1. Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
Chapter 8
Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

4. Body Growth and Change
Height and Weight
The Brain

5. Height and Weight
The average child grows 2½ inches and gains between 5 and 7 pounds a year in early childhood.
The percentage of increase in height and weight decreases with each additional year.
Body fat shows a steady decline during this time.
Girls are only slightly smaller and lighter than boys, but they have more body fat while boys have more muscle tissue.
Boys and girls slim down as their trunks lengthen.

6. Individual Differences
Much of the variation in body size is due to heredity.
The two most important contributors to height differences are:
Ethnic origin
Nutrition

7. Contributors to Short Stature
Congenital Factors (genetic or prenatal problems)
Physical Problems That Develop in Childhood
Emotional Difficulties

8. Congenital Factors’ Influence on Height
Preschool children whose mothers smoked regularly during pregnancy are shorter than their counterparts whose mothers did not smoke.

9. Physical Problems’ Influence on Height
Children who are chronically sick are shorter than their counterparts who are rarely sick.

10. Emotional Problems’ Influence on Height
Children who have been physically abused or neglected may not secrete adequate growth hormone, which can restrict their physical growth.

11. The Brain
The brain and the head grow more rapidly than any other part of the body.
By age 3, the brain is three-quarters of its adult size, and by age 5, the brain has reached about nine-tenths of its adult size.
Some of this size increase is due to increase in size and number of nerve endings and an increase in myelination.
Myelination is believed to be important in the maturation of a number of children’s abilities.
From 3-6 years of age, researchers have found that the most rapid brain growth occurs in the frontal lobe.

12. Motor Development
Gross Motor Skills
Fine Motor Skills
Handedness

13. Gross Motor Skills
At 3 years of age, children enjoy simple movements, such as hopping, jumping, and running, just for the fun of it and the pride they feel in their accomplishment.
At 4 years of age, children become more adventurous—taking on jungle gyms and climbing stairs with one foot on each step.
At 5 years of age, children begin to perform hair-raising stunts on anything they can climb on, and they enjoy racing with each other and with parents.

14. Fine Motor Skills
At age 3, children are still clumsy at picking up very small objects between their thumb and forefinger.
Three-year-olds can build very high block towers, but the blocks are usually not in a perfectly straight line.
Puzzles are approached with a good deal of roughness and imprecision.
By age 4, their coordination has improved and become more precise.
By age 5, children are no longer interested in building towers, but rather houses, churches, and buildings with more detail.

15. Handedness
Preference for one hand is linked with the dominance of one brain hemisphere with regard to motor performance.
Right-handers have a dominant left hemisphere, while left-handers have a dominant right hemisphere.
Evidence of handedness is present in infancy, as babies show preferences for one side of their body over the other.
Many preschool children use both hands without a clear preference emerging until later in childhood.
The origin of hand preference has been explored with regard to genetic inheritance and environmental experience.

16. Nutrition
Energy Needs
Eating Behavior

17. Energy Needs
What children eat affects their skeletal growth, body shape, and susceptibility to disease.
An average preschool child requires 1,700 calories per day.
Energy requirements for children are determined by the basal metabolism rate (BMR): the minimum amount of energy a person uses in a resting state.
Differences in physical activity, basal metabolism, and the efficiency with which children use energy are among the possible explanation as to why children of the same age, sex, and size vary in their energy needs.

18. Eating Behavior Eating habits become ingrained very early in life.
It is during the preschool years that many children get their first taste of fast food.
Our changing lifestyles, in which we often eat on the run and pick up fast food meals, contribute to the increased fat levels in children’s diets.
Although such meals are high in protein, the average American child does not need to be concerned about getting enough protein.

19. Obesity in Childhood
Being overweight can be a serious problem in childhood.
Overweight preschool children are usually not encouraged to lose a great deal of weight, but to slow their rate of weight gain so they will grow into a more normal weight for their height.
Prevention of obesity in children includes helping children and parents see food as a way to satisfy hunger and nutritional needs, not as proof of love or a reward.
Routine physical activity should be a daily event.

