CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO CHILD DEVELOPMENTINTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY CHILD DEVELOPMENT?- To describe and understand the important changes that take place as children move from infancy through childhood and adolescenceo What Develops? Physical Cognitive Social/Emotional1. Applied/Practical Motivations:o Help parents raise their children more effectivelyo Optimize conditions of developmento Ex. Coping with anger. Turtle Technique- retreat into their shellto cope with anger and return once they were ready.2. Political Motivations:o Lead society as a whole to adopt wiser policies regarding children’s welfare and gain insight3. Scientific/Philosophical Motivations o Human nature o Timing of experiences influences their effects o Ex. Orphanage effects on social development. Earlier the child was adopted the better outcomes they had intellectually, physically, and socially. HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE STUDY OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT:- Early Philosophers Views:o Plato: Children are born with innate knowledge. Ex. Born with the concept of “animal” and automatically allows them to recognize that creatures are animals Rearing of boys is particularly demandingo Aristotle: All knowledge comes from experience and the mind of a child is like an blank blackboard (individual differences among all children)o Locke: Tabula rasa or blank slate whose development largely reflects the nurture provided by the child’s parents and the broader society (similar to Aristotle) Education should be aimed at promoting child’s character Avoid indulgence especially early in lifeo Rosseau: Parents and society should give children maximum freedom Children learn primarily from their own spontaneous interactions (experiences) with objects and other people rather than through instruction by parents or teachers Learning vs. Instruction Children are inherently good Should not be given formal instruction until the age of 12- Social Reform Movements:o Devoted to improving children’s lives by changing the conditions in which they lived. o Child labor laws enacted and provided some of the earliest descriptions of the adverse effects of harsh environments on development- Darwin’s Theory of Evolution:o Influenced thinking on: Infant’s attachment to their mothers Innate fear of natural dangers Sex differences Mechanisms underlying learning Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (individual development vs. development of species)- Emergence of Child Development as a Discipline:o End of 19th-early 20th centuryo Theories emerge Freud- psychoanalytic theory of biological drives and sexual influences on development. (Id, Ego, Superego) Watson- behaviorist theory that children’s development is determined by environmental factors especially rewards and punishments ENDURING THEMES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT:1. Nature and Nurture/Environment: Together How They Shape Development- Nature- our biological endowment, the genes we receive from parents- Nurture- the environments both physical and social that influence our development- Every characteristic that we possess is created through JOINT workings of nature and nurture and the interaction of our genes and environment2. The Active Child: How do Children Shape Their Own Development?- Children first begin to shape their own development through their selection of what to pay attention to, (ex. Faces) which then leads to interactions.- Once children begin to speak they contribute even more through practicing on their own with themselves (babbling) - Playing by themselves they also learn a lot- As they grow older they have more of a contribution to their own development based off of their choices of friends and their selection of environments 3. Continuity/Discontinuity: In What Ways is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?- Continuous- the idea that changes with age occur gradually (quantitative change)CHAPTER 4: THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTPIAGET’S THEORY- From birth onward they are active mentally as well as physically and are active in contributing to their own development (constructivist and children as scientists)- Nature and Nurture- interact to produce cognitive developmento Nurture- includes not only the parents upbringing but every experience the child encounterso Nature- child’s maturing brain and body and their ability to perceive, act and learn from experience Adaptation- tendency to respond to the demands of the environment in ways that meet ones goals Organization- tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge- Continuityo Assimilation- process which people adapt their current understandings into concepts they already understand (frizzy hair clown)o Accommodation- people adapt their current understandings in response to new experienceso Equilibration- process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create a stable understanding1. Equilibrium- children are satisfied with their understanding of a phenomenon 2. Disequilibrium- new information leads children to perceive that their understanding is inadaquete because they recognize shortcomings in their understanding but cannot generate a superior alternative- Sources of Discontinuityo Qualitative change- different ages think in qualitatively different ways (jar of cookies breaking vs. stealing one cookie)o Broad applicability- thinking characteristic influences ways of thinkingo Brief transitions- before entering a new stage children fluctuate between the type of thinking characteristic of the old and new stageo Invariant sequence Sensorimotor- 0-2years when intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities. ACTIVE CHILD- Modify reflexes- 0-4 months- Object permanence- Lack the knowledge that objects continue to exist outside of view 4-8mos - A not B error- once 8-12 months have reached for and found a hidden object several times in the same place when they see the object hidden in a different place (B)and are prevented from immediately searching for it they tend to look where they initially found it (A).- Explore obhect affordances- 12-18 mos- Deferred imitation- repetition of other people’s behaviors after they have occurred. 18-24 mos Preoperational- 2-7 when children become able to represent their experiences in language, mental imagery and symbolic thought. LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF:- Symbolic representations- use of one object to stand for another (popsicle sticks
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