Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)

Semester: Spring, 2022

Assignment No. 2
Q.1 Emotional development is important for children even before going to school.
Discuss emotional characteristics of preschool children.
Emotional development is a complex task that begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. The first
emotions that can be recognised in babies include joy, anger, sadness and fear. As children’s sense of self
develops, more complex emotions like shyness, surprise, elation, embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride and
empathy emerge. School aged children and young people are still learning to identify emotions, to understand
why they happen, and how to manage them appropriately. 
Emotional expression includes several components:
 physical responses (like heart rate, breathing and hormone levels)
 behavioural displays of emotion
 feelings that children and young people recognise and learn to name
 thoughts and judgments associated with feelings
 action signals (for example, a desire to approach, escape or fight).
Influences on emotional expression include: 
 values and beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing emotions that children and
young people learn from families and educators
 how effectively children and young people’s emotional needs are usually met
 children and young people’s temperaments
 cultural norms
 emotional behaviours that children and young people have learned through observation or experience
 the extent to which families are under various kinds of stress.
The rate of emotional development in children and young people can vary from person to person. Some children
may show a high level of emotional skill development while quite young, whereas others take longer to develop
the capacity to manage their emotions well into adolescence. INSTANT GRATIFICATION
Toddlers and preschoolers are ruled by their emotions and don’t have much, if any, impulse control. And if
there is one thing they don’t like, it’s being delayed gratification.
This, combined with their struggle to separate feelings from actions, means they’ll want to immediately express
an emotion or gratify a desire. They will cry immediately when sad and when they feel they want something
they will try to take it right away.
Keep this in mind as you try your best to teach them appropriate ways to show what they’re feeling as well as
sharing and turn-taking skills.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
Feeling for others
Sympathy and empathy begin to develop at a young age too. After seeing a friend or sibling get hurt, your child
may try to comfort them, offering kind words or a reassuring hug or pat on the back. As children become more
aware of their emotions and how to control them, they also become more aware of the feelings of those around
them. This can be an especially happy thing to see blossom in your child.
Separation anxiety
Three-year-olds are generally less interested in playing with other children, and have a greater capacity to be
affected by separation anxiety; they’ll be more interested in staying with their parents or primary caregivers.
Generally, four-year-olds will have an easier time with this and any separation anxiety will be more short-lived.
Though your 3-year-old is beginning to understand the emotions they are feeling, they still have very little
control over them. If they find something funny, they'll laugh hysterically. If something makes them feel sad or
angry, they'll burst into tears.
At this age, your preschooler still hasn't developed much impulse control. If they feel something, they are likely
to act on it. This may mean snatching a toy away from another child if they want to play with it, or getting upset
when they want a snack after being told they have to wait until dinnertime. Delayed gratification means nothing
to them -- they want it, and want it now.
Three- and 4-year-old children may use hitting, biting, or pushing as a way to solve conflicts. They simply don't
understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate interactions yet. It's your job to teach your
child that there are right and wrong ways to express emotions and resolve problems with others.
As your child gets older, they'll begin to see a connection between emotional outbursts and negative consequences.
Throwing a tantrum may result in a "time out" or a favorite toy being taken away. These consequences are helping
your 4-year-old understand a tantrum isn't an acceptable way to show emotion.
Your 4-year-old is also a budding comedian. They are starting to develop a sense of humor, and love being silly and
making people laugh. Don't be surprised if you hear them calling their friend a "poo-poo head" and then laughing
hysterically; 4-year-olds find potty talk highly entertaining.
