The Study of Human Development
HUMAN - scientific study of
DEVELOPMENT processes of change and
stability throughout the
human life span.
Developmental - individuals engaged in the
scientists or professional study of
developmentalists human development.
They answer questions like:
Which characteristics are most likely to endure?
Which are likely to change, and why?
Importance of developmentalists’ research:
- They have applications to child rearing,
education, health and social policy.
- E.g. Research has shown that students who go
to school hungry have poorer grades and more
emotional and behavioral problems than their
classmates and that this effect is more striking
in students from deprived environments.
- When breakfast programs are implemented,
students show academic gains (improved
nutrition and decrease in absences that
accompanies such
programs).
- Research that adolescent brain is still immature
leading to suggestion that adolescents accused
of crimes be exempt from death penalty.
- An understanding of adult development can
help people understand and deal with life
transitions: career change.
Studying the life span
Life Span now considered by researchers to
Development be from “womb” to “tomb”;
comprising the entire human
life span from conception to death.
Development can be either positive or negative:
Positive becoming toilet trained or
enrolling in a college course after
retirement.
Negative once again wetting the bed after a
traumatic event or isolating
yourself after retirement.
For these reasons, events such as the timing of
parenthood, maternal employment, and marital
satisfaction are now studied as part of dev psych.
Human development today
Goals of human development:
Description – describe when most children say their
first word or how large their vocabulary
is at a certain age by observing large
groups of children and establish norms
or averages, for behavior at various ages.
Explanation - explain how children acquire
language and why some children
learn to speak later than usual.
Prediction - predict the likelihood that a child
may have serious speech problems.’
Intervention - intervene in development by giving a
child speech therapy
- Development is messy. It is multi-faceted and shaped
by interacting arcs of influence.
- It is best understood with input from a variety of
theoretical and research orientation and is most
appropriately studied using multiple disciplines.
- It is best understood with input from a variety of
theoretical and research orientation and is most
appropriately studied using multiple disciplines
Domains of Development
emotions, personality, and social
Psychosocial
relationships.
growth of the body and brain,
Physical sensory capacities, motor skills and
health.
learning, attention, memory,
Cognitive language, thinking, reasoning, and
creativity.
These domains, though separate, are interrelated.
Periods of the Lifespan
Division of the life span into periods is a social
construction.
- a concept or practice that may
Social appear natural and obvious to
construction those who accept it, but that in
reality, it is an invention of a
particular culture or society.
Childhood in varied forms across cultures:
US: children have relative freedom.
Children in colonial times do adultlike tasks such as
knitting socks and spinning wool.
Inuit parents in Canadian Arctic believe that young
children are not yet capable of thought and reason so
they are lenient when children cry or become angry.
Parents on the Pacific Island of Tonga regularly beat 3-5
year olds because crying is attributed to willfulness.
 Periods of the life span maturation (unfolding of a natural sequence of
1. Prenatal Period conception to birth. physical and behavioral changes) of the body and
2. Infancy and toddlerhood Birth to age 3 brain.
3. Early childhood ages 3 to 6
4. Middle childhood ages 6 to 11 Only when deviation from the average is extreme
5. Adolescence ages 11 to about 20 should we consider development exceptionally
6. Emerging and Young ages 20 to 40 advanced or delayed.
Adulthood
7. Middle Adulthood ages 40 to 65 To understand development, we need to look at the
8. Late Adulthood age 65 and over inherited characteristics that give each person a start
in life. We also need to consider the many
environmental factors that affect development such
Influences on development
as family, neighborhood, socio economic status,
What makes each person unique?
race/ethnicity, and culture.
Students of development are interested in the
We need to understand which developments are
universal processes of development experienced by all
primarily maturational and which are not; which
normal human beings and they also study individual
influences affect many or most people at a certain age
differences.
and how timing can accentuate the impact of certain
influences.
Individual differences – differences in characteristics,
influences, or developmental outcomes.
Contexts of development
Each person has a unique developmental trajectory – Human beings are social beings.
an individual path to follow. FAMILY
Nuclear Family household unit consisting of one or
Challenge: identify the universal influences on two parents and their children,
development and then apply those to understanding whether biological, adopted, or
individual differences in developmental trajectories. stepchildren.

Increased incidence of divorce also

Heredity, environment and maturation
has affected the nuclear family.
Some influences on development originate primarily
Extended multigenerational kinship network
with heredity – inborn traits or characteristics
family of parents, children, and other
inherited from the biological parents.
relatives, sometimes living together
in an extended-family household.
Other influences come largely from the environment
– totality of nonhereditary or experiential influences
1. Both men and women are marrying at later ages,
on development.
thus, remaining at home for longer than was
previously typical.
Which of these factors has more impact on
development?
2. Immigrant populations since 1970 are more likely
Nature vs Nurture historically generated intense than native-born families to seek out
debate. multigenerational homes for reasons of practicality as
well as preference.
Contemporary theorists and researchers are more
interested in finding ways to explain how nature and 3. Latinos, African Americans, and Asians are all more
likely to live in multigenerational families than are
nurture work together than in
whites.
arguing about which factor is more important.

To get a callus, you have to have callus-making genes 4. People are living longer and elderly parents may
of some sort, but the environmental input of repeated sometime benefit from inclusion in their children’
friction on your skin is also required or a callus would households.
never form.

Many typical changes of infancy and early childhood,

such as the abilities to walk and talk, are tied to
 Socioeconomic status and neighborhood
Socioeconomic Status – combination of economic and
social factors describing an individual or family,
including income, education and occupation.
Poverty, if it is long-lasting, can be harmful to the
physical, cognitive, and psychosocial well-being of
children and families.
Poor children are more likely than other children to
have emotional or behavioral problems, and their
cognitive potential and school performance suffer
more.
Harm caused by poverty may be indirect: its impact is
on parents’ emotional state and parenting practices
and on the home environment they create.
Composition of a neighborhood affects children as
well. Living in a poor neighborhood with large
numbers of unemployed people makes it less likely
that effective social support will be available.
Still, positive development can occur despite serious
risk factors:
Pulitzer Prize – winning author Maya Angelou
Country singer – Shania Twain
Former US president – Abraham Lincoln
Affluence doesn’t necessarily protect children from
risk. Some children in affluent families face pressure
to achieve and are often left on their own by busy
parents.
They have high rates of substance abuse, anxiety and
depression.
Although poor families are often less positive about
their neighborhood and feels less safe:
Parents report being just as close with their children.
They attend church with families just as often.
They feel as safe at home and school.
They eat meals together as a family more often than
wealthier families.
Culture and race/ethnicity
a society’s or group’s total way of life
including customs, traditions, beliefs,
Culture values, language, and physical products
– all learned behavior, passed on from
parents to children.
a group united by ancestry, race,
religion, language, or national origins,
Ethnic
which contribute to a sense of shared
group
identity and shared attitudes, beliefs
and values.
Ethnic and cultural patterns affect development by
their influence on the composition of a household, its
economic and social resources, the way its members
act toward one another, the foods they eat, the
games children play, the way they learn, how well
they do in school, the occupations adults engage in,
and the way the family members think and perceive
the world.
historically and popularly viewed as an
identifiable biological category. There is
Race no clear scientific consensus on its
definition, and it is impossible to
measure reliably.
overgeneralization about an ethnic or
Ethnic
cultural group that obscures differences
gloss
within the group.
Historical context
Historical context is the time in which people live.
At one time, developmentalists paid little attention to
it.
As early longitudinal studies of childhood extended
into the adult years, investigators began to focus on
how certain experiences, tied to time and place, affect
the course of people’s lives.
Hence, historical context is now an important part of
the study of development.
Normative and non-normative influences
biological or environmental events
Normative that affect many or most people in
influences a society in similar ways and events
that touch only certain individuals.
highly similar for people in a
particular age group. The timing of
Normative age biological events is fairly
graded predictable within a normal range.
influences E.g. people don’t experience
puberty at age 35 or menopause at
12.
Normative significant events that shape the
history graded behavior and attitudes of a
influences historical generation.
a group of people who experience
the event at a formative time in
their lives.
Historical
E.g. Depending on when and where
generation
they live, entire generations may
feel the impact of famines, nuclear
explosions, or terrorist attacks.
Historical generation is not the same as an age
cohort: a group of people born at about the same
time. Historical generation may contain more than
one cohort, but cohorts are part of a historical
generation only if they experience major, shaping
historical events at a formative point in their lives.
Nonnormative are unusual events that have a
influences major impact on individual lives
because they disturb the expected
sequence of the life cycle.
They are either typical events that
happen at an atypical time of life
(death of a parent when a child is
young) or atypical events (surviving
a plane crash).
Some of these influences are
largely beyond a person’s control
and may present rare opportunities
or severe challenges that the
person perceives as turning points.
On the other hand, people sometimes help create
their own nonnormative life events.
E.g. deciding to have a baby in their mid-fifties or
taking up a risky hobby such as skydiving.
Normative age-graded, normative history-graded and
nonnormative influences contribute to the complexity
of human development as well as to the challenges
people experience in trying to build their lives.
Timing of influences: critical or sensitive periods
Imprinting instinctive form of learning in
which, during a critical period in
early development, a young
animal forms an attachment to the
first moving object it sees, usually
the mother. It was believed to be
automatic and irreversible.
In a well-known study, Konrad
Lorenz, an Austrian zoologist,
showed that newly hatched
ducklings will instinctively follow
the first moving object they see,
whether it is a member of their
species or not.
Critical period specific time when a given event,
or its absence, has a specific impact
on development.
If a woman receives X-ray, takes
certain drugs, or contracts certain
diseases at certain times during
pregnancy, the fetus may show
specific ill effects, depending on the
nature of the insult, its timing, and
characteristics of the fetus itself.
If a muscle problem interfering
with the ability to focus both eyes
on the same object is not corrected
within a critical period early in
childhood, depth perception will
not develop.
However, the concept of critical periods in humans is
controversial.
Because many aspects of development, even in the
physical domain, have been found to show plasticity –
modifiability of a performance, it may be more useful
to think about sensitive periods – times in
development when a person is particularly open to
certain kinds of experiences.
The Life-Span Developmental Approach
Each period of the lifespan is
affected by what happened
1. Development is before and will affect what is
lifelong to come. Each period has
unique characteristics and
value. each
It occurs along multiple
interacting dimensions
2. Development is – biological, psychological,
multidimensional and social – each of
which may develop at
varying rates.
Biological abilities, such as
sensory acuity and muscular
strength and coordination,
3. Relative influences weaken with age, but
of biology and culture cultural supports, such as
shift over the life education,
span. relationships, and
technologically age-friendly
environments, may help
compensate.
Individuals choose to invest
their resources of time,
energy, talent, money and
social support in varying
ways.
Resources may be used for
4. Development growth, for maintenance or
involves changing recovery, or for dealing with
resource loss.
Allocations.
Childhood and young
adulthood → growth
Old Age → regulation of loss
Midlife → allocation is more
balanced
 Many abilities such as
memory, strength, and
endurance,
can be improved significantly
with training and practice,
even late in life.
However, even in children,
plasticity has limits that
5. Development
depend in part on the
shows plasticity
various influences on
development.
One of the tasks of
developmental research is to
discover to what extent
particular kinds of
development can be
modified at various ages.
6. Development is Human beings not only
influenced by the influence but also are
historical and influenced by their historical-
Cultural context cultural context.
Theory and Research
Basic Theoretical Issues
coherent set of logically related
Theory concepts that seeks to organize,
explain, and predict data.
statement based on repeated
experimental observations that
Law
describes some phenomenon of
nature; proof that something
happens and how but not WHY.
possible explanations for
Hypotheses phenomena, used to predict the
outcome of research.
Is Development Active or Reactive?
: A young child is a tabula rasa – a
John Locke “blank slate” – upon which society
writes.
children grasp experiences and this
Reactive
input molds them over time.
people create experiences and are
Active motivated to learn about the world
around them.
Mechanistic Model & Organismic Model
Model that views human development
Mechanistic
as a series of predictable responses to
Model
stimuli
Organismic model that views human development
Model as internally initiated by an active
organism and as occurring in a
sequence of qualitatively different
stages. Children are active, growing
organisms.
Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
development is gradual and
Continuous
incremental; mechanistic.
development is abrupt or
Discontinuous
uneven; stages; organismic.
Quantitative changes in height, weight.
change in kind, structure, or
organization, not just in number; the
Qualitative
way that children think, behave, and
perceive the world as they mature.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
focuses on unconscious emotions
Psychoanalytic
and drives.
Learning studies observable behavior.
Cognitive analyzes thought processes.
emphasizes the impact of the
Contextual historical, social and cultural
context.
Evolutionary or
Considers evolutionary and
biological underpinnings of
Sociobiological
behavior
1. PSYCHOANALYTIC
Sigmund Freud Erik Erikson
SIGMUND FREUD: PSYCHOANALYTIC DEVELOPMENT
Hypothetical parts of personality:
Id operates under the pleasure principle
– the drive to seek immediate
satisfaction of their needs and desires.
Ego operates under the reality principle –
represents reason, develops gradually
during the first year or so of life.
Superego morality principle; includes the
conscience and incorporates socially
approved “shoulds” and “should nots”
into the child’s value system. The
superego is highly demanding; if its
standards are not met, a child may feel
guilty and anxious.
The ego mediates between the impulses of the id and
the demands of the superego.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
an unvarying sequence of stages of childhood
personality development in which gratification shifts
from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.
Freud consider the first 3 stages to be crucial for
personality development. If children receive too little
or too much gratification in any of these stages, they 2. Learning
are at risk of fixation. Learning perspective maintains that development
arrest in development that can show up in results from learning – a long-lasting change in
Fixation
adult personality behavior based on experience or adaptation to the
environment.
SIGMUND FREUD: PSYCHOANALYTIC DEVELOPMENT Two important learning theories are:
Stage Age Description Behaviorism Social Learning Theory
Baby’s chief source of
Birth to
pleasure involves mouth- BEHAVIORISM
ORAL 12-18
oriented activities (sucking Learning theory that emphasizes the predictable role
months
and feeding). of environment in causing observable behaviors.
Child derives sensual
gratification from withholding Behaviorists consider development as reactive and
12-18
and expelling feces. Zone of continuous.
ANAL months
gratification is anal region,
to 3 years
and toilet training is important It focuses on associative learning – a mental link is
activity. formed between 2 events.
Child becomes attached to Two kinds of associative learning:
parent of other sex and later 1. Classical Conditioning
3 to 6 identifies with same sex 2. Operant Conditioning
PHALLIC
years parent, superego develops.
Zone of gratification shifts Learning based on associating a stimulus that does
to genital region. not ordinarily elicit a response with another stimulus
6 years to Time of relative calm between that does elicit the response.
LATENCY
puberty more turbulent stages.
Reemergence of sexual Ivan Pavlov – devised experiments in which dogs
impulses of phallic stage learned to salivate at the sound of a bell that rang at
GENITAL Puberty feeding time.
channeled into mature adult
sexuality.
Response (salivation) to a stimulus (bell) is evoked
PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES (ERIKSON) after repeated association with a stimulus that
Age Psychosocial Virtue Existential normally elicits the response (food).
Crisis Question
0-12- Trust vs. Can I Trust the CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Hope John B. Watson – claimed that he could mold any
18mos. Mistrust World?
12-18 Autonomy Will Is it ok to be infant in any way he chose. He taught an 11-month-
mos. to 3 vs. Shame me? old baby known as “Little Albert” to fear furry white
years and Doubt objects.
Is it ok for me
Initiative vs. Albert was exposed to a loud noise when he started to
3 to 6 Purpose to do, move
Guilt stroke the rat. The noise frightened him, and he began
and act?
Can I make it to cry. After repeated pairings of the rat with the loud
6 to Industry vs. in the world of noise, Albert whimpered with fear when he saw the
Skill rat. Albert has also started showing fear responses to
puberty Inferiority people and
things? white rabbits and cats, and beards of elderly men.
Puberty – Identity vs. Who am I and
young Role Fidelity What The study demonstrated that fear could be
adulthood Confusion can I be? conditioned.
Young Intimacy vs. Can I Love? Classical conditioning occurs throughout life.
Love
adulthood Isolation
Middle Generativity Can I Make my Food likes and dislikes may be a result of conditioned
adulthood vs. Care Life Count? learning.
Stagnation
Late Ego Integrity Is it okay to Fear responses to objects like a car or a dog may be
Wisdom the result of an accident or a bad experience.
adulthood vs. Despair have been me?
 OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant Learning based on association of
Conditioning behavior with its consequences.
argued that an organism will tend to
repeat a response that has been
B.F. Skinner reinforced by desirable
consequences and will suppress a
response that has been punished.
the process by which a behavior is
strengthened, increasing the
Reinforcement
likelihood that the behavior will be
repeated.
the process by which a behavior is
Punishment weakened, decreasing the likelihood
of repetition.
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION THERAPY
A form of operant conditioning used to eliminate
undesirable behavior, such as temper tantrums, or to
instill desirable behavior, such as putting away toys
after play.
Example: Every time a child puts toys away, she or he
gets a reward, such as praise or a treat or new toy.
Zone of Vygotsky’s term for the difference
proximal between what a child can do alone
development and what the child can do with help.
temporary support to help a child
Scaffolding
master a task.
THE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH
Approach to the study of cognitive development by
observing and analyzing the mental processes
involved in perceiving and handling information.
Individual is the processor of information same as
computer which takes in info and follows a program to
produce an output.
E.g. Eye receives visual information and codes info
into electric neural activity to brain -> stored -> coded.
Memory, perception and attention.
Output: read what is on the printed page.
BIOECOLOGICAL THEORY
Proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner.

