DEP4164 - Exam 2

cerebellum

(grows faster during first year) maintains balance and motor coordination

1. Be familiar with aggression and fearfulness in early childhood.

Aggression θ Instrumental aggression: Aggressive behavior used as a means of achieving a goal. ♣ Most 2 ½ to 5 yo's fight over toys and control of space ♣ Surfaces mostly during social play ♣ Shift from physical aggression to verbal aggression as children develop more self-control and become better able to express themselves verbally. θ Gender differences in aggression: ♣ Boys - Overt, or direct, aggression: Aggression that is openly directed at its target. ♣ Girls - Relational, or social, aggression: Aggression aimed at damaging or interfering with another person's relationships, reputation, or psychological well-being. Fearfulness θ Common in early childhood and tied to cognitive development. θ Stems from: ♣ Intense fantasy life ♣ Tendency to confuse appearance with reality ♣ Personal experience θ Parents can allay children's fears by: ♣ Instilling a sense of trust and normal caution without being too protective ♣Overcoming their own unrealistic fears

Be familiar with development of altruistic behavior, empathy, and social cognition. What are mirror neurons?

Altruistic Helping, Empathy, and Social Cognition • Altruistic behavior: Activity intended to help another person with no expectation of reward (before age 2 years). • Empathy: Ability to put oneself in another person's place and feel what the other person feels (during 2nd year and increases with age). • Roots of empathy seen in early infancy • 2-3 month olds react to others emotional expressions • 6 mos engage in Social evaluation - Valuing someone on the basis of that person's treatment of others • Mirror neurons underlie empathy and altruism • Located in several parts of the brain. • Fire when a person does something or observes someone else doing the same thing. • Have been linked to imitative learning and to the emergence of self-awareness, language, abstract reasoning • Autism spectrum disorders may be linked to a breakdown of mirroring system • Empathy depends on social cognition: ability to understand that other people have mental states and to gauge their feelings and intentions. • Egocentrism (inability to consider another person's point of view) delays the development of empathy until middle childhood (Piaget). • Recent research shows that social cognition begins earlier (approximately 9mths).

Be familiar with the cephalocaudal and proximodistal principles

Cephalocaudal principle - Growth, sensory, and motor development occurs from top down. • Newborn's head is disproportionately large (due to rapid brain growth prior to birth) • Infants learn to use upper parts of body before lower parts. Proximodistal principle - Growth and motor development proceed from the center of the body outward. • During infancy/early childhood, limbs grow faster than hands and feet • Infants learn to use parts of their bodies closer to the center of their body before learning to use outermost parts

Be familiar with characteristics of early speech (overextension, underextension, and over regularization).

Characteristics of Early Speech Children use simplified language; understand grammatical relationships not yet expressed (e.g., understand that a dog is chasing a cat but say instead "puppy chase"). Children make errors with respect to what category a word describes: o Under extending: use words in too narrow of a category; may restrict a word to a single subject (e.g., Child sees a dog in a park and will not say it is a dog because only his dog is a dog). o Overextending: using words in too broad of a category (e.g., all gray haired men are "grandpa"). Children over regularize rules - When children inappropriately apply a syntactical rule (E.g., "daddy goed to the store"; "I drawed that"; "we eated dinner") o Takes time for children to learn rules and exceptions to rules

Be familiar with behavioral approaches to learning (e.g., classical conditioning and operant conditioning)

Classical and Operant Conditioning • Learning focuses on classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning: • Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that does elicit the response. • Enables infants to anticipate an event before it happens by forming associations between stimuli that regularly occur together • Becomes extinct if not reinforced by repeated association. Operant conditioning: • focuses on the consequences of behaviors and how they affect the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. • Learning based on reinforcement or punishment.

Be familiar with the compensatory preschool program Project Head Start.

