Lecture 6: early childhood

Question 1

Early childhood

Answer 1

Ages 2-6
Height weight: more important to follow curve then be quote on quote normal
Physical growth happends during this time

Question 2

CHildhood obesity

Answer 2

COmmon in western countries

1 standard deviation above age group: overweight

2 standarf deviations above age group: obesity

Question 3

SHort-term risks arising from childhood obesity

Answer 3

Blount’s disease (boweld legs, sore joints)
Asthma
Sleep disturbance (apnea)
Increased intracranial pressure (fat in brain)
Gallstones
Hepatitis
Diabetes/insulun resistance
Menstrual abnormalities (start very early or will not start, hormonal effects)

Question 4

Lon-term risks arising from childhood obesity

Answer 4

Increased risk of:
- Premature death
- Noncommunicable diseases
- Heart diseases
- Stroke
- Osteoarthritis
- Cancer

Lots of physical risk in childhood obesity

Question 5

Social risks arising from childhood obesity

Answer 5

• Teasing, discrimination
• Stereotyped as lazy, clumsy, awkward, ugly
• Unpopular
• Major problems with body image, especially in girls
• Long-term: poorer academics, less likely to get post-secondary education, lower salaries

Question 6

Fear of fatness

Answer 6

• 5 yr olds feat gaining weight
• Almost 50% of US children in grades 1-3 would like to be thinner
• 50% of 3rd grade girls tried a diet
• 70% of adolescent girls have atempted to lose weight
  (gieters have a 8x increased chance of eating disorder)

Question 7

Influences that cause childhood obesity

Answer 7

Food advertisement in children

Less nutritious food cheaper

Over consumption

Decline in physical activity

Community environment inhibits active living

Question 8

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Answer 8

Sensorimotor intelligence (birth-2yrs)

Pre-operational thought (2-7 yrs old)

Concrete Operations (7-11)

Formal operational (11/12 yrs on)

Question 9

Pre-operational period

Answer 9

Thinking

Can form representation, but limited
+ Centration
+Fooled
+ Egocentric

Symbolic activity
+ Language
+ Deferred imitation
+ Make-believe play
++Becomes detached from real-life conditions over time
++Becomes less self-centred over time (pretending they drink milkshake, eventually pretenddoll drink milkshake)
++Becomes more complex

Question 10

Evidence of representation

Answer 10

Dual representation: viewing an object as an object and a symbol
- Snoopy test: Demonstrated by 3-yr olds but not 2 1/2 - yr old: little room object is hidden, find in big room.
- Note that we see this age-related change reflected in make-believe

Question 11

Animistic thinking

Answer 11

The sun was angry so it chased the clouds away (lets turn the tv off its tired)

Question 12

Egocentrism

Answer 12

3 mountains problem

After walking around the display, child is seated opposite a doll

Task: which picture shows what the doll would see?

Unable to take on other ppls perspectives

Piagets experiment with the mountains was to complex

Question 13

Conservation

Answer 13

Piaget: conservation most important development of this period

Problems with conservation:
- Innability to understand reversibility
- Centration, appearance
- States vs. transformations (static)

- Even though something has changed in appearence its still the same
- Number, volume, mass, lengh: all differnet types of conservation
- Dont understand reversibility idea
- Fosuses on one aspect (its taller) - centration
- Focuses on state: in the moment, dont think about how they got to that state

Question 14

Preoperational Stage

Answer 14

For summary of different types of conservation

Question 15

Was Piaget right?

Answer 15

Evidence for different outcomes if problems are simplified
- His tasks tend to confusing, unfamiliar elements and many pieces of information

Many naturally-occuring instances of effective reasoning in preschoolers

For egocentrisms proved wrong: toddlers talk to babies wih a baby voice and adults in a normal voice

Question 16

Egocentrism

Answer 16

Inclusion of familiar objects, using methods other than picture selection show that 3- and 4-year-olds understand other perspectives
- updated experiment

Everyday situation: preschoolers adapt speech to suit audience

We can simplify design of egocentrism

Little police man and little girl hide from police

Mature out of egocentrism quicker then wa<hat piaget thought

Question 17

Animastic thinking

Answer 17

More common for items that move and have headlights (e.g train)

Less common for familar objects they interact directly with ( e.g crayon) than less interaective objects (e.g. moon)

Kids try to figure out if different things r living

Question 18

Conservation

Answer 18

Number:
6 items - no conservation
3 items - conservation

Familiarity:
- Can conserve checkers
- Can conserve playdough

If familiar with task they can conserve it more easily

Question 19

Effect of language

Answer 19

Show kids a rock painted like an egg and a real egg
- Verbal test: is it rly truly an egg? (until 6 or 7 they say yes)
- Physical test: choose the object that is rly truly an egg (by age 3 most kids choose the egg, not the rock)

Physical test: take away language complexity

Question 20

So…was piaget right

Answer 20

partly

CHildren do have some logical reasoning skills, but they r limited and fragile

A heavy focus on language could lead to underestimates of what children understand

Question 21

Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 21

Social learning: other people influence what a child understands and can do!