SOCIAL LEARNING (SOCIAL COGNITIVE) THEORY

Albert suggests that the impetus for
Bandura development is bidirectional.
Reciprocal the person acts on the world as the
Determinism world acts on the person.
modeling; people learn appropriate
Observational social behavior chiefly by observing
Learning and imitating models – that is, by
watching other people.
the confidence that a person has
what it takes to succeed; sense of
Self-efficacy
one’s capability to master challenges
and achieve goals.

3. COGNITIVE
Piaget’s theory that children’s
Bronfenbrenner’s approach to
cognitive development advances in a
Cognitive Bioecological understanding processes and contexts
series of four stages involving
Stage Theory theory of human development that identifies
qualitatively distinct types of mental
five levels of environmental influence.
operations.
– everyday environment of home,
Piaget’s term for the creation of
Organization school, work, or neighborhood,
categories or systems of knowledge.
including face to face relationships
Piaget’s term for organized patterns Microsystem
with spouse, children, parents,
Schemes of thought and behavior use in
friends, classmates, teachers,
situations.
employers or colleagues.
Mesosystem interlocking of various microsystems
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY interactions between a microsystem
is Lev Semenovich Vygotsky’s theory Exosystem
Sociocultural and an outside system or institution.
of how contextual factors affect
theory
children’s development.
 EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL children.
It is the view of human development that focuses on Visual participants are asked to draw or
evolutionary and biological bases of behavior. representation paint or to provide maps or graphs
behaviors that developed to solve techniques that illuminate their experience.
Evolved
problems in adapting to an earlier OBSERVATION
mechanisms
environment. research method in which behavior
study of distinctive adaptive behaviors Naturalistic
is studied in natural settings without
of species of animals that have Observation
Ethology intervention or manipulation.
evolved to increase survival of the research method in which all
species. Laboratory
participants are observed under the
Observation
same controlled conditions.
A SHIFTING BALANCE researcher’s tendency to interpret
Theories shift and change. data to fit expectations or to
Observer bias
emphasize some aspects and
Influences are bidirectional: people change their minimize others.
world as it changes them.
BEHAVIORAL AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES
A manager who offers constructive criticism and Participants are tested on abilities, skills, knowledge,
emotional support to his subordinates is likely to elicit competencies, or physical responses.
greater efforts to produce. Improved productivity is
likely to encourage him to keep using this managerial Tests can be meaningful and useful only if they are
style. both valid and reliable.
the tests measure the abilities they
RESEARCH METHODS Valid
claim to measure.
research that deals with objectively the results are reasonably consistent
Quantitative Reliable
measurable data. How much? How from one time to another
research
many? Operational definition – definition stated solely in
research that focuses on nonnumerical terms of the operations or procedures used to
data, such as subjective experiences, produce or measure a phenomenon.
Qualitative
feelings or beliefs; understand the
research
story of the event; how and why of Basic Research Designs
behavior.
In-depth study of single
1. Case Study
individual.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD 2. Ethnographic In-depth study of a culture or
1. Identification of a problem Study subculture.
2. Formulation of hypotheses Attempt to find positive or
3. Collection of data 3. Correlational
negative relationship between
4. Statistical analysis of the data Study
variables.
5. Formation of tentative conclusion Controlled procedure in which an
6. Dissemination of findings experimenter controls the
independent variable to
SAMPLING 4. Experiment determine its effect on the
Population group to whom the findings may apply. dependent variable; may be
Sample a smaller group within the population. conducted in the laboratory or
selection of a sample in such a way that field.
Random each person in a population has an
selection equal and independent chance of being Pros & Cons
chosen. Type Advantages Disadvantages
Flexibility;
May not
FORMS OF DATA COLLECTION provides detailed
generalize in
SELF-REPORTS picture of one
others;
Diary or Log simplest form of self-report. Case Study person’s
conclusions not
Diaries, journals, interviews, or behavior and
directly testable;
questionnaires: parental self-reports development; can
cannot establish
commonly used in studying young generate
cause and effect.
hypotheses.
 Can help
overcome Birth and Physical Development During
culturally based
Ethnographic biases in theory Subject to the First Three Years
Study and research; can observer bias.
test universality of CHILDBIRTH AND CULTURE:
developmental HOW BIRTHING HAS CHANGED
phenomena. Customs surrounding childbirth reflect a culture’s
Enables prediction beliefs, values, and resources:
of one variable on
basis of another; - A Mayan woman in Yucatan gives birth in the
Correlational Cannot establish
can suggest hammock she sleeps in every night; both the father-
Study cause and effect.
hypotheses about to-be and a midwife are expected to be present.
causal To evade evil spirits, mother and child remain at home
relationships. for a week.
Establishes cause
and effect Findings, - By contrast, among the Ngoni in East Africa, men are
relationships; is especially when excluded from the birth experience.
highly controlled derived from
and can be laboratory - And in rural Thailand, a new mother generally
repeated by experiments, resumes normal activity within a few hours of giving
Experiment birth
another may not
investigator; generalize to
degree of control situations - In 17th and 18th century France, a woman had a 1 in
greatest in the outside the 10 chance of dying while or shortly after giving birth.
laboratory laboratory. Thousands of babies were stillborn, and 1 out of 4
experiment. born alive, died during the 1st year.

Important terms - At the end of the 19th century in England and Wales,
assignment of participants to groups an expectant mother was almost 50 times more likely
Random in such a way that each person has to die in childbirth than a woman giving birth in
assignment an equal chance of being placed in modern times.
any group.
in an experiment, the condition over - Childbirth in Europe and the United States followed
Independent similar patterns in the late1800s.
which the experimenter has direct
variable
control.
- At the start of the 20th century, childbirth began to
in an experiment, the condition that
Dependent be professionalized in the US, at least in urban
may or may not change as a result of
variable settings.
changes in the independent variable.
Experimental in an experiment, the group
- The growing use of maternity hospitals led to safer,
group receiving the treatment under study.
more antiseptic conditions for childbirth, which
in an experiment, a group of people
reduced mortality for women.
similar to those in the experimental
Control group
group, who do not receive the
- In 1900, only 5% of U.S. deliveries occurred in
treatment under study.
hospitals; by 1920, in some cities 65% did.
Placebo an inert substance that has no
known effects.
- A similar trend took place in Europe. Now in the
United States, 98.5% of babies are born in hospitals
DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS and 84% of births are attended by physicians.
Type Main Characteristics
Cross- Data are collected on people of - The dramatic reductions in risks surrounding
sectional different ages at the same time. pregnancy and childbirth in industrialized countries
Data are collected on same person or are largely due to the availability of antibiotics, blood
Longitudinal
persons over a period of time. transfusions, safe anesthesia, improved hygiene, and
Data are collected on successive cross- drugs for inducing labor.
Sequential
sectional or longitudinal samples
- In addition, improvements in prenatal assessment
and care make it far more likely that a baby will be
born healthy.
- The development of the science of obstetrics
professionalized childbirth. Births took place in
hospitals and were attended by physicians. Medical
advances dramatically improved safety.
mother’s body.
- At the end of this stage, the baby is born but is
still attached to the placenta in the mother’s body
by the umbilical cord, which must be cut and clamped.
3. EXPULSION OF THE PLACENTA
- It lasts between 10 minutes and 1 hour.

- Today, delivery at home or in birth centers attended - During this stage, the placenta and the remainder of
by midwives can be a relatively safe alternative to the umbilical cord are expelled from the mother.
physician-attended hospital delivery for women with
normal, lowrisk pregnancies

THE BIRTH PROCESS

Labor apt term for the process of giving birth.
the act or process of giving birth, and it
Parturition typically begins about 2 weeks before
delivery.
Hicks contractions – mild and irregular
Braxton
false contractions (2 mins.)

STAGES OF CHILDBIRTH
1. DILATION OF THE CERVIX
- Regular and increasingly frequent uterine
contractions – 15-20 minutes apart at first – cause the
cervix to shorten and dilate, or widen, in preparation
for delivery.
VAGINAL VERSUS
- Toward the end of the first stage, contractions occur CESAREAN DELIVERY
every 2 to 5 minutes. Vaginal delivery usual method of childbirth.
Cesarean – delivery of a baby by surgical
- It lasts until the cervix is fully open (10cm or about 4 delivery removal from the uterus.
inches) so the baby can descend into the birth canal. The Cesarean delivery operation is commonly
performed when:

- labor is too slow

- fetus is in trouble
- fetus in breech position/transverse
- mother is bleeding vaginally
- head is too big to pass the pelvis
- for multiple births
- premature infants
- increase revenue generated by hospitals

