Who is Noam Chomsky and what is LAD?

A Linguist who proposed humans are biologically prewired to learn language at certain time/certain way.

LAD:Language acquisition device:
biological endowement allows child detect features & rules of language

Give examples of holophrases and telegraphic speech

• Holophrases (1 word utterances that might communicate phrases)  E.g., "Dada" (could mean, "where is dad?")
• Telegraphic Speech (use of short & precise words) E.g., "Book there", "Daddy, shoes" (put on my shoes dad).

Discuss the types of smiles in an infant.

• Reflexive Smile: not in response to external stimuli. Appears during 1st month after birth during sleep.
• Social Smile: 
  • occurs in response to external stimuli
  • can start at 4 months (response caretaker's voice)

What are infant/child temperaments?

Definition: individual's behavioral style & characteristic way of responding

Three Types:

1) Classification (Chess & Thomas)

2) Behavioral Inhibition (Kagan

3) Effortful Control (Self-Regulation)

Chess & Thomas'

Classification

Three basic types of temperament:

1. Easy child: generally positive mood; adapts easy

2. Difficult child: reacts negatively & cries frequently; irregular daily routines; doesn't adapt well

3. Slow-to-warm-up child: low activity level; somewhat negative; display low intensity of moods

Kagan's Behavioral Inhibition

• Focuses on differences between:
  • shy, subdued, timid child & 
  • sociable, extraverted, bold child
• Inhibition to the unfamiliar: avoidance, distress; begins around 7-9 months

Effortful Control

(Self-Regulation)

• High control:
  • ability keep arousal getting too high
  • have self-soothing strategies
• Low control
  • unable control arousal
  • easily agitated, intensely emotional

What does attachment mean?

• Close emotional bond between 2 people.
• Freud theorized infants attach to person/object provides oral satisfaction
• 4 phases (based on Bowlby)
  • Phase 1: Birth - 2 months  Phase 2: 2 - 7 months
  • Phase 3: 7 -24 months
  • Phase 4: 24 months on...

Theories of Attachment

• Bowlby - stressed importance of attachment in 1st year of life
  • both infants and caretaker biologically predisposed to form attachments & develops in phases.
• Mary Ainsworth
  • Strange Situation - observational measure of infant attachment; prescribed order intro's/separation/reunion

What is scaffolding?

Related to Reciprocal Socialization:

• Definition: Parents time interactions so that infants experience turn-taking w/ parents. E.g., Peek-a-boo
  • Children who experience extensive scaffolding more likely engage in turn-taking w/peers.

1Is day-care harmful according to the National Longitudinal Study of Child Care?

• Poor quality is more likely for families w/few resources (psychological, social, and economic)
• Extensive childcare harmful to low-income children only when care was of low quality
• High-quality care linked w/fewer internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety) & external (e.g., aggressive/destructive behaviors).

What are typical weight gains for preschoolers?

• Average child grows 2.5 inches & 
• gains 5-7 pounds per year
• Many factors influence growth:
  • genetics (ethnicity), birth order, nutrition, overall health

What is the difference between muscle and fat in early childhood boys and girls?

• Girls have more fatty tissue than boys
• Boys have more muscle tissue than girls

Gross Motor Skills

• Gross motor skills involve large muscles of the body
• 3 years old: hopping, jumping, running back & forth
• 4 years old: same activities but more adventurous
  • increased abilities on steps
• 5 years old
  • even more adventurous; run hard/enjoy races

Fine Motor Skills

• Involve the small muscles of the body; involves fine motor control & dexterity
• 3 years: had ability pick up tiniest objects between thumb & forefinger for some time but still clumsy at it
• 4 years: fine motor coordination improved & more precise
• 5 years: hand/arm/body move together under eye command

What is the best explanation for

handedness?

• The hand one naturally favors that stems from genetic inheritance.
• Right-handedness is dominant in ALL cultures
• Left-handers: historically discriminated against
  • more likely to have reading problems
  • unusually good visual-spatial skills & layouts

Egocentrism

• Inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's
• Occurs in children between 2-4 years 
• Example: Dad calls home, child picks up phone. Dad asks to speak to mom. Child nods mom is home but doesn't realize dad can't see nod.

Animism

• Belief that inanimate objects have life-like qualities and are capable of action (i.e., are alive).
• Examples: "I'm mad at the sidewalk b/c it made me fall" / "My teddy bear is blue b/c it has a cold"

Conservation

• Awareness that altering an object's or substance's appearance does not change its basic properties.
• E.g., amount of liquid stays same when poured from 1 container to another, regardless container's shapes.
• Children younger than 7-8 years have trouble - still in Preoperational stage of cognitive development.

