Chapter 5

Early Childhood: Physical &

Cognitive Development

What sets us apart from other

animals?

Humans must wait more than

a decade before we become
physically adult

Spend much of life in childhood

What sets us apart from other

animals?
Ability to take another persons to
take another persons perspective

Mind-reading skill (begins with joint

attention)

Ability to put ourselves in other

peoples heads and make sense
of their inner motivations

language ability

Slow-growing Frontal Lobes

Compared

to other parts of the brain, front

lobe development is on a delayed timetable.
As frontal lobes mature throughout childhood
and adolescence, our ability to think through,
inhibit, and plan our actions gradually improves.

Growth and Motor Skills:

Basic Facts

Cephalocaudal sequence

Mass-to-specific sequence

Two types of physical skills develop overtime:

Gross Motor skills: large muscle

Fine Motor skills: small muscle

Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development:
Piagets Preoperational Stage

Spans ages 2 to 7
Preoperational Thinking

Inability to step back from ones immediate

perceptions and think conceptually
Differ from adults in way they reason about the world

Cannot reason logically; cannot look beyond the way

objects immediately appear
Young children understand only what they can see in
front of them.

Low on problem-solving, time

management, multi-tasking, and
meta-cognition

Preoperational Stage

Assessing a Childs Preoperational

Thought

Piagets conservation Tasks

Conservation: our knowledge that the amount of a

given substance remains identical despite changes
in its shape orhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o
form

Why cant young children conserve?

They do not understand

reversibility
Children center on what
they can see

Piagets Conservation Tasks

Preoperational Thinking

Children also have

trouble grasping these
concepts:

Class inclusion: the

understanding that a
general category can
encompass several
subordinate elements

Seriation: the ability to

put things in order
according to some
principle, such as size,
shape, or purpose

Preoperational Thinking:
Peculiar Perceptions About
People

Preoperational
children have an
inability to understand
identity constancy

a persons core self

stays the same despite
changes in appearance

Other Peculiarities in
Childhood Thinking
animism

Preoperational

childs
belief that inanimate
objects are alive

artificialism

young

children believe
that everything in nature
was made by human
beings

(i.e., turn a light switch off

Ego
https://
centrism

to make the sun go down)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OinqFgsIbh0

young

children believe that they are the literal

center of universe, the pivot around which
everything else revolves

Piagets Concrete Operational

Stage
Ages

8 to 12
Skills develop gradually
(between ages 5-7) but by
age 8 children are firmly in
this stage.
understand

conservation

tasks
Give up animism
Understand ___________
______________
Look beyond the way things
appear
Begin to understand
principles of _____________

Vygotsky's View of Cognitive

Development

Cognition result of social interaction in

which children learn through guided
participation

Children gradually grow intellectually and

begin to function on their own because of
assistance that adults and peer partners
provide

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

ZPD the level at which a child can almost, but not
fully, perform a task independently, but can do so with
the assistance of someone more competent.

Cognition increases through exposure

to information that is new enough to
be intriguing, but not too difficult

Greater improvement with

help = greater increases in zone of
proximal development

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BX2ynEqL

Scaffolding

Support for learning and problem solving that

encourages independence and growth

Aids in development
of overall cognitive abilities

Tips for Effective Scaffolding

Foster a secure attachment

Teach by chunking tasks

Give nonthreatening feedback

Continue helping until child has

mastered concept, then move on

Set an overall framework for the

learning task and build on the childs motivation

Cognitive Development:
Information Processing
Perspective

Looks at specific skills

development of memory
concentration
ability to inhibit and control our actions

Mental growth occurs gradually, not in stages

Attempts to decode the

_processing steps involved in
thinking

Explores the development of

memory and executive functions

Information Processing:
Making Sense of Memory

Short Term Memory

Keeps info in immediate awareness

Holds about 7 + or 2 bits of info

Working Memory

manipulates info to produce an answer

Executive Processor
Helps us to make sense of information
Allows us to focus on what is
important for storage in long-term memory
Memory bin capacity expands between ages 2 7
Allows for new understanding at around 7 8 (concrete
operational thinking)

Information Processing:
Exploring Executive Functions

Executive Functions: any

frontal-lobe activity that allows
us to inhibit our responses and to
plan and direct our thinking

Rehearsal learning strategy in which people repeat

info to embed it into memory

Selective Attention ability to attend to one thing

and filter our others

Behavioral Inhibition being able to say no to

things

Information Processing Guidelines

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Characteristics

Excessive restlessness
Easily distracted
Difficulties focusing
Usually diagnosed in elementary schools
Most often diagnosed in boys
More often diagnosed in the United States

Interventions: Helping Children with ADHD

Well-known treatment: stimulant medications

Best when used with reinforcement for appropriate

behavior

Foster best personenvironment fit

Provide non-distracting environment that demands

selective attention (e.g., homework)

Specific Social Cognitive Skills:

Constructing Our Personal Past

Autobiographical memory: Recollections of events

and experiences that make up ones life history

Scaffolded through past talk conversations

Becomes more elaborate as children move from preschool to

elementary school
Use experiences to connect with others

What is theory of mind?

Theory of mind
The understanding that other people have
different beliefs and perspectives from
our own.
Typically emerges around age 4-5

The false-belief task

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jSdOQQpv0

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The condition most closely associated with

impairments in theory of mind

Identified with the following problems:

Difficulties understanding social cues

Impairments in the ability to form

give-and-take friendships

Using stereotyped motor actions

Preoccupation with objects rather

than with the human world