VAGINAL VERSUS
CESAREAN DELIVERY
Cesarean deliveries carry risks of serious
complications for the mother, such as:
2. DESCENT AND EMERGENCE OF THE BABY
- bleeding
- Typically lasts up to an hour or two.
- infection
- damage to pelvic organs
- It begins when the baby’s head begin to move
- postoperative pains
through the cervix into the vaginal canal, and it ends
- risks of problems in future pregnancies
when the baby emerges completely from the
- affects breastfeeding
Babies are deprived of important benefits of normal
birth:
- the surge of hormones that:
- clear the lungs of excess fluid
- mobilize stored fuel to nourish cells
- send blood to the heart and brain
VAGINAL VERSUS
CESAREAN DELIVERY
- Vaginal delivery stimulates the release of oxytocin.
- Vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) should be
attempted only with caution.
- VBACs have been associated with greater (though
still low) risks of uterine rupture and brain damage as
well as infant death.
- Today, if a woman had CS delivery, chances are about
92% that any subsequent deliveries will be by CS.
VAGINAL VERSUS
CESAREAN DELIVERY
- Overall, women who attempt a trial of labor
following one or two cesarean deliveries are
successful 60 to 80% of the time and represented
12.4% of total births in 2016.
- VBAC is not recommended for home births or
women who have conditions that make it less likely to
be successful, such as advanced age, high body mass
index, a very large baby, or a previous cesarean that
was the result of a failure of the cervix to dilate.
MEDICATED VS. NONMEDICATED DELIVERY
method of childbirth that seeks to
prevent pain by eliminating the
Natural mother’s fear through education about
childbirth the physiology of reproduction and
training in breathing and relaxation
during delivery.
method of childbirth that uses
instruction, breathing exercises, and
Prepared
social support to induce controlled
childbirth
physical responses to uterine
contractions and reduce fear and pain.
LAMAZE
- Introduced by Fernand Lamaze in the late 1950s,
acknowledges that labor is painful and teaches
expectant mothers to work actively with their bodies
through controlled breathing.
- The woman learns to relax her muscles as a
conditioned response to the voice of her coach
(usually the prospective father or a friend), who
attends classes with her, takes part in the delivery, and
helps with the exercises.
- Using the LeBoyer method, introduced in the 1970s,
a woman gives birth in a quiet room under low lights
to reduce stress, and the newborn is gently massaged
to ease crying.
- Another technique, developed by the French
physician Michael Odent, is submersion of the
laboring mother in a soothing pool of water.
- Other methods use mental imagery, massage, gentle
pushing, and deep breathing.
- Bradley method, which rejects all obstetrical
procedures and other medical interventions.
- A woman may be given local (vaginal) anesthesia,
also called a pudendal block, usually during the
second stage of labor.
- Or she can receive an analgesic (painkiller), which
reduces the perception of pain by depressing the
activity of the central nervous system.
- However, analgesics may slow labor, cause maternal
complications, and make the baby less alert after
birth.
- Another form of pain relief is regional anesthesia, or
an epidural, which can be injected into a space in the
spinal cord between the vertebrae in the lumbar
(lower) region. This blocks the nerve pathways that
would otherwise carry the sensation of pain to the
brain.
- In many traditional cultures, childbearing women are
attended by a doula.
- Doula – an experienced mentor, coach, and helper
who furnishes emotional support and information and
stays at a woman’s bedside throughout labor.
- There is growing evidence that offering women such
support is associated with better outcomes.
- Other studies have found that women who give birth
with the assistance of a doula are almost 41 percent
less likely to have a cesarean delivery than women
who give birth without a doula.
BODY SYSTEMS
- Before birth, blood circulation, respiration,
nourishment, elimination of waste, and temperature
regulation are accomplished through the mother’s
body.
- Once born, a neonate needs more oxygen than
before. Most babies start to breathe as soon as they
are exposed to air.
- The heartbeat at first is fast and irregular, and blood
pressure does not stabilize until about 10 days after
birth.
- If the neonate does not begin breathing within
about 5 minutes, the baby may suffer permanent
brain injury caused by anoxia or hypoxia.
Hypoxia reduced oxygen supply.
lack of oxygen, which may cause brain
Anoxia
damage.
- 3 or 4 days after birth, about half of all babies (and a
larger proportion of babies born prematurely) develop
neonatal jaundice: their skin and eyeballs look yellow.
- This kind of jaundice is caused by the immaturity of
the liver. Usually it is not serious, does not need
treatment, and has no long-term effects. However,
severe jaundice that is not monitored and treated
promptly may result in brain damage.
MEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT
The Apgar Scale (1min after delivery, again 5 mins
after) Named after Virginia Apgar with the following
subtests”
A – ppearance (color)
P – ulse (heart rate)
G – rimace (reflex irritability)
A – ctivity (muscle tone)
R – espiration (breathing)
The newborn is rated 0,1, or 2 on each measure, for a
maximum score of 10.
- A 5-minute score of
- 7-10 = baby is in good to excellent condition
- 5-7 = baby needs help to establish breathing
- <4 = the baby needs immediate lifesaving treatment
STATES OF AROUSAL
A newborn’s state of arousal is governed by periodic
cycles of wakefulness, sleep and activity.
an infant’s physiological and behavioral
State of
status at a given moment in the periodic
arousal
daily cycle of wakefulness, state and activity.
- Sleep takes up the major, but a diminishing amount
of a neonate’s time. By about 6 months, babies do
most of their sleeping at night.
- Cultural customs affect sleep patterns.
COMPLICATIONS OF CHILDBIRTH
- Complications of childbirth include low birth weight,
postmature birth and stillbirth.
- Low birth weight babies may be either preterm
(premature) or small-for-gestational age.
- Low birth weight is a major factor in infant mortality
and can cause long-term physical and cognitive
problems.
- Very low birth weight babies have a less promising
prognosis than those who weigh more.
- The most pressing fear regarding very small babies is
that they will die in infancy, given the multitude of
challenges they face.
- Their immune systems are not fully developed and they
are especially vulnerable to infection.
- Their nervous system may be too immature for them to
perform functions basic to survival, such as sucking, often
making it necessary for them to be fed intravenously. It is
also difficult for them to stay warm (they do not have
enough fat to generate heat).
- A low-birth-weight or at-risk preterm baby may be
placed in an isolette (an antiseptic, temperature-
controlled crib) and fed through tubes.
method of skin-to-skin contact in which a
Kangaroo newborn is laid face down between the
care mother’s breasts for an hour or so at a time
after birth.
POSTMATURITY
Babies can also be negatively affected by staying too long
in the womb.
a fetus not yet born as of 2 weeks after the
Postmature due date or 42 weeks after the mother’s
last menstrual period
sudden death of a fetus at or after the
20th week of gestation. Fetal death may be
Stillbirth
discovered prenatally or during
labor or delivery.
 SURVIVAL AND HEALTH
the proportion of babies who
Infant mortality rate
die within the 1st year.
- Birth defects and genetic abnormalities are the
leading cause of death in infancy in the US, followed
by disorders related to prematurity and low birth
weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),
maternal complications of pregnancy, and
complications of the placenta, umbilical cord and
membranes.
SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS)
- Called crib death; it is the sudden and unexplained
death of an apparently healthy infant under age 1.
- It is the leading cause of postneonatal death in the
United States. SIDS rates have declined markedly
following recommendations to lay babies on their
backs to sleep.
IMMUNIZATION FOR BETTER HEALTH
- Such once-familiar and sometimes fatal childhood
illnesses as measles, pertussis (whooping cough), and
polio are now largely preventable, thanks to the
development of vaccines that mobilize the body’s
natural defenses. Unfortunately, many children
still are not adequately protected.
preventable diseases have declined as
rates of immunization have improved, but
many preschoolers are not fully
Vaccine protected. Multiple vaccines fortify the
immune system against a variety of
bacteria and viruses and reduce related
infections
EARLY PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
NUTRITION
- Breast-feeding is almost always best for infants. It
should begin immediately after birth and ideally
continue for at least 1 year, longer if the mother and
baby wish. Breast-feeding offers many health
advantages and sensory and cognitive benefits
- The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section
on Breastfeeding (2005) recommends that babies be
exclusively breast-fed for 6 months. Breast-feeding
has economic as well as health benefits.
THE BRAIN
- The central nervous system controls sensorimotor
activity. Lateralization enables each hemisphere of the
brain to specialize in different functions.
- The brain grows rapidly during the months before
and immediately after birth as neurons migrate to
their assigned locations, form synaptic connections,
and undergo integration and differentiation. Cell
death and myelination improve the efficiency of the
nervous system.
REFLEX BEHAVIORS
automatic, involuntary, innate responses
Reflex to stimulation. Primitive, locomotor and
behaviors postural – are indications of
neurological status.
- Most of the early reflexes disappear during the first 6
to 12 months. Reflexes that continue to serve
protective functions—such as blinking, yawning,
coughing, gagging, sneezing, shivering, and dilation of
the pupils in the dark— remain.
- Disappearance of unneeded reflexes on schedule is a
sign that motor pathways in the cortex have been
partially myelinated, enabling a shift to voluntary
behavior.
EARLY SENSORY CAPACITIES
- Touch is the first sense to develop and for the first
several months, it is the most mature sensory system.
- Newborns are sensitive to pain. Newborns can and
do feel pain and they become more sensitive to it
during the first few days.
- Smell, taste, and hearing also begin to develop in the
womb.
- Vision is the least well-developed sense at birth.
Peripheral vision, color perception, acuteness of
focus, binocular vision, and the ability to follow a
moving object with the eyes all develop within the
first few months.
 MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
• Motor skills develop in a certain sequence, which
Cognitive Development During the First
may depend largely on maturation but also on
context, experience and motivation. Simple skills Three Years
combine into increasingly complex systems.
Studying Cognitive Development: Six Approaches
• Self-locomotion brings about changes in all domains Behaviorist Concerned with the basic
1.
of development. Perception is intimately related to approach mechanics of learning.
motor development. Depth perception and haptic seeks to measure intelligence
2. Psychometric
perception develop in the first half of the 1st year. quantitatively.
increasingly complex combinations describes qualitative stages in
3. Piagetian
of motor skills, which permit a cognitive thinking.
Systems of
wider or more precise range of analyzes processes involved in
action Information
movement and more control of the 4. perceiving and handling
processing –
environment. information.
screening test given to children 1 Cognitive links brain processes with
Denver 5.
month to 6 years old to determine neuroscience cognitive ones.
Development
whether they are developing focuses on environmental
Screening Test Social-
normally. 6. influences, particularly parents
contextual
The test measures: and other caregivers
Gross motor physical skills that involve the large
skills muscles. BEHAVIORIST APPROACH
physical skills that involve the small Anna and her father’s camera
Fine motor
muscles and eye-hand Camera – flash – blink
skills
coordination. Camera – blink

Classical conditioning – learning based on associating

a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a response
with another stimulus that does elicit the response.
Operant conditioning – learning based on association
of behavior with its consequences.

Baby babbles = parents smile – increase babbling

Baby throws food = parents frown – not throw food

INFANT MEMORY
Can you remember anything that happened to you
before you were about 2 years old?

How do we determine what babies know?

Infants cannot talk, and they have limited motor
use of the eyes to guide
control; thus, researchers must be creative if they are
Visual guidance movements of the hands or
to determine what babies know and understand.
other parts of the body.
Fortunately, conditioning paradigms in research allow
ability to perceive objects and
Depth perception investigators to ask questions of babies in ways they
surfaces three-dimensionally.
can answer.
ability to acquire information
Research has determined that the length of time a
about properties of objects,
Haptic perception conditioned response lasts increases with age.
such as size, weight and texture,
can remember a conditioned
by handling them.
2 months of age response for 2 days; 18 months
apparatus designed to give an
can remember it for 13 weeks.
illusion of depth and used to
Visual cliff cannot recognize a picture in a
assess depth perception in 1-, 6- and 9-month
different room but 12- and 18
infants. old infants
month old CAN.
 PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH programs are less likely to require special
Intelligent behavior behavior that is goal oriented education services in grade school and high
and adaptive to school, more likely to graduate from high school,
circumstances and conditions more likely to be employed, less likely to be
of life. imprisoned, and report higher lifetime earnings
Psychometric tests measure factors presumed to
make up intelligence. Thus, from an economic standpoint, despite their high
Intelligence quotient psychometric tests that seek cost, early intervention programs are worth the
(IQ) tests to measure intelligence by benefits accrued.
comparing a test-taker’s
performance with The most effective early interventions are those that:
standardized norms. 1. Start early and continue throughout the
Binet Simon Scale first IQ test. preschool years;
Testing Infants and Toddlers 2. Are highly time-intensive;
If a child is unable to perform a task that the average 3. Center-based
baby can do by a particular age, that child may be 4. Take a comprehensive approach including
delayed in that area. By contrast, a baby can also be health, family counseling, and social services.
ahead of the curve by performing better than her 5. Are tailored to individual differences and
same-age peers. needs.
standardized test of infants’
and toddler’s mental and PIAGETIAN APPROACH
motor development. It was Piaget’s first stage in cognitive
designed to assess children SENSORIMOTOR development, in which infants
from 1 month to 3 ½ years. STAGE learn through senses and motor
Bayley Scales of
Scores on the Bayley-III activity.
Infant and Toddler
indicate a child’s Piaget’s term for organized
Development
competencies in each of five Schemes patterns of thought and behavior
developmental areas: used in particular situations.
cognitive, language, motor,
social-emotional, and Substage Age Description
adaptive behavior. 1. Use of Birth to Infants exercise their
Assessing the Impact of the Early Home reflexes 1 inborn reflexes and gain
Environment month some control over them.
- Home Observation for Measurement of the They do not coordinate
Environment (HOME) – instrument to measure information from their
the influence of the home environment on senses.
children’s cognitive growth. 2. Primary 1 to 4 Infants repeat pleasurable
circular months behaviors that first occur
- The home environment may affect measured reactions by chance (such as thumb-
intelligence. sucking). Activities focus
on the infant’s body rather
- Parental responsiveness – one important factor than the effects of the
assessed by HOME: caressing or kissing the child behavior on the
during an examiner’s visit. environment. Infants
develop first acquired
- If the home environment does not provide the adaptations. They begin to
necessary conditions that pave the way for coordinate sensory
cognitive competence, early intervention may be information and grasp
needed. objects
Early Intervention 3. Secondary 4 to 8 Infants become more
Early Systematic process of providing circular months interested in the
intervention services to help families meet young reactions environment; they repeat
children’s developmental needs. actions that bring
There are lasting effects of early intervention interesting results and
programs. prolong interesting
- Children who participate in early intervention experiences. Actions are
 intentional but not initially
goal directed.
4.Coordination 8 to 12 Behavior is more
of secondary months deliberate and purposeful
schemes as infants coordinate
previously learned
schemes and use
previously learned
behaviors to attain their
goals. They can anticipate
events.
5.Tertiary 12 to Toddlers show curiosity
circular 18 and experimentation; they
reactions months purposefully vary
their actions to see
results. They actively
explore their world to
determine what is novel
about an object, event, or
situation. They try new
activities and use trial and
error in solving problems.
6. 18 Because toddlers can
Mental to24 mentally represent
combinations months events, they can think
about events and
anticipate their
consequences without
always resorting to action.
Toddlers
begin to demonstrate
insight. They can
use symbols, such as
gestures and
words, and can pretend.
The sixth substage (about 18 months to 2 years) is a
transition to the preoperational stage of early
childhood.
Representational ability – Piaget’s term for capacity to
store mental images or symbols of objects and events.
They can pretend, and their representational ability
affects the sophistication of their pretending. They
can think about actions before taking them. They no
longer have to go through laborious trial and error to
solve problems—they can try solutions in their mind.
During these six substages, infants develop the
abilities to think and remember. They also develop
knowledge about aspects of the physical world, such
as objects and spatial relationships.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
Imitation
Invisible – imitation that involves parts
imitation of the body that babies cannot
see – at 9 months.
imitation that uses body
Visible imitation parts such as hands or feet that
babies can see.
Deferred Piaget’s term for
imitation reproduction of an observed
behavior after the passage of
time by calling up a stored symbol
of it.
– can imitate how an adult
6-month old interacted with a doll after 10-
minute delay.
can reproduce 2 steps after a
9 months delay of 1 month (e.g. dropping a
toy car down a vertical chute).
toddlers show preferences whom
14 months
they imitate for.
15 months imitates a peer.
imitates those who are the same
4 years of age
gender as they are.
Object Concept
Object Piaget’s term for understanding that a
permanence person or object still exists when out
of sight
Symbolic Development, Pictorial Competence
and Understanding of Scale
Intentional representations of
Symbols
reality.
Pictorial ability to understand the nature
competence of pictures.
infants use their hands to explore
pictures as if they were objects—
Until 15 months
rubbing, patting, or attempting to
lift a depicted object off the page.
children are able to point at a
19 months picture of an object while saying
its name
children understand that a picture
2 years
is both an object and a symbol
 – able to imitate an adult’s
actions (helping a puppet ring a
bell) when they saw an adult
12- to 18-month
performing the action in front of
old
them than when they saw a
video of the same thing.
– able to locate an object hidden
in an adjoining room after
watching a video of an adult
2½-year-olds
hiding it, but 2-year-olds could
not.
Yet the younger children were able to find the object
if they watched through a window as it was hidden.
a momentary misperception of
Scale error
the relative sizes of objects.
Why would they still treat the objects as if they were
full size?
Researchers suggested that these actions might in
part be based on a lack of impulse control—the
children wanted to play with the objects so badly that
they ignored perceptual information about size.
proposal that children under
age 3 have difficulty grasping
Dual
spatial relationships because of
representation
the need to keep more than one
hypothesis
mental representation in mind
at the same time.
Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
In terms of describing what children do under certain
circumstances, and the basic progression of skills,
Piaget was correct. However, infants and toddlers are
more cognitively competent than Piaget imagined.
This does not mean that infants come into the world
with minds fully formed.
visual and perceptual abilities. Contrary to Piaget’s
ideas, such research suggests that representational
ability is present virtually from birth.
Indicators of the efficiency of infant’s information
processing, such as speed of habituation, show
promise as predictors of intelligence.
Tools of Infant Research
tendency of infants to spend more
Visual
time looking at one sight than
preference
another.
– prefers curved lines than straight;
complex patterns than simple
patterns, 3D than 2D objects,
< 2 days old
pictures of faces than things, and
moving objects than stationary
objects.
Visual Ability to distinguish a familiar visual
recognition stimulus from an unfamiliar one
memory when shown both at the same time.
Perceptual Process
Cross-modal Ability to use information gained
transfer by one sense to guide another
A shared attentional focus,
Joint attention typically initiated with eye gaze
or pointing.
which is of fundamental
importance to social interaction,
language acquisition, and the
understanding of others’
The capacity for
intentions and mental states—
joint attention
develops between 10 and 12
months, when babies follow an
adults’ gaze by looking or pointing
in the same direction.