Compensatory Preschool Programs θ Help low income children prepare for school θ Best known is Project Head Start (est. 1965) ♣ Goals: Enhances cognitive skills; Improves physical health; fosters self-confidence and social skills. ♣ Provides medical, dental, and mental health care; social services, and one hot meal a day. ♣ 1 of 3 children from non-English speaking homes; most single mother homes ♣ Data supports effectiveness and continued improvement in school readiness, and teacher and program quality. ♣ Children make gains in vocabulary, letter recognition, early writing, early math and social skills. ♣ Benefits outweigh costs: children less likely to be placed in special education, repeat a grade, more likely to finish high school

Be familiar with theory of mind and its aspects as well as its developmental course (e.g., at what ages do these aspects develop?)

Do Young Children Have Theories of Mind? θ Theory of Mind: ♣ Awareness of a range of mental states and understanding that others have their own distinct mental states. ♣ Piaget: children < 6 yo cannot distinguish between thoughts or dreams and real physical entities (no theory of mind) ♣ More recent research: children's knowledge about mental processes grows dramatically between ages 2 and 5 years. ♣ Inconsistencies may be due to differences in methodology ♣ Piaget asked abstract questions Contemporary researchers observe children in everyday activities and give concrete samples. θ Aspects of Theory of Mind Knowledge about thinking and mental states ¥ Improves between ages 3 and 5 years ¥ Children believe that mental activity starts and stops ¥ Little awareness that they or other people think in words; or talk to themselves in their heads; or that they think while engaged in other activities. ¥ Believe they can dream about anything they wish (5 yos recognize that physical experiences, emotions, knowledge, thoughts can affect content of dream) ¥ Social cognition (recognition that others have mental states) emerges at 3 years and accompanies decrease in egocentrism and development of False Beliefs and Deception ¥ Understanding that people can hold false beliefs depend on realization that people hold mental representations of reality which can sometimes be wrong (3 year olds lack this understanding) ¬ Due to egocentric thinking ¥ Deception is a deliberate effort to plant a false belief in someone else's mind and requires a child to suppress impulse to be truthful. ¬ Studies found that children become capable of deception earlier than Piaget thought (as early as 2 or 3) ¥ Distinguishing between Appearance and Reality ¥ Piaget: not until 5 or 6 yo do children understand distinction between appearance and reality ¥ Studies support Piaget but some studies found this ability beginning to emerge < 4 yo ¥ Distinguishing between Fantasy and Reality ¥ Ability develops between 18 mos-3 yrs. ¥ 3 yo: know that pretense is intentional ¥ In > 3 yo: Magical thinking (attribution of causal relationships between actions/events which cannot be justified by reason/observation) does not stem from confusion between fantasy and reality. ¥ Used to explain events that do not have obvious realistic explanations because children lack knowledge about them ¥ Can reflect child desire to indulge in pretense (e.g., imaginary companions) ¥ Declines near end of preschool

1. Be familiar with different forms of discipline used in early childhood (i.e., reinforcement, punishment, corporal punishment, psychological aggression, inductive techniques, power assertion, and withdrawal of love). Which forms of discipline tend to be more effective?

Forms of Discipline θ Discipline = instruction or training; methods of molding children's character and teaching them self-control and acceptable behavior θ Includes rewarding desired behaviors and drawing attention to how actions affect others (not only punishment) θ Powerful tool for socialization with the goal of developing self-discipline θ Reinforcement θ Children usually learn more from being reinforced for good behavior (rather than punishment) θ External reinforcements θ Tangible - toys, candy, crayons, etc. θ Intangible - smile, praise hug, extra play time, special privileges θ Child must see reinforcement as rewarding and must receive it consistently and immediately after showing the desired behavior. θ Eventually behavior should provide an internal reinforcement - Sense of pleasure or accomplishment θ Punishment θ Effective if it is consistent, immediate, and clearly tied to the offense θ Should be administered calmly, in private, and aimed at eliciting compliance and not guilt. θ Most effective when accompanied by a short simple explanation. θ Desired behavior should be made clear θ Harsh punishment is regarded as harmful. Children: θ may have trouble interpreting other people's actions and words; may attribute hostile intentions θ may later act aggressively; or may be come passive (due to helplessness) θ may become frightened and may eventually try to avoid a punitive parent. θ Corporal Punishment ¥ Use of physical force with the intention of causing pain but not injury in order to correct or control behavior ¥ Research supports the link between spanking and negative outcomes θ Psychological Aggression: Verbal attack resulting in psychological harm ♣ Yelling or screaming ♣ Threatening to spank or hit the child ♣ Swearing or cursing at the child ♣ Threatening to send the child away ♣ Calling the child dumb or lazy θ Inductive Techniques θ Induce desirable behavior by appealing to a child's sense of reason and fairness. θ Includes setting limits, demonstrating logical consequences of an action, explaining, discussing, negotiating, getting ideas from child about what is fair. θ Includes appeals to consider how one's actions affect how others feel. θ Most effective method of getting children to accept a parent's standards. θ Tends to arouse empathy and guilt in child. Power Assertion ♣ Discourages undesirable behavior through physical or verbal enforcement of parental control. Withdrawal of Love ♣ Involves ignoring, isolating, or showing dislike for a child. θ Neither of these techniques are as effective as inductive reasoning and both may be harmful.

