Child Development

Adi’s Story

Developmental Psychology

The study of how people stay the same and how they change over their life span.

Zygote

Germinal stage

Ebryonic Stage

Fetal Stage

Prenatality

Baby’s environment linked to mother’s habits

Teratogens “monster makers”-substances that damage the developing fetus (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)

Positive Learning

Prenatal Environment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_syndrome

Infancy (18 – 24 months)

◦ Becoming Aware of The World Around Us

◦ Babies will habituate just as older people

◦ Some reflexes inherent (rooting reflex) while others are yet to be learned (motor development)

◦ Cephalocaudal rule

Infancy and Childhood

Jean Piaget’s Sensorimotor stage

Children use their senses and mobility to discover the world around them.

“The child’s first year of life is unfortunately still an abyss of mysteries for the psychologist. If only we would know what is going on in the baby’s mind while observing him in action, we could certainly understand everything there is to psychology.”

-Jean Piaget

Developmental Psychology

Begins at about 2 years and lasts until adolescence

Preoperational stage (2-6 years of age)

Concrete Operational stage (6-11 years of age)

Childhood

Former Operational StageThe stage of development that begins around the age of 11 and lasts through adulthood.

Childhood ends when formal operations begins.

When you are able to reason systematically about concepts such as love and liberty. Things that might happen, to things that will happen, to things that will never happen.

EgocentrismIs the failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers.

When baby’s are told to hide, they cover their eyes, and they think, because they can’t see you, that you also cannot see them.

FalseBeliefTest

In cupboard

Second puppet

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Theory of Mind The idea that human behavior is guided by mental representations.

Once children have acquired the knowledge that they have their own mind, they are said to have gained the ‘theory of mind.’

Autism A rare disorder that affects approximately 1 in 2,500

children.

Children with autism typically struggle on communicating with other people and struggle with making friends.

However most autistic children are typically normal and sometimes far better than normal; on a intellectual dimension they have trouble communicating with other people.

Social DevelopmentInfants cannot survive without caregivers. They provide warmth, safety and food.

Infants and small children also need to feel wanted and loved. They form an attachment, or an emotional bond, with their primary caregiver.

Infants that are deprived of the opportunity to become attached suffer from a variety of social and emotional problems.

Attachment – an emotional bond