As Piaget observed, immature forms of cognition

Information Processing and Piagetian Abilities
precede more mature forms. However, Piaget may
have been mistaken in his emphasis on motor
experience as the primary engine of cognitive growth.
Categorization
Infants’ perceptions are far ahead of their motor
Dividing the world into meaningful categories is vital
abilities.
to thinking about objects or concepts and their
relationships. It is the foundation of language,
INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH reasoning, problem solving, and memory; without it,
type of learning in which familiarity the world would seem chaotic and meaningless.
with a stimulus reduces, slows or Perceptual
Habituation shape, color, and pattern.
stops a response. Familiarity breeds features
loss of interest. Conceptual based on real-world knowledge
increase in responsiveness after such as function.
Dishabituation
presentation of a new stimulus. Causality
Information Processing Approach: Perceptions and Causality the principle that one event
Representations (squeezing) causes another
Information processing researchers measure mental (quacking).
processes through habituation and other signs of Piaget believed that at about 4 to 6 months, as infants
become able to grasp objects, they begin to recognize
that they can act on their environment. However, he
believed they did not yet know that causes must come
before effects and that forces outside of themselves
can make things happen. He maintained that this
understanding develops slowly during infants’ 1st
year.
Object Permanence
When Piaget investigated object permanence, he used
infants’ motor responses to gauge whether or not
infants understood that a hidden object still existed.
Their failure to reach for the hidden object was
interpreted to mean they did not.
research method in which
dishabituation to a stimulus that
Violation-of- conflicts with experience is taken
expectations as evidence that an infant
recognizes the new stimulus as
surprising.
Number
In one classic study, infants watched as Mickey Mouse
dolls were placed behind a screen, and a doll was
either added or taken away. The screen then was
lifted to reveal either the number of dolls that should
have been there or a different number of dolls.
Babies looked longer at surprising ―wrong answers
than at expected ―right‖ ones, suggesting that they
had mentally computed the right answers.
5 objects, +5 more objects:
- Infants looked longer when the screen dropped
to show 5 than 10.
Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
Neurological developments help explain the
emergence of Piagetian skills and memory abilities.
Implicit unconscious recall; generally of habits
memory and skills; called procedural memory.
Explicit intentional and conscious memory;
memory generally of facts, names and events.
short term storage of information being
Working
actively processed; emerges between 6
memory
and 12 months of age.
Social Contextual Approach
Social interactions with adults contribute to cognitive
competence through shared activities that help
children learn skills, knowledge, and values important
in their culture.
adult’s participation in a child’s
Guided activity that helps to structure it and
participation bring the child’s understanding of it
closer to the adults.
Language Development
a communication system based on
Language
words and grammar.
Once children know words, they can use them to
represent objects and actions. They can reflect on
people, places, and things; and they can
communicate their needs, feelings, and ideas in order
to exert more control over their lives.

Moreover, in preschool, the ability to estimate

approximate numbers is related to later mathematical
achievement, suggesting continuity in this process.

Evaluating Information Processing Research

Some theorists argue we must be wary of
overestimating infants’ cognitive abilities from data
that may have simpler explanations.

