PSYCH 333: Toddlerhood/Early childhood
How old are toddlers?
1-6 years old
In which two ways do toddlers continue to develop?
Skeletal development and Brain development
How is skeletal growth demonstrated?
- Epiphyses emerging (bones growth)
- Losing baby fat
-Losing baby teeth
What is the function of myelinizaton?
It insulates the axon and it speeds up the electricical communiacation with the axon (between the neurons)
What are the functions of the prefrontal cortex?
Emotional regulation, thinking, planning
Definition of lateralization.
The localisation/assignment of roles on each hemisphere of the brain.
Which hemisphere shows less lateralization in regards to handedness?
The left hemisphere
Name the major parts of the brain.
Cerebellum, Reticular formation, Amygdala, Hippocampus, Corpus callosum, Pituitary gland (RAP-CC)
Functions of cerebellum.
Balance and control of body movement, muscle memory
Function of reticular formation.
Alertness and consciousness
Function of amygdala
Processing of novelty and emotional info (emotional regulation)
Function of hippocampus
Memory, spacial processing
What is the corpus callosum?
It is made of fibres that connect both cerebral hemispheres
Which hormones does the pituitary gland release?
Growth hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone
Meaning of synaptogenesis.
The rapid increase of new neural connections
Synaptic pruning means:
The dying off of unused neurons that are unnecessary because they have not been used, and take up energy for nothing.
Which comes first: synaptogenesis or synaptic pruning?
Synaptogenesis
Around when does synaptic pruning occur in toddlers?
At about 4 years old
Name four gross motor skills that toddlers develop
Running, crawling, jumping, riding a bicycle
Name some attributes that toddlers acquire with gross motor skills.
Coordination, endurance, speed, balance, agility.
What is the difference between experience expentant and not expectant?
In experience expectant activities like running, jumping, and catching, there is a critical period, which means that a child should learn to do these things on their own within a given time frame. Non expectant activities such as riding a bike or learning to swim depend on the parents' timing and ability.
What fine motor skills do toddlers develop?
Zipper, buttons, dressing/undressing/scribbling/drawing, tying shoes
Stages of drawing in toddlers:
a) basic scribbling (2 y/o): not planned, think about what is drawn after the fact
b) first representational forms "tadpole images," limited shapes (3-4 y/o)
c) more realistic drawings (5-6): animals, people, houses, flowers
d) Early printing (4-6): typically in captial letters. Depends on reading experience and exposure to language
Individual differences in motor development
- Socialization in gender differences
- Practice
- Adult encouragement
Physical development: influences
- Hormones and heredity
- Injuries and disease
- Nutrition
How does nutrition influence a toddler's development?
- Toddlers become picky eaters and tend to eat less food
- Nutrition aids in proper development in motor skills and cognitive function, growth levels
- Illness could lead to low appetite which can negatively affect body
Piaget's developmental stage in toddlerhood (2-7 y/o):
Preoperational
Components of the preoperational stage:
- Make-believe play
- Symbol real-world relations
What happens during make-believe play?
- Child's play is less self-centered
- More complex stories with details
- Stories are not based on real life
When a 3- year old looks at a globe and understands that he's really looking at the world, this is called:
Symbol-real-world-relations
Limitations of the preoperational stage:
- Egocentrism
- Lack of conservation
- Lack of hierarchial classification
Definition of egocentrism:
Failure to distinguish one's viewpoint from your own
Give an example of egocentrism.
When Lisa (adult) and 4 year-old Grace are looking at a 3D volcano from different angles, Lisa asks Grace to describe what Lisa would see. Grace will describe what SHE sees, and will believe that Lisa sees the same thing.
Why? Because Grace doesn't distinguish her viewpoint from Lisa's.
Lack of conservation meaning and example:
Lack of conservation is the inability to recognize that physical changes to a space will not affect its contents. For example, a toddler who sees two glasses will equal shape and equal amount of liquid inside, there are no questions asked. Then, one liquid is poured into a differently shaped glass. Even though the physical characteristic didn't change, the appearance did, which leads the toddler to believe that there in fact different quantities (when they are really the same).
