Lifespan Psychology Module 7: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Key terms:

 Corpus callosum: the membrane that connects the right and left hemispheres of the

cerebral cortex

 Lateralization: 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

 Handedness: a strong preference for using one hand or the other that develops between 3

and 5 years of age

 Semiotic (symbolic) function: the understanding that one object or behavior can

represent another

 Preoperational stage: Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development, during which

children become proficient in the use of symbols in thinking and communicating but still

have difficulty thinking logically

 Egocentrism: a young child’s belief that everyone sees and experiences the world the

way she does

 Centration: a young child’s tendency to think of the world in terms of one variable at a

time

 Conservation: the understanding that matter can change in appearance without changing

in quantity

 Theory of mind: a set of ideas constructed by a child or an adult to explain other

people’s ideas, beliefs, desires, and behavior

 False-belief principle: an understanding that enables a child to look at a situation from

another person’s point of view and determine what kind of information will cause that person

to have a false belief

 Short-term storage space (STSS) : neo-Piagetian theorist Robbie Case’s term for the

working memory

 Operational efficiency: a neo-Piagetian term that refers to the maximum number of

schemes that can be processed in working memory at one time

 Metamemory: knowledge about how memory works and the ability to control and

reflect on one’s own memory function

 Metacognition: knowledge about how the mind thinks and the ability to control and

reflect on one’s own thought processes

 Fast-mapping: the ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents

 Grammar explosion-the period during when the grammatical features of children’s

speech become more similar to those of adult speech

 Overregularization: attachment of regular inflections to irregular words, such as the

substitution of “goed” for “went”

 Phonological awareness: children’s understanding of the sound patterns of the language

they are acquiring

 Invented spelling: a strategy young children with good phonological awareness skills

use when they write

 Intelligence quotient (IQ) : the ratio of mental age to chronological age; also, a general

term for any kind of score derived from an intelligence test

 Reaction range: a range, established by one’s genes, between upper and lower

boundaries for traits such as intelligence; one’s environment determines where, within those

limits, one will be.

I) Physical Changes

a) Growth and Motor Development

 The physical changes between ages 2 and 6 are less dramatic.

 Between ages 2 and 6, each year the child adds about 2 to 3 inches in height and

about 6 pounds in weight.

 By age 5 or 6, children are running, jumping, hopping, galloping, climbing, and

skipping.

 It is a rare kindergartener who is really skilled at such fine-motor task as writing

letters. However, a “wait and see” strategy isn’t the best approach to helping children

learn to write letters and draw simple forms. Researchers have found that early
 training, beginning at about age 2 ½ can accelerate the rate at which young children

acquire school-related fine-motor skills such as writing letters.

b) The Brain and Nervous System

 Corpus callosum: the membrane that connects the right and left hemispheres of the

cerebral cortex. This grows and matures the most during early childhood years.

 Lateralization: the process through which brain functions are divided between the

two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. Genes dictate which functions will be

lateralized and which will not be. However, experiences shapes the pace at which

lateralization occurs. In 95% of humans, language functions that enable us to

understand the meaning of words and sentences are carried out in the left hemisphere.

 Hippocampus: a brain structure that is important in learning.

 Maturation of the connections between the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex is

probably responsible for our inability to remember much about the first 3 years of life

(infantile amnesia).

 Handedness: a strong preference for using one hand or the other that develops

between 3 and 5 years of age.

 In trying to train a child to sleep in their own bed, you can:

(1) Provide the child with a structured, predictable daytime schedule and stick to it as

closely as possible every day.

(2) Set a regular bedtime that is 8 to 10 hours before the desired waking time.

(3) Discontinue daytime naps for a child who has difficulty getting to sleep or who

awakens too early in the morning.

 (4) Establish a routine set of “settling activities,” such as a bath, story book, and

goodnight kiss, and resist the child’s efforts to prolong or modify the routine.

(5) Provide the child with a transitional object such as a doll or stuffed animal that is

reserved especially for bedtime.

c) Health and Wellness

 Young children eat only about half as much food as adults, and, unlike adults, many

don’t consume the majority of their daily calories at regular meals.

