Chapter 12

1. Chapter 12 Life-Span Development Chapter 12 - Development

2. The Study of Development • Focus on the life span, from infancy to old age: • Physical Development • Perceptual and Cognitive Development • Emotional and Social Development Chapter 12 - Development

3. Let’s Begin in the Womb The adult brain contains trillions of nerve cells (neurons), precisely interconnected to support complex psychological function. The brain is not wired at conception. Connections between nerve cells are made in the womb as well as after birth. How does this immensely complex wiring get done and how plastic is it? Chapter 12 - Development

4. Video on Brain Wiring and Plasticity Chapter 12 - Development

5. In the World after Birth At the moment a child is born, care is taken to insure that he or she is healthy. There are a number of basic signs that reveal if everything is fine with the newborn or if special steps need to be taken to insure the good health or survival of the baby. Chapter 12 - Development

6. The APGAR Score Sign 0 Points 1 Point 2 Points A Activity (Muscle Tone) Absent Arms and Legs Flexed Active Movement P Pulse Absent Below 100 bpm Above 100 bpm G Grimace (Reflex Irritability) No Response Grimace Sneeze, cough, pulls away A Appearance (Skin Color) Blue-gray,Pale Normal, except extremities Normal over entire body R Respiration Absent Slow, irregular Good, crying Chapter 12 - Development

7. Video on the APGAR Chapter 12 - Development

8. Motor Development in Infancy • Infants have a very limited repertoire of behaviours. • Many of these are reflexes that are essential for survival: • Breathing • Swallowing • Sucking Chapter 12 - Development

9. Reflexes • Some reflexes are adaptive or are left over from evolution: • Rooting (turning head in direction of touch) • Palmar or Grasp (palm closes when touched) • Stepping (legs take steps when feet touch surface) • Moro or Startle (spreading of arms when let go) • Babinski (toes curl up when sole is pushed) • Swimming (paddling and kicking when face down in water) Chapter 12 - Development

10. Video on Newborn Reflexes Chapter 12 - Development

11. Early Developmental Processes • Some processes are fundamental to development: • Maturation (genetic program for growth) • Imitation (essential for learning) • Practice (essential for refinement and consolidation) • Habituation (promotes novel exploration) • In next video we see how maturation and imitation are involved in early sensation and perception. Chapter 12 - Development

12. Video on Imitation, Habituation and Early Perception 2:56 Chapter 12 - Development

13. Critical Periods Maturation does not occur in a vacuum. There are critical periods during which the child must have certain experiences if perceptual and cognitive abilities are to develop normally (the “use it or lose it” idea) For example, in order to develop correct binocular depth perception, the eyes must receive sensory input between 1 and 3 years of age. Similarly, a child (Genie) who was kept in confinement by her parents till the age of 13 and was never spoken to, never acquired language beyond two or three word utterances. Chapter 12 - Development

14. Video on Genie Chapter 12 - Development

15. Cognitive Development One of the essential elements in early cognitive development is the realization by the baby that his/her actions have effects on the environment. Crying is an important way for the baby to get attention and to express needs. As the baby grows, the effect of his/her actions become gradually more complex and abstract. Analyzing the nature of these changes is at the heart of theories of cognitive development. Chapter 12 - Development

16. Jean Piaget • Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist(1896-1980), is generally • recognized as having formulated the most important • theory of child development. • Piaget inspired a vision of children as busy, motivated, explorers • whose thinking develops as they act directly on the environment. • Piaget contributions are important in a number of ways: • He described the way children think at various ages. • He developed tests that identify developing cognitive skills. • He formulated processes by which cognition develops. Chapter 12 - Development

17. Piaget’s Sensorymotor Period • The sensory motor period spans the first two years of life. • In the first month, most of the baby’s actions are reflexive. • Soon the baby starts acting in ways that provide feedback • (called circular reactions). • Gradually he/she acts more and more purposefully on • the objects that surround him. • By the end of this period, the child understands that objects • continue to exist even when they are not seen and can solve • problems that require mental representations of objects and • events. Chapter 12 - Development

18. Video on the Sensory Motor Stage Chapter 12 - Development

19. Piaget’s Preoperational Period This period spans age 2 to 7. Achievements in period: The most obvious change is a tremendous increase in symbolic (representational) thought. Language is a very flexible means of symbolic representation. Numbers are also obviously symbolic (standing for quantity). Chapter 12 - Development

20. Egocentrism and Conservation There are important limitations to what the child can do at this stage: For example: Egocentrism. Inability to conserve. They do not realize that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same even when their appearance changes (they rigidly pay attention to only one aspect of object). Chapter 12 - Development