They argue that an infant’s visual interest in an

impossible condition may reveal a perceptual
awareness that something unusual has happened
rather than a conceptual understanding of the way
things work. For instance, if an infant looks longer at
one scene than another, it may just be because the
two scenes look different from each other rather than
because of any conceptual processes.
 Sequence of Early Language Development words, and they function
Before babies can use words, they make their needs much like words.
and feelings known through sounds that progress
from crying to cooing and babbling, then to First Words
accidental imitation, and then deliberate imitation. Linguistic verbal expression designed to convey
forerunner of linguistic speech; speech meaning.
utterance of sounds that area not single word that conveys a complete
Prelinguistic Holophrase
words. Includes crying, cooing, thought.
speech
babbling, and imitating language Receptive
sounds. what infants understand.
vocabulary
spoken vocabulary.
Early Vocalization Expressive Generally, infants have a far greater
a newborn’s first means of vocabulary receptive vocabulary than an
communication. Adults find crying aversive expressive—or spoken—vocabulary
Crying for a reason – it motivates them to find Nouns seem to be the easiest type of word to learn.
the source of the problem and fix it. Thus,
crying has great adaptive value. First Sentences
typically a vowel sound, like ahhh, but can Telegraphic Early form of sentence use consisting of
also sound like gurgling noises or speech only a few essential words.
Cooing
squealing. It signifies that baby is starting Rules for forming sentences in a
to work on language development. Syntax
particular language.
repeating consonant-vowel strings, such as Syntax is why a sentence like ―man bites dog‖ differs
―ma- ma-ma-ma‖ – occurs between ages from ―dog bites man,‖ and it allows us to understand
6 and 10 months and is often mistaken for and produce an infinite number of utterances.
Babbling
a baby’s first word. It is initially
nonsensical and becomes more word-like
Characteristics of Early Speech
over time.
Underextend word they use words in too narrow of
meanings a category.
Perceiving Language Sounds and Structure Overextend word using words in too broad of a
Imitation of language sounds requires the ability to meanings category.
perceive subtle differences between sounds. Infants’ occurs when children
brains seem to be preset to discriminate basic Overregularize inappropriately apply a
linguistic patterns, and categorize them as similar or rules syntactical rule. (“I drawed
different. that.”)
Phonemes smallest units of sound in speech.
If a mother regularly speaks two languages during
Variations in Language Development
pregnancy, her newborn baby will recognize both
languages and be more interested in listening to use of elements of two languages,
speakers in the languages he or she was previously Code sometimes in the same utterance, by
exposed to. mixing young children in households where both
languages are spoken.
Code changing one’s speech to match the
Gestures switching situation, as in people who are bilingual.
Before babies speak, they point. Pointing is important
to language acquisition and serves several functions.
The Nature-Nurture Debate
- waving bye-bye, nodding
Conventional - Is linguistic ability learned or inborn?
head to mean
social gestures - yes and shaking her head to - In the 1950s, a debate raged between two schools
signify no. of thought: one led by B. F. Skinner, the foremost
proponent of learning theory, the other by the
- hold an empty cup to mouth
linguist Noam Chomsky.
Representational to show wanting to drink or
social gestures holding up arms to show language learning, like other learning, is
wanting to be picked up. Skinner based on experience and learned
associations.
- blowing to mean hot or
Symbolic sniffing to mean flower often view by Chomsky; theory that human
gestures emerge around the same time Nativism beings have an inborn capacity for
that babies say their first language acquisition.
 in Chomsky’s terminology, an inborn
Language
mechanism that enables children to
acquisition
infer linguistic rules from the language
device
they hear.
Most developmental scientists today maintain that
language acquisition, like most other aspects of
development, depends on an intertwining of nature
and nurture. Children have an inborn capacity to
acquire language, which may be activated or
constrained by experience.
Influences on Early Language Development
Influences on language development include neural
maturation and social interaction.
In many ways, the brains of young children, even
before they begin to speak, process language similarly
to adult brains. Frontal brain regions are involved in
the processing of speech in infants as they are in
adults, although in infants, this process is slower. Last,
the processing of linguistic information is localized in
the left hemisphere in infants as it is in almost all
adults.
Family characteristics, such as socioeconomic status,
adult language use, and maternal responsiveness,
affect a child’s vocabulary development.
Child-Directed Speech
CDS – sometimes called parentese, motherese or
baby talk; form of speech used in talking to babies or
toddlers, includes slow, simplified speech, a high-
pitched tone, exaggerated vowel sounds, short words
and sentences, and much repetition.
Child-directed speech (CDS) seems to have cognitive,
emotional and social benefits, and infants show a
preference for it. However, some researchers dispute
its value.
Preparing for Literacy: The Benefits of Reading
Aloud
Three adult reading styles:
describes what is going on in the
Describer pictures and invited the child to do
so.
encourages the child to look more
deeply at the meaning of a story
Comprehender
and to make inferences and
predictions.
reads the story straight through,
Performance- introducing the main themes
oriented reader beforehand and asking questions
afterward.
Psychosocial Development During the
First 3 Years
FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Although babies share common patterns of
development, each, from the start, shows a distinct
personality.
the relatively consistent blend of
Personality emotions, temperament, thought and
behavior that makes a person unique.
From infancy on, personality development is
intertwined with social relationships; this
combination is called psychosocial development.
Emotions
subjective reactions to experience that are associated
with physiological and behavioral changes.
People differ in how often and how strongly they feel
a particular emotion, in the kinds of events that may
produce it, in the physical manifestations they show,
and in how they act as a result.
Culture influences the way people feel about the
situation and the way their show their emotions
First Signs of Emotions
is the earliest and most powerful
Crying way infants can communicate their
needs.
There are four patterns of crying:
Basic hunger rhythmic cry not always associated
cry with hunger.
excess air is forced through the vocal
Angry cry
cords.
sudden onset of loud crying without
Pain cry preliminary moaning, sometimes
followed by holding the breath.
2 or 3 drawn out cries, with no
Frustration cry
prolonged breath holding.
SMILING AND LAUGHING
beginning in the 2nd month, newborn
Social infants gaze at their parents and smile
smiling at them, signaling positive
participation in the relationship.
infants smile at others more or less
12 weeks of
frequently depending on the
age
responses of adults around them.
laughter becomes more common and
4- 12
signifies the most intense positive
months
emotion.
includes silly, nonverbal behaviors such
Clowning as odd facial expressions or sounds,
actions such as revealing a usually
 hidden body part ( such as a belly
button), and imitating another’s odd
actions.
5 ways to make babies laugh:
1.Strange sounds
2.Tickling
3.Peekaboo
4.Funny Faces
5.You Laughing
Anticipatory infant smiles at an object and then
smiling gazes at an adult while smiling.
Positive affective processes are reciprocal.
- Mothers low in stress and high in positive
emotionality and effortful control tend to have
babies who smile and laugh a lot.
- Babies who smile and laugh a lot elicit fewer
negative parenting behaviors.
- Infants who have more positive interactions with
their parents at 3 and 6 months are more likely to
show secure attachment at 1 year of age.
WHEN DO EMOTIONS APPEAR?
Soon after birth, babies show signs of contentment,
interest and distress. During the next 6 months, these
differentiate into true emotions: joy, surprise,
sadness, disgust, anger and fear.
realization that one’s existence and
Self- functioning are separate from those of
awareness other people and things (15-24
months).
Self- emotions such as embarrassment,
conscious empathy, and envy that depend on
emotions self- awareness
emotions such as pride, shame, and
Self-
guilt, that depend on both self-
evaluative
awareness and knowledge of socially
emotions
accepted standards of behavior
ALTRUISTIC HELPING AND EMPATHY
Altruistic activity intended to help another
behavior person with no expectation of reward.
ability to put oneself in another
Empathy person’s place, and feel what the other
person feels.
neurons that fire when a person does
Mirror
something or observes someone else
neurons
doing the same thing.
thought to develop between ages 2 ½
Guilt and 3; felt when children do not live
up to behavioral standards.
TEMPERAMENT
characteristic disposition or style of
Temperament approaching and reacting to
situations.
Three main types of temperament:
generally happy, rhythmic in
Easy children biological functioning and accepting
of new experiences.
more irritable and harder to please,
Difficult
irregular in biological rhythms, and
children
more intense in expressing emotion.
Slow-to-
mild but slow to adapt to new
warm-up
people and situations.
children
STABILITY OF TEMPERAMENT
Temperament is a relatively stable individual
difference.
Temperament appears to be largely inborn, probably
hereditary.
Temperament is affected by culturally influenced
child-raising practices.
Current conceptions of temperament view genetic
influences as being strongest early in life, with greater
influence wielded by the environment over time
GOODNESS OF FIT
Children differ, and their ideal environments differ as
well.
According to the NYLS, the key to healthy adjustment
is to have a match between a child’s temperament
and the environmental demands and constraints the
child must deal with, referred to as goodness of fit.
appropriateness of environmental
Goodness
demands and constraints to a child’s
of fit
temperament.
BEHAVIORAL INHIBITION
Behavioral inhibition (BI) has to do with how boldly
or cautiously a child approaches unfamiliar objects
and situations.
When presented with new stimulus:
pump arms and legs, arch their
Babies high in BI
backs; start to fuss and cry.
relaxed; calmly stare at new
Babies low in BI
stimuli, sometimes smile at it.
Behavioral inhibition has also been associated with a
heightened risk of developing a social anxiety
disorder later in life.
Behaviorally inhibited children are more likely to
outgrow their inhibition if parents do not completely
shield them from new situations and instead provide
gentle support and encouragement during anxiety-
provoking situations.
BI can be a risk, but only when paired with overly
protective or controlling parenting.
Additionally, children may themselves develop
buffering strategies.
When they can pull their attention away from scary
things, or remember their favorite things, they won’t
feel so bad.
Environmental influences: birth order, race/ethnicity,
culture, relationships with peers and teachers, and
unpredictable events.
EARLY SOCIAL EXPERIENCES: THE FAMILY
Many of adult-infant interactions are culture-based.
It is also important to recognize the wide diversity in
family systems where the number of nontraditional
families, such as those headed by single parents and
gay and lesbian couples has increased in recent years.
THE MOTHER’S ROLE
Experiment made by Harry Harlow and his colleagues.
Rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers 6
to 12 hours after birth. The infant monkeys were put
into cages with one or 2 kinds of surrogate mothers:
A plain cylindrical wire-mesh form
Form covered with terry cloth.
Some monkeys were fed from bottles connected to
the wire mothers; others were fed by the warm,
cuddly cloth mothers.
When the monkeys were allowed to spend time with
either kind of mother, they all spent more time
clinging to the surrogate mothers, even if they were
being fed only by the wire surrogates
In an unfamiliar room, the babies raised by cloth
surrogates showed more natural interest in exploring
than those raised by wire surrogates. Apparently, the
monkeys also remembered the cloth surrogates
better.
After a year’s separation, the cloth-raised monkeys
eagerly ran to embrace the terry-cloth forms, whereas
the wire-raised monkeys showed no interest in the
wire forms.
None of the monkeys in either group grew up
normally and none were able to nurture their own
offspring.
A dummy mother would not provide the same kinds
of stimulation and opportunities for positive
development as a live mother.
These experiments show that feeding is not the only,
or even the most important, thing babies get from
their mothers. Mothering includes the comfort of
close bodily contact and, at least, in monkeys, the
satisfaction of an innate need to cling.
Human infants need a mother who responds warmly
and promptly to the infant.
THE FATHER’S ROLE
Fatherhood is a social construction. Fathering roles
differ in various cultures. The role may be taken or
shared by someone other than the biological father.
In some societies, fathers are more involved in their
younger children’s lives – economically, emotionally
and in time spent – than in others.
In many parts of the world, what it means to be a
father has changed dramatically and continues to
change.
Huhot of Inner Mongolia: fathers for economic
support and discipline, mother for nurturing. Men
almost never hold infants. Father interact with
children only if the mother is absent.
Aka of central Africa: fathers provide more direct
infant care than fathers in any other known society.
US: fathers’ involvement has greatly increased.
Concepts of fathering have changed.
Gender: What it means to Male or Female
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INFANTS AND TODDLERS
longer, heavier, slightly stronger, more
Boys active, but physically more vulnerable from
conception on.
less reactive to stress and more likely to
Girls
survive infancy.
Boys’ brains at birth are about 10 percent larger than
girls’ brains, a difference that continues into
adulthood. Despite these differences, they achieve
the motor milestones of infancy about the same
times.
Social behavior differences
Girls are more cuddly, more interested in faces and
better at discriminating facial expressions, show
fewer externalizing emotions and better at regulating
their distress and quicker to recover.
Behavioral differences
Trucks for boys, dolls for girls (3 months)
2 ½ years: girls prefer pink, boys avoid it.
Toddlers prefer to play with others of the same sex.
May be because most children enjoy playing with
someone who plays like they do.
Infants begin to perceive differences between males
and females long before their behavior is gender-
differentiated and even before they can talk.
respond differently to male and
6-month-olds
female voices.
can differentiate male and female
9-12 months faces, on the basis of hair and
clothing.
use gender labels as Mommy and
19 months Daddy and by 2nd year, associate
dolls with face of the correct gender.
Generally, parents use broadly similar parenting styles
with their boys and girls. They seem, overall, to be
equally warm, sensitive, and responsive to both, and
to use relatively similar levels of control.
Parents’ actions provide implicit messages about
gender that children internalize over time.
Parents do nonetheless show some gendered
differences in their treatment. Fathers, especially,
promote gender-typing.
socialization process by which
Gender-typing children, at an early age, learn
appropriate gender roles.
During the 2nd year, fathers talk more and spend
more time with sons than with daughters
Fathers, overall, play with their children more than
mothers do and play more roughly with sons and
show more sensitivity to daughters.
Mothers talk more, and more supportively, to
daughters than to sons and girls at this age tend to be
more talkative than boys.
Fathers of toddlers play more roughly with sons and
show more sensitivity to daughters.
Developmental Issues in Infancy
Developing Trust
Basic sense of trust versus mistrust – Erikson’s first
stage in psychosocial development, in which infants
develop a sense of the reliability of people and
objects in our world.
The critical element in developing trust is sensitive,
consistent caregiving. Erikson saw the feeding
situation as the setting for establishing the right mix of
trust and mistrust.
children develop hope and the belief
Trust
that they can fulfill their needs and
obtain their desires.
children view the world as unfriendly
Mistrust and unpredictable and have trouble
forming quality relationships.
Developing Attachments
reciprocal, enduring emotional tie
between an infant and a caregiver,
Attachment
each of whom contributes to the
quality of the relationship.
According to ethological theory, infants and parents
are biologically predisposed to become attached to
each other, and attachment promotes a baby’s
survival.
STUDYING PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENTS
– laboratory technique used to study
Strange
infant attachment; devised by Mary
Situation
Ainsworth.
The mother twice leaves the baby in an unfamiliar
room, the first time with a stranger. The second time,
she leaves the baby alone, and the stranger comes
back before the mother does. The mother then
encourages the baby to explore and play again and
gives comfort if the baby seems to need it. Of
particular concern is the baby’s response, each time
the mother returns.
pattern in which an infant cries or
Secure protests when the primary caregiver
attachment leaves and actively seeks out the
caregiver on his or her return.
pattern in which an infant rarely cries
Avoidant when separated from the primary
attachment caregiver and avoids contact on his or
her return.
pattern in which an infant becomes
Ambivalent anxious before the primary caregiver
(resistant) leaves, is extremely upset during his
attachment or her absence and both seeks and
resists contact on his or her return.
disoriented attachment – pattern in
which an infant, after separation from
the primary caregiver, show
Disorganized contradictory, repetitious or
misdirected behaviors on his or her
return; identified by Main and
Solomon (1986).
It is most prevalent in babies with mothers who are
insensitive, intrusive, or abusive; who are fearful or
frightening and thus leave the infant with no one to
alleviate the fear the mother arouses; or who have
suffered unresolved loss or have unresolved feelings
about their childhood attachment to their own
parents.
It increases in the presence of multiple risk factors,
such as maternal insensitivity plus marital discord
plus parenting stress. It is a reliable predictor of later
behavioral and adjustment problems
HOW ATTACHMENT IS ESTABLISHED
According to John Bowlby, attachment styles are the
result of repeated interactions with a caregiver.
If every time a baby cries, the mother quickly
responds, over time, the baby comes to expect it.
If a mother responds inconsistently to crying, babies
form a very different set of expectations regarding it.
Babies can have different attachment styles with
different people.
Secure attachment reflects trust; insecure attachment,
mistrust. A secure base allows children to explore
their environment more effectively because they
know they can rely on their caregivers to quickly
come to the rescue if needed.
ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF ATTACHMENT STUDY
mothers or home observers sort a set
of descriptive words or phrases into
Waters and
categories ranging from most to least
Deane
characteristic of the child and then
Attachment
compare these descriptions with
Q-set (AQS)
expert descriptions of the prototypical
secure child.
The tendency to use the mother as a secure base is
universal, though it may take somewhat varied forms.
Neurobiological studies suggest that attachment may
have a neurological basis.
THE ROLE OF TEMPERAMENT
A baby’s temperament may have not only a direct
impact on attachment but also an indirect impact
through its effects on the parents.
Irritability, on an infant’s part may prevent the
development of secure attachment except if the
mother knows how to deal with the baby’s
temperament.
Thus, goodness of fit between parent and child may
well be a key to understanding security of
attachment.
STRANGER ANXIETY & SEPARATION ANXIETY
wariness of strange people and places,
Stranger
shown by some infants during the
Anxiety
second half of the 1st year.
distress shown by someone, typically
Separation
an infant, when a familiar caregiver
Anxiety
leaves.
Separation anxiety may be due not so much to the
separation itself as to the quality of substitute care.
When substitute caregivers are warm and responsive
and play with 9-months-old before they cry, the
babies cry less than when they are warm are with less
responsive caregivers. Stability of care is also
important.
LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF ATTACHMENT
- Larger, varied vocabularies, joyful.
- Positive interactions with peers.
- Curious, competent, empathic,
Securely resilient, self- confident.
attached - Have closest, most stable
friendships.
- Influences quality of attachment to
partners
- Negative emotions (fear, distress,
danger)
Insecurely - inhibitions, and negative emotions
attached - Hostility
- Aggressive
- Conduct problems
INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF
ATTACHMENT PATTERNS
Adult – asks adults to recall and interpret
Attachment feelings and experiences related to
Interview their childhood attachments.
Parents’ attachment history also influences their
perceptions of their baby’s temperament and those
perceptions may affect the parent-child relationship.
Fortunately, a cycle of insecure attachment can be
broken.
EMOTIONAL COMMUNICATION WITH CAREGIVERS:
MUTUAL REGULATION
process by which infant and caregiver
Mutual
communicate emotional states to
regulation
each other and respond appropriately.
Release of oxytocin is related to parenting behaviors:
Fathers: related to playful behaviors. Mothers:
positive affect, affectionate touch, and baby talk
SOCIAL REFERENCING
understanding an ambiguous situation
Social
by seeking another person’s
referencing
perception.
As children age, social referencing becomes more
complex. For example, it becomes less dependent on
facial expression and more dependent on language.
Additionally, while younger infants tend to check in
with adults regardless of what type of stimulus they
encounter, older infants tend to check in only when a
stimulus or situation is ambiguous
Children between the ages of 4 and 5 years are more
likely to trust information that comes from their
mother than from a stranger.
DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN TODDLERHOOD
THE EMERGING SENSE OF SELF
– our image of ourselves; sense of
self; descriptive and evaluative
Self-concept
mental picture of one’s abilities and
traits.
the sense of being a physical whole
Self-
with boundaries separate from the
coherence
rest of the world.
conscious knowledge of the self as a
distinct, identifiable being. It can be
Self-
tested by studying whether an infant
awareness
recognizes his or her own image
(ex.lipstick).
DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMY
– Erikson’s second stage in
Autonomy psychosocial development in which
versus shame children achieve a balance between
and doubt self- determination and control by
others.
the tendency to shout “No!” just for
Negativism
the sake of resisting authority
Many U.S. parents might be surprised to hear that the
terrible twos are not universal. In some developing
countries, the transition from infancy to early
childhood is relatively smooth and harmonious.
MORAL DEVELOPMENT: SOCIALIZATION AND
INTERNALIZATION
development of habits, skills, values,
Socialization and motives shared by responsible,
productive members of a society.
during socialization, process by
Internalization which children accept societal
standards of conduct as their own.
Children who are successfully socialized no longer
obey rules or commands merely to get rewards or
avoid punishment; rather, they have internalized
those standards and made them their own.
DEVELOPING SELF-REGULATION
– a child’s independent control of
Self-regulation behavior to conform to understood
social expectations.
Self-regulation is the foundation of socialization, and
it links all domains of development — physical,
cognitive, emotional, and social.
In most children, the full development of self-
regulation takes at least 3 years’
COMMITTED COMPLIANCE
– internal standards of behavior, which
usually controls one’s conduct and
Conscience
produce emotional discomfort when
violated.
Kochanska’s term for obedience of a
Situational
parent’s orders only in the presence of
compliance
signs of ongoing parental control.
Kochanska’s term for wholehearted
Committed
obedience of a parent’s orders without
compliance
reminders or lapses.
Kochanska’s term for eager willingness
Receptive to cooperate harmoniously with a
cooperation parent in daily interactions, including
routines, chores, hygiene and play.
FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF SOCIALIZATION
Secure attachment and a warm, mutually responsive,
parent-child relationship seem to foster committed
compliance and conscience development.
Emotional socialization seems to be important too.
Parents who talk to their 18- to 30-month-old children
about emotions tend to have toddlers who are
quicker to help others.
Discussion of emotions in conflict situations (“How
would you feel if . . .”) also led to conscience
development, probably by fostering the
development of moral emotions.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHILDREN
SIBLINGS
Another arena for socialization is joint dramatic play.
Siblings who frequently play “let’s pretend” develop a
history of shared understandings that enable them to
more easily resolve issues and build on each other’s
ideas.
Generally, same-sex siblings, particularly girls, are
closer and play together more peaceably than boy-
girl pairs.
Lessons and skills learned from interactions with
siblings—such as conflict and cooperation—carry
over to relationships outside the home.
Siblings who frequently play amicably together tend
to develop prosocial behaviors. Friendships can
influence sibling relationships.
Older siblings who have experienced a good
relationship with a friend before the birth of a sibling physically or psychologically
are likely to treat their younger siblings better and are harmful sexual activity or any
Sexual abuse
less likely to develop antisocial behavior in sexual activity involving a child
adolescence For a young child at risk for behavioral and another person.
problems, a positive relationship with either a sibling rejection, terrorization, isolation,
or a friend can buffer the effects of a negative exploitation, degradation,
relationship with the other. ridicule, or failure to provide
Emotional emotional support, love and
PEERS maltreatment affection, or other action, or
Some children, of course, are more sociable than inaction that may cause
others, reflecting such temperamental traits as their behavioral, cognitive, emotional
usual mood, readiness to accept new people, and or mental disorders.
ability to adapt to change.
MALTREATMENT IN INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD
Sociability is also influenced by experience; babies Most victims of maltreatment are infants and
who spend time with other babies, as in child care, toddlers. Some die due to failure to thrive. Others are
become sociable earlier than those who spend victims of shaken baby syndrome.
almost all their time at home. slowed or arrested physical
growth with no known medical
Nonorganic
CHILDREN OF WORKING PARENTS cause, accompanied by poor
failure to thrive
developmental and emotional
EFFECTS OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT functioning.
Labor force participation by mothers of children of all form of maltreatment in which
ages has increased dramatically in the past four Shaken baby shaking an infant or toddler can
decades. syndrome cause brain damage, paralysis, or
death.
Studies showed negative effects on cognitive Head trauma is the leading cause of death in child
development at 15 months to 3 years when mothers abuse cases in the US.
worked 30 or more hours a week by a child’s 9th
month. [maternal sensivity, high-quality home CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW
environment and child care lessened these.]
CHARACTERISTICS OF ABUSIVE AND NEGLECTFUL
Those whose mothers worked full-time in the 1st year PARENTS AND FAMILIES
after giving birth were more likely to show negative Often, abusive adults appear to be just like everyone
cognitive and behavioral outcomes at ages 3 to 8 than else; there is no identifying behavior or characteristic
children whose mothers worked part-time or not at all that determines who will or will not abuse a child.
during their 1st year. 78% of perpetrators were parents
54.1% women
FACTORS HAVING AN IMPACT ON CHILD CARE 6.3% were a relative (other than the parent)
1. Type of substitute care a child receives. 4% have an “other” relationship to the child
2. Temperament and gender of the child make a 83.4%, age of perpetrators between 18 and 44 years
difference of age.
3. The most important element in quality of care is 50.3% predominantly White
the caregiver. 20.7% African American
4. Low staff turnover is another important factor in 18.6% Hispanic
quality of care. Abuse may begin when a parent who is already
anxious, depressed, or hostile tries to control a child
MALTREATMENT: ABUSE AND NEGLECT physically but loses self-control and ends up shaking
Maltreatment can take several or beating the child.
MALTREATMENT: forms: Physical abuse : action
ABUSE AND taken deliberately to endanger Parents who abuse children tend to have marital
NEGLECT another person, involving problems and to fight physically. Abuse and neglect
potential bodily injury. sometimes occur in the same families.
failure to meet a dependent’s
Neglect
basic needs. Sexual abuse often occurs along with other family
disturbances such as physical abuse, emotional
maltreatment, substance abuse, and family violence.
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
Culture can impact the likelihood of child abuse and
neglect. For example, norms regarding child care
impact the definition of what neglect is.
In some countries, leaving infants and children in the
care of young siblings is routine; in countries such as
the United States, this would likely be considered
neglectful.
HELPING FAMILIES IN TROUBLE
State and local child protective service agencies
investigate reports of maltreatment. After making a
determination of maltreatment, they determine what
steps, if any, need to be taken.
When authorities remove children from their homes,
the usual alternative is foster care. Foster care
removes children from immediate danger but is often
unstable, further, alienates the child from the family,
and may turn out to be another abusive situation.
Often, a child’s basic health and educational needs are
not met.
Children who have been in foster care are more likely
than other children to become homeless, to commit
crimes, and to become teenage mothers as well as to
suffer mental or physical health problems.
LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF MALTREATMENT
Long term effects of maltreatment may include: Poor
physical, mental and emotional health
Impaired brain development Cognitive,
language and academic difficulties
Problems in attachment and social relationships
And in adolescence: heightened risks of poor
academic achievement, delinquency, teenage
pregnancy, alcohol and drug use and suicide.
Abuse and neglect in childhood results in an elevated
risk that the victims will, when grown, engage in
criminal activity or themselves become abusers.
Long term consequences of sexual abuse:
Children showed more disturbed behavior, had lower
self- esteem and were more depressed, anxious, or
unhappy.
Sexually abused children may become sexually active
at an early age.
Adults who were sexually abused as children tend to
be anxious, depressed, angry or hostile, to mistrust
people, to feel isolated and stigmatized, to be
sexually maladjusted and to abuse alcohol or drugs.
Still, many maltreated children show remarkable
resilience.
Preventing or stopping maltreatment may require
multifaceted, coordinated community efforts.
Physical & Cognitive Development in
Early Childhood
Bodily Growth and Change
Physical growth continues during the years from 3 to
6, but more slowly than during infancy and
toddlerhood.
Boys are on average slightly taller, heavier, and more
muscular than girls. Internal body systems are
maturing.
Sleep Patterns and Problems
1. Sleep patterns change during early childhood, as
throughout life, and are affected by cultural
expectations.
2. US children: 11 hours of sleep at night (age 5) no
daytime nap
3. Gusii of Kenya, Javanese (Indonesia) and Zuni
(New Mexico) – no regular bedtime, allowed to
stay up until they are sleepy.
4. Canadian Hare – age 3 don’t take naps but put to
sleep right after dinner and sleep as long as they
wish in the morning.
1/3 of parents of children ages 1-5: report that their
child has sleep problems.
Sleep disturbances are caused by:
Accidental activation of the brain’s motor control
system.
Incomplete arousal from a deep sleep
Disordered breathing
Restless leg movements.
In most cases, sleep problems are occasional and are
usually outgrown.
Most sleep problems are behavioral in nature and
most commonly include refusing to go to bed, taking
a long time to go to sleep, or frequent night waking.
Many sleep issues are the result of ineffective
parenting practices that exacerbate rather than ease
the problem.
Persistent sleep problems may indicate an emotional,
physiological, or neurological condition that needs to
be examined.
Possible sleep disturbances include night terrors,
walking and talking while asleep, and nightmares.
child may scream and sit up in bed,
breath rapidly and stare or thrash
Night terror about but he is not really awake. He
quiets down and doesn’t remember it
the next morning.
Walking and talking during sleep are fairly common in
early and middle childhood.
Sleepwalking and sleep talking are generally harmless,
and their frequency declines as children age.
Sleepwalking, sleep talking and night terrors: all occur
during slow wave sleep, common when children are
sleep deprived, have fever or are on medications,
when conditions are noisy. When they happen,
children are generally unresponsive to external
stimulation and are confused.
Nightmares are common during early childhood.
An occasional bad dream is no cause for alarm, but
frequent or persistent nightmares, especially those
that make a child fearful or anxious during waking
hours, may signal excessive stress and are correlated
with emotional, attentional, and conduct problems.
Most children stay dry, day at night by age 3 to 5 but
enuresis is usual.
repeated, involuntary urination ay
Enuresis night by children old enough to be
expected to have bladder control.
10-15% age 5 wet the bed regularly (while sleeping
deeply).
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
brain is approximately 90% of adult
Age 3
weight
most rapid growth occurs in the frontal
Ages 3-6
areas.
(a fatty substance that coats the axons
Myelin of nerve fibers and accelerates neural
conduction) continues to form.
rapid brain growth occurs in areas that
Ages 6-11 support associative thinking, language,
and spatial relations.
The corpus callosum continues to be myelinized
throughout childhood and adolescence.
MOTOR SKILLS
Children progress rapidly in gross and fine motor skills,
developing more complex systems of action.
Gross motor physical skills that involve the large
skills muscles such as running and jumping.
physical skills that involve the small
Fine motor muscles and eye-hand coordination
skills such as buttoning shirts and drawing
pictures.
increasingly complex combinations of
Systems of skills which permit a wider or more
action precise range of movement and more
control of the environment.
HANDEDNESS
preference for using a particular hand;
Handedness
usually evident by about age 3.
Because the left hemisphere of the brain, which
controls the right side of the body, is usually
dominant, 90 percent of people favor their right side.
Boys are more likely to be left-handed than girls.
Genetics has less to do with handedness than
environment.
HEALTH & SAFETY
OBESITY
having a body mass index at or above
Obesity
the 95th percentile for age.
Excessive weight gain hinges on caloric intake and lack
of exercise.
How to prevent obesity?
1. Regularly eat an evening meal as a family.
2. Get adequate amounts of sleep
3. Watch less than 2 hours of television a day.
UNDERNUTRITION
being underweight for one’s age,
too short for one’s age, dangerously
Undernutrition
thin, deficient in vitamins and
minerals.
refers to both undernutrition and
Malnutrition
overnutrition.
Stunted children appear to be of normal weight but
shorter for their age and may have cognitive and
physical deficiencies. This is the result of chronic,
persistent hunger.
Others are an appropriate height but thinner than
they should be.
Undernutrition is an underlying cause in about a third
of worldwide deaths for children under 5. South Asia
has the highest level of undernutrition.
Undernourishment coupled with extremely deprived
circumstances may negatively affect not only growth
and physical well-being but cognitive and psychosocial
development as well and the effects are long-lasting.
FOOD ALLERGIES
an abnormal immune system response
Food allergy
to a specific food.
Reactions can range from tingling in the mouth and
hives to more serious, life-threatening reactions like
shortness of breath and even death.
90% of food allergies can be attributed to: milk, eggs,
peanuts, tree nuts, fish, soy, wheat and shellfish.
Food allergies are more prevalent in children than
adults and mostly outgrown.
Changes in diet, how foods are processed, and
decreased Vitamin D based upon less exposure to the
sun have all been suggested as contributors to the
increase in allergy rates.
A theory that society is too clean, and that children’s
immune systems are less mature because they are not
exposed to enough dirt and germs has also been
explored.
Although possible explanations abound, not enough
evidence exists to pinpoint a cause.
ORAL HEALTH
Oral health is an important component of overall
health.
Thumbsucking
Age 3 primary (baby) teeth are in place.
Age 6 permanent teeth will begin to appear.
Thumbsucking under age 4 can be safely ignored by
parents
Tooth Decay
Stems from overconsumption of sweetened milk and
juices in infancy together with a lack of regular dental
care.
Worst effects found: children who take bottles to bed
with them and bathe their teeth in sugar over the
course of an afternoon or evening.
Fluoride: mineral essential for the maintenance and
solidification of bones.
Fluoride can be administered topically, via toothpaste,
mouthwashes, or gels; or systemically, via
supplements or the water supply.
Given the low risk and high effectiveness of
fluoridated toothpaste, topical administration is now
generally recommended
Deaths and Accidental Injuries
Accidents are the leading cause of death in the US for
young children.
Most deaths from injuries among pre- schoolers occur
in the home often from fires, drowning in bathtubs,
suffocation, poisoning or falls.
Everyday medications can be dangerous to curious
young children.
Car accidents are the most reported case of accidental
death for over age 4.
Other common causes of death in early childhood
include:
- cancer,
- congenital abnormalities and
chromosomal disorders,
- assault and homicide,
- heart disease,
- respiratory diseases (including both
chronic respiratory disease as well as
influenza and pneumonia),
- and septicemia (a bacterial infection that
poisons the blood leading to organ
failure).
HEALTH IN CONTEXT: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
The lower a family’s SES, the greater
SES, Race &
a child’s risk of illness, injury, and
Ethnicity
death.
results from circumstances
Homelessness that force people to choose between
food, shelter, and other basic needs.
Smoking is bad for everyone;
Exposure to however, children, with their still-
Environmental developing lungs and faster rate of
Pollutants respiration, are particularly sensitive
to the damaging effects of
exposure.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT PIAGETIAN APPROACH:
THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD
ADVANCES OF PREOPERATIONAL THOUGHT
Advances in symbolic thought are accompanied
by a growing understanding of space, causality,
identities, categorization, and number.
 SYMBOLIC FUNCTION
Being able to think about something in the absence of
sensory or motor cues characterizes the symbolic
function.
Piaget’s term for ability to use
Symbolic mental representations (words, numbers,
function or images) to which a child has attached
meaning.
Deferred imitation is related to symbolic function
because it requires the child to have kept a mental
representation of an observed action.
Another marker is pretend play.
play involving imaginary people and
Pretend
situations; also called as fantasy
play
/dramatic/ imaginative play.
By far, the most extensive use of the symbolic function
is language. Language, at its heart, is a system of
symbols.
Understanding of Objects in Space
Children begin to be able to understand the symbols
that describe physical spaces, although this process is
slow.
It is not until the age 3 that most children reliably
grasp the relationships between pictures, maps, or
scale models and the objects or spaces they
represent.
Piaget maintained that preoperational children cannot
yet reason logically about cause and effect. Instead,
he said, they reason by transduction.
Piaget’s term for a preoperational
child’s tendency to mentally link
Transduction
particular phenomena whether there
is logically a causal relationship.
For example, Luis may think that his “bad” thoughts
or behavior caused his own or his sister’s illness or his
parents’ divorce.
Piaget was incorrect in believing that young children
could not understand causality.
When tested in situations that are appropriate to their
overall level of cognitive development, young children
do grasp cause and effect.
“The scissors have to be clean so I can cut better.”
“I have to stop now because you said to.”
Understanding of Identities and Categorization
The world becomes more orderly and predictable a
preschool children develop a better understanding of
identities (the concept that people and many things
are basically the same even if they change in outward
form, size, or appearance).
Categorization, or classification, requires a child to
identify similarities and differences
One type of categorization is the ability to distinguish
living from nonliving things.
tendency to attribute life to objects that
Animism
are not alive.
In general, it appears that children attribute animism
to items that share characteristics with living things:
things that move, make sounds, or have lifelike
features such as eyes.
Understanding of Number
the concept of comparing quantities
Ordinality (more or less; bigger or smaller); seems
to begin around 9-11 months.
principle in counting where children
understand that the number of items in
a set is the same regardless of how they
Cardinality
are arranged and that the last number
counted is the total number of items in
the set; develops at about age 2.5
most children can say one tree is bigger
Age 4: than another or one cup holds more
juice than another.
can count to 20 or more and know the
Age 5:
relative sizes of the numbers 1-10.
developed basic number sense:
counting, number knowledge, number
Elementary
transformations,
school:
estimation, and recognition of number
patterns.
Numerical competence is important; how well
children understand numbers in kindergarten predicts
their academic performance in math through 3rd
grade.
IMMATURE ASPECTS OF PREOPERATIONAL THOUGHT
the tendency to focus on one aspect of
Centration
a situation and neglect others.
Think about several aspects of a
Decenter
situation at one time.
EGOCENTRISM
Egocentrism is a form of centration.
According to Piaget, young children center so much
on their own point of view that they cannot take in
another’s.
Piaget’s term for inability to consider
another person’s point of view; a
Egocentrism
characteristic of a
young children’s thought.
To study egocentrism, Piaget designed the
three-mountain task
CONSERVATION
Another classic example of centration is the failure to
understand conservation.
Piaget’s term for awareness that two
objects that are equal according to a
Conservation certain measure remain equal in the
face of perceptual alteration so long
as nothing is added or taken away.
Why do children make errors on conservation tasks?
- Their responses are influenced by two immature
aspects of thought: centration and irreversibility.
involves focusing on one dimension
Centration
while ignoring the other.
Piaget’s term for a preoperational
child’s failure to understand that an
Irreversibility
operation can go in two or more
directions.
THEORY OF MIND
awareness and understanding of mental processes.
Knowledge about Thinking and Mental States
Between ages 3 and 5, children come to understand
that thinking goes on inside the mind that:
it can deal with either real or imaginary things;
someone can be thinking of one thing while doing or
looking at something else;
a person whose eyes and ears are covered can think
about objects;
someone who looks pensive is probably thinking; and
that thinking is different from seeing, talking,
touching, and knowing.
FALSE BELIEF AND DECEPTION
The understanding that people can hold false beliefs
flows from the realization that people can hold mental
representations of reality, which can sometimes be
wrong.
Not until about age 6, however, do children realize
that two people who see or hear the same thing may
interpret it differently.
Deception is an effort to plant a false belief in
someone’s mind.
children are capable of telling simple
About age 3
lies
children become better able to think
about what they should and should
Age 8
not know and thus conceal their
transgressions more effectively.
Distinguishing between Appearance and Reality
According to Piaget, not until about age 5 or 6 do
children begin to understand the distinction between
what seems to be and what is (3-4).
For example, when the children put on special
sunglasses that made milk look green, they said the
milk was green, even though they had just seen white
milk.
When you ask them to display their knowledge via
their actions, they are better able to do so
Sometime between 18 months and 3 years, children
learn to distinguish between real and imagined
events.
Magical thinking is a way to explain events that do not
seem to have obvious realistic explanations (usually
because children lack knowledge about them), or
simply to indulge in the pleasures of pretending – as
with a belief in imaginary companions.
Magical thinking tends to decline near the end of the
preschool period.
Moreover, there are indications that imaginative 3 types of Brain Storage
activities may offer developmental benefits: Sensory initial, brief, temporary storage of
Memory sensory information.
In one study, children who had imaginary companions Working short-term storage of information
used richer and more elaborate narrative structure Memory being actively processed.
than children without imaginary companions when storage of virtually unlimited
asked to recount a personal story. Long-term
capacity that holds information for
Memory
long periods.
Other research has shown that children who watched
a movie with magical themes later scored higher on conscious control of thoughts,
creativity tests and drew more imaginative impossible Executive
emotions and actions to accomplish
objects, even though their beliefs about magic were function
goals or solve problems.
unaffected. in Baddeley’s model, element of
Central
working memory that controls the
Individual Differences in Theory-of-Mind executive
processing of information.
Development The central executive orders information encoded for
Some children develop theory-of-mind abilities earlier transfer to long-term memory.
than others (reflects brain maturation).
Recognition and Recall
Children who are better at paying attention to others Placing material in memory is not enough; it must also
as infants show more facility with theory-of-mind be retrieved to be used. Recognition and recall are
tasks at age 4. types of retrieval.
ability to identify a previously
Social competence matters: those high on social skills
encountered stimulus.
are better able to know false beliefs, know real from Recognition
- To pick out a missing mitten from a
pretend emotion and take another person’s point of
lost-and- found box.
view.
ability to reproduce material from
The kind of talk a child hears at home may affect the
memory.
child’s understanding of mental states. Recall
- Describing a lost mitten at the lost-
and-found desk.
A mother’s reference to others’ thoughts and
knowledge is a consistent predictor of a child’s later
mental state language. Forming and Retaining Childhood Memories
memory that produces scripts of
Being bilingual helps. Generic Memory familiar routines to guide
behavior.
Families that encourage pretend play stimulate the general remembered outline of a
development of theory-of- mind tasks. Script familiar, repeated event, used to
guide behavior.
long-term memory of specific
INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH: MEMORY Episodic
experiences or events, used to
memory
guide behavior.
Basic Processes and Capacities Autobiographical memory of specific
Memory can be described as a filing system with 3 Memory events in one’s life (age 3-4).
steps:
process by which information is prepared
Encoding Influences on Memory Retention
for long-term storage and later retrieval.
Why do some memories last longer and remain
retention of information in memory for
Storage clearer than others?
future use.
1. Uniqueness of the event
process by which information is accessed
2. Events with emotional impact
Retrieval or recalled from memory
3. Active participation
storage.
4. The way adults talk about experiences Social
interaction model –model, based on
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, that proposes children
construct autobiographical memories through
conversation with adults about shared events.
 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
VOCABULARY
Age 3 knows and can use 900-1,000 words.
speaks 2,600 words & understands
Age 6
>20,000.
High school 80,000 words
process by which a child absorbs the
Fast mapping meaning of a new word after hearing
it once or twice in a conversation.
GRAMMAR & SYNTAX
deep underlying structure of a language
Grammar that enables us to both produce and
understand utterances.
involves the rules for putting together
sentences in a particular language.
Syntax Young children often make errors
because they have not yet learned
exceptions to rules.
PRAGMATICS AND SOCIAL SPEECH
the practical knowledge needed to use
Pragmatics
language for communicative purposes.
For example, a child is more likely to be successful
with a request such as “May I please have a cookie?”
than “Give me a cookie now.”
Social speech intended to be understood by
Speech a listener.
PRIVATE SPEECH
talking aloud to oneself with no intent to
Private
communicate with others; is normal and
speech
common in childhood.
egocentric speech is a sign of cognitive
Piaget
immaturity.
it is a special form of communication:
Vygotsky conversation with the self. It is part of
the learning process.
Private speech tends to increase when children are
trying to solve problems or perform difficult tasks
especially without adult supervision.
Delayed Language Development
Children who speak late do not necessarily lack
linguistic input at home.
Many children who speak late – especially those
whose comprehension is normal – eventually catch
up.
Some children with early language delays, if left
untreated, may experience far-reaching cognitive,
social and emotional consequences.
PREPARATION FOR LITERACY
development of fundamental skills
Emergent
that eventually lead to being able to
Literacy
read and write
Two types of prereading skills
vocabulary, syntax, narrative
Oral language structure, and the understanding
skills that language is used to
communicate.
Specific
phonological
that help in
skills (linking
decoding the printed word.
letters with
sounds)
Reading to children is one of the most effective paths
to literacy.
MEDIA & COGNITION
Exposure to television during the first few years of life
may be associated with poorer cognitive
development, but children over the age of 2 exposed
to programs that follow an educational curriculum
have demonstrated cognitive enhancement.
Program content is an important mediator.
Parents who limit screen time, select well- designed
age-appropriate programs, and view the programs
with their children can maximize the benefits of
media.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
TYPES OF PRESCHOOLS
based on the belief that children’s
natural intelligence involves rational,
spiritual and empirical aspects. This
Montessori method stresses the importance of
Method children learning independently at
their own pace, as they work with
developmentally appropriate
materials and self-chosen tasks.
Teachers follow children’s interests
and support them them in exploring
Reggio Emilia
and investigating ideas and feelings
Approach
through words, movement, dramatic
play, and music.
have had positive outcomes, and
Compensatory participants’ performance is
preschool approaching national norms.
programs Compensatory programs that start
early may have better results.
Many children today attend full-day kindergarten.
Success in kindergarten depends largely on emotional
and social adjustment and prekindergarten
preparation.