What is the word for "focussing on one asepct and neglecting the others?"
Centration
Give the word for "inability to mentally reverse a series of events or steps."
Irreversibility
Meaning of lack of hierarchial classification:
Categorization, class inclusion problem. Ex.: not being able to group apples in the "apple category" AND the "fruit" category.
What do research findings show following evaluations of the preoperational stage (3)?
- Egocentrism: evidence of 3 year olds of less egocentrism in certain tasks
- Logical thinking: simple tasks such as conservation are successful by age 3
- Categorization: inferences made and categories are evident in everyday knowledge
What is Vygotsky's research centered on?
Social interaction with language
Expert guidance (from parents) gradually leads to 3 aspects of self-guidance:
- Private speech
- Zone of proximodistal development (ZPD)
- Scaffolding
What is private speech?
Children's self-directed speech
Piaget vs. Vygotsky's perspective of private speech
Piaget: "egocentric speech"
Vygotsky: "foundation for higher cognitive processes"
If scaffolding is successful, what happens to private speech?
It becomes "silent inner speech," meaning that children still talk to themselves, but inside rather than talking out loud.
Which theory states: human interaction promotes learning and cognitive growth.
Social developement theory (Vygotsky)
Explain Zone of proximodistal development.
Space between a child's learning experiences and their potential competence they can achieve with the guidance of a parent.
Explain Scaffolding
Process of guiding and shaping a child to reach their potential competence.
Vygotsky's view of make-believe-play (3)
- Influential ZPD (basic to complex stories)
- Ideal for social and cognitive development
- Often accompanied with private speech
Pros of Vygotsky's research:
- Accounting for sociocultural influences
- Emphasis on the teacher's role in cognitive development
Cons of Vygotsky's research:
- Not well researched
- Overemphasis on the role of language in thinking and says little about other capacities
Examples of executive function:
Flexibility shifting, inhibition, working memory, planning
Example of memory
Recognition and recall, episodic memory
Executive function: Inhibition meaning
Attention; focus and attention span increase with age
Flexibility shifting meaning
4 year olds can switch rules
Working memory meaning
Capacity to use specific rules or instructions to complete a task.
Executive functioning: planning meaning
Chid will postpone action in favor of planning (planning before acting).
Ways to foster executive function (3)
- Scaffolding
- Using cultural tools (like instructions to build Lego)
- Poverty negatively affects executive function
Two aspects of memory:
- Recognition
- Recall
Memory strategies:
- Mneumonic devices
- Organizing information into categories
- Rehearsal
Episodic memory: scripts meaning
Description of famililiar and routine events, which helps children organize, interpret, and predict future events.
Ex.: Knowing what will happen on school mornings: Get up, bush teeth, breakfast, school bus...
Episodic memory: autobiographical memory meaning
For meaningful, one-time events. Improves with cognition and coversation.
Parental interaction styles in autobiographical memory (2):
Repetitive and elaborative
How many words does a 2 year old know versus a 6 year old?
250 words and 10 000 words
Word for "rapid connections of new words to their exact referents.'
Fast-mapping
Cues of fast mapping:
Social, Perceptual, Linguistic (PSL)
Vocabulary rules (3):
- Subject-verb-object
- Add -ing or -s to express meanings
- Overgeneralization: overextend rules to exceptions. Ex.: one tooth, two tooths
Definition of pragmatics:
Effective and appropriate communication
At 2 years old, what pragamatic has the child achieved?
Face-to-face interaction and turn taking
At 3 years old, what pragamatic has the child achieved?
Infers speaker's intention, indirectly expressed. Ex.: getting a look from your mother which indirectly means "no."
At 4-8 years old, what pragamatic has the child achieved?
