else’s
Animism: belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action
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Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (3 of 3)
Intuitive thought substage: children use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to questions.
Ages 4–7 years
Centration and the limits of preoperational thought
Centration: centering attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others
Conservation: altering a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties
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The Three Mountains Task
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Piaget’s Conservation Task
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Some Dimensions of Conservation: Number, Matter, and Length (1 of 4)
Type of Conservation: number
Initial Presentation: two identical rows of objects are shown to the child, who agrees they have same number
Manipulation: one row is lengthened, and child is asked whether one row now has more objects.
Preoperational Child's Answer: “Yes, the longer row”
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Some Dimensions of Conservation: Number, Matter, and Length (2 of 4)
Type of Conservation: matter
Initial Presentation: two identical balls of clay are shown to the child. The child agrees they are equal.
Manipulation: experimenter changes the shape of one ball and asks child whether they still contain equal amounts of clay
Preoperational Child's Answer: “No, the longer one has more”
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Some Dimensions of Conservation: Number, Matter, and Length (3 of 4)
Type of Conservation: length
Initial Presentation: two sticks are aligned in front of the child. Child agrees they are the same length.
Manipulation: experimenter moves one stick to the right, then asks child if they are equal in length
Preoperational Child's Answer: “No, the one on the top is longer”
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Some Dimensions of Conservation: Number, Matter, and Length (4 of 4)
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Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (1 of 2)
Children think and understand primarily through social interaction.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD): range of tasks too difficult for the child alone but that can be learned with guidance
Scaffolding: changing the level of support
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Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (2 of 2)
©Ariel Skelley/Blend Images
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Vygotsky’s Theory (1 of 3)
Language and thought
Children use speech to communicate socially and to help them solve tasks.
Private speech: use of language for self-regulation
Inner speech becomes their thoughts
More private speech = more social competence
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Vygotsky’s Theory (2 of 3)
Teaching strategies: Vygotsky’s theory can be applied to education
Assess child’s ZPD
Use the child’s ZPD in teaching
Use more-skilled peers as teachers
Place instruction in meaningful context
Transform classroom with Vygotskian ideas
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Vygotsky’s Theory (3 of 3)
Evaluating Vygotsky’s theory
Social constructivist approach: emphasizes social contexts of learning and asserts that knowledge is mutually built and constructed through social interaction
Criticism
Not specific enough about age-related changes
Does not describe how changes in socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development
Overemphasized the role of language in thinking
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Comparison of Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories
| Sociocultural Context | Strong Emphasis | Little Emphasis |
| Constructivism | Social constructivist | Cognitive constructivist |
| Stages | No general stages of development proposed | Strong emphasis on stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational) |
| Key Processes | Zone of proximal development, language, dialogue, tools of the culture | Schema, assimilation, accommodation, operations, conservation, classification |
| Role of Language | A major role; language plays a powerful role in shaping thought | Language has a minimal role; cognition primarily directs language |
| View on Education | Education plays a central role, helping children learn the tools of the culture | Education merely refines the child's cognitive skills that have already emerged |
| Teaching Implications | Many opportunities for children to learn with the teacher and more-skilled peers | Also views teacher as a facilitator and guide, not a director; provide support for children to explore their world and discover knowledge |
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Information Processing (1 of 3)
Attention: focusing of mental resources on select information
Executive attention
Action planning
Allocating attention to goals
Error detection and compensation
Monitoring progress on tasks
Dealing with difficult circumstances
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Information Processing (2 of 3)
Sustained attention: focused and extended engagement with object, task, event, or other aspect of the environment
Deficiencies in attention
Salient versus relevant dimensions
Planfulness of attention
Six-year-olds have fragmentary planfulness of attention
Older children are more detailed and accurate.
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Information Processing (3 of 3)
Memory: retention of information over time
Short term: individuals can retain information up to 30 seconds with no rehearsal
Assessing short-term memory
Memory-span task
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Developmental Changes in Memory Span
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Information Processing (1 of 4)
How accurate are young children’s long-term memories?
There are age differences in children’s susceptibility to suggestion.
There are individual differences in susceptibility.
Interviewing techniques can produce substantial distortions in children’s reports about highly salient events.
Accuracy of testimony is dependent on type, number, and intensity of suggestive techniques experienced
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Information Processing (2 of 4)
Autobiographical memory
Involves memory of significant events and experiences in one’s life
In some areas (remembering a story, a song, or interesting event or experience), young children have been shown to have reasonably good memories.