Be familiar with information processing approach to learning (e.g., habituation and dishabituation; visual preference; visual recognition memory; development of attention).

Habituation • Type of learning in which familiarity with a stimulus reduces, slows, or stops a response. o Rate of habituation: how quickly an infant looks away used to measure interest in objects. o Studied in newborns by repeatedly presenting stimulus (sound or visual pattern) and monitoring responses (e.g., heart rate, sucking, eye movements, brain activity) o Baby usually stops activity when stimulus first presented to pay attention to stimulus. o After stimulus loses novelty infant goes back to previous activity, indicating habituation occurred. o Dishabituation: Increase in responsiveness after presentation of a new stimulus. • Efficiency of infants' info processing measured by o How quick babies habituate to familiar stimuli o How fast attention recovers when exposed to new stimuli o Time spent looking at new and old stimuli. • Interest in novelty and habituating quickly is correlated with later cognitive development. Visual and Auditory Processing Abilities • Visual preference: o Tendency to spend more time looking at one sight rather than another. o Can be used to measure infant's preferences o Studies show that babies < 2 days old prefer looking at curved lines than straight lines, complex patterns than simple patterns, 3-D objects than 2-D objects, moving to stationary objects, pictures of faces to pictures of other things, and new sights to familiar sights (aka Novelty preference) • Visual recognition memory: ability to distinguish a familiar visual stimulus from an unfamiliar stimulus when shown both at the same time. o Visual recognition depends on the capacity to form and refer to mental representations (Piaget); studies show that basic representational ability exists soon after birth and becomes more efficient. o Infants who quickly shift attention from one to another tend to have better recognition memory and stronger novelty preference. ♣ Less looking time indicates that baby recognizes the familiar stimulus How does attention develop? • Birth-2 mos: Amount of time infants gaze at a new sight increases • 2-9 mos: infants can scan objects more efficiently and shift attention (looking time decreases) • 1-2 yrs: sustaining attention becomes more voluntary and task oriented (looking time stable) • 10-12 mos: Joint attention develops - Babies follow an adults' gaze by looking or pointing in the same direction o Important for social interaction, language acquisition, understanding of others intentions and mental states • Length of time spent looking at the objects an adult was gazing predicted spoken vocabularies at 18 months and 2 years. o Infants who spontaneously pointed at objects while looking at it had fastest vocab growth.

1. Be familiar with different forms of imitation in infancy. What were Piaget's views on imitation and how do they differ from research findings on development of imitation in infants?

Imitation important means of learning (especially in year 1). More recent findings show that imitation comes earlier than Piaget believed. • Ex: studies show that babies < 72 hours old can imitate adults by sticking out their tongues • Deferred imitation: Reproduction of an observed behavior after the passage of time by calling up a stored symbol of it. • Piaget: Children under 18 months could not engage in deferred imitation due to lack of ability to retain mental representations • Newer research shows babies as young as 6 weeks' old appear to be able to imitate adult facial movements after a 24-hour delay as long as they are in presence of the same adult • Deferred imitation becomes more sophisticated with age: (e.g., new or complex events begins around 6-9 months).

Be familiar with immature aspects of preoperational thought in early childhood, specifically with centration (i.e., and the two types of centration [egocentrism and conservation]).