Mentors

Scaffolding
- Zone of Proximal Development
(difference between what they can do alone vs. with help)

When in a stage, we can measure what they can do alone and what they can do with help
- Zygotsky

my notes:
If in zone of proximal development children cant figure task out without scafollding
If they dont have help they get frustrated or give up. Scaffolding they get engaged and big growth in understanding

Question 22

Theory of mind

Answer 22

An individual’s understanding of their own mind and other people’s minds

An understanding that behaviour is driven by mental stages which are influenced by beliefs, desires, and intentions

AN understanding that what one thinks is true and what is actually true might not be the same

An understanding that someone else’s belief will not be necessarily be the same as one’s own

Developing of theory of mind
- Theory of mind can be defined in a variety of ways
- Understanding that the way that we behave

Question 23

THeory of mind began as a developmental question but now ToM has been incroporated into the study of

Answer 23

autism, alcoholism, schizophrenia, brain injuries, typically developing children and adults, animals,…

Used as an explanation of autism

Question 24

Measuting ToM

Answer 24

False belief: a belief based on inaccurate info

If child ToM, can realise that without the accurate info, ppl will act according to their false beliefs

Child must be able to differentiate between his own beliefs, and those of others

Question 25

Unexpected tranfer test: ToM test

Answer 25

Child knows its in the fridge: they have true belied Maxi has the false belief If child has theory of mind they will answer in the covert

Question 26

How to test a true belief and why we decide to test false belief

Answer 26

What would a true belief be: if mom tells maxi - They will look in the fridge Hard to test true belief, that is why we test the false belief

Question 27

Why do children fail

Answer 27

Is it because they havent yet developed strong metacognitive skills? - metacognitition: the ability to think about your own thinking - Smarties box task: can they even correctly state one of their true beliefs in the past? (Deceptive box): before u saw what was inside the box what did you think was inside - By simplifyng the languge: what did you think was inside the box before we opened the lid, 3 yr olds answered correcly

Question 28

Can children use false beliefs to their advantage?

Answer 28

Yes - if they have ToM Child told to hide car No ToM: child drives it over, hides it, and isn't concerned with the tracks ToM: wipes away tracks, and some also create misleading tracks to another spot also children lie when they have false belief

Question 29

ToM and age

Answer 29

Piaget would have said ToM develops after the preoperational stage, when kids move beyond egocentrism But the number of children who can solve false belief tasks increases sharply at 4 yrs! - Some evidence that younger children have preliminary ToM:t it is performance limitations not absence of ToM ( modified false belief task: triangle and square) - most 3 yrs old and some 2 yrs old will look in direction of person , dont need verbal response

Question 30

Language and ToM

Answer 30

Development of ToM correlated with language develpment Meta-analysis: overall language abilities ccounted for 17-18% of the variance in false belief task performance

Question 31

Experience and ToM: Specific language experiences

Answer 31

Measured how moms interacted with 33 months olds - With some, narratives included a lot of references to psychological motives - With others, narratives reffered to behaviour, without reference to underlying motives Tested 6 months later on false belief task - Children with motives experience did better than those without it

Question 32

Ezpereince and ToM: Hearing-imapired children and large families

Answer 32

Hearing-impaired chldren with hearing parents are delayed in their development of ToM relative to hearing-impaired children with hearing-impaired parents Large fams: Earlier ToM from interactions and arguments with sibilings, understanding their mental states

Question 33

Implications of ToM for social interactions and status

Answer 33

ToM correlated with more prosocial behaviour - Cooperating, helping, comforting Correlation is pretty consistent - Stronger for girls than boys - Stronger for kids 6+ that for kids 2-5 yrs old Longitudinal work shows that ToM correlates with popularity among peers

Question 34

Self-concept

Answer 34

The set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, values that one sees as defining oneself Starts to develop in preschool yrs Influenced by cognitive development Influences interactions with others - ``mine`` when playing with toys (stronger self-concept leads to more possessive behaviour)

Question 35

Self-concept

Answer 35

Early: focus on what child enjoys and owns Later: Focus on personality characteristics

Question 36

Self-esteem

Answer 36

starts to develop arround age 4 Not very accurate - kids ofen think their rly good at everything (inflated self-esteem arround 4) Kids who are criticixed or not supported in their attemps stop trying new things (drop of self-esteem)

Question 37

Play

Answer 37

Important for all kinds of development - Story-telling, physical, disappointement, compromising, memory, sharing, creativity, emotional regulation and recognition

Question 38

On ur own

Answer 38

Be familiar with different styles of parenting and their consequences Be familiar with different types of aggression (table 6.3)

Question 39

Parenting styles

Answer 39

1) Authoritarian parenting: word is law, kids dont rly communicate with parents 2) Permissive parents: leaninient, listen to kids 3) Authoritative parenting: Set limits but are flexible 4) Neglectful/uninvolved parents: dont care about kids

Question 40

four forms of aggression

Answer 40

1) Instrumental aggression: Hurtful behavior aimed at gaining smt (apparent ages 2-6 quite normal, more egocentric than antisocial) 2) Reactive aggression: Impulsive retalition for a hurt that can be verbal or physical - lack of emotional regulation - 2yr olds, 5yr olds can control 3) Relational aggression: nonphysical acts, insults, social rejection - diretly antisocial 4) Bullying aggression: unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves