Early Childhood Chapter 7-8 Psyc311 Jen Wright

body development Eating habits 2-6 year olds eat less than infants and older children. “Just right” phenomenon – picky eaters!  Like: salty/sweet foods  Dislike: bitter/sour foods Learning what is appropriate and not appropriate to eat Early signs of disgust  Infants show “disgust” facial expression  Strong food preferences

Role of disgust Higher order cognition evolved Protection against dangerous substances  Infants: facial expression associated with rejection of food they dislike Poisonous foods often bitter Rotten foods often sour  Facial expression also functions as warning Protection against contamination  Children not sensitive to contamination until early childhood Protection against deformity and disease

Higher-order disgust Physical contamination  social contamination  7-8 year olds “cooties” Physical contamination  moral contamination Examples?

Obesity Early signs of obesity as young as 2 years old Obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-olds rose to 14% for the years  compared with 5% in 1980 Need less food than did as an infant  Problem for forcing child to “clean their plate”  Esp w/ desert as an incentive! Attraction to salty and sweet foods Too much juice Junk food Not enough veggies and fibers Other contributors Too much (full fat) milk Not enough physical/mental activity

Consequences Type II diabetes  50% of some children in low-income areas  Bone development problems  Stunted hip/leg bone growth Cardiovascular disease HBP, High cholesterol Lower IQ Obesity programs for toddlers? 

developing cognitive skills Memory development  Still better memory for content than context No memory of when/where something is learned Increase in “executive function” Impulse control Delayed gratification Perseverance Ability to override current intentions given new information Color/shape card sorting game

sort by color

sort by shape

What is the driving force behind this development? Brain maturation  Plasticity Cognitive exploration  Piaget  Vygotsky

brain development Brain is 95% of adult weight by 6 years of age.  Much of this is due to myelination. Rapid growth and death spurts as brain restructures  High degree of plasticity Thickening of corpus callosum  Bi-hemospheric communication  Better, faster thinking  More coordinated actions Frontal lobe development  Not completed until late adolescence/early adulthood

Piaget’s theory Child as Scientists Children learn on their own Children are intrinsically motivated to learn. Language and education play only minimal roles.

Sensorimotor – birth to 2 years Pre-operational – 2 to 7 years

Vygotsky: socio-cultural theories Children as Apprentices Child learns through social interaction Children are socially motivated to learn Language and education play central roles.

Children as apprentices  guided participation

Scaffolding temporary support that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) The skills that we can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently. ZPD applies to the ideas or cognitive skills we are close to mastering as well as to more apparent skills. Examples?