Psychosocial Development in Early
Childhood
I. THE DEVELOPING SELF
A. The Self-Concept and Cognitive Development
- Our total picture of our abilities
and traits
- It is a system of descriptive and
evaluative representations about
the self that determines how we
feel about ourselves and guides
Self- Concept
our actions
- The sense of self also has a social
aspect: Children incorporate into
their self-image their growing
understanding of how others see
them.
a. Changes in Self-Definition: The 5 to 7 Shift
the way they describe themselves
changes between about ages 5 and
Self-definition 7, reflecting self-concept
development and advances in
cognitive abilities.
At age 4, Jason says, “My name is Jason and I live in a
big house with my mother and father and sister, Lisa. I
have a kitty that’s orange and a television set in my
own room. . .. I like pizza and I have a nice teacher. I
can count up to 100, want to hear me? I love my dog,
Skipper. I can climb to the top of the jungle gym, I’m
not scared! Just happy. You can’t be happy and scared,
no way! I have brown hair, and I go to preschool. I’m
really strong. I can lift this chair, watch me!”
He cannot acknowledge that his real self, the person
he actually is, is not the same as his ideal self, the
person he would like to be.
At about age 5 or 6, Jason begins to make logical
connections between one aspect of himself and
another: “I can run fast, and I can climb high. I’m also
strong. I can throw a ball real far; I’m going to be on a
team some day!”
At about age 7, Jason will be able to describe himself
in terms of generalized traits such as popular, smart,
or dumb; recognize that he can have conflicting
emotions; and be self-critical while holding a positive
overall self-concept. In middle childhood children
begin to integrate specific features of the self into a
general, multidimensional concept. As all-or-nothing
thinking declines, Jason’s self-descriptions will
become more balanced and realistic: “I’m good at
hockey but bad at arithmetic.”
b. Cultural Differences in Self-Definition
Culture helps shape the understanding of the self.
One major cultural dimension—individualism versus
collectivism—impacts the understanding of the self in
relation to others.
In United States, individuals are seen as separate from
one another, and independence and self-reliance are
highly valued.
In collectivistic cultures, such as India and China,
individuals are seen as fundamentally interrelated,
and group harmony and cohesiveness take
precedence over individual concerns.
Cultural ideas and beliefs about how to define the self
was often transmitted by our parents through
everyday conversations.
Chinese parents tend to encourage interdependent
aspects of the self, such as compliance with authority,
appropriate conduct, humility, and a sense of
belonging to the community.
European American parents tend to encourage
independent aspects of the self: individuality, self-
expression, and self-esteem.
Children absorb such differing cultural styles of self-
definition as early as age 3 or 4, and these differences
increase with age.
These differences can even be seen in children’s
drawings.
Children from cultures in which autonomy,
individualism, and self-expression are valued tend to
draw themselves larger.
Children from cultures in which relatedness and social
connections are viewed as more important draw
themselves smaller.
B. Self-Esteem
is the self-evaluative part of the self-
Self-esteem concept; the judgment children make
about their overall worth
a. Developmental Changes in Self-Esteem
Younger children, about age 8, show their concept of
self-worth by their behavior.
Although there are individual differences in self-
esteem, most young children wildly overestimate their
abilities.
Self-esteem is the result of feedback received from
other people, and adults tend to give positive and
uncritical feedback
Children’s self-esteem tends to be unidimensional. In
other words, children believe they are either all good
or all bad.
In middle childhood, self-esteem will become more
realistic as personal evaluations of competence based
on internalization of parental and societal standards
begin to shape and maintain self-worth.
b. Contingent Self-Esteem: The “Helpless” Pattern
Children whose self-esteem is contingent on success
tend to become demoralized when they fail.
Consider the praise parents give children for
succeeding. If a child is generally praised for working
hard and she fails at a task, the logical implication is
that she did not try hard enough. That child might
then be motivated to work harder next time.
If the same child is praised for being smart and she
fails at a task, the implication is far different. Now the
implication is that the child is no longer smart. The
motivation for working hard has been stripped away.
In contrast, children with noncontingent self-esteem
tend to attribute failure or disappointment to factors
outside themselves or to the need to try harder.
For example, when faced with the same puzzle, such a
child might assume the puzzle was for older children
or might continue to try to put it together despite
having initial difficulties. If initially unsuccessful or
rejected, they persevere, trying new strategies until
they find one that works.
Research on self-esteem suggests that when children
are praised and rewarded for everything they do,
regardless of performance, they believe that praise
uncritically.
C. Regulating Emotions
One of the key advantages of early childhood is the
ability to regulate or control one’s feelings.
Emotional self-regulation helps children guide their
behavior and adjust their responses to meet societal
expectations.
Children’s ability to exert control over themselves is
related to adjustment.
Children develop the ability to regulate their emotions
slowly via a shift from early reliance on orienting
processes supported by the parietal and frontal areas
of the brain to control of affect using frontal brain
networks in the anterior cingulate gyrus.
Culture also is an influence
Individualistic cultures such as in the United States
tend to value the free expression of emotions,
whereas Asian cultures with collectivistic values tend
to suppress the expression of negative emotions
Not surprisingly, research has found that parents from
different cultures show varied socialization patterns
that reflect cultural values.
D. Understanding Emotions Directed toward the Self
Social emotions involve a comparison of oneself
or one’s actions to social
standards. These emotions are
directed toward the self and
include guilt, shame, and pride.
Emotional understanding appears to proceed in an
ordered and hierarchical manner.
First, by about 5 years of age, children understand the
public aspects of emotions.
By about 7 years of age, children start to understand
that mental states can drive Emotions.
Last, by about 9 years of age, children start to
understand more complex aspects of emotion.
E. Erikson: Initiative versus Guilt
The need to deal with conflicting feelings about the
self is at the heart of the third stage of psychosocial
development identified by Erik Erikson (1950):
initiative vs guilt.
Preschool children can do—and want to do—more
and more. At the same time, they are learning that
some of the things they want to do meet social
approval, whereas others do not.
II. GENDER
Gender identity
awareness of one’s femaleness or maleness and all it
implies in one’s society of origin, is an important
aspect of the developing self-concept.
A. Gender Differences
This is the psychological or behavioral differences
between males and females
 B. Perspective on Gender Development
are the behaviors, interests,
attitudes, skills, and personality
Gender roles
traits that a culture considers
appropriate for males or females.
the acquisition of a gender role,
Gender-typing
takes place early in childhood.
Gender are preconceived generalizations
stereotypes about male or female behavior
a. Biological Approach
The existence of similar gender roles in many cultures
suggests that some gender differences may be
biologically based. In fact, if gender differences were
purely cultural inventions.
In this view, differences we see between boys and girls
are influenced by brain anatomy.
These differences arise from, among others, genes
coding for differences in anatomy and function
between the sexes, prenatal hormonal exposure,
differing environmental experiences, or the activating
effects of puberty in adolescence.
There are indications that the disparity between
gender and sex in transgender people is biologically
influenced. For example, biological women who later
identify as male have markers that suggest high
androgen exposure in the womb.
b. Evolutionary Approach
The evolutionary approach sees gendered behavior as
biologically influenced.
According to evolutionary theory, male
competitiveness and aggressiveness and female
nurturance develop during childhood as, preparation
for these adult roles. Boys play at fighting; girls play at
parenting.
Evolutionary theory argues that society and culture
are more important than biology in determining
gender roles. But evolutionary theorists have never
argued that culture is insignificant. Rather, they have
argued that men and women have cognitive
adaptations designed to be sensitive to environmental
input.
Evolutionary psychology is not deterministic, Evolution
has given us an evolved architecture of the mind that
pushes us in certain directions, but it has also given us
the ability to reflect upon our choices and make
reasoned decisions.
c. Psychoanalytic Approach
Identification is the adoption of characteristics,
beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of the parent
of the same sex. Freud considered identification an
important personality development of early
childhood.
d. Cognitive Approach
Children actively search for cues about gender in their
social world. As they realize which gender, they
belong to, they adopt behaviors they perceive as
consistent with being male or female.
The acquisition of gender roles, said Kohlberg, hinges
on gender constancy, a child’s realization that his or
her gender will always be the same. Once children
achieve this realization, they are motivated to adopt
behaviors appropriate to their gender.
Gender Constancy
awareness of one’s own gender and
Gender
that of others typically occurs between
identity
ages 2 and 3.
awareness that gender does not
change. However, children at this stage
Gender
base judgments about gender on
stability
superficial appearances (clothing or
hairstyle) and stereotyped behaviors.
the realization that a girl remains a girl
even if she has a short haircut and plays
Gender
with trucks, and a boy remains a boy
consistency
even if he has long hair and earrings,
typically occurs between ages 3 and 7.
e. Social Learning Approach
Children acquire gender roles by imitating models and
being rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior.
Behavioral feedback, together with direct teaching by
parents and other adults, reinforces gender-typing.
For social cognitive theorists, socialization—the way a
child interprets and internalizes experiences with
parents, teachers, peers, and cultural institutions—
plays a central part in gender development.
According to social cognitive theory, observation
enables children to learn much about gender-typed
behaviors before performing them. They can mentally
combine observations of multiple models and
generate their own behavioral variations.
In the following sections, we address three primary
sources of social influences on gender development:
- Family Influences
- Peer Influences
- Cultural Influences