Around age 3, children begin to develop a vivid imagination. At this age, your preschooler will begin to spend a
great deal of time in a fantasy world of their own creation. Their dolls and stuffed animals all have names and
personalities. They may chat with imaginary friends. Parents sometimes worry that imaginary friends are a sign of
loneliness or isolation, but in fact they're just the opposite. Children use this type of fantasy play to learn how to
interact with real people. It's practice for the "real world." At an age when your child has very little control over their
own life, their fantasy world is their own creation. They're in charge. Around the same time your preschooler
begins to talk to an imaginary friend, they may also develop a fear of the monster living under their bed. These
types of fears are common. They are also quite serious to them, so don't make a joke out of it. The best thing
you can do is reassure your child that they are safe and nothing is going to hurt them.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
As your child gets older, fantasy play will continue to be an important part of their life, but they'll get better at
understanding the difference between fantasy and reality. their fantasies will get more elaborate and
sophisticated, and don't be surprised if they sometimes involve violence. Don't let games of shoot-'em-up bother
you; it's totally normal for children to be fascinated with weapons and violence at this age, and it's not a sign
that they'll be violent when they're older.
The older your preschooler gets, the more they'll crave independence. It may sound like a contradiction, but the best
way to nurture your preschooler's independence and self-confidence is to keep their life fairly structured. Give them
choices, but don't give them endless choices. Let them choose between two outfits to wear, or ask them if they want
a turkey sandwich or macaroni and cheese for lunch. When they ask to do something you know isn't a good idea,
hold firm. Being allowed choices within a structured framework will help to boost their self-confidence while at the
same time letting them know they are safe and secure.
Q.2 What is the role of community in moral development of a child?
Community is essential to quality outcomes of children. A community provides an important relationship
environment; promotes belonging, a sense of identity and learning; supports active participation in the world
and continuity of learning; and connects children and families to supportive relationship and resource networks.
Young children develop in an environment of relationships, with a child’s community providing a vital
relationship context for their learning and development. This is particularly important during the early years
when the foundations of brain architecture are being built. From birth, positive, responsive, consistent and
secure relationships with others provide a supportive, growth-promoting environment for children’s
development, wellbeing and learning. Children’s academic, social-emotional and mental health outcomes are
built on this foundation.
A child’s relationship environment begins in the family, but then extends to adults and peers outside of the
family who have important roles in their life. Educators and other education and care staff are a significant part
of many children’s relationship environment.  Communities that foster positive interactions and relationships
between children, peers and adults strengthen children’s outcomes.
Community is essential to quality outcomes of children. A community provides an important relationship
environment; promotes belonging, a sense of identity and learning; supports active participation in the world
and continuity of learning; and connects children and families to supportive relationship and resource networks.
When children have a sense of belonging and feel safe, secure and supported, they have the confidence to play,
explore and learn. A service that is strongly connected to the people and place of its community is welcoming,
inclusive, connected to the culture and context of children’s families, while nurturing respectful and reciprocal
relationships with children’s families. Connection to community creates a responsive, safe and stable education
and care environment which, in turn, promotes children’s belonging and learning.
Children’s understanding of their self is developed through relationships and in the context of their families and
communities. ‘Relationships engage children in the human community in ways that help them define who they
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
are, what they can become, and how and why they are important to other people’ (Center on the Developing
Child, 2004, p. 1). Identity is a strong foundation for children’s social and emotional development as well as
their sense of agency.
Having everyday experiences and participating with the people and places of a community enables children to
observe, engage, understand and actively contribute to their expanding world. This supports children to live
interdependently with others, be decision-makers and have influence. The ability to participate in different
communities – a central element of citizenship – helps young children to respond to diversity and become
socially responsible.
Moral behaviour:
Moral behaviour means behaviour in conformity with the moral code of the social group. The term ‘Moral’
comes from the Latin word ‘mores’ meaning manners, customs and folkways. Moral behaviour not only
conforms to social standards but also it is carried out voluntarily. It is always a companied by a feeling of
responsibility for one’s acts. It involves giving primary consideration to the welfare of the group and
considering personal gain or desires as having secondary importance.
Moral concepts:
Moral concepts are the rules of behaviour to which the members of a culture become accustomed and which
determine the expected behaviour patterns of all group members.