 In the United States, the average preschooler has 6 to 7 colds each year, along with

one or two episodes of gastrointestinal illness.

d) Abuse and Neglect

 Legally, child abuse is defined as physical or psychological injury that results from an

adult’s intentional exposure of a child to potentially harmful physical stimuli, sexual

acts, or neglect. Neglect is failure of caregivers to provide emotional and physical

support for a child.

 The four broad categories for explaining abuse: sociocultural factors, characteristics

of the child, characteristics of the abuser, and family stresses.

 Parents are more likely to be abusive if they believe that there are few, if any, moral

limits on what they can do to their children physically. Sociologists suggest that such

beliefs stem from cultural traditions that regard children as property rather than

human beings with individual rights.

II) Cognitive Changes

a) Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

  Semiotic (symbolic) function: the understanding that one object or behavior can

represent another. Children acquire this between the ages of 18 and 24 months.

 Preoperational stage: Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development, during which

children become proficient in the use of symbols in thinking and communicating but

still have difficulty thinking logically.

 Egocentrism: a young child’s belief that everyone sees and experiences the world the

way she does.

 Centration: a young child’s tendency to think of the world in terms of one variable at

a time.

 Conservation: the understanding that matter can change in appearance without

changing in quantity.

b) Challenges to Piaget’s View

 Studies of conservation have generally confirmed Piaget’s observations.

c) Theories of Mind

 Theory of mind: a set of ideas constructed by a child or an adult to explain other

people’s ideas, beliefs, desires, and behavior.

 False-belief principle: an understanding that enables a child to look at a situation

from another person’s point of view and determine what kind of information will

cause that person to have a false belief.

 Understanding of the reciprocal nature of thought seems to develop between age 5

and age 7 for most children.

 Participation in shared pretending has been shown to contribute to theory-of-mind

development cross-culturally.
 d) Alternative Theories of Early Childhood Thinking

 Short-term storage space (STSS) : neo-Piagetian theorist Robbie Case’s term for

the working memory.

 Operational efficiency: a neo-Piagetian term that refers to the maximum number of

schemes that can be processed in working memory at one time.

 Information-Processing Theories maintain that children’s ability to make efficient use

of their memory system influences their performance on problem-solving tasks.

 Metamemory: knowledge about how memory works and the ability to control and

reflect on one’s own memory function.

 Metacognition: knowledge about how the mind thinks and the ability to control and

reflect on one’s own thought processes.

 Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory: suggested that solutions to problems are socially

generated and learned. He didn’t deny that individual learning takes place; he

suggested that group learning processes are central to cognitive development.

(1) Stage 1: the primitive stage; the infant possesses mental processes similar to those

of lower animals. They learn primarily through conditioning until language begins

to develop in the second year.

(2) Naïve psychology stage: the infant learns to use language to communicate but still

does not understand its symbolic character. Around age 2.

(3) Private speech stage: around the end of age 3; they use language as a guide to

solving problems.

III) Changes in Languages

a) Fast-Mapping
  Fast-mapping: the ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents.

b) The Grammar Explosion

 Grammar explosion: the period during when the grammatical features of children’s

speech become more similar to those of adult speech.

 Overregularization: attachment of regular inflections to irregular words, such as the

substitution of “goed” for “went”

c) Phonological Awareness

 Phonological awareness: children’s understanding of the sound patterns of the

language they are acquiring.

 A child doesn’t have to acquire phonological awareness in early childhood; it can be

learned in elementary school through formal instruction. However, numerous studies

have shown that the greater a child’s phonological awareness before they enter

school, the faster they learn to read.

 Invented spelling: a strategy young children with good phonological awareness skills

use when they write.

IV) Differences in Intelligence

a) Measuring Intelligence

 The first modern intelligence test was published in 1905 by Binet and Simon.

 Intelligence quotient (IQ) : the ratio of mental age to chronological age; also, a

general term for any kind of score derived from an intelligence test.

b) Origins of Individual Differences in Intelligence

 Reaction range: a range, established by one’s genes, between upper and lower

boundaries for traits such as intelligence; one’s environment determines where,

within those limits, one will be.