Understanding Early Childhood Development - Physical & Cognitive Milestones

1. Infancy and Childhood Psychology, Unit 6

2. Today’s Objectives • Explain physical development in infancy and childhood • Explain the proximodistal implications of motor development • Distinguish Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development • Describe the criticisms of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

3. Physical Development • Height and weight increases exponentially over the first few years of life • Proportions change dramatically • Head size is ¼ the size of a baby but stops growing at about age 10 and decreases in proportion to the rest of the body

4. Motor Development • Developmental norms: • 9 mos pull themselves to standing • 10 mos crawl • 12 mos walk • Movement is proximodistal: begins at core and moves outward to extremities

5. MARGARET MAHLER AND SEPARATION-INDIVIDUATION THEORY • 2 initial phases • Normal Symbiotic: mother and child are one, aware of mom, but not of itself as an individual (first few weeks) • Separation-Individuation: becomes aware of environment and identity • Is further broken into 3 stages

6. Separation Individuation stages • Hatching: 5-9mos, differentiates self from mother, but uses mom as point of reference • Practicing: 9-16mos, explores away from mom (crawling, walking) • Rapprochement: 15mos+ explores on its own tentatively- wants to keep mom in sight • Further broken into 3 more stages

7. Rapprochement stages • Beginnings: desire to share discoveries with mom • Crisis: child is torn between mom and independence • Solution: resolves crisis by forming individuality (realization that moms job is to teach you to care for your self)

8. Cognitive Development • Involves adaptation to the world • Widely studied by Jean Piaget • Piaget’s 4 stages of Cognitive Development • 1. Sensory Motor: 0-3 yrs; 2. Preoperational: 2-7 years; 3. Concrete Operational: 7-11 yrs; 4. Formal Operational: adolescence-adulthood

9. Sensory Motor Stage 0-2 yrs • Begin categorizing information in LTM based on basic abilities ex: suckable, not suckable • Develop object permanence: realize an object exists even when out of sight • Brain is able to form mental representations: can think of objects, people, and events and “see” them in their mind’s eyes

10. Preoperational Stage 2-7 yrs • Use mental representations in fantasy play with symbolic gestures • Appearances are important in understanding; kids think 8oz in a small glass is less than 8oz in a tall glass • Extremely egocentric: see things from only their own perspective

11. Concrete Operations 7-11 yrs • Flexible thinking; principles of conservation: can understand 8oz is 8oz in any shape glass • Can understand things belong to multiple classes; ex: a dog is both a dog and an animal

12. Formal Operations 11+ yrs • Can think abstractly, form hypotheses, and test these ideas with experiments • Do not need to see to believe; ideas such as government, injustice, etc can take form and be fully explored mentally

13. Criticisms of Piaget • Underplayed the importance of social interaction in cognitive development • Implies that stages are sequential and could not overlap • Does not address human diversity-individualism

14. Exit Ticket • Explain physical development in infancy and childhood • Explain the proximodistal implications of motor development • Distinguish Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development • Describe the criticisms of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

15. Today’s Objectives • Explain Kohlberg’s theory of moral development as well as criticisms of this theory • Identify the process of language development • Distinguish the theories of language dev • Discriminate child and adult bilingualism

16. Moral Development • Most intensely studied by Lawrence Kohlberg • Preconventional (pre-adolescents) think in terms of consequences • Conventional (formal-operational) think in terms of social acceptance • Postconventional (advanced moral reasoning) think in the abstract: liberty, justice, equality

17. Criticisms of Kohlberg • Many adults never reach postconventional moral dev. • He’s ethnocentric: what about other cultures views? Buddhists believe the greatest gift is the end of suffering. • He’s sexist: more boys reach postconventional dev than girls b/c they often think in terms of caring for others-mothering

18. Language Development • 2mos coo • 4mos babble (dadadadada) • 6mos intonation (rising/falling pitch) & recognition of common words- name, mommy, daddy • 1yr 1st word • 18 mos holophrases (out! Up!) • 2 yrs tremendous increase in vocab • 3+ increasingly complex sentences

19. 2 theories of language dev • B.F. Skinner: adults reinforce proper language with pleasant reinforcement • Humans are born w/ a language acquisition device: an internal mechanism that helps us distinguish language

20. Bilingualism • Easy in childhood, hard in adolescence/adulthood • Bilingual children have one “language center” in the brain • Adolescents/adults have a language center for EACH new language

21. Exit Ticket • Explain Kohlberg’s theory of moral development as well as criticisms of this theory • Identify the process of language development • Distinguish the theories of language dev • Discriminate child and adult bilingualism

22. Today’s Objectives • Define attachment terms • Explain Erikson’s theory of emotional dev • Determine the personality result of each type of parenting • Explain the stages of childhood play • Determine how children develop their sex-roles • Describe the pros and cons of TV for children

23. Social Dev: Attachment Terms • Imprinting: follow the first animal a baby animal sees • Attachment: humans form an emotional bond for caregivers • Autonomy: sense of independence • Socialization: learning behaviors appropriate to family/culture

24. Erik Erikson • Dedicated his life to studying attachment and attachment disorders • 8 stages of emotional/social dev • 1. Trust v Mistrust 2. Autonomy v Shame 3. Initiative v Guilt 4. Industry v Inferiority 5. Identity v Diffusion 6. Intimacy v Isolation 7. Generativity v Self-absorption 8. Integrity v Despair

27. Parenting • 4 types of parents: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive • Authoritarian: demanding controlling- create withdrawn/ distrustful children • Permissive: exert no control- create dependent children who lack self control • Authoritative: exert control w/ explanation- create well balanced children • Uninvolved- not demanding or responsive to their children’s needs; often neglectful- create children who feel rejected

28. Attachment Disorder • The result of the “uninvolved” parent • Inhibited- failure to initiate or respond to social interactions- no familiarity with anyone • Disinhibited- excessive familiarity with virtual strangers

29. Stages of Play • Solitary: 1st stage- play alone • Parallel: 2nd stage- play with others, but egocentrically • Cooperative: 3rd stage- play cooperatively with others (role assignment: teacher-student, mommy-daddy)

30. Sex-role development • < 4yrs a boy might think he could be a mommy • > 4yrs gender-constancy develops and a boy knows he is a boy forever • At a young age children become aware of their sex-roles or sex-typed behaviors: acceptable behaviors for a boy v a girl

31. TV and Children • US kids spend most of their time watching TV • Good: monitored educational TV • Bad: unmonitored, violent, un-interpreted programming can be damaging or give children the wrong values in society

32. Exit Ticket • Define attachment terms • Explain Erikson’s theory of emotional dev • Determine the personality result of each type of parenting • Explain the stages of childhood play • Determine how children develop their sex-roles • Describe the pros and cons of TV for children