Immature Aspects of Preoperational Thought θ One of the main characteristics of preoperational thought is centration ♣ Tendency to focus on one aspect of the situation and neglect others. ♣ Children come to illogical conclusions because they cannot decenter (think about several aspects of the situation at one time) θ Types of centration - Egocentrism ♣ Inability to consider another person's point of view ♣ May explain why young children have trouble separating reality from what is in their heads; or show confusion about causality. ♣ Piaget tested egocentrism using Three Mountain Task θ Preoperational children unable to take perspective of others ♣ Using a different task, researchers showed that children as young as 3 years are able to take on perspectives of others θ Task may require thinking in more familiar, less abstract, and less complex ways. θ Types of centration - Egocentrism θ A preoperational child is unable to describe the mountain from the doll's point of view - an indication of egocentrism, according to Piaget θ Types of centration - Conservation ♣ Awareness that two objects that are equal according to a certain measure remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added to or taken away from either object. ♣ Children do not fully grasp until Concrete Operations stage. ♣ E.g., conservation of liquid task ♣ Why do children make this error? θ Due to centration and irreversibility (or the failure to understand that an operation can go in two or more directions.)

Be familiar with the factors that influence cognitive development of infants using the HOME measure.

Intelligence now thought to be influenced by both inheritance and experience • Early brain stimulation key to future cognitive development • The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) measures the intellectual stimulation and support observed in a child's home. o Scores significantly correlated with cognitive development ♣ Parental Responsiveness (e.g., showing affection/attention, etc.) positively correlated with IQ, achievement test scores, and classroom behaviors at age 13. ♣ Learning stimulation (e.g., number of books and toys that encourage development of concepts; parents' involvement in children's play) significantly correlated with achievement scores, language competence, and motor and social development. Limitations? • Less culturally relevant in non-western families; Cannot infer causality

Be familiar with motor skill development in infancy and toddlerhood (e.g., head control, hand control, locomotion); Be familiar with the relationship between motor development and perception in infancy and toddlerhood.

Motor development marked by a series of milestones (achievements that develop systematically). • Infants first learn simple motor skills and then combine them into increasingly complex systems of action that permit wider or more precise range of movement and more control of the environment. o e.g., In developing the precision grip, an infant first tries to pick things up with the whole hand, fingers closing against the palm. Later baby masters the Pincer grasp (thumb and index finger meet at the tips to form a circle). o e.g., when learning to walk, Infant first gains control of separate movements of the arms, legs, and feet before combining the movements together to take their first step Head control • Birth: can turn heads from side to side while lying on backs • 2-3 mths: lift head higher. • 4mths: fully controllable Hand control • At birth, babies have a grasping reflex • At 3.5 mths, most infants can grasp an object of moderate size. • Then can grasp objects with one hand and transfer them to the other; hold small objects • 7-11 mths: can pick up tiny object using pincer grasp • 15mths: can build a tower of two cubes • 3 yrs: can copy a circle well Locomotion • > 3mths: Baby begins to deliberately roll over • 6mths: Baby can sit without support • 6-10 mths: Self-locomotion • Begins with creeping or crawling. • > 7mths: can stand holding on to something • 11 ½ mths: stand alone • > first bday: Walking begins. • 2 yrs: climbing stairs, running, and jumping begins • 3 ½ years: can balance briefly on one foot and begin to hop • bidirectional connection between perception and action gives infants useful info about themselves and world. • Both are well coordinated from birth • By 4-5 months, infants can reach for an object; by 5 ½ months, infants adapt their reach to moving or spinning objects • Reaching was long believed to depend on visual guidance: Use of the eyes to guide movements of the hands or other parts of the body. • Newer research shows that Infants also use other sensory cues to reach for an object Depth perception: Ability to perceive objects and surfaces in three dimensions. • Depends on several cues that affect image of an object on retina o Cues involve both binocular coordination and motor control o Kinetic cues - produced by movement of the object or observer (or both). • 5-7 mths: infants respond to cues such as relative size and differences in texture and shading o Depends on haptic perception: Ability to acquire information about properties of objects by handling them. o Depends on hand-eye coordination. Eleanor and James Gibson's Ecological Theory of Perception • Depth perception has implications for development of self-propelled motion o Walk and Gibson (1961) visual cliff experiment: ♣ Visual cliff: gives the illusion of depth and assesses depth perception in infants. ♣ Aim was to study the factors that help babies decide whether to move across a ledge • Visual cliff experiments influenced development of Ecological Theory of Perception (Gibson & Gibson) o Locomotor development depends on infants' increasing sensitivity to the interaction between their changing physical characteristics and new and varied characteristics of environment. o Infants change as they age and each new environment provides a new challenge for infants to master. o With experience, babies learn to gauge abilities and adjust movements to meet demands of current environment • The process of "Learning to Learn" - outcome of perception and action o Involves visual and manual exploration, testing of alternatives, and flexible problem solving • Each "problem space has its own set of information generating behaviors and its own learning curve"