21. Video on the Preoperational Stage Chapter 12 - Development

22. Piaget’s Concrete Operations Period Spans ages 7 to 11. Achievements in Period: “Operations” refer to mental actions that obey logical rules. For example, transitivity is the operation required to answer this question: “Jane is taller than Kim and Kim is taller than Sue, who is tallest?” Child starts solving such problems with concrete objects such as sticks that differ in length. Child becomes more flexible and logical in his/her thinking, no longer having difficulty with understanding conservation. The child is now also able to take other people’s point of view and of empathizing with them, thus overcoming egocentrism. Chapter 12 - Development

23. Video on the Concrete Operational Stage Chapter 12 - Development

24. Piaget’s Formal Operations Period Children become capable of abstract reasoning, and can make logical inferences even in abstract contexts. They also begin to understand that their behaviour can have different consequences in different contexts. Chapter 12 - Development

25. Video of Formal Operational Stage Chapter 12 - Development

26. Assimilation & Accommodation Piaget saw two processes as critical for allowing a child to adapt to its environment; assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation refers to the modification of new information to make it fit into an existing schema (a kid’s understanding of something). For example: all men are Daddy. Accommodation refers to the creation or modification of schema to make them fit with new experiences … for example creating a cognitive category for men other than Daddy. Chapter 12 - Development

27. Chapter 12 - Development

28. Piaget Summary Chapter 12 - Development

29. Piaget and Education • Piaget’s ideas have had a strong impact on education. In a • Piagetian classroom: • Children are encouraged to discover for themselves through spontaneous interaction with objects in the environment. • Development is not speeded. Instead teachers watch for the emergence of schemas and present them with challenges. • Teachers realize that though all children go through the same sequence of development, they do so at a different pace. • Piaget de-emphasized communication-based routes to knowledge. This has been criticized. Chapter 12 - Development

30. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory The main developmental theorist, other than Piaget, who has had an important influence on education is Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that complex mental activities such as attention, memory, and problem solving, have their origin in social interaction. Zone of Proximal Development: a range of tasks that the child cannot yet handle alone, but can do with the help of more skilled partners. Chapter 12 - Development

31. Vygotsky and Education The main difference between a Piagetian and a Vygostskian classroom is that in the latter promotes assisted discovery (Piaget emphasized spontaneous discovery). Scaffolding: Adjusting the support offered during teaching to fit the child’s current level of performance. Peer Collaboration: Teachers group together classmates of different abilities and encourage them to help each other. Chapter 12 - Development

32. ADHD: Attention-Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder Principal symptoms: • Inattention • Hyperactivity • Impulsivity Causes: • Does not stem from the home environment or excessive sugar consumption. • Does run in families so there is a genetic component. • Imaging studies suggest underactivity in certain areas of the brain. Chapter 12 - Development

33. Video on ADHD Chapter 12 - Development

34. Social Development: Attachment Social development involves growth in how we understand ourselves and interact successfully with others. Attachment is a particularly important aspect of social development. Attachment involves a strong and relatively long lasting social and emotional bond to a caregiver. Attachment often manifests itself in situations that are fearsome to the child. Chapter 12 - Development

35. Separation and Stranger Anxiety Separation Anxiety refers to the fearful response that infants of 6 to 15 months typically exhibit when the primary caregiver leaves or attempts to leave it. Stranger Anxiety: Infants between 6 and 12 months act wary, and sometimes fearful, in the presence of strangers. In both cases, the responses typically include crying, arousal and clinging to the primary caregiver. Chapter 12 - Development

36. Video on Attachment Chapter 12 - Development

37. Researching Attachment Strange Situation Test involves separating and then reuniting the child from a caregiver (developed by Mary Ainsworth). The infant is put through 8 episodes, all meant to elicit differing levels of distress. These include an experimenter entering the room … one or both leaving … a stranger entering either with or without the parent in the room, etc. Based on the infants reaction in these situations, the type of attachment between the infant and caregiver has been categorized as one of three types. Chapter 12 - Development

38. Three Styles of Attachment Avoidant Attachment: Child ignores the mother and shows minimal distress when she leaves. Secure Attachment: Child shows preferential interest in the mother but not excessive dependence (cry when she leaves, but stop when she returns). Resistant Attachment: Child shows conflicting reactions to mother, seeking to gain and resist physical contact. Note: Other familiar caregivers (e.g., fathers) can substitute for mothers for support. Chapter 12 - Development

39. Attachment Styles in Romance Could attachment styles that develop in childhood persist into adulthood? The various manifestations of attachment illustrated in the video suggest the possibility that experiences in early childhood can influence how we relate to romantic partners. This issue is being actively researched but the evidence linking childhood attachment styles to romantic attachment styles is spotty and incomplete. Chapter 12 - Development