CHILDHOOD: THE WONDER YEARS - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

CHILDHOOD: THE WONDER YEARSSlide2

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Refers to progression of muscular coordination required for physical activity

Grasping, reaching, crawling, walking, etc…Slide3

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

1:

Cephalocaudal trend

: head-to-foot direction of motor development

Children tend to gain control of their upper body before the lower

2:

Proximodistal trend

:

center-outward direction of motor developmentSlide4

MATURATION

Early motor dev. depends partially on physical growth; uneven in infancy

Early motor dev. attributed to

Maturation

:

development that reflects the gradual unfolding of one’s genetic blueprintSlide5

DEVELOPMENTAL NORMS

DEF: the median age at which individuals display various behaviors and abilities

Useful as benchmarks in the life spanSlide6

CULTURAL VARIATIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

Cross-cultural research shows a relationship btwn experience and maturation

As age increases, maturation becomes less influential and experience is more criticalSlide7

EASY AND DIFFICULT BABIES

Temperament

: characteristic mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity

Alexander Thomas and Stella Chase studies

Longitudinal study

: observe one group repeatedly over a period of time

Cross-sectional study

: compare groups of differing age at a single pt. in timeSlide8

THOMAS AND CHASE FINDINGS

Temperament is established btwn 2 or 3 months old

3 basic styles:

Easy children

: 40%; happy, regular sleep and eating, adaptable, not easily upset

Slow-to-warm-up

: 15%; less cheery, less regular sleep and eating, slower adaptation to change

Difficult children

: 10%; glum, erratic sleep and eating, irritable, resistant to change

--remaining 35% were a mixSlide9

OTHER RESEARCH

Jerome Kagan

15-20% of infants:

inhibited temperament

: shy, timid, wary of unfamiliar

25-30% of infants:

uninhibited temperament

: not shy, approach unfamiliarSlide10

EARLY EMOTIONAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENTSlide11

ATTACHMENT

DEF: close, emotional bonds of affection that develop btwn infants and their caregivers

Usually to the mother

Not instantaneous

Separation anxiety

: emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachmentSlide12

PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENT

Secure attachment

: infant is comfortable when mother present, visibly upset when she leaves, calmed when she returns

Anxious-ambivalent

: anxious when mother present, protest when she leaves, not calmed when she returns

Avoidant attachment

: seek little contact w/mother, not distressed when she leavesSlide13

EFFECTS OF SECURE ATTACHMENT

Children tend to become competent toddlers w/high self-esteem

Preschool years: leaders, self-reliant, better peer relations

Age 11: better social skills, more close friends

More advanced cognitive development

All correlational dataSlide14

BONDING AT BIRTH

Some believe that skin-to-skin contact btwn newborn and mother is important

Can create a more effective attachmentSlide15

DAY CARE

Do infant-mother separations effect attachment?

2/3 of children under 5 are in day care

Research by Belsky shows 20+ hrs per week increases development of insecure attachmentSlide16

CULTURE AND ATTACHMENT

Separation anxiety emerges c. 6-8 months

Peaks about 14-18 months

Attachment is culturally universal

Differences occur due to child-rearing practicesSlide17

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES ON ATTACHMENT

Attachments may depend on the character of the environments

Secure environments create sensitive parents, which leads to secure attachment

Harsh environments create unresponsive parents; leads to insecure attachmentSlide18

BECOMING UNIQUE: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Freud came up w/1

st

theory of personality development

Erik Erikson revised the stage theory of Freud

Stage

: developmental period during which characteristic patterns of behavior are exhibited and certain capacities become establishedSlide19

ERIKSON’S STAGE THEORY

8 stages

Each has a

psychosocial crisis

involving transitions

Personality is shaped by how we deal with these crisesSlide20

STAGE 1

Trust vs. Mistrust

In the 1

st

year of life

Babies rely on others for care

If biological needs are seen to, secure attachments formSlide21

STAGE 2

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

2

nd

and 3

rd

years of life

Toilet training and other ways of regulating behavior

Child must begin to take some responsibility

Parent-child conflicts may create shame and self-doubtSlide22

STAGE 3

Initiative vs. Guilt

Ages 3-6

Children take initiatives that conflict with rules

Overcontrolling parents may instill feelings of guilt, damaging self-esteem

Be supportive while maintaining controlSlide23

STAGE 4

Industry vs. Inferiority

Ages 6-puberty

Learning to function socially beyond the family

Effective functioning leads to higher sense of competenceSlide24

Cognitive development:

transitions in children’s patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering, and problem solving

GROWTH OF THOUGHT: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTSlide25

OVERVIEW OF PIAGET’S STAGE THEORY

Jean Piaget

Wanted to study how children

use

intelligence

Believed the way children think is altered by interaction w/environment and maturation

4 major stages…Slide26

STAGE 1

Sensorimotor Period

From birth to age 2

Development of coordination of sensory input

Transition from innate reflexes to use of mental symbols

Object Permanence

:

recognition that objects continue to exist even when no longer visibleSlide27

STAGE 2

Preoperational Period

Age 2-7

Principles:

1:

Conservation

: awareness that physical amts remain constant in spite of changes in shape and appearance

2:

Centration

: tendency to focus on one feature of a problem, ignoring othersSlide28

STAGE 2 CONTINUED

3:

Irreversibility

: inability to envision reversing an action

4:

Egocentrism

: limited ability to share another person’s point of view

---notable feature of egocentrism:

animism

: belief that all things are livingSlide29

STAGE 3

Concrete Operational Period

Development of mental operations

Reversibility and decentration occur

Leads to decline in egocentrism and mastery of conservation

Problem solving skills enhanceSlide30

STAGE 4

Formal Operational Period

C. 11 yrs old

Abstract operations

Problem solving becomes systematic, logical, and reflectiveSlide31

ARE COGNITIVE ABILITIES INNATE?

Habituation

: gradual reduction in strength of a response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly

Dishabituation

: occurs if a new stimulus elicits an increase in the strength of an habituated responseSlide32

CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIND

Age 2: distinguish btwn desires and emotions

Age 3: realize other’s thoughts and beliefs

Age 4: begin to understand how thoughts and desires effect behaviorSlide33

PROGRESS IN INFORMATION PROCESSING

Info. processing theory focuses on how people receive, encode, store, organize, retrieve, and use information

Has shown developmental changes in attention and memorySlide34

ATTENTION

Attention span lengthens as age increases

More conscious control is acquired

Gradually able to filter out irrelevant dataSlide35

MEMORY

Infantile Amnesia

: inability to remember experiences from early years

Memories usually start around 3 or 4 yrs old

Development of language skills improves memories

Strategies for enhancement of information storage and retrieval:

Rehearsal

: repetition; verbal or thinking (age 5)

Organization

: grouping based on similarities(age 9)

Elaboration:

building additional associations(age 11)Slide36

DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL REASONINGSlide37

KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Lawrence Kohlberg

Theory focus: moral reasoning

Three levels: Preconventional, Conventional, Postconventional

Each as 2 sublevels (6 stages in all)Slide38

KOHLBERG’S LEVELS

Preconventional

: thinking in terms of external authority---based on punishment or reward

Conventional

: internalize rules to be virtuous and win approval---rules are absolute

Postconventional

: working out personal code of ethics; moral thinking is flexible