EARLY CHILDHOOD - PHYSICAL CHANGES

The physical changes between ages 2 and 6 are less dramatic and it provides children with a
foundation for the cognitive and social leaps that lie ahead of them.

4 PARTS OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

 GROWTH AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

-Changes in height and weight far more slowly in the preschool years than in infancy. Each
year the child adds about 2 to 3 inches in height and about 6 pounds in weight. At the same
time, the young child makes steady progress in motor development.

A motor skill is simply an action that involves your baby using his muscles.

 TYPES OF MOTOR SKILL

Gross motor skill- gross motor skills are those which require whole body movement and
which involve the large muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing
and walking, running and jumping, and sitting upright at the table.

Fine-motor skill- fine motor skills are smaller actions. When the baby picks things up
between his finger and thumb, or wriggles his toes in the sand, he’s using the fine motor
skills.

MILESTONES OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT FROM AGE 2 TO 6

Age Gross Motor Skills Fine-Motor Skills

18-24 MONTHS • RUNS AWKWARDLY • SHOWS CLEAR HAND

• CLIMBS STAIRS WITH BOTH
FEET ON EACH STEP
• PUSHES AND PULLS BOXES
OR WHEELED TOYS
PREFERENCE
• STACKS FOUR TO SIX BLOCKS
• TURN PAGES ONE AT A TIME
• PICK UP THINGS WITHOUT
OVERBALANCING

2-3 YEARS • RUNS EASILY • PICKS UP SMALL OBJECTS

• CLIMBS ON FURNITURE • THROWS SMALL BALL WHILE
UNAIDED STANDING
• HAULS AND SHOVES BIG
TOYS AROUND OBSTACLES
3-4 YEARS • WALKS UP STAIRS ONE FOOT • CATCHES LARGE BALL BETWEEN
PER STEP OUTSTRETCHED ARMS
• SKIPS ON TWO FEET • CUTS PAPER WITH SCISSORS
• PEDALS AND STEERS • HOLDS PENCIL BETWEEN THUMB
TRICYCLE AND FINGERS
• WALS IN ANY DIRECTION
PULLING LARGE TOYS
4-5 YEARS • WALKS UP AND DOWN • STRIKES BALL WITH BAT
STAIRS ONE FOOT PER STEP • KICKS AND CATCHES BALL
 • STANDS, RUN, AND WALKS
ON TIPTOE
5-6 YEARS • SKIPS ON ALTERNATE FEET
• WALKS ON A LINE
• SLIDES AND SWINGS
• GRASPS PENCIL PROPERLY
• PLAYS BALL GAMES WELL
• THREADS NEEDLE AND SEWS
LARGE STITCHES

 BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM

-Brain growth, synapse formation, and myelination continue in early childhood, although at
a slower pace than in infancy (Stiles & Jernigan, 2010). A number of important neurological
milestone are reached between 2 and 6, these milestone represent the neurological
underpinnings of the remarkable advances in thinking and language that occur during this
period.

Corpus callosum- it is the membrane that connects the right and left hemispheres of the
cerebral cortex and the brain structure through which the left and right sides of the cerebral
cortex communicate, grows and matures more during the early childhood years than in any
other period of life.

Lateralization- it is the process through which brain functions are divided between the two
hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.

Hippocampus- a brain structure that is important in learning and it is involved in the transfer of
information to long-term memory.

Handedness- a strong preference for using one hand or the other that develops between 3-5
years of age.

 HEALTH AND WELLNESS

-Young children continue to require periodic medical check-ups as well as a variety of

immunizations.

Eating patterns – because children grow more slowly during the early childhood years, they may
seem to eat less than they were babies. Moreover, food aversions often develop during the
preschool years.

Illness and accidents- in United States, the average preschooler ha six to seven colds each year.
Children who are experiencing high levels of stress or family upheaval are most likely to become
ill.

- Another danger for children is accidents. In a given year, about one-quarter of all children
under 5 in the United States have at least one accident that requires of medical attention.

 ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Child abuse- it is defined as physical or psychological injury that result from adult’s intentional
exposure of a child to potentially harmful physical stimuli and sexual acts.

Neglect- it is a failures of caregivers to provide emotional and physical support for a child.

Risk factors

o Sociocultural factors- personal and cultural values.

 o Characteristics of the child- children with physical and mental disability.
o Characteristics of the abuser- lack of parenting skills and knowledge.
o Family stresses- depressed.

Consequences of abuse- some children who are frequently or severely abused develop
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disorder involves extremely levels of anxiety, flashback
memories, nightmares, and other sleep disturbances.

Prevention- preventing abuse begins with education. Informing parents about the potential
consequences of some physical acts, such as the link between shaking an infant and brain
damage, may help.

COGNITIVEDEVELOPMENT

A. PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

- Ages between 2-7 years old

- Language Development

- Represents things with words and symbols

- Cannot transform, combine or separate ideas

- Intuitive Reasoning

- Key Features of Preoperational Stage

 Symbolic Representation
 Pretend Play
 Egocentrism
 Centration
 Animism
 Transductive Reasoning
 Artificialism
 Irreversibility

B. CHILDREN’S PLAY AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

 Constructive Play
 First Pretend Play
 Substitute Pretend Play
 Sociodramatic Play
 Rule-Governed Play

C. CHALLENGES TO PIAGET’S VIEW

Studies of conservation have generally confirmed Piaget’s observations. However, evidence suggests
that pre schoolers are a great deal more cognitively sophisticated that Piaget’s thought.

Although younger children can demonstrate some understanding of conservation, if the task is made
very simple, most children cannot consistently solve conservation and other kinds of logical
problems until at least age 5.
D. PIAGET’S CONSERVATION TASKS

A particular task if they could correctly solve the problem and provide a concrete operational reason
for their answer.

Despite their egocentrism, children as young as 2 and 3 appear to have at least some ability to
understand that another person sees things or experience things differently than they do.

John Flavell has proposed two levels of perspective – taking abilities.

- Level 1 (Child knows that other people experience things differently.)

- Level 2 (The child develops a whole series of complex rules for figuring out
precisely what the person sees or experience.)

Preschooler's understanding of emotion have also challenged Piaget's description of the young
child's egocentrism.

Some developmentalists have pointed out that the task of adopting another person's perspective
can be challenging even for adults.

Preschoolers or preoperational children are a great deal more cognitively sophisticated than Piaget
thought.

E.THEORIES OF MIND

A set of ideas that explains other people's ideas, beliefs, desires and behaviour.

Theory of mind is also correlated with cognitive development.

Theory of mind may apply to children in other cultures.

Understanding thoughts, desires, and beliefs of a children ages 2-3 years old is different to
children ages 4-5.

Children Ages 2-3 years old

 Pay attention to people and copy them.

 Recognize others’ emotions and use words to express them (“happy”, “sad”, “mad”).

 Pretend to be someone else (like a doctor or a cashier) when they play.

Children Ages 4 - 5 years old

 Understanding “wanting” – Different people want different things, and to get what they
want, people act in different ways.

 Understanding “thinking” – People’s actions are based on what they think is going to
happen.

 Understanding that “seeing leads to knowing” – If you haven’t seen something, you don’t
necessarily know about it. If someone hasn’t seen something, they will need extra
information to understand.

 Understanding “false beliefs” – Sometimes people believe things that are not true, and they
act according to their beliefs, not according to what is really true.
F. ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD THINKING

How do information-processing and sociocultural theories explain changes in young

children’s thinking.

Neo Piagetian theories: rubbie case.

Short term storage space (stss)

Refers to child working memory

Operational efficiency

Limited number of schemes to which a child can attend

Improves through practice and brain maturation.

