Lifespan Development

1. Lifespan Development

2. Maturation The sequential unfolding of genetically influenced behavior and physical characteristics

3. Determining Gender Roles

4. From Conception

5. NOVA – Life’s Greatest Miracle

6. The Three Pre-Birth Stages • Germinal Stage (Zygote) • Embryonic Stage • Fetal Stage

8. Harmful influences that can cross the placenta barrier include German measles, radiation, toxic chemicals, sexually transmitted diseases, cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, prescription and nonprescription drugs. These are collectively known asTeratogens. Teratogens

9. One thing to remember is that as an individual grows, they go through a variety of critical periods. Critical periods are specific windows of time after which it is very difficult to acquire a skill.

10. The Newborn’s Physical Abilities

11. Reflexes • Rooting – when something touches an infants cheek, they instinctively open their mouths and “root” for a nipple

12. Palmar Reflex – grasping objects that are placed in the hand • Babinski Reflex – toes splaying outwards when the foot is stroked • Moro Reflex – limb splaying when a loud noise occurs Newborn Abilities

13. Newborns and their Temperaments

14. Temperament • A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

15. Temperament • A baby’s temperament is apparent after just a few hours of birth • “easy” babies – eat and sleep regularly • “difficult” – unpredictable, intense, & irritable

16. Newborns and Attachment

17. Attachment the bonding between child and caregiver that provides a secure base from which children can explore

18. Harry Harlow • One wire monkey with a milk bottle, one soft cloth monkey • Baby monkeys preferred the softer mother figure when they were scared • Physical Comfort is a key to attachment Harry Harlow’s Experiment

21. Ainsworthdevised an experimental method called theStranger Situationin which the babies behavior is observed when the mother leaves the baby with a stranger Stranger Situation Experiment

22. Securely attachedchildren are clearly more attached to the mother. They explore while a parent is present, are distressed when they leave, and go to the parent upon return

23. Insecurely Attachedchildren don’t particularly like to be held, may explore with or without the parent around, may show a lot of stress when their parents leave though they may or may not go to the parent upon return

24. Parenting Styles

25. Authoritarian Parents set strict standards and apply frequent punishment • Permissive Parents do not set clear guidelines and the rules are constantly changing

26. Authoritarian styles produce children are more likely to distrust others and are more socially withdrawn

27. Permissive style reared children tend to have more emotional control problems and are more dependent

28. Authoritative Parents have set and consistent rules of behavior, and those rules are reasonable. Praise and punishment, independence and control.

29. Authoritative style produces the most desirable and beneficial home environment. Children are more capable and perform better academically

30. Infancy and Early Childhood Development

31. Language Infant Speech Development

32. Noam Chomsky • Every child is born with the biological predisposition to learn language, any language.

33. “Motherese” • Infant Directed Speech – the phenomenon that across cultures we speak to infants in a particular style. Small words, higher pitches, exaggerated intonation and expression.

34. Stages of Language Development • Cooing (3 mos.) – repeated vowel sounds • “aaaaa, oooooo” • Babbling (5 mos.) – adding in consonants, stringing together vowel sounds • “da-da-da, ma-ma-ma, ba-bab-ba”

35. Stages of Language Development • Babbling, Pt. II (9 mos.) – babbling in sounds specific to their language • One-Word Stage (1 year) – typically, single concrete words used • “dada, mama, baba”

36. Stages of Language Development • Two-Word Stage (2 years) – two word sentences, all content • “Where kitty? No potty !” • By age 3, children begin to add in articles and prepositions and have a vocabulary of over 3,000 words.

37. Stages of Language Development • Phonemes – the smallest units of sounds used to differentiate meanings and words • Skill, Still, Spill • Kit, Skill • Morpheme – the smallest, meaningful parts of a single word • Governmental – govern + ment + al • Predict – pre + dict

38. Piaget and Thinking Infant Cognitive Development

39. Thinking • Assimilation-adding new information into our present system of knowledge, belief and schemas through experience • Accommodation-we must change or modify existing schemas to accommodate new info that does not fit with the old

40. Piaget’s proposed that there are four stages of cognitive growth that humans go through, from birth through to adulthood. Each stage marks a new way in which a person learns new information and is able to think about the world around them.

41. Sensorimotor Stage (Preconventional) • (Birth to 2 years old) • Infants learn through concrete actions; “thinking” consists of coordinating sensory info with bodily movement – experience the world through looking, touching, mouthing, and grasping

42. Begin to understand object permanence at around 6 months; involves understanding that things exist even they are not perceived Object Permanence

43. Preoperational Stage • (Ages 2-6 Years) • The time period in which a child learns to use language to learn about the world • Egocentrism – Children at this age cannot perceive things from another’s point of view- the world revolves around them and them alone • Artificialism – Children at this age may believe that all things are human made • Animism – Children at this age may believe that all things are living

44. Concrete Operational Stage • (Ages 7-11) • Conservation is the understanding that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

46. Formal Operations Stage • (Age 12 to adulthood) • Beginning of abstract reasoning • Can reason systematically, think about the future, think about situations they have not experienced firsthand

47. The Development of Morals

48. Lawrence Kohlberg • Moral Reasoning is the thinking that occurs as we consider the ideas of what is right and what is wrong, and what guides our judgments and behaviors • There are three stages of moral growth

49. Level 1 – Preconventional Morality • Choosing what is right or wrong is based on the fear punishment for disobedience, or the promise of rewards • Children often do what is in their own best interest

50. Level 2 – Conventional Morality • Beginning to care for other’s feelings, and understanding that there are laws and social rules to follow • Choices are also made based on social acceptance as adolescence begins