Child Psych Ch 8 Terms

Hypothalamus

a brain area that response to the amygdala and hippocampus to produce hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body.

Hippocampus

a brain structure that is a central processor of memory especially memory for locations; responds to the anxieties of the amygdala by summoning memory.

Kinship care

a former foster care and which a relative of the maltreated child, usually a grandparent, becomes approved caregiver.

Adoption

a legal procedure in which an adult or couple unrelated to a child is granted the joys and obligations of being the child's parent

Foster care

a legal publicly supported system for a maltreated child once removed from the parents custody and entrusted to another adult or family which is reimbursed for expenses.

Child-abuse

deliberate action that is harmful to a child's physical, emotional, or sexual well-being.

Injury control or harm reduction

practices that are aimed at anticipating controlling and preventing dangerous activities; these practices reflect the belief that accident are not random and that injuries can be made less harmful if proper controls are in place.

Avoidable Injury

Accidents are by far the leading cause of death for children, with 1- to 4-year-olds more likely to suffer a serious injury or premature death than older children. Biology, culture, and community conditions combine to make some children more vulnerable. Preventing maltreatment of all kinds is urgent but complex, because the source is often the family system and the cultural context, not the act of a deranged stranger. Primary prevention includes changing the social context to ensure that parents protect and love their children. Secondary prevention focuses on families at high risk—the poor, the young, the drug-addicted. In tertiary prevention, the abused child is rescued before further damage occurs.

Tertiary prevention

Actions, such as immediate medical care after accidents or adverse event (illness or injury) occurs, and that are aimed at reducing the harm or preventing disability; reduces damages after crashes such as laws against hit and runs; speedy ambulances, emergency rooms, rehabs; begins after injury, limiting damage.

growth and development

Between ages 2 and 6, children grow steadily taller and proportionately thinner, with variations depending on genes, nutrition, income, and ethnicity. Unlike toddler, the round faces, pot-belly, and short limbs begin to take a new shape as gravity moves from the breast area to the belly, making possible further gross-motor skill development.

Nutritional Issues

Children continue to gain weight and height during early childhood. Many become quite picky eaters. One reason this occurs is that many adults overfeed children, not realizing that young children are naturally quite thin. Overweight is more common than underweight, especially in young children from low-income families. One reason is that adults encourage overeating, which once was protective but now may bring about the start of serious health problems. Oral health is also a concern, as many young children have cavities in their teeth. Young children usually have small appetites and picky eating habits and are often rewarded with foods that are high in sugar but low in nutrition.

Motor Skills

Motor skills continue to develop, so that clumsy 2-year-olds become 6-year-olds able to move their bodies in whatever ways their culture values and they themselves have practiced. Play helps children develop the body control needed for formal education.Muscle control, practice, and brain maturation are involved in the development of both gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills develop with practice and increasing brain maturation, both progressing every year as long as young children have space to play, older children to emulate, and freedom from exposure to environmental toxins. Fine motor skills also develop, preparing children for the many requirements of formal education.

Brain Development

The brain continues to grow in early childhood, weighing 75 percent of its adult weight at age 2 and 90 percent by age 5. Myelination is substantial during early childhood, speeding messages from one part of the brain to another. The corpus callosum becomes thicker and functions much better. . All brain functions are localized in one hemisphere or the other. Left/right specialization is apparent in the brain as well as in the body. The expression and regulation of emotions are fostered by sev- eral brain areas, including the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus. Abuse in childhood may cause over activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, creating a flood of stress hormones that interfere with learning.

Artistic Expression

The young are imaginative, creative, and not yet critical of themselves, as children develop fine motor skills it prepares them for many formal educational learning experiences. They love to dance, draw, and build, which will help in the gradual mastery of finger movements, which will in turn be essential when they start to write. Young children enjoy expressing themselves artistically, developing their body and finger control as well as their self-expression. Maturation of the brain leads to better control of the body and hence to improvement in both gross and fine motor skills.

Left Handed Children

When left-handed children were forced to use their right hands, most learned to write right-handedly. However, neurological success was incomplete: Their brain were only partly reprogrammed. Left, means "socially awkward" in English. Many languages are written from left to right, which is easier for right-handed people. The design of the doorknobs, scissors, baseball mitts, instrument panels, and other objects favor the right hand. Developmentalist advise against switching a child's handedness, not only because this causes adult-child conflicts and may create confusion in the brain but also because left lateralization is an advantage in some professions, especially those involving creativity and split-second actions.

Corpus callosome

a long thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communications between them. Main body of tissue that connects the brain's hemispheres.

Amygdala

a tiny brain structure that registers emotions particularly fear and anxiety.

Secondary prevention

actions that avert harm in high-risk situations such as stopping a car before hitting pedestrians; reduces high danger in high-risk situations; a teacher knows to hold the child's hand when a group goes near street or flashing lights on buses and train tracks.

Primary prevention

actions that change overall background conditions to prevent some universal event or circumstance, such as injury, disease or abuse. Includes sidewalks, speed bumps, pedestrian overpasses, streetlights, and traffic circles; overall situations is structured to make harm less likely; reduces everyone's chance of injury.

Permanency planning

an effort by child welfare authorities to find long-term living situations that will provide stability and support for maltreated child. A goal is to avoid repeated changes of a caregiver or school, which can be particularly harmful; finding a family to nurture child through adulthood.

Child neglect

failure to meet a child's basic physical educational or emotional needs.

Child maltreatment

intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18; includes both child abuse and child neglect.

Prefrontal Cortex

is known as the executive of the brain, is strengthened during this period of development as well. Brain changes enable more reflective, coordinated thought and memory; better planning; and quicker responses.

Lateralization

literally sidedness referring to the specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain with one side dominant for each activity; the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. Right brain - visual and artistic skills. Left brain - logical analysis, language, and speech.

Injury Control

occurs on many levels, including long before and immediately after each harmful incident, with primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Close supervision is required to protect young children from their own eager, impulsive curiosity.

Myelination

the process by which axons become coated with myelin; a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron. Speed of thought from axon to neuron becomes pivotal when several thoughts must occur in rapid recession.

Preservation

the tendency to preserve in or stick to one thought or action for a long after it is time to move on. Occurs normally in young children another aspect of immature self-control. Repeating the same thing over and over, without realizing an alternative. Impulsiveness and perseveration are opposite manifestations of the same underlying cause: immaturity of the prefrontal cortex. No young child is perfect at regulating attention; impulsiveness and perseveration are evident at 2 years old. As these traits decrease the child is better able to learn.

Impulsiveness

younger children have no control impulses because that part of their brain is not yet working.