Invitation to the Life Span by Kathleen Stassen Berger

1. Invitation to the Life Spanby Kathleen Stassen Berger Chapter 5- Early Childhood Body and Mind PowerPoint Slidesdeveloped by Martin Wolfger and Michael James Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington

2. Body Changes Growth Patterns • Children become slimmer as the lower body lengthens. • Each year from age 2 through 6, well-nourished children add almost 3 inches in height and gain about 4 1⁄2 pounds in weight. • Center of gravity moves from the breastbone down to the belly button.

3. Body Changes Nutrition • Children need far fewer calories per pound of body weight than infants do. • Obesity is a more frequent problem than malnutrition. • Children in low-income families are especially vulnerable to obesity because their cultures still guard against undernutrition and their parents may rely on fast foods. • Overfeeding is causing an epidemic of illnesses associated with obesity, such as heart diseaseand diabetes.

4. Body Changes • Many children want foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. • Adults frequently give in, even rewarding children with candy. • Too much sugar and too little fiber rot the teeth. • Tooth decay is the most common disease of young children in developed nations • affects more than one-third of all children under age 6 in the United States .

5. Body Changes Motor Skills • Children develop all their motor skills spontaneously and diligently as they play. • By age 6, most North Americans ride tricycles; climb ladders; pump their legs on swings; and throw, catch, and kick balls. • Muscle growth, brain maturation, and guided practice advance every gross motor skill. • Practice improves dexterity and advances fine motor skills, which involve small body movements.

6. Brain Development • By age 2, a child’s brain weighs 75 percent of what it will in adulthood, and extensive sprouting and then pruning of dendrites has already taken place. • The brain reaches 90 percent of adult weight by age 6.

7. Brain Development • One part of the brain that grows and myelinates rapidly during early childhood is the corpus callosum, a band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right sides of the brain. • Growth of the corpus callosum makes communication between the two brain hemispheres more efficient. • Lateralization- Literally, sidedness, referring to the specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity.

8. Brain Development The Prefrontal Cortex • Maturation of the prefrontal cortex gradually enables children to focus attention and curb impulsiveness. • Before such maturation, many young children jump from task to task; they cannot stay quiet. • Others act in the opposite way: In a phenomenon called perseveration,some children persevere in, or stick to, one thought or action, unable to quit.

9. Brain Development Emotions and the Brain • Limbic System- parts of the brain that are crucial in the expression and regulation of emotions • Amygdala-A tiny brain structure that registers emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. • Hippocampus-A brain structure that is a central processor of memory, especially memory for locations. • Hypothalamus-A brain area that responds to the amygdala and the hippocampus to produce hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body. • Prolonged stress may lead to emotional and cognitive impairment.

10. Thinking During Early Childhood Piaget: Preoperational Thought • Preoperationalmeans “before (pre) logical operations (reasoning processes).” • The child’s verbal ability permits symbolic thinking.Language frees the child from the limits of sensorimotor experience.

11. Thinking During Early Childhood Characteristics of preoperational thought: • Centration- A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others. • Egocentrism- Piaget’s term for young children’s tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective. • Focus on appearance- A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent.

12. Thinking During Early Childhood Characteristics of preoperational thought: • Static reasoning-A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever is now has always been and always will be. • Irreversibility- A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child thinks that nothing can be undone. A thing cannot be restored to the way it was before a change occurred. • Conservation-The principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e., is conserved) when its appearance changes. • Animism-The belief that natural objects and phenomena are alive.

13. Thinking During Early Childhood

14. Thinking During Early Childhood Vygotsky: Social Learning • Every aspect of children’s cognitive development is embedded in the social context. • Apprentice in thinking-Vygotsky’s term for a person whose cognition is stimulated and directed by older and more skilled members of society.

15. Language Vocabulary • Language is pivotal to every kind of cognition in early childhood. • Early childhood is a sensitive period,the best time to master vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. • The average child knows about 500 words at age 2 and more than 10,000 at age 6.

16. Language • The naming explosion(explained in Chapter 3) becomesmore general: Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions, as well as many more nouns, are mastered. • Fast-mapping-The speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

17. Language Basic Grammar • The grammar of a language includes the structures, techniques, and rules that communicate meaning.Word order and word repetition, prefixes and suffixes, intonation and emphasis—all are part of grammar. • Overregularization-The application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur, making the language seem more “regular" than it actually is.

18. Early Childhood Education Child-Centered Programs • Stress children’s natural inclination to learn through play rather than by following adult directions. • Encourage self-paced exploration and artistic expression. • Show the influence of Vygotsky, who thought that children learn through play with other children and through cultural practices that structure life. • Montessori schools emphasize individual pride and accomplishment, presenting literacy-related tasks (such as outlining letters and looking at books). • Reggio Emilia approach- A famous program of early-childhood education that originated in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy; it encourages each child’s creativity in a carefully designed setting.

19. Early Childhood Education Teacher-Directed Programs • Stress academic subjects taught by a teacher to an entire class. • Children learn letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, as well as how to listen to the teacher and sit quietly. • Make a clear distinction between work and play. • Are much less expensive, since the child/adult ratio can be higher.

20. Early Childhood Education Intervention Programs • Project Head Start-The most widespread early-childhood education program in the United States, begun in 1965 and funded by the federal government. • At first, the program was thought to be highly successful at raising children’s intelligence; ten years later, early gains were said to fade.

21. Injuries and Maltreatment Accidents • Accidents are the leading cause of death worldwide for people under age 40. • Among 2- to 6-year-olds in the United States, four times more children die in accidents than die of cancer, which is the second most common cause of death. • Injury control/harm reduction-Practices that are aimed anticipating, controlling, and preventing dangerous activities.

22. Injuries and Maltreatment Maltreatment • Child maltreatment • Intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age. • Child abuse • Deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual well-being. • Child neglect • Failure to meet a child’s basic physical, educational, or emotional needs.

23. Injuries and Maltreatment

24. Injuries and Maltreatment Consequences of Maltreatment • Severely maltreated children suffer physiologically, academically, and socially in every culture. • The worst consequence is that maltreated children come to consider other people to be hostile and exploitative. That belief makes them fearful, aggressive, and lonely. • The earlier their abuse starts and the longer it continues, the more trouble they have with peers and adults.

25. Injuries and Maltreatment Three Levels of Prevention Again • Primary preventionincludes any measure that reduces financial stress, family isolation, and unwanted parenthood. • Secondary preventionmay include home visits by nurses, high-quality day care, and preventive social work—all designed to help high-risk families. • Tertiary preventionreduces harm when maltreatment has already occurred. Requires permanency planning, an effort to find a long-term solution to the problem.

26. Injuries and Maltreatment • Foster care- A legal, publicly supported system in which a maltreated child is removed from the parents’ custody and entrusted to another adult or family, which is reimbursed for expenses incurred in meeting the child’s needs. • Kinship care- A form of foster care in which a relative of a maltreated child, usually a grand -parent, becomes the approved caregiver.