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Information Processing (3 of 4)
Executive functioning: higher-level cognitive processes linked to the development of the brain’s prefrontal cortex
Children manage thoughts to engage in goal-directed behavior and self-control.
“The Marshmallow Experiment”
Using self-distraction to delay gratification for the purpose of receiving two marshmallows on a researcher’s return linked to later success in life
©Amy Kiley Photography
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Information Processing (4 of 4)
Theory of mind: awareness of one’s own mental process and the mental processes of others
Developmental changes
Age 18 months to 3 years: children begin to understand three mental states
Perceptions, desires, and emotions
Age 3–5 years: children understand false beliefs
Age 5–9 years: deepening appreciation of the mind
Age 7+ years: understand the beliefs and thoughts of others
Individual differences and factors influencing Theory of Mind
Executive function and advances in prefrontal cortex functioning
Language development
Higher socioeconomic status family
Children with autism have difficulty developing a theory of mind.
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Developmental Changes in False-Belief Performance
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Language Development
Understanding phonology and morphology
Changes in syntax and semantics
Advances in pragmatics
Young children’s literacy
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Understanding Phonology and Morphology
During preschool years, children
Become sensitive to the sounds of spoken words
Produce all the sounds of their language
Demonstrate a knowledge of morphology rules
Use plurals, possessives, prepositions, articles, and verb forms
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Stimuli in Berko’s Study of Young Children’s Understanding of Morphological Rules
Young children can intuit morphological rules.
Children were shown pictures of a bird-like “wug.”
When asked what two of them were, children responded, “Wugs.”
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Changes in Syntax and Semantics (1 of 2)
Fast mapping: process in which young children learn the connection between a word and its referent quickly
Learn and apply rules of syntax
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Changes in Syntax and Semantics (2 of 2)
Six key principles in young children’s vocabulary development
Children learn the words
They hear most often
For things and events that interest them
Better in responsive and interactive contexts than in passive contexts
Best in contexts that are meaningful
Best when they access clear information about word meaning
Best when grammar and vocabulary are considered
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Advances in Pragmatics
Adapt their speech in different settings
Young children’s literacy
Positive orientation toward reading and writing must be developed.
Importance of early language skills
Phonological awareness
Readiness for school
Reading achievement in high school
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Young Children’s Literacy
Books can be valuable tool
Use books to initiate conversation
Use “what” and “why” questions
Encourage children to ask questions about stories
Include books that play with language
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Early Childhood Education (1 of 2)
Variations in early childhood education
Education for young children who are disadvantaged
Controversies in early childhood education
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Early Childhood Education (2 of 2)
Education for young children who are disadvantaged
Project Head Start: compensatory program designed to provide children from low-income families
Opportunity to acquire the skills and experiences important for success in school
Controversies in early childhood education
Curriculum controversy
Academic approaches pressure young children to achieve, don’t provide chances to actively construct knowledge, and don’t focus on cognitive and socioemotional development.
Universal preschool education
Critics: more important to improve preschool education for disadvantaged children.
Controversy continues around implementing universal preschool education.
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Variations in Early Childhood Education (1 of 2)
Child-centered kindergarten: education of the whole child and concern for his or her physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development
Kindergartens focused on developmental status of 4 and 5 year olds emphasize experimenting, exploring, discovering, trying out, restructuring, speaking, and listening.
Montessori approach: child is given freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities and develops cognitive skills
Criticisms: it deemphasizes verbal interactions, restricts imaginative play, and may not allow for creativity and a variety of learning styles
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Variations in Early Childhood Education (2 of 2)
Developmentally appropriate and inappropriate education
Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP): typical developmental patterns of children and the uniqueness of each child
Generalizing about developmentally appropriate education is challenging.
Developmentally appropriate education is an evolving concept.
Sociocultural factors are taking on more importance.
Consideration about teacher’s involvement
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Accessibility Content: Text Alternatives for Images
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Piaget’s Conservation Task Text Alternative
Piaget’s conservation task tests a child’s ability to think operationally or mentally reverse actions and understand the concept of conservation. A child watches liquid poured from a short beaker into a taller, thinner one. When asked which has more liquid, the child points to the taller and thinner one, demonstrating a lack of conservation. The child doesn’t yet understand that the amount of liquid doesn’t change because of the beaker’s shape.
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Developmental Changes in False-Belief Performance Text Alternative
By age 5, most children realize that people can have false beliefs contradicting reality. Two-and-a-half-year-olds gave incorrect responses about 80 percent of the time. At almost 4, they were correct about 50 percent of the time, and after that responses were increasingly correct.
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