Early Childhood

Physical Growth in Early Childhood

Proportions From 2 to 6

Toddlers have large heads and stomachs and short arms and legs

Six year olds have longer torsos

Overall Physical Growth

Grow 3 inches in height per year Gain 4 ½ pounds in weight per

year Average 6 year old is 46 inches tall

and weighs 46 Small appetites between ages 2

and 6 years

Nutritional Concerns Preschoolers and iron deficiency anemia Children and high fat, high sugar diets Setting up food preferences

Avoiding Eating Problems Don’t force feed or fight Appetite varies Keep it pleasant No short order chefs Limit choices Serve balanced meals Don’t bribe

Brain Maturation Brain weight Changes in

emotional control and coordination

Visual pathways Growth of

hemispheres Corpus callosum

Motor Skill Development: Gross Motor Skills Running Jumping Swinging Bicycling Songs and motion

Motor Skill Development: Fine Motor Skills Pouring Using Scissors Coloring Songs and fine

motor skills activities

Sexual Development in Childhood

Infancy Early childhood

Cognitive Development

Thought and Language

Piaget’s Preoperational Intelligence Learning to use

symbols Becoming

‘mental’

PRETEND PLAYImagination and

SyncretismPhoto Courtesy ReservasdeCoches.com

EGOCENTRISM

ANIMISMWhat’s alive?

Classification Errors

Conservation Errors

Theory of Mind Established at around 4 Knowledge of others’ mental states Everyday mindreading Theory of mind and autistic spectrum

disorders

Language Development

Vocabulary growth (10-20 words per day)

Understanding incomplete Preference for nouns Over-regularization: “I goed there.

I doed that!”

Impact of Training on Cognitive Development Vygotsky’s zone

of proximal development

Do you talk to yourself? Why?

Combining language and thought: egocentric and private speech

Psychosocial Development

A Look at Self-Concept, Gender Identity and Family Life

Self-Concept What is a self-concept? One’s image of oneself Develops through interactions with

others

Self-Concept Cooley’s looking-glass self

We judge our performance based on the reactions of others

Inaccuracies in our self-concept?

Mead’s “I” and the “me”

“I” spontaneous self “me” socialized self Taking the role of the other

Taking the role of a significant other Taking the role of the generalized

other

Mead’s Development of Self Imitation Play Game

Self-Concept

Early childhood-exaggerated sense of self

School-aged children: more realistic sense of self

INITIATIVE VS. GUILTErikson

Gender Identification

Freud: The Phallic Stage Chordorow: Mothering Cognitive Theory and gender

schema Learning Theorists: Reinforcement

and Modeling

Ways In Which Gender is Taught

Socialization in infancy Parenting sons and daughters Teachers and schools Friends

Which explanation is best?

Is gender taught or do children seek out how to behave based on their sex?

Probably both.

Parenting Styles

The key is to match expectations with maturity

Parenting Styles: Baumrind’s Model Authoritarian-children should be seen and not

heard! Permissive-let the kids rule Authoritative-strictness with affection Uninvolved-disengaged

LeMaster’s and DeFrain’s Model

Martyr Pal Police Officer/Drill Sergeant Teacher-Counselor Athletic Coach

WARM, CARING, SUPPORTWhat really matters?

Childcare

How many mothers work outside of home? 64.2 percent with children under 6 77.3 percent with children 6-17 What about childcare?

Global Concerns Example: Liberia’s Market Women

Stress and Development

Normal vs. toxic stress Stress hormones Brain circuitry The impact of social support