Centration

• Centering attention on 1 characteristic to exclusion of all others.
• E.g., all animals with 4 legs are "dogs" b/c animal has 4 legs, regardless if it is a cat or lamb, etc.

ZPD

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
  • Range of tasks too difficult for child master alone; But can be learned w/guidance of adults or skilled children
  • Lower limit of ZPD - skill level reached by child working independently
  • Higher limit ZPD - additional assistance needed

Private Speech

according to Lev Vygotsky

• Language for self-regulation 
  • Used to plan, guide, & monitor behavior by children
  • Child talking to him/her self
• Represents early transition become more socially communicative

Immanent Justice

• concept that if rule broken, punishment will be meted out immediately.
• E.g., children who look worried after doing something wrong, b/c they expect immediate punishment even if no adult witnessed the act.
• [Chapter 6, p. 170]

Define Development

Pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span.

What are the characteristics of the life-span perspective?

• Lifelong - develop thru entire life
• Multidimensional - Biological,Cognitive & Socioemotional
• Plasticity - capacity for change; e.g., timid to hospitable
• Multidisciplinary- cuts across disciplines; e.g., How does heredity and health limit intelligence?
• Contextual - all development occurs w/in a context; e.g., families, church, cities

Normative age-graded

 influences

• Similar influences for people of same age group
• Biological - puberty, menopause
• Sociocultural - begin schooling at age 6; retirement

Normative History-Graded

Influences

• Common to people of particular generation
• E.g., assassination John F. Kennedy
  • Great Depression 1930's
  • WWII
  • 9/11/01

Non-normative Life Events

• Unusual, life-impacting events for an individual
• Do not happen to all people; can influence people differently
• E.g., death of a parent for young child; teen-pregnancy; win lottery

What is the relationship between biological, cognitive, and social/socieoemotional development?

  Is one more important than the others?

• All 3 are inextricably intertwined
• Bi-directional - influence each other
• Influence developmental periods
  • variations in individuals' capabilities of same age
  • age-related changes

Biological Processes

 (of development)

• produce changes in physical nature
• Examples:
  • puberty, motor skills, vision/hearing

Cognitive Processes

(of development)

• changes in thought, intelligence & language
• Examples:
  • put together 2-word sentence
  • memorize poem
  • solve crossword puzzle

Socioemotional Processes

(of development)

• changes in relationships w/other people, emotions & personality
• Examples:
  • baby's smile in presence of mom
  • joy at senior prom
  • married couple's affection

Nature and Nurture

• Nature:
  • organism's biological inheritance
  • growth is primary result of programmed genitics
• Nurture:
  • Enviornmental issues influence growth

Stability & Change

• Stability
  • result of heredity & possibly early experiences in life
• Plasticity
  • potential for change, exists thru life span

Continuity & Discontinuity

• Continuity:  gradual, cumulative change, quantitative
  • Examples: oak tree from seed to giant; child's first distinct word
• Discontinuity:  distinct changes; qualitative
  • Example: caterpillar to butterfly

What are the differences between

Freud and Erikson? 

• Freud: (psychosexual) behaviors and problems result of first 5 years of life
  • Adult personality - resolution of conflicts at each stage
• Erikson:(psychosocial) human behavior reflects desire to affiliate w/others
  • development occurs throughout lifespan

Erikson's Eight (8) Stages

1. Trust vs. Mistrust: Infancy (first year)

2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt: Infancy (1-3 years)

Realize their own will. Punished harshly create shame

3. Initiative vs. Guilt: Early Childhood (3-5 years)

4. Industry vs. Inferiority :Mid-late childhood (6 years- puberty)

5. Identity vs. Identity Confusion: Adolescence (10-20 years)

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation: Early adulthood (20's & 30's)

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation: Middle adulthood (40's & 50's)

8. Integrity vs. Despair: Late adulthood (60's onward)

What are genes?

• Units of heredity info
• short segments of DNA
• direct cells to reproduce & assemble proteins
  • (building blocks of cells & regulate body's processes)

Chromosome

• Threadlike structures found in nucleus of each human cell
• Made up of DNA
  • complex molecule
  • double helix shape (spiral stairs)

How is the sex of a human determined in regards to the X and Y chromosomes?

• Male
  • presence of a Y chromosome is what makes an individual a male.
• Female:
  • presence of two X chromosomes

What is a Zygote?

• Single cell created during fertilization
• results of Egg & sperm fusing together

Genotype

&

Phenotype

• Genotype:
  • Person's genetic makeup
• Phenotype:
  • observable characteristics
    • Physical (height, weight)
    • Psychological (personality, intelligence)