Stages of Moral Development:
A-moral stage:
This stage lasts from birth to two years. The new born baby has no idea of good or bad, or right and wrong. He
is moved solely by his urges and wants. He is unaware of the effects his act has on others.
Self-centered stage:
This stage usually goes up to six years. Some individuals may remain fixated at this stage even much later. At
this stage the person learns to distinguish between self-interest and group interest but he is not prepared to
sacrifice his own interest. A self-centred act is done more with a view to satisfy one’s impulses or desires than
to disregard a moral rule.
Conforming conventional stage:
During this stage motive or activity of the child is not self-approval but group approval. At this stage a child
may ignore his own impulses and act only in the manner which is normal in his group. Conformity to norms of
the social group is fairly common at the late childhood stage. By doing so he learns many right things.
Irrational conscientious stage:
Conscience is a term which is used for internal self-criticism which makes a person reject an act because it
conflicts with his ideals even though it may attain his external goals. Behaviour is irrational conscientious when
an individual acts in the light of the values which are held emotionally rather than rationally.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
For example, always speak the truth even if it results in somebody being hanged or found out by a mob and
lynched. Almost all adolescents pass through this stage of holding on to social values or emotional basis before
they attain the highest level of moral development.
Rational altruistic stage:
That highest level is the rational altruistic stage. Here the values are not found in emotional conditioning but in
rational judgment. In other words the person acquires values and ideals at rational and not at emotional basis.
That is the values are put above or below in a hierarchy in relation to their consequences for the welfare of
others. At this level a person adheres neither to the group norm nor to abstract ‘law’ or morality. But he acts and
decides on the basis of reasoning and the best consideration for others.
Q.3 Language needs of community to be developed. Discuss.
A speech community is a group of people who share rules for conducting and interpreting at least one variety of
a language or dialect. The term can be applied to a neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. We all belong to
at least one speech community. The earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our
primary caregivers (usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate and long term
relationships we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech community show up in a dialect
referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or dialect of language we command. Our vernacular speech
is least susceptible to monitoring and least likely to change across our lifetime.
Most of us were immersed in language from our first awareness of the world around us. Since infants can hear
the sound of their mother’s voice and the noises and interactions in her environment in the womb, we probably
hear our first sounds before we take our first breath. Fairly early in our development, we target in our babbling
those sounds that form the phonology of our language or dialect. In interaction with us, our mother adjusts her
speech to reflect the phonology, morphology, semantic and syntactic relationships that we are learning. Indeed,
our vernacular speech forms the very basis of all future linguistic interaction and development. Across our
lifetime we will participate in, construct, engage in, and possibly abandon many speech communities. No other
will be as primary.
When we enter school we bring more than the pronunciation patterns, lexicon, syntactic structures, semantic
and interpretive frameworks of the language variation or dialect we speak. We have begun to learn to whom we
should say what and when. Furthermore, we have learned rules of conversation and linguistic interaction. We
have learned to identify whose turn it is to speak, how to get the floor ourselves, and when a person’s turn is
over. All of these linguistic skills support us in our first steps toward the development of literacy. When the
patterns of the speech communities we join at school are not that much different from the discourse patterns of
the speech community (or communities) we participate in with our parents, literary development is more natural
and easier.
When the linguistic heritage we bring to school contrasts sharply with the norms of the speech community of
the school, it creates difficulties not just for speaking but for participating. If our linguistic heritage is viewed as
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
problematic, divergent, or substandard, we may think of ourselves as problems. We may feel shame for who we
are and the community we come from. If how we speak, gain access to participation, interpret behavior, or
respond politely is misunderstood by the school as laziness, recalcitrance, disrespectfulness, or stupidity, our
entire educational future and our ability to achieve our intellectual potential may be called into question.
Linguistic heritage that is suspect usually comes from those who either speak a different language or use
dialects judged to be non-standard. John Ogbu points out that just because people speak a different language or
dialect does not mean they will not do well in learning a new language and in achieving success in a new
culture. But in the United States as well as other countries in the world, some groups do better in this process
than others. Some point to cultural patterns to account for differences in successful participation.
