Child Growth and Development E text Notes Exam 2 o Chapter 2 o Piaget The Active Nature of the Child Children are intrinsically motivated to find problems to solve to better their understanding of the world around them Rigidity of thought passivity and lack of curiosity are considered abnormal states Mental structures and adaptation Used structure in 2 ways o All aspects of the real world are structured entities Refers to the complexity of some aspect of the environment o Cognitive structure the way the child knows the world Adaptation the process by which cognitive structures are applied to and are modified by the child s experiences o Two processes for adaption Assimilation child uses existing cognitive structures to interpret some experience Interprets the new in terms of the old Accommodation child modifies existing cognitive structures to conform to some new aspect of reality Represents developmental change in cognitive structures an integration of the new into the old o Cognitive structures are always moving gradually but steadily toward better and better approximations of reality Stages of Cognitive Development Cognitive development a series of qualitative changes in the way children think and solve problems from infancy through adolescence 4 stages o Sensorimotor stage 0 24 months characterized by action oriented problem solving Beginning of the stage the baby is limited to elaborate set of wired in reflexes Schemas simple cognitive structures that regulate the infant s body movements and the effects of those movements on objects Over time these schemas become more complicated and sophisticated and enable the infant to influence their environment in more and more complex ways Milestone of stage using hands and arms to manipulate simple instruments o Preoperational stage 2 6 years sensorimotor stage is replaced by symbolic reasoning Symbolic reasoning thought that is mediated by words and images Child can now organize mental images of events and objects both present and absent into primitive concepts that they can use to solve problems Many limitations Centration tendency to focus on isolated parts of an event rather than seeing the whole picture Preoperational thought is illogical Confused concepts of time space classification and quantitative relationships Irreversibility can think their way into a problem but are unable to reverse their thought process Can take things apart but have difficulty putting them together again Fails to provide a logical systematic way of adapting to the world o Concrete operations 7 11 years a child s thinking becomes increasingly logical Concrete operation organizes thoughts into logical systems Thought is reversible children can think their way into problems and back out again If problem involves abstract concepts which the child is unfamiliar with they do poorly solving it Child can only deal with real objects that can be seen and touched o Formal operations 12 years and beyond ability to consider general propositions and principles and to think about hypothetical events The individual can reason about things that don t exist in reality Able to think about their own thinking and able to think about other people s thinking o There are four stages but not everyone reaches formal operations Children must have access to appropriately challenging experiences to move onto the next stage Critique of Cognitive Developmental Theory Unclear whether descriptions of stages hold up across different cultures and socio economic status Some aspects are abstract and hard to tie to children s behavior o Psychoanalytic theory Erikson s psychosocial theory of development Freudian Theory had limitations o Did not describe effects of family and culture on development o Underestimated ego s role in psychological adjustment o Did not account for the continued development of ego beyond of personality childhood Psychosocial theory a theory that traced the development of the ego throughout the lifespan 8 stages o Trust vs mistrust as they endure cycles of pleasure and frustration in their parents care Healthy resolution fosters sense of trust A belief in the world as a potentially satisfying but sometimes frustrating context for development o Autonomy vs shame as they struggle with their parents over control Sense of autonomy the ability to deal effectively with power and decision making in relationships Mutual regulation sensitive reciprocal caring and emotional sharing between parent and child Critique of Psychoanalytic Theory o Chapter 5 o Physical growth in the first two years Changes in height and weight Average newborn weighs 7 5 pounds and measures about 20 inches from head to toe The infant grows faster in the first two years than at any other time Birth weight doubles by five months and triples by first birthday Baby gains only 5 to 6 pounds in the second year and 4 5 pounds in the third year Height increases by about half in the first year and an additional 5 6 inches in the second year Growth tapers off from the first to second year Babies tend to grow in spurts than in even progressions As baby grows need to childproof home and other places the baby may be able to get into trouble Nutrition in Infancy Breast milk and formula are both nutritionally acceptable however breast mild offers several health advantages over formula Parents should not rely on their intuition to feed the infant What is good for the parents is not necessarily good for the baby o The development of the brain The central nervous system is the most complicated physical system in the body Proliferation of nerve cells is super fast during prenatal stage 250 000 new nerve cells every minute resulting in 100 billion nerve cells in the newborn Synapse the microscopic gap formed by adjoining cells o Perception How perception is studied Visual preference method Method of event related potentials Habituation dishabituation procedure High amplitude sucking technique Development of visual perception The eye o Retina complex layered tissue on the back surface of the eye made of light sensitive cells and nerve cells o Fovea densely packed set of highly sensitive cells at the center of the retina The only thing that can discriminate the detail necessary to perceive objects o Visual acuity sharpness of vision o Ciliary muscles used to bend light waves reflected off objects at varying distances toward the fovea Smooth pursuit movements movements that enable the infant to track the movement of
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