Be familiar with mutual regulation and how it is measured.

Mutual regulation: Ability of both infant and caregiver to respond appropriately and sensitively to each other's mental and emotional states. • Infants take an active part by sending behavioral signals (e.g., smile) which influences the way caregivers behave toward them (present at 3 months). • Can be thought of as an emotional dance between infant and caregiver (when done correctly, caregiver and infant accurately read and respond to each other's cues) • Interactions move back and forth and babies learn how to send signals and what to do when signals not effective. • Allows babies to learn how to read others' behaviors and to develop expectations about it. • Measuring Mutual Regulation: The "still face" paradigm o Still-face paradigm: Research procedure used to measure mutual regulation in infants 2 to 9 months old. ♣ In still-face episode, mother suddenly becomes stoned faced, silent, and unresponsive. ♣ Minutes after, mother resumes normal interaction (aka reunion episode) ♣ During still-face episode, infants tend to stop smiling and looking at mother ♣ 6 month olds show more positive behaviors during reunion episode than before the still -face episode. • But also persistence of sad/angry facial expressions, gestures, distancing, and indications of stress, fussing, and crying

Be familiar with the concept of object permanence and its development according to Piaget. How does Piaget's views differ from research findings using an information processing approach?

Object concept • Idea that objects have independent existence, characteristics, and locations in space. • The basis for children's awareness that they exist apart from objects and other people. • One aspect of object concept is object permanence: Realization that an object or person continues to exist when out of sight. Piaget: develops gradually; initially, no concept • 3rd sub stage (4-8mo): infants look for something they dropped but if they cannot see it, act as if it no longer exists • 4th substage (8-12mo): infants make A-not-B error: tendency to search for a hidden object in a place where they previously found it rather than in the place where they most recently saw it being hidden. • 5th substage: (12-18mo): infants will search for an object in the last place where they saw it hidden; but will not search for it in a place where they did not see it hidden. • 6th substage (18-24mo): Fully achieved. Thelen's dynamic systems theory: where to search for a hidden object is not about what babies know but about what babies do and why. • One factor is how much time elapsed between seeing object hidden in a new place and infants reaching for it • if time is brief infant more likely to reach for object in new location; • If time is longer, memory of having previously found object in old place inclines infant to search there again. When Does Object Permanence Develop? o Research suggests that babies may fail to search for hidden objects because they cannot carry out a two-step sequence of actions ♣ When given repeated opportunities to explore, manipulate, and learn about object, then infants 6-12 mths can succeed. ♣ When OP tested by hiding object only by darkness, infants in 3rd substage (4-8 mths) perform well. o Info processing researchers suggest that infants as young as 3 or 4 months have a sense of object permanence. • Object Permanence ♣ Piaget used infants' motor responses to measure object permanence: Infants that could not reach for a hidden object did not possess object permanence. ♣ Development of basic habituation and visual preference paradigms allowed researchers to measure object permanence using the Violation-of-Expectations Paradigm, and have shown that a basic form of object permanence is present in the early months of life • Begins with a familiarization (or habituation phase): infants see an event happen normally • Once habituated, event is changed that conflicts (or violates) with normal expectations • If infant looks longer at the changed event, it is assumed that the baby is surprised. • to be surprised, babies need to be able to remember that objects continue to exist (must possess object permanence). • 3 ½ month olds watched a short carrot and then a tall carrot slide along a track disappear behind a screen and then reappear. • After habituation, the opaque screen was replaced by a screen with a large notch at the top. • The short carrot did not appear in the notch when passing behind the screen; the tall carrot, which should have appeared in the notch also did not. • The babies looked longer at the tall, than at the short, carrot event, suggesting they were surprised that the tall carrot did not reappear in the notch