Neo Piagetian Matrix task

G. INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORIES

Information-processing theories also maintain that children ability to make efficiency use their
memory system influences their performance on problem-solving task.

Metamemory

-Knowledge about how memory works and the ability to control and reflect on one’s own
memory function.

Metacognation

-Knowledge about how the mind thinks and the ability to control and reflect on one’s own
thought processes.

H. DIFFERENCE IN INTELLIGENCE

In 1905 Alfred binet and Theodore simon made the first successful attempt to formally measure
intelligence.

In 1908, when the scale was revised, they gave the concept of mental Age (Ma) and
chronological Age (CA).

MENTAL AGE (MA)

Which is a measure of a person’s intellectual development relative to people of her/his age

group.

A mental age of 5 means that a child performance on an intelligence test equals the average
performance level of group of 5-years-old.
 CHRONOLOGICAL AGE (CA)

Chronological age (CA) is biological age from birth.

A bright child MA is more than her/his CA,(MA>CA)

For a dull child, MA is bellow the CA, (MA<CA)

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

IQ=MA/CA X 100

I. ORIGINS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTELLIGENCE

Heredity

-The natural process by which physical and mental qualities are passed from a parent to a
child.

Family influences

-Adoption studies findings

-Family demographics and learning environment

J. TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE

 Naturalist (nature smart)

 Musical (sound smart)
 Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)
 Existential (life smart)
 Interpersonal (people smart)
 Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)
 Linguistic (word smart)
 Intra-personal (self smart)

1. Naturalist Intelligence

- Naturalist intelligence designates the human ability to discriminate among living things
(plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock
configurations).

2. Musical Intelligence

- Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone.

3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

- Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions

and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations.

4. Existential Intelligence

- Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the
meaning of life, why we die, and how did we get here.
 5. Interpersonal Intelligence

- interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others.

6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

- Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of
physical skills.

7. Linguistic Intelligence

- Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and
appreciate complex meanings.

8. Intra-personal Intelligence

-Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and
feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life.

K. CHANGING IN LANGUAGE

Fast -mapping

- The ability to categorize link new words to real-world referents.

Grammar Explosion

-The period during grammatical features of children’s speech become more similar to those
of adult speech.

Over regularization

-Attachment of regular inflection to irregular words, such as the substitution of “goed” for
“went”

Phonological Awareness

-children’s understanding of sound patterns of the language they are acquiring.

Invented spelling

-A strategy young children with good phonological awareness skills use when write.

LEARLY CHILDHOOD SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Psychoanalytic Perspective

 Freud’s view of the early childhood period as the time in life when young children, first, gain
control of their bodily functions and renegotiate their relationships with their parents for
stepping out into the world of peers.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

 Social Cognitive theory assumes that social and emotional changes in the child are the result
of the enormous growth in cognitive abilities that happens during the preschool years.
 Person Perception
Pre-schooler’s emerging capacity for applying categories to people or the ability to classify
others.

Understanding rule categories

Social cognitive theorists have found that children begin to respond differently to violations
of different kinds of rules.

Self concept

Emotional self
Focused on the acquisition of emotional regulation or the ability to control emotional states

Another aspect of emotional self involves empathy

The ability to identify with another person’s emotional state

Gender development

Explaining gender development

1.Psychoanalytic explanation
-Freud suggested that 3 to 6 years old overcome the anxiety they feel about their desires for the
opposite sex parent through identification with the same sex parent.

2. Social learning explanation

-Social learning theorists have emphasized the role of parents in shaping children’s gender
development

3.Cognitive developmental explanation

-Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory suggests that children’s understanding of gender
develops in stages;

a. Gender identity – the ability to correctly label oneself and others as male or female.
b. Gender stability – the understanding that gender is
stable, lifelong characteristic.
c. Gender constancy – the understanding that gender is a component of the self that is not
altered by external appearance

4. Information processing approach

a. Gender schema theory – asserting that people use a schema for each gender to process
information about themselves and others.