Speaking and giving directions on the phone
Two ways to support language development (R-E):
Recast: correcting child's speech without judgement
Expansion: elaborating on child's speech by adding verbs and conjunctions
Child's Theory of Mind (2 years old)
Knowledge that everyone has desires, and desires connect to behaviour
Child's Theory of Mind (3 years old)
Ability to distinguish from real and not real
Child's Theory of Mind (4 years old)
Understanding that behaviour is based on beliefs, even if beliefs are wrong.
Erik Erikson's stage of development for 3-6 year olds
Early childhood
Primary task in early childhood:
Initiative vs. guilt
Word for: attributes, abilities, attitudes and values that an individual believes defines who they are.
Self-concept
Self-esteem meaning
Self-judement and opinion about oneself
Problem with building self-esteem:
Children often overestimate their desired abilities veruses their actual competence
Define initiative in early childhood.
Eagerness to try new tasks, join activities, make decisions on their own
Define guilt in early childhood.
Overly strict superego causing too much guilt. Related to parental criticism, punishment
What is the difference between shame and guilt?
Shame is a feeling like withdrawal or revenge when a child is humiliated. Guilt is when personal moral standards are hurt after trying to improve behaviour
How to avoid shame and guilt:
Supportive parenting that focuses on improving performance
Individual differences in empathy:
Temperament and parenting
4 aspects of play behaviour:
- Nonsocial (playing alone)
- Parallel (playing near others)
- Associative (playing separate activities but commenting on others')
- Cooperative (playing together)
N-PAC
Gender differences in cooperative play:
Girls = sociodramatic play
Boys = rough and tumble
What are some benefits of first friendships?
Cooperative, emotional expressiveness, children with good friends will be happier to go to kindergarten
Aspects of socioemotional development:
Emotional understanding, self-regulation, empathy and sympathy, self-consciousness, link to emotion and behaviour (feels sad, so will cry)
What is emotional regulation?
Ability to control one's emotions
Name some EXternalizing tendencies.
- throwing tantrums
- uncontrolled physical or verbal outburts
- breaking things
- blames others for their failures
Name some INternalizing tendencies.
- difficulty with emotional regulation
- learned helplessness
- excessively feeling shame, guilt, doubt...
Two factors that influence a child's ability to be aware of strategies for emotion regulation:
Parenting and temperament
Parenting styles:
Authoritative
Authoritarian
Permissive
Uninvolved
Describe authoritative parenting.
- Best style
- Adequate control, high warmth
- Results in child's high self-esteem, social and moral maturity
Describe authoritarian parenting.
- High control, low warmth
- Child has less autonomy
- Results in child's anxiety, unhappiness, low self-esteem
Describe permissive parenting.
- Low control, high warmth
- Parent not so much involved
- Results in child being disobedient, poor school performance, impulsivity
Describe uninvolved parenting.
- Low warmth, low control
- Parent is indifferent about what goes on in child's life
- Results in child's poor school performance, poor emotional regulation, antisocial behaviour
Learning behaviours:
Imitation leads to disinhibition;
Counter-imitation leads to inhibition
What is it called when child will likely imitate/show behvaiours that they observed?
Disinhibition
What is it called when child will most likely not show what they learned through observation?
Inhibition (holding it IN)
Learning from direct feedback strategies (name all 4)
- Positive reinforcement (adding something good to continue behaviour
- Positive punishment (adding something bad to decrease beahviour
- Negative reinforcement (remove something bad to continue behaviour
- Negative punishment (remove something good to decrease behaviour
When is positive punishment effective?
When it's given immediately after undesired behaviour occurs.
Suggest 3 alternatives to harsh punishment.
- Time away from an activity (time out)
- Redirecting to another activity
- Withdrawing privilege
What is child maltreatment?
Any act that seriously endangers a child, physically or emotionally.
Examples of child maltreatment:
Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect
Emotional consequences from maltreatment (3):
Depression, impaired empathy/sympathy, impaired emotional self-regulation
Behvioural consequences:
Substance abuse, violent crime
Consequences on cognitive function:
Lower performance in school, poor nutrition, impaired executive functions