College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017

PSYC 335

Developmental Psychology I

Session 9 – Development in early childhood (2-6 years)

Lecturer: Dr. Joana Salifu Yendork Department of Psychology

Contact Information: jyendork@ug.edu.gh

godsonug.wordpress.com/blog

Session Overview

Slide 2

• Childhood stage is divided into early and middle childhood

and each stage has its unique changes. In this session, the

focus will be on the changes in physical and cognitive and

socio-emotional domains during the early childhood period of development. It will also discuss parenting styles and their role oŶ ĐhildreŶ’s soĐio-emotional development as well as the

effeĐt of Đhild ŵaltreatŵeŶt oŶ ĐhildreŶ’s ǁ ell-being.

Session Outline

Slide 3

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Physical development

• Cognitive development

• Socio-emotional development

Reading List

Slide 4

• Read Chapters 7 & 8 of Development through the lifespan, Berk (2006)

Topic One

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Slide 5

Body changes

• Body growth slows – Average growth: 2–3 inches and 5 pounds/2.27 Kg a year

• Physical growth is asynchronous: Body systems differ in patterns of growth – General growth curve: rapid growth in infancy, slower in early

and middle childhood, and rapid growth in adolescence- height, weight, some internal organs

– Lymph glands (fighting infections and nutrients absorption) grow at very fast rate, while genitals develop slowly

• Body shape becomes more streamlined as baby fat drops off

• BegiŶ to lose priŵary or ͞ďaďy ͟ teeth Slide 6

Brain development • Rapid growth in frontal lobe areas devoted to

planning and organization. • For most children, left hemisphere more active;

increase in right hemisphere activity is gradual • Linking areas of the brain develop rapidly to

increase coordinated functioning of CNS – Cerebellum (balance control of body temperature-

thinking, motor coordination) – Reticular formation (maintains alertness and

consciousness-controlled attention) – Corpus callosum: connect the two cortical hemispheres-

coordination of movement and integration of cognitive activities (thinking, memory, language ect).

Slide 7

Handedness

• Reflects dominant cerebral hemisphere

– Right-handed (90%) - left hemisphere

– Left-handed (10%) - both hemispheres

• less strongly lateralized

• May be genetic basis, but affected by experience

– Position in uterus, practice, culture

• Few left-handers show

developmental problems

– Left hemisphere damage may link left-handedness & some mental problems

Slide 8

Motor Development • Gross Motor Skills

– Balance improves

– Gait/steps becomes smooth and rhythmic by age 2 • enabling running, jumping, hopping, skipping

– Upper- and lower-body skills combine into more refined actions by age 5

– Greater speed and endurance

• Fine Motor Skills – Apparent in two areas

– Self-help: dressing, eating

– Drawing and painting

Slide 9

Influences on physical growth

Slide 10

• Heredity and hormones: – GeŶes iŶflueŶĐe groǁ t h ďy ĐoŶtrolliŶg the ďody’s produĐtioŶ of horŵoŶes – The pituitary gland releases two hormones

• Growth hormone for development of body tissues (except the CNS and genitals)

• Thyroid-stimulating hormone for activating release of thyroxine necessary for brain development and for GH to have its full impact on body size

• Emotional well-being – Extreme emotional deprivation can interfere with production of growth

hormones • Psychosocial dwarfism (appears between age 2 and 15):

– very short stature, decreased GH secretion, immature skeletal age, and serious adjustment problems

• Nutrition • Infectious diseases • Childhood injuries

Topic Two

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Slide 11

Piaget’s theory: The PreoperatioŶal Stage

• Ages 2 to 7

• Children represent the world with words, images, and drawings

• Sub-stages

– Preconceptual substage (2 – 4 yrs.): Children gain ability to

mentally represent an object that is not present

– Intuitive thought substage (5-7 yrs): Children use primitive

reasoning and want to know the answers to questions

• Gains in mental representation

– Make-believe Play

– Symbol-Real World Relations Slide 12

Piaget’s theory: The PreoperatioŶal Stage

Slide 13

Make-believe play • Through pretending, children practice and

strengthen newly acquired representational schemes. – Social skills, attention, memory, imagination,

creativity

• With age, make-believe play gradually becomes: – More detached from real life condition, eg., use toy

phone for calls, then use other objects for calls – Less self-centred e.g., children may pretend to

feed a toy

– More complex • Sociodramatic play

Slide 14

Symbol-real world relations

• Dual Representation – Viewing a symbolic object as both an

object and a symbol

– Mastered around age 3

• Adult teaching can help Provide maps, photos, drawings, and

opportunities for make-believe play to support child’s experience with symbols

Point out similarities to real world

Slide 15

Limitations of preoperational thought

• Egocentrism and animistic thinking

– Egocentrism: Failure to distinguish other people’s ǀ ie ǁ froŵ oŶe’s oǁ Ŷ

– Animism: Belief that inanimate objects

have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

– Egocentrism.mp4

Slide 16

Limitations of preoperational thought

Slide 17

• Inability to conserve – Conservation refers to the idea that certain physical

characteristics of objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes

– ..\..\..\First Sem_2015-2016\First Sem\PSYC 335\videos on infant socio dev\Piaget - Stage 2 - Preoperational - Lack of Conservation.mp4

• Inability to conserve reflect: – Centration: Focusing on one aspect of a situation and neglecting

other important features • child centres on height of glass neglecting width

• child treat initial and final states of water as unrelated

– Irreversibility: Inability to mentally reverse a set of steps

Conservation task

Slide 18

Limitations of preoperational thought

Slide 19

• Lack of hierarchical classification

– Using criteria to sort objects on the basis of characteristics such as shape, colour, function, etc.