Be familiar with artistic development in early childhood (Kellogg, Vygotsky)

Rhoda Kellogg's View ¥ Examined more than 1 million drawings by children (1/2 < 6 yo). ¥ Found a universal progression of changes (reflecting maturation of brain and muscles) ¥ 2 yos: Scribble in patterns ¥ 3 yos: Draw shapes and then combine shapes into more complex designs ¥ 4-5 yos: Children switch from abstract to painting real objects (reflects representational ability). ¥ Developmental sequence occurs by processes internal to the child (less adult involvement). Vygotsky's View ¥ Drawing skills develop in the context of social interactions. ¥ Children pick up the features of adult drawing that are within their zone of proximal development. ¥ Children also learn by looking at and talking about each other's drawings. ¥ Patterns detected in children's drawings by Kellogg may not be universal ¥ Cross cultural variations exist in way children make a person or an animal

Be familiar with development of a sense of self in infancy and toddlerhood (e.g., self-concept, personal agency, self-coherence, and self-representation.) At what ages do these aspects of the self-develop?

Self-concept • Sense of self; descriptive and evaluative mental picture of one's abilities and traits • 3 month olds pay attention to their mirror image • by 4-9 mos, infants show more interest in images other than themselves (perceptual sense of self) • conceptual sense of self begins in the middle of the 2nd year Personal Agency • Realization that infants can control their external events (btwn 4-10 months) Self - Coherence • Sense of being a physical whole with boundaries separate from the world (btwn 4-10 months) Self-representation • Conscious knowledge of the self as distinct, identifiable being • Tested by studying whether infants recognize themselves in a mirror (aka Rouge Test, ability present 18-24 months of age). • Demonstrated by ability to engage in pretend play - begins during last half of 2nd year • Demonstrated by use of first person pronouns - begins 20-24 months

Be familiar with Piaget's sensorimotor stage. Be familiar with the terms schemas and circular reactions. During which sub stage do children show representational ability?

Sensorimotor Stage • Birth to about age 2 years • Infants learn about themselves and their world through their developing sensory and motor activity. Sub stages of Sensorimotor Stage o Consists of 6 sub stages that flow from one to another as a baby's schemas become more elaborate. ♣ Schemas: organized patterns of thought and behavior used in particular situations (e.g., infants have schemas for sucking) o First 5 sub stages- babies learn to coordinate input from their senses and organize activities in relation to their environment. o 6th stage- babies progress from trial and error learning to use of symbols and concepts to solve simple problems. o Early cognitive growth comes about through circular reactions: Processes by which an infant learns to reproduce desired occurrences originally discovered by chance. (e.g., infant discovers thumb sucking and continues to repeat the action because it is pleasant) Substage - 6. Mental Combinations (18 mos - 2 yrs) • Transition into preoperational stage of early childhood. • Show representational ability - ability to mentally represent objects and actions in memory, largely through symbols (words, numbers, and mental pictures) • Symbolic thought enables toddlers to begin to think about events and anticipate their consequences • Begin to show insight • Can use symbols (gestures, words) and can pretend.

Be familiar with the sequence of early language development in children (e.g., prelinguistic speech, early vocalization, perceiving language sounds and structure, gestures, first words, first sentences).