This term refers to the linguistic resources which learners need in order successfully to cope with the forms of
communication in which they are going to be involved in the short or medium term. These needs (and hence
these communication situations) are identified as part of a specific process which consists of gathering together
the information required to assess what uses will actually be made of the language learnt and thereby determine
what types of content should be taught on a priority basis. This process necessarily is the starting point for the
development of language programmes intended for learners like adults who are not covered by school
education. It is particularly relevant for adult migrants who have to cope in a pressing manner, from the moment
of their arrival and on a daily basis, with exchanges in a language of which they have limited or no knowledge.
It must lead to the development of tailor-made courses, which are the only means of meeting the expectations of
the relevant groups. However, it should not be reduced to a technique for specialists, as the needs cannot be
defined without input from those concerned or indeed on their behalf. In order to specify the language needs of
a particular group which is regarded as homogeneous on the basis of certain aspects, use is made of data such as
information questionnaires for learners, interviews with them and with native speakers in contact with them,
samples of their spoken and written production and observations of language activities which take place in the
context(s) concerned... This approach is particularly vital if the needs to be identified concern professional
activities: what competences for a given job or professional assignment? The information is gathered by means
of external observations (which may be described as "objective") or through the feelings of those concerned
(subjective analysis), the two being complementary.  Several players are involved in the process of developing
courses for adults and adult migrants and they do not necessarily have the same views about the aims or the
methods of the teaching. If the promoters of a language course are business managers, they may wish to obtain
immediate, practical results; for their part, teachers may give precedence to the teaching methodologies which
they believe are effective (communicative approach, task-based approach...); while learners often approach their
needs from the angle of their previous experience of education/learning and their educational culture. These
varied expectations involving that many different interpretations of the language needs which have to be
satisfied require negotiation so that the objective and subjective needs are harmonised. Adult migrants must not
be excluded from the relevant exchanges.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
1. Developing a shared language builds community. Any sociologist could tell you shared language often
forms the basis of a community. When everyone uses the same vocabulary, the community becomes more
close-knit and there is a greater sense of camaraderie. You can shape community behavior with positive
language.
2. Understanding the language of your community makes users feel like they’re on the inside. Everyone
likes to feel important or in the know. Once again, knowledge of a community language helps people feel like
they are an integral part of the group, fostering a stronger sense of member or customer loyalty.
3. The words that we use to refer to people change how we treat those people. Using the right words will
help to reinforce the community objective, while the wrong words will obscure the purpose of the community.
Q.4 Discuss general characteristics of learning.
The process of learning is continuous which starts right from the time of birth of an individual and continues till
the death. We all are engaged in the learning endeavours in order to develop our adaptive capabilities as per the
requirements of the changing environment. For a learning to occur, two things are important: 1. The presence of
a stimulus in the environment and 2. The innate dispositions like emotional and instinctual dispositions. A
person keeps on learning across all the stages of life, by constructing or reconstructing experiences under the
influence of emotional and instinctual dispositions.
Psychologists in general define Learning as relatively permanent behavioural modifications which take place as
a result of experience. This definition of learning stresses on three important elements of learning:
 Learning involves a behavioural change which can be better or worse.
 This behavioural change should take place as a result of practice and experience. Changes resulting from
maturity or growth cannot be considered as learning
 This behavioural change must be relatively permanent and last for a relatively long time enough.
Learning is the process by which one acquires, ingests, and stores or accepts information. The main
characteristic of learning that; it is a process of obtaining knowledge to change human behavior through
interaction, practice, and experience.
Characteristics of learning are;
 Learning involves change.
 All learning involves activities.
 Learning Requires Interaction.
 Constitute Learning.
 Learning is a Lifelong Process.
 Learning Occurs Randomly Throughout Life.