– Lack class inclusion, the ability to relate the whole class

(furry animals) to its subclasses (dogs, cats)

– They do not understand that the subclasses are included within the whole class

Limitations of preoperational thought

Slide 20

Topic Three

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Slide 21

Emotional Development • Expressing emotions – more self-conscious emotions

– Eg., Pride, shame, embarrassment, and guilt are examples of self-conscious emotions

– During the early childhood years, emotions such as pride and guilt become more common

• Understanding emotions: linked to an increase in prosocial behavior (actions intended to help others) – Children begin to understand that the same event can elicit different feelings in

different people – By age 5 most children show a growing awareness of the need to manage

emotions according to social standards • Regulating emotions: Plays a key role in children’s ability to manage

the demands and conflicts they face in interacting with others – Parents can be described as taking an emotion-coaching or an emotion-

dismissing approach – Ability to modulate emotions benefits children in their relationships with peers

Slide 22

Personality: Initiative versus guilt (Erikson)

Slide 23

• Age 3 – 6

• Children use their perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make things happen

• Conflict at this stage is the struggle between wanting to do things independently and the guilt that comes with failure

• To support positive resolution, parents should: • Provide opportunities for decision-making and self-reliance • Offer direction and guidance • Encourage children’s initiative

– Parents who discourage children’s efforts toward initiative may contribute toward child’s feelings of guilt and may negatively impact their self-concept

Gender Identity

Slide 24

• Gender identity iŶǀ olǀ es a seŶse of oŶe’s oǁ Ŷ gender, including knowledge, understanding, and

acceptance of being male or female (Santrock, 2011).

• Differences in the way we treat boys and girls begin

at birth

• Gender differences manifest in children’s play

– Boys – more rough-housing, wrestling

– Girls – more time in structured activities and role-playing

– Girls prefer same sex playmates at approximately 2; boys

typically do not begin the show preference until age 3

Parenting and socioemotional deǀ ’t

Slide 25

• Parents should be neither punitive nor aloof; they should

develop rules for their children and be affectionate with

them (Baumrind, 1971)

• Baumrind’s parenting styles

– Four parenting styles based on levels acceptance and involvement, control, and autonomy granting:

• Authoritarian

• Authoritative

• Permissive

• Uninvolved

Authoritarian

• Controlling, bossy, rigid rules, all decisions are made for the

child

• Restrictive, punitive style in which parents exhort the child to follow their directions and respect their work and effort

• Associated with • low self-esteem

• child tends to withdraw

• uneasiness with peers

• Distrustful

• Often rebel

• High risk of drug use and sexual promiscuity

Slide 26

Indulgent (permissive)

• Parents are highly involved with their children but place few demands or controls on them; – make few rules which are inconsistently enforced

– Little respect for order and routine

– Chaotic environment

• It is associated with – lack of self-control

– Low persistence to challenging tasks

– Difficulty with authority

– Low self-esteem

– Inflated sense of self

– AĐt ͞spoil ͟

Slide 27

Uninvolved (neglectful)

•The pareŶt is ǀ ery uŶiŶǀ olǀ ed iŶ the Đhild’s life, shoǁ indifference towards children; emotionally detached from children – ͞pareŶtiŶg ͟ iŶǀ olǀ es just supplyiŶg food, ĐlothiŶg aŶd shelter

• Children display • low self-esteem

• immature

• may be alienated from the family

• may be delinquent as adolescents

• Lack social skills

• Easily conform to peers

• At risk for sexual promiscuity

Slide 28

Authoritative parenting

•Encourages children to be independent but still places

limits and controls on their actions

– ŵoŶitor ĐhildreŶ’s ďehaǀ ior to eŶsure that they folloǁ through rules and expectation (in a loving manner)

– Children tend to be

• independent,

• assertive

• have strong motive to achieve

• regulate behavior effectively

• task persistent

• self control

Slide 29

Child Maltreatment

Slide 31

• Types of child maltreatment

– Physical abuse

– Child neglect

– Sexual abuse

– Emotional abuse

Forms of maltreatment

• Physical abuse: any injury purposely

inflicted upon a child.

– This can include kicking, biting, violent shaking, hair pulling, choking, burning

or beating.

• Sexual abuse: any sexual act between a child and an adult.

– May or may not involve actual intercourse

– Forcing children to observe various

sexual acts

Slide 32

Forms of maltreatment • Emotional abuse: verbal abuse or an

attitude that is degrading a child – Can include name calling, screaming,

shaming or negatively comparing a child to another "good" child.

• Neglect: failing to provide for a child's basic needs – Can include inappropriate clothing for the

weather, unhealthy food (or no food at all), lack of supervision, denial of medical care to a sick or injured child or denial of love and affection.

– Emotional absence of a parent or a caregiver

Slide 33

Factors related to child maltreatment

• History of child abuse

• Stress and lack of support

• Substance use

• Characteristics of the child

• The community context: lack of counselling to distressed parents

• The larger culture: laws regarding child

abuse and steps taking when parents

abuse children

Slide 34

Developmental consequences of child

maltreatment

Slide 35

• Emotional problems – Poor emotional self-regulation

– Depression

• Adjustment difficulties – Aggression

– Peer problems

– Substance abuse

– Delinquency

• School and learning problems

• Brain damage

Sample Question

Slide 36

• Discuss the psychological implications of child maltreatment oŶ ĐhildreŶ’s socio-emotional well- being.

References

• Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monographs, 4 (1, Pt.2), 1-103.

• Santrock, J. W. (2011). Life-span development (13th Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Slide 37