Sequence of Early Language Development θ Before babies can use words, they use sounds that progress from crying, to cooing and babbling, then to accidental imitation, and then to deliberate imitation (sounds are known as prelinguistic speech) ♣ Infants also grow in ability to recognize and understand speech sounds and use meaningful gestures. ♣ Babies typically say their first word at end of first year; toddlers begin speaking in sentences about 8mths to 1 year later. Early vocalization ♣ Crying is newborns first means of communication ♣ 6 wks -3 mos: babies begin cooing when happy ♣ 6 - 10 mos: Babies begin babbling (repeating consonant vowel strings, such as "Ma-Ma-Ma") ♣ Not real language (no meaning for baby) but becomes more word like over time. ♣ Crying is newborns first means of communication ♣ 6 wks -3 mos: babies begin cooing when happy ♣ 6 - 10 mos: Babies begin babbling (repeating consonant vowel strings, such as "Ma-Ma-Ma") ♣ Not real language (no meaning for baby) but becomes more word like over time. ♣ Imitation is key to early language development ♣ First babies accidentally imitate language sounds, then imitate themselves making the sounds ♣ 9 months: infants deliberately imitate sounds without understanding them. ♣ Infants then string sounds together in prelinguistic speech that sounds like language (but no meaning) ♣ Once familiar with sounds of words and phrases, babies begin to attach meanings to them Perceiving language sounds and structure ♣ Ability to perceive subtle differences between sounds required to imitate languages (present at birth) ♣ Infant brains ready to discriminate basic linguistic units, perceive linguistic patterns, and categorize patterns as similar or different. ♣ Process of sound discrimination begins in utero and continues into 1st year (as infants become sensitized to native language quickly). ♣ Phonemes - Smallest units of sound in speech ♣ Infants first cannot discriminate phonemes of any language ♣ Over time, process of pattern perception and categorization allows brain to keep learning patterns of infant's native language and constrains future learning of non-native language patterns. ♣ 6-7 mos: babies learned to recognize about 40 phonemes of their native language ♣ 6-12 mos; babies begin to become aware of phonological rules of their language. Sequence of Early Language Development θ Perceiving language sounds and structure ♣ Recognition of native phonetic sounds increases while discrimination of non-native sounds decreases (at 6 mths for vowels; 10 months for consonants) ♣ End of 1st year, babies lose sensitivity to sounds that are not part of language usually heard spoken. ♣ Babies who lack early exposure to patterning feature of language unlikely to acquire language normally. ♣ Early pattern detection skills predict continuity of language development θ Gestures ♣ Pointing precedes speaking, which helps regulate joint interactions ♣ Types of gestures θ Conventional social gestures by 12 months (e.g., wave bye bye) θ Representative gestures by 13 months (e.g., holding an empty cup to their mouth to show they want to drink something) θ Symbolic gestures, same time as first words (e.g., blow to mean hot) ♣ Usually appear before children have a vocabulary of 25 words and drop out when children learn the word for the idea they are gesturing and can say it instead. θ Learning gestures help babies learn to speak θ Early gestures are a predictor of later vocabulary size. θ Toddlers combine gestures with words (signals beginning of multi word sentences) θ First words (10 to 14 months) ♣ Begins Linguistic speech: Verbal expression designed to convey meaning. ♣ Initially, infants speak in holophrases: Single word that conveys a complete thought (e.g., "Da" = "I want that", "I want to go out", or "where's daddy?") ♣ 10 mths-2 yrs, learning words changes from simple associations to following social cues θ 10 mos: infants associate a name they hear with an object they find interesting (whether or not name is correct for that object) θ 12 mos: infants begin to pay attention to cues from adults (looking or pointing to an object and saying name; for objects interesting to them) θ 18-24 mos: children recognize names of familiar objects in absence of visual cues. ♣ Receptive vocabulary vs expressive vocabulary θ Receptive vocabulary (what infants understand) grows as verbal comprehension becomes faster, more accurate, and efficient. θ Receptive vocabulary is > expressive vocabulary (spoken vocabulary). θ 18 mos: most children understand 150 words and can say 50 words θ Addition of new words to expressive vocabulary is slow at first θ 16 to 24 months: Naming explosion occurs (within a few months a toddler may progress from saying 50 words to several hundred). θ First sentences ♣ Children can put together a two-word sentence between 18 to 24 months (e.g., "Dolly fall"). ♣ Linguistic speech is not closely tied to chronological age (most children who begin speaking late catch up eventually). θ Most children who begin talking late catch up eventually. ♣ First sentences deal with everyday events, things, people, activities ♣ Children typically use telegraphic speech: Early form of sentence use, consists of only a few essential words. ♣ Between 20-30mths, children show increased competence in syntax: Rules for forming sentences in a particular language. ♣ By 3 years, speech is fluent, longer, more complex (but often omit parts of speech)