20. Illness and Death The United States
The State of Illness and Health of the World’s Children

21. The United States
Accidents are the leading cause of death in young children: motor vehicle accidents, drowning, falls, and poisoning are high on the list.
The disorders most likely to be fatal during early childhood today are birth defects, cancer, and heart disease.
Despite the greatly diminished dangers of many childhood diseases, it is still very important for parents to keep young children on an immunization schedule.
Exposure to tobacco smoke increases children’s risk for developing a number of medical problems, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections, burns, asthma, and cancer in adulthood.

22. The State of Illness and Health of the World’s Children
One death of every three in the world is the death of a child under 5 years of age.
Every week, more than a quarter million children die in developing countries due to infection and undernutrition.
The leading cause of childhood death in the world is dehydration and malnutrition as a result of diarrhea.
This could be prevented if parents had available a low-cost breakthrough known as oral rehydration therapy (ORT).
Oral rehydration therapy involves a range of techniques designed to prevent dehydration during episodes of diarrhea by giving the child fluids by mouth.

24. Piaget’s Preoperational Stage of Development
Characteristics of the Preoperational Stage
Definition of Operations
Symbolic Function Substage
Intuitive Thought Substage

25. Characteristics of the Preoperational Stage
The preoperational stage lasts from 2-7 years old.
During this time stable concepts form, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism begins, and magical beliefs are constructed.
Thought is flawed and not organized.
This stage involves a transition from primitive to more sophisticated use of symbols.
Children still do not yet think in an operational way.

26. Definition of Operations
Operations are internalized sets of actions that allow the child to do mentally what before she did physically.

27. Symbolic Function Substage
The ability to think symbolically and to represent the world mentally predominates in this substage.
It occurs roughly between the ages of 2-4.
Symbolic function is demonstrated by the child’s ability to mentally represent an object not present.
Symbolism is evident in scribbled designs, language, and pretend play
Two important limitations in thought at this stage are egocentrism and animism.

28. Egocentrism
Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective.
It is a salient feature of preoperational thought.
Perspective-taking doesn’t develop uniformly in preschool children, as they frequently show perspective skills on some tasks, but not others.

29. Animism
Animism is the belief that inanimate objects have “lifelike” qualities and are capable of action.
A child may believe that a tree pushes its leaves off in the Fall, or that the sidewalk made him trip and fall down.

30. Intuitive Thought Substage
In this stage, children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions.
It occurs roughly between the ages of 4-7.
Piaget used the term intuitive because children say they know something, but they know it without the use of rational thinking.
Children in this stage also ask a barrage of questions, signaling the emergence of their interest in reasoning and why things are the way they are.

31. Centration
Centration is the focusing or centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.
It is a major characteristic of preoperational thought, evidenced in young children’s lack of conservation.

32. Conservation
Conservation refers to an awareness that altering an object’s or a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.
Although obvious to adults, preoperational children lack conservation.
A lack of conservation not only demonstrates the presence of centration, but also an inability to mentally reverse actions.

33. Vygotsky’s Theory of Development
The Zone of Proximal Development
Scaffolding in Cognitive Development
Language and Thought
Evaluating and Comparing Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories
Teaching Strategies Based on Vygotsky’s Theory

34. The Zone of Proximal Development
The zone of proximal development is Vygotsky’s term for the range of tasks too difficult for children to master alone, but which can be learned with the guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children.
The lower limit is the level of problem solving reached by the child working independently.
The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor.
Vygotsky’s emphasis on the ZPD underscores his belief in the importance of social influences, especially instruction, on children’s cognitive development.

35. Scaffolding in Cognitive Development
Scaffolding refers to changing the level of support.
Over the course of a teaching session, a more skilled person adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the student’s current performance level.
Dialog is an important tool of scaffolding in the zone of proximal development.
As the child’s unsystematic, disorganized, spontaneous concepts meet with the skilled helper’s more systematic, logical, and rational concepts, through meeting and dialogue, the child’s concepts become more systematic, logical, and rational.