 Learning Involves Problems Solving.
 Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
 Learning Involves far more than Thinking.
 Experience is Necessary for Learning.
Learning involves change.
It is a reconstruction, combined thinking, skill, information and appropriation in a single unity process.
For example, when a child learns to read they can retain this knowledge and behavior for the rest of their lives.
It is not always reflected in performance. The change from the learning may not be clear until a situation arises
in which the new behavior can occur.
All learning involves activities
These activities involve either physical or mental activity. They may be simple mental activities of complex,
involving various muscles, bones, etc.
Learning Requires Interaction
At the time of learning, the individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the environment. This
experience makes him change or modify his behavior to deal effectively with it.
Constitute Learning
To constitute learning, the change should be permanent. Temporary changes may be only reflective and fail to
represent any learning.
Learning is a Lifelong Process
Learning is a lifelong process of gaining and using the information presented to a person. It is not static.
A person never stops acquiring new information. It keeps a person’s mind active and aware but also conscious
of the world around them.
Learning Occurs Randomly Throughout Life
Some learning occurs randomly throughout life, from new experiences, gaining information and from our,
perceptions, for example: reading a newspaper or watching a news broadcast, talking with a friend or colleague,
chance meetings, and unexpected experiences.
Learning Involves Problems Solving
Learning involves problem-solving i.e. understanding and discovering relations between different contents in a
situation.
Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information
Learning is the process of acquiring information, knowledge, wisdom, and skills. It occurs as a result of
interaction with the person’s environment.
Learning Involves far more than Thinking
Learning involves far more than thinking: it involves the whole personality – senses, feelings, intuition, beliefs,
values, and will. If we do not have the will to learn, we cannot learn and if we have learned, we are changed in
some way. If the learning makes no difference it can have very little significance.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
Experience is Necessary for Learning
Some sort of experience is necessary for learning. We can get the experience from direct observation or from
formal approaches to learning such as training, mentoring, coaching and teaching.
We can get the experience from direct observation or from formal approaches to learning such as training,
mentoring, coaching and teaching.
Learning is more or less the acquisition of a new discourse, a new way of speaking, acting, interacting, looking
at the world, and knowing it.
It will be successful only when the information gained is used and understood.
It is a continuous process followed by an individual that allows for the acquisition of information, attitudes, and
practices, through observation, seeking previous knowledge, searching out guides, and looking within as well as
without. It is a key process in human behavior.
If we compare the simple ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behavior,
his skills, habits, though, sentiments and the like we will know what difference learning has made to the
individual.
Types of Learning
Motor Learning: Our day to day activities like walking, running, driving, etc, must be learnt for ensuring a
good life. These activities to a great extent involve muscular coordination.
Verbal Learning: It is related with the language which we use to communicate and various other forms of
verbal communication such as symbols, words, languages, sounds, figures and signs.
Concept Learning: This form of learning is associated with higher order cognitive processes like intelligence,
thinking, reasoning, etc, which we learn right from our childhood. Concept learning involves the processes of
abstraction and generalization, which is very useful for identifying or recognizing things.
Discrimination Learning: Learning which distinguishes between various stimuli with its appropriate and
different responses is regarded as discrimination stimuli.
Learning of Principles: Learning which is based on principles helps in managing the work most effectively.
Principles based learning explains the relationship between various concepts.
Attitude Learning: Attitude shapes our behaviour to a very great extent, as our positive or negative behaviour
is based on our attitudinal predisposition.
Q.5 How are individual difference measured?
All animals learn, remember and integrate information in order to reach decisions and behave appropriately, but
how, why and when these cognitive abilities evolve remains uncertain. One reason for this uncertainty is that
research in animal cognition has frequently ignored individual differences and this precludes our understanding
of how natural selection sifts individual differences leading to evolutionary changes. Instead, the study of
cognition in animals has traditionally taken one of three (non-exclusive) forms. First, particular model species
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
(e.g. pigeons or rats) have been used to investigate the mechanisms underpinning specific cognitive processes.