Be familiar with the cognitive neuroscience approach to learning (e.g., implicit and explicit memory, and working memory)

The Brain's Cognitive Structures θ Neurological maturation is a major factor in cognitive development. ♣ Brain growth spurts coincide with changes in cognitive behavior θ Brain scans provide evidence of two separate long-term memory systems that acquire and store different types of information. ♣ Implicit memory (aka procedural memory): remembering that occurs without effort or even conscious awareness ♣ Most commonly pertains to habits and skills. ♣ Develops early in development ♣ Explicit memory (aka declarative memory): Intentional and conscious memory, facts, names, and events. ♣ Evident when there is delayed imitation of complex behaviors in infancy and toddlerhood θ Memories are brief in infancy ♣ Due to immature structures, responsible for memory storage (e.g., Hippocampus, prefrontal cortex) θ By 6 months, prefrontal cortex develops capacity for working memory (short-term storage of information being actively processed). ♣ Appears late in development and partly responsible for slow development of object permanence.

Be familiar with reflex behavior in infancy. Reflex behavior: Automatic, involuntary, innate response to stimulation (controlled by the lower brain centers that govern other involuntary processes).

Types of Reflexes: 1. Primitive reflexes - Related to instinctive needs for survival and protection (e.g., sucking, rooting, moro reflex) 2. Postural reflexes - Reactions to changes in position or balance (by 2-4 months) (e.g., parachute reflex) 3. Locomotor reflexes - Resemble voluntary movements (e.g., walking reflex) that do not appear until months after these reflexes have disappeared. • Most early reflexes disappear during first 6 months to 1 year; reflexes that serve protective functions remain (e.g., blinking, coughing, sneezing, gagging, shivering, pupillary reflex) • Disappearance of unneeded reflexes on schedule is a sign that motor pathways in the cortex have been myelinated (which enables a shift to voluntary behavior).

Be familiar with language development in early childhood (e.g., vocabulary [fast mapping, grammar, syntax], pragmatics and social speech). What factors are related to language delay?

Vocabulary ♣ At 3 years, a child's receptive and expressive vocabulary is between 900-1000 words ♣ At 6 years, a child has an expressive vocabulary of 2600 words; receptive vocabulary of 20,000 words ♣ Rapid explosion of vocabulary occurs via Fast mapping: Process by which a child absorbs the meaning of a new word after hearing it once or twice in conversation. ¬ Names of objects seem to be easier to fast map than names of actions. Pragmatics and Social Speech θ As children learn vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, they become more confident in pragmatics. ♣ Practical knowledge needed to use language for communicative purposes. ♣ Related to theory of mind because to understand how to use language socially. o Social speech: Speech intended to be understood by a listener. ♣ Private speech (talking aloud to oneself with no intent to communicate with others) is common in childhood o Piaget viewed this as a sign of immaturity o Vygotsky saw this as a special form of communication (supported by research) Delayed Language Development ♣ 5%-8% of preschool children show speech/language delays ♣ Unclear why some children speak late (most do not lack of linguistic input at home) ♣ Factors related to delayed language development ♣ Hearing problems; head and facial abnormalities ♣ Premature birth ♣ Family hx, SES ♣ Developmental delays ♣ Heredity (boys more likely to have delays) ♣ Problems in fast mapping ♣ Many children catch up; but 40-60% of children with delays (If untreated), can have negative cognitive, social, and emotional consequences

spinal chord and brain stem

developed by birth - responsible for basic bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep - wake cycle.

cerebrum

divided into right and left hemispheres, with specialized functions

differentiation

each neuron take on a specialized structure and function.

cell death

elimination of excess cells

myelination

enables signals to travel faster and more