36. Language and Thought
Vygotsky believed that young children use language both for social communication and to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior in a self-regulatory fashion.
Language used for this purpose is called inner speech or private speech.
For Piaget, private speech is egocentric and immature, but for Vygotsky it is an important tool of thought during early childhood.
Vygotsky believed all mental funtions have social origins.
Children must use language to communicate with others before they can focus on their own thoughts.
Researchers have found support for Vygotsky’s view of the positive role of private speech in development.

37. Evaluating and Comparing Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories
Vygotsky’s theory is a social constructivist approach, which emphasizes the social contexts of learning and that knowledge is mutually built and constructed.
Piaget’s theory does not have this social emphasis.
For Piaget, children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing, and reorganizing previous knowledge.
For Vygotsky, children construct knowledge through social interaction.
The implication of Piaget’s theory for teaching is that children need support to explore their world and discover knowledge.
The implication of Vygotsky’s theory for teaching is that students need many opportunities to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers.
Vygotsky’s theory has been embraced by many teachers and successfully applied to education.

38. Teaching Strategies Based on Vygotsky’s Theory
Use the child’s zone of proximal development in teaching.
Use scaffolding.
Use more skilled peers as teachers.
Monitor and encourage children’s use of private speech.
Assess the child’s ZPD, not IQ.
Transform the classroom with Vygotskian ideas.

39. Information Processing
Attention
Memory
Strategies
The Young Child’s Theory of Mind

40. Attention
The child’s ability to pay attention changes significantly during the preschool years.
Preschool children are influenced strongly by the features of a task that stand out, or are salient.
This deficit can hinder problem solving or performing well on tasks.
By age 6 or 7, children attend more efficiently to the dimensions of a task that are relevant.
This is believed to reflect a shift in cognitive control of attention.

41. Memory Short-Term Memory
How Accurate Are Young Children’s Long-Term Memories?

42. Short-Term Memory
In short-term memory, individuals retain information for up to seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal, which can help keep information in STM for a much longer period.
Differences in memory span occur across the ages due to:
Rehearsal: older children rehearse items more than younger children.
Speed and efficiency of processing information: the speed with which a child processes information is an important aspect of the child’s cognitive abilities.

43. How Accurate Are Young Children’s Long-Term Memories?
Young children can remember a great deal of information if they are given appropriate cues and prompts.
Sometimes the memories of preschoolers seem to be erratic, but these inconsistencies may be to some degree the result of inadequate prompts and cues.

44. Strategies
Strategies consist of using deliberate mental activities to improve the processing of information:
Rehearsal
Organizing information
Young children typically do not use rehearsal and organization.
Children as young as 2 can learn to use other types of strategies to process information.

45. The Young Children’s Theory of Mind
Theory of mind refers to individuals’ thoughts about how mental processes work.
Even young children are curious about the nature of the human mind.
Children’s developing knowledge of the mind includes the awareness that:
The mind exists.
The mind has connections to the physical world.
The mind can represent objects and events accurately or inaccurately.
The mind actively interprets reality and emotions.

46. Becoming Aware that the Mind Exists
By the age of 2 or 3, children refer to needs, emotions, and mental states.
They also use intentional action or desire words, such as wants to.
Cognitive terms such as know, remember, and think usually appear after perceptual and emotional terms, but are used by age 3.
Later children distinguish between guessing vs. knowing, believing vs. fantasizing, and intending vs. not on purpose.

47. Understanding Cognitive Connections to the Physical World
At about 2 or 3 years of age, children develop an awareness of the connections among stimuli, mental states, and behavior.
This provides them with a rudimentary mental theory of human action.
Children can infer connections from stimuli to mental states, from mental states to behavior or emotion, and from behavior to mental states.
Children also develop an understanding that the mind is separate from the physical world.