This has typically used laboratory paradigms involving prolonged training of batches of individuals to complete
tasks aimed to elucidate fundamental learning principles. Second, the comparative approach tests species or
populations with the same, or purportedly similar, tasks to understand when in evolutionary history particular
cognitive processes may have emerged and what ecological or social conditions may facilitate these processes.
The abilities of a sample of individuals within a population or species are pooled and considered representative
of the whole grouping. Finally, within a species, the abilities of particular, often highly enculturated, ‘genius’
individuals are explored in great detail in order to establish the presence of, or limits to, particular cognitive
capacities. From these instances of presence or absence, broader patterns of evolution may be suggested and
inferences drawn about the adaptive benefits of possessing such cognitive abilities for the species, based on its
ecology and social behaviour. While progress has been made in understanding both fine-scale cognitive
mechanisms and broad-scale evolutionary patterns using these methods, it is hard to understand the evolution of
cognitive abilities through natural selection when we ignore inter- and intra-individual variation in cognitive
abilities.
While individual differences have been central to human psychology since the early 20th century research on
non-human animals has, until recently, tended to ignore the variation amongst individuals. Over the last decade,
there has been a growing focus on intraspecific variation in non-human animals. This is perhaps influenced by
(i) the behavioural ecology approach originating in the 1980s, which explicitly considered natural selection on
individual phenotypes; (ii) the more recent studies of animal personality, which emphasize individual
differences across correlated suites of behaviours (iii) the development of statistical (mixed) modelling
techniques that permit explicit consideration of individual differences; and (iv) the development of technology
permitting fine-scale tracking of individuals’ movements and interactions. This special issue draws together
recent theoretical and empirical developments in the emerging field of individual variation in cognition.
As cognitive abilities cannot be directly observed, they must be inferred through careful experimentation.
Measuring individual cognitive variation poses particular logistical and analytical challenges because it requires
repeated testing of known individuals under standardized conditions, in a way that allows for noise caused by
differences in, for example, motivation, attention and prior experience to be identified, quantified and/or
removed (experimentally or statistically). Papers in the first section of this special issue explore these
methodological aspects further.
By measuring the cognitive abilities of individuals, we can address otherwise intractable questions regarding the
mechanisms, development and evolution of cognition. For instance, how is the ontogeny of cognitive
phenotypes shaped by the physical or social environment? What is the relationship between personality and
cognitive performance? Does an individual’s ability to solve cognitive problems influence its ability to survive
and reproduce? This special issue examines both the causes and consequences of individual variation in
cognitive abilities.
 Course: Human Development and Learning (8610)
Semester: Spring, 2022
One means of addressing (although not eliminating) confounds is to assess individual consistency through
repeated testing. If we measure an individual once, and it makes more errors in remembering a rewarded
location than a conspecific, this could be because it has ‘worse’ spatial memory or because it happened to be
distracted. However, if we measure individuals repeatedly and we find that some individuals perform
consistently better than others, this may be indicative of a stable phenotypic trait that selection can act upon. It
is, therefore, vital that individuals are tested repeatedly to determine genuine among-individual phenotypic
variation. However, certain confounds may also be consistent over time and so these would also consistently
confound performance. This is an issue that has received a great deal of attention in the literature on animal
personality, yet is only just beginning to be recognized in studies of animal cognition.
Measures of repeatability provide a way of assessing individual differences by quantifying among- and within-
individual variation. These modest estimates may be due in part to carry-over effects of learning and memory.
For example, if all individuals learn over repeated attempts at the same task, then this can reduce among-
individual variance and thus repeatability. Another approach is to present individuals with tasks that differ in
their physical characteristics but are designed to measure the same cognitive trait by having the same causal
contingencies. Most studies have conducted only single repeats of tests; it remains to be determined how adding
further repeat variants of a test increases the reliability of the measure of cognitive ability.