1. Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
Chapter 7
Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

2. Growth and Motor Development
Changes in height and weight happen more slowly during early childhood
2 – 3 inches and 6 pounds per year
Steady progress in major locomotor skills
Running, jumping, skipping

3. Body Growth Norms – standards of what is “typical” at different ages
Wider individual differences in early childhood
BMI shows whether child’s weight is appropriate for height.
Rise in childhood obesity
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4. Obesity in Childhood Lowering risk of obesity
Variety of healthy food choices
Food is not a bribe, punishment, or entertainment
Encouraging active play
Serving as a good role model

5. Brain Development
Synaptogenesis peaks at age 1, continues through childhood
Synaptic pruning begins in first years, continues through young adulthood
Lateralization:
The localization of a function to one of the hemispheres of the brain
Corpus callosum:
The connection between the two halves of the hemispheres of the brain

6. The Brain and Nervous System Lateralization
At this stage there is growth of the corpus callosum
Helps create functional specialization of left and right hemispheres

7. Brain Plasticity
Degree to which the brain can be altered by experience
Sensitive period— example—language development
A time in development during which the organism is especially open to environmental influence

8. Motor Development Gross motor skills Fine motor skills
Abilities required to control large movements of the arms, legs, and feet, or the whole body
Must be studied in cultural context
Fine motor skills
Involves smaller movements of the hand and fingers
Depend on culture and experience

9. Table 7.1: Some Milestones in Normative Gross Motor Development

10. Table 7.2: Some Milestones in Normative Fine Motor Development in the United States

11. Physical Development and Well-Being
Injuries and illnesses in early childhood
Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death in the U.S.
Drowning, automobile accidents, fire and burns, airway obstruction
Successful immunization has decreased death.
Minor illnesses
Reducing childhood mortality rates
Oral rehydration therapy
Immunization
Mosquito nets
Education

12. Childhood Immunization Schedule

13. Health and Wellness Illnesses and Accidents
Each year, 4 – 6 bouts of brief sickness
High levels of family stress more likely to produce sick children
25% of U.S. children under 5 have one accident in any one year requiring medical treatment
More common among boys

14. Physical Development Sleep and sleep problems Promoting sleep:
Regular bedtime rituals
Consistent sleep schedules
Quiet time before lights out

15. Advances/Limitations in Cognition in Early Childhood
Advances in cognition
Immature aspects of cognition—according to Piaget—as shown on conservation tasks
Understanding of cause and effect
Ability to classify
Empathy (Piaget thinks this enters during middle childhood)
Understanding of identity (superficial changes don’t change the nature of things)
Symbolic representation
Language
Pretend play
Numbers
Preoperational period—2- 7—still have trouble thinking logically
Centration
Irreversibility
Fooled by appearances— focus on end states rather than transformations
Egocentrism
Animism
Transductive reasoning

16. Figure 7.8: Conservation Tasks in Preoperational Children

17. Figure 7.4 Piaget’s Conservation Tasks

18. Piaget would have answered Contemporary challenges to Piaget
The Preoperational Period—Can Parents Accelerate Logical Thinking in Preschoolers?
Piaget would have answered
“No”—children develop logical thinking through their own explorations and actions
Peers might promote cognitive development
Contemporary challenges to Piaget
Cognitive development is better described as a series of overlapping waves.
Young children understand more than Piaget credited them for

19. Challenges to Piaget’s Views
Young children do understand others’ emotions
Can regulate their own emotions
Appearance and reality
Older children understand the same object can be represented differently, depending on point of view

20. Theory of Mind
Children’s awareness of their own and other people’s thought processes and mental states
Cognitive and language abilities are important to development of theory of mind, as are experiences with adults and older children.
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21. Lev Vygotsky

22. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Child embedded in a social context and focused on increasing abilities with assistance of others
Scaffolding:
Providing learning opportunities, materials, hints, and clues when a child has difficulty with a task
Zone of proximal development--From actual performance to potential performance.

23. Piaget vs. Vygotsky Piaget: Change comes from within
Vygotsky: Change comes from outside, then you internalize it

24. Guided Participation
Rogoff expanded Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory to examine varied ways children learn their society’s values and practices through participation in family and community activities

25. Language and Thought Relationship between language and thought
Piaget – thought precedes language development; thought evident in sensorimotor period
Vygotsky – language and thought develop together
First attempts to speak are efforts to establish and maintain social contact – social speech
3 – 4 years old—children use language as a tool to organize thoughts
Self-directed talk becomes private speech

26. Figure 7.9: Information Processing Model

27. Memory

28. Attention
Focusing on some information while ignoring other information
If you don’t attend you can’t learn

29. Language Development Vocabulary Fast mapping Telegraphic speech
Overregulation
Semantics
Meaning of words and sentences or the content of speech
Specialized knowledge accelerates development of concepts in particular areas

30. Emergent Literacy Foundations for literacy emerge in early childhood.
Changing expectations for literacy milestones
Exposure to books and language, and parent-child communication, is crucial

31. Early Mathematical Thinking
During early childhood, children master a number of mathematical concepts:
Magnitude
Numbers
Counting
Addition and subtraction

32. Child Care and Early Education Programs
Widespread use of child care
In-home care
Child-care homes
Child-care centers
Quality of child care linked to cognitive and social development.
Structural quality:
Characteristics of child-care settings, such as group size, child/adult ratios, and caregiver education and training
Process quality:
An assessment of children’s interactions and experiences in child- care settings

33. Figure 7.11: Common Child-Care Arrangements in the United States

34. Early Education Programs
Perry Preschool Project
Abecedarian Project
Chicago Parent-Child Centers
Head Start
Pre-kindergarten programs

35. Figure 7.12: Impact of Early Intervention on Later Outcomes

36. Figure 7.13: Academic Benefits of Prekindergarten