48. Detecting Accuracies/ Inaccuracies of the Mind
Children develop an understanding that the mind can represent objects and events accurately.
Understanding of false beliefs doesn’t usually occur until 4 or 5 years.

49. Understanding the Mind’s Active Role in Emotion and Reality
Children develop an understanding that the mind actively mediates the interpretation of reality and the emotion experienced.
In the elementary school years, children change from viewing emotions as caused by external events without any mediation by internal states to viewing emotional reactions to an external event as influenced by a prior emotional state, experience, or expectation.

51. Language Development
Young children’s understanding sometimes gets ahead of their speech.
Many of the oddities of young children’s language sound like mistakes to adult listeners, but from the children’s perspective, they are not.
As children go through early childhood, their grasp of the rules of language increases (morphology, semantics, pragmatics).

52. Morphology
As children move beyond two-word utterances, they know morphology rules.
They begin using plurals and possessive forms of nouns.
They put appropriate endings on verbs.
They use prepositions, articles, and various forms of the verb to be.
Children demonstrate knowledge of morphological rules with plural forms of nouns, possessive forms of nouns, and the third-person singular and past tense forms of verbs.

53. Semantics
As children move beyond the two-word stage, their knowledge of meanings rapidly advances.
The speaking vocabulary of a 6-year-old ranges from 8,000 to 14,000 words.
According to some estimates, the average child of this age is learning about 22 words a day!

54. Pragmatics
No difference is as dramatic as the difference between a 2-year-old’s language and a 6-year-old’s language in terms of pragmatics—the rules of conversation.
At about 3 years of age, children improve their ability to talk about things that are not physically present—referred to as “displacement.”
Displacement is revealed in games of pretend.
Large individual differences seen in preschoolers’ talk about imaginary people and things.

56. The Child-Centered Kindergarten
In the child-centered kindergarten, education involves the whole child and includes concern for the child’s physical, cognitive, and social development.
Instruction is organized around the child’s needs, interests, and learning styles.
The process of learning, rather than what is learned, is emphasized.
Experimenting, exploring, discovering, trying out, restructuring, speaking, and listening are all part of an excellent kindergarten program.

57. The Montessori Approach
The Montessori Approach is a philosophy of education in which children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities.
They are allowed to move from one activity to another as they desire.
The teacher acts as a facilitator, rather than a director of learning.
While it fosters independence, it deemphasizes verbal interaction.
Criticism of the approach is that it neglects children’s social development and restricts imaginative play.

58. Developmentally Appropriate and Inappropriate Practices in the Education of Young Children
Young children learn best through active, hands-on teaching methods.
Schools should focus on improving children’s social as well as cognitive development.
Developmentally appropriate practice is based on knowledge of the typical development of children within an age span, as well as the uniqueness of the child.
Developmentally inappropriate practice ignores the concrete, hands-on approach to learning.
Direct teaching largely through abstract paper-and-pencil activities presented to large groups of young children is believed to be developmentally inappropriate.

59. Does Preschool Matter?
Preschool matters if parents do not have the commitment, time, energy, and resources to provide young children with an environment that approximates a good early childhood program.
If parents have the competence and resources to provide young children with a variety of learning experiences and exposure to other children and adults, along with opportunities for extensive play, this may be sufficient.

60. Education for Children Who Are Disadvantaged
Project Head Start is a compensatory education program designed to provide children from low-income families the opportunity to acquire skills and experiences important for success in school.
Project Follow Through was implemented as an adjunct to Project Head Start to determine which types of educational programs were the most effective, and those were then carried through the first few years of elementary school.

61. Findings on Early Childhood Compensatory Education
Children in academically oriented, direct-instruction approaches did better on achievement tests and were more persistent on tasks than were children in other approaches.
Children in effective education programs were absent less often and showed more independence.
Long-term effects have included lower rates of placement in special education, dropping out of school, grade retention, delinquency, and use of welfare programs.