III. PLAY
A. The Adaptive Nature of Play
Play is ubiquitous, not just in young humans—who
take almost any opportunity they can to play—but
also in the young of many species, especially
intelligent ones (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2000; Graham
&Burghardt, 2010).
Why is this pattern of behavior so common across
different species? Why is playing so much fun?
Exercise play increases from early childhood to the
early primary school years, and vigorous activity may
help develop muscle strength, endurance, efficiency
of movement, and athletic coordination (Graham &
Burghardt, 2010; Smith & Pellegrini, 2013).
Pretend play has been linked to cognitive functions,
such as creativity, flexible thinking, perspective taking,
and exploring bounds of fantasy and reality (Russ &
Wallace, 2013).
Play fighting, which is often discouraged by adults, has
adaptive functions as children innovate story lines,
practice controlled physical movements, and
experiment with themes of competition and
aggression (Hart & Tannock, 2013).
B. Cognitive Levels of Play
The simplest level, which begins
during infancy consisting of
Functional play
repeated practice in large
or
muscular movements, such as
Locomotor play
rolling a ball (Bjorklund &
Pellegrini, 2002).
The second level is the use of
Constructive play objects or materials to make
or something, such as a house of
Object play blocks or a crayon drawing
(Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002).
The third level involves imaginary
Dramatic play
objects, actions, or roles. More
/pretend play,/
advanced cognitive development
fantasy play,/or
affords more sophisticated play
imaginative play
but play also helps strengthen the
development of dense
connections in the brain and
promotes later capacity for
abstract thought.
C. The Social Dimension of Play
In a classic study, Mildred B. Parten (1932) identified
six types of play.
Parten’s Categories of Social and Nonsocial Play
Categories Description
The child does not seem to be
Unoccupied
playing but watches anything of
behavior
momentary interest.
The child spends most of the time
Onlooker watching other children play. The
behavior onlooker may talk to them but does
not enter into the play. .
The child plays alone with toys that
Solitary
are different from those used by
Independent
nearby children and makes no effort
play
to get close to them.
The child plays independently
beside rather than with the other
Parallel play children, playing with similar toys,
and does not try to influence the
other children’s play.
The children talk, borrow and lend
toys, follow each other around, and
play similarly. There is no division of
Associative labor and no organization around
play goals. The children behave as they
wish and are more interested in
being around each other than the
activity itself
The child plays in a group organized
for some goal—to make something,
Cooperative or
play a formal game, or dramatize a
organized
situation. One or two children's
supplementary
direct activities. Children take on
play
different roles and supplement each
other’s efforts.
D. Gender and Play
As we have mentioned, sex segregation is common
among preschoolers and becomes more prevalent in
middle childhood. This tendency seems to be
universal across cultures.
E. Culture and Play
Culture values influence beliefs about the importance
of play. In Western cultures such as the United States,
some argue that adequate amounts of child-directed
free play are necessary for optimal development.
 IV. PARENTING
Parenting
can be a complex challenge. Parents must deal with
small people who have independent minds and wills,
but who still have a lot to learn about what kinds of
behavior work well in society.
A. Forms of Discipline
In this field of human development, discipline refers
two methods of molding character end of teaching
self-control and acceptable behavior.
a. Reinforcement and Punishment
Parents sometimes punish children to stop
undesirable behavior.
b. Inductive Reasoning, Power Assertion, and
Withdrawal of Love
are designed to encourage desirable
Inductive
behavior or discourage undesirable
reasoning
behavior by setting limits.
is intended to stop are discouraged
Power and desirable behavior through
Assertion physical or verbal enforcement of
parental control.
Withdrawal may include ignoring, isolating, or
of love showing dislike for a child.
B. Parenting Styles
Just as children differ in their temperament, parents
differ in their approach to parenting.
a. Baumrind’s Model of Parenting Styles
Authoritarian emphasizes control and
parenting unquestioning obedience.
Permissive emphasizes self-expression and
parenting self-regulation.
Authoritative emphasizes a child’s individuality
parenting but also stresses limits.
b. Criticisms of Baumrind’s Model
In research based on Baumrind’s work, the benefits of
authoritative parenting have generally been
supported. This is important because identifying and
promoting positive parenting practices is crucial to
preventing early-onset problem behavior (Dishion &
Stormshak, 2007). Families at high risk for problem
behavior in children that participated in parenting
support services were able to improve childhood
outcomes by an early focus on positive and proactive
parenting practices (Dishion et al., 2008).
However, Baumrind’s findings are correlational. Thus,
they merely establish associations between each
parenting style and a particular set of child behaviors.
They do not show that different styles of child rearing
cause children to be more or less competent. As with
all correlations, the direction of effects is not certain.
Moreover, Baumrind did not consider innate factors,
such as temperament, that might have influenced the
parents. An easy child might, for example, elicit
authoritative parenting, and a difficult child, more
power assertive techniques as parents search for a
way to manage her defiance.
C. Special Behavioral Concerns
Three issues of special concern to parents, caregivers,
and teachers of preschool children are how to
promote altruism, curb aggression, and deal with
fears that often arise at this age
a. Prosocial Behavior
Any voluntary behavior intended to help others.
Ex. Alex, at 31⁄2, responded to two preschool
classmates’ complaints that they did not have enough
modeling clay, his favorite plaything, by giving them
half of his. Alex was showing altruism: motivation to
help another person with no expectation of reward.
Altruism is at the heart of prosocial behavior,
voluntary, positive actions to help others
b. Aggression
Noah walks over to Jake, who is playing quietly with a
toy car. Noah hits Jake and snatches the car away. He
has used aggression as a tool to gain access to a
wanted object. This is instrumental aggression, or
aggression used as an instrument to reach a goal—the
most common type of aggression in early childhood.
Influences on Aggression
Why are some children more aggressive than others?
Temperament may play a part. Children who are
intensely emotional and low in self-control or who
have a difficult temperament tend to express anger
aggressively (Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman, Bernzweig, &
Pinuelas, 1994; Rubin, Burgess, Dwyer, &Hastings,
2003; Yaman, Mesman, van IJzendoorn, &
Bakersmans-Kranenburg, 2010;Röll, Koglin, &
Petermann, 2012).
c. Fearfulness
Passing fears are common in early childhood. Many 2-
to 4-year-olds are afraid of animals, especially dogs,
snakes, and spiders. By age 6, children are more likely
to be afraid of the dark. Other common fears are of
thunderstorms, doctors, and imaginary creatures
(DuPont, 1983; Stevenson-Hinde & Shouldice, 1996;
LoBue, 2013).
V. RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHILDREN
A. Sibling Relationships
Disputes happen among siblings but are resolved on
the basis of moral principles.
Sibling rivalry or conflict is common, but it is not the
main pattern between brothers and sisters.
Prosocial and play-oriented behaviors are more
common rather than rivalry, hostility, and
competition.
Older siblings initiate more behavior, while younger
siblings tend to imitate the older ones.
D. Playmates and Friends
About age 3, children begin to have friends.
Through friendships and interactions with casual
playmates, young children learn how to get along with
others.

Same-sex siblings, particularly girls, are closer and
play together more peaceably than boy-girl pairs.
The quality of sibling relationships tends to carry over
to relationships with other children.
In one study, 4- to 7-year-olds rated the most
important features of friendships as doing things
together, liking and caring for each other, sharing and
helping one another, and to a lesser degree, living
nearby or going to the same school.

Friendships can influence sibling relationships. Preschoolers usually like to play with children of the
same age.
B. Only Children
There is a meta-analysis which shows that most Children who have frequent positive experiences with
“onlies” perform slightly better than children with each other are most likely to become friends.
siblings.
The traits that young children look for in a playmate
Why do “onlies” do better on some indices than are similar to the traits they look for in a friend.
children with siblings?
Well-liked preschoolers and kindergartners and those
Only child’s parents give them more attention, talk to who are rated by parents and teachers as socially
them more, and expect more of them. competent generally cope well with anger. Less well-
liked children tend to hit back or tattle.
In research in China, only children seem to be at an
advantage than those with siblings. Because children
with siblings are reported to have a higher level of
fear, anxiety, and depression than only children who
were less likely to show signs of anxiety or depression.

Only children’s academic achievement and physical

growth were about the same as, or better than,
children with siblings.

C. Age Segregation versus Mixed-Age Play

Since most school, children were often assigned to
classes based on how much they knew rather than
when they were born.

As soon as children enter day care or school, many of

their activities are structured by age.

In mixed-age play, younger siblings learn by watching

and observing the older children and by participating
in activities with them. While older siblings can
develop their leadership abilities and serve as
mentors.

There is also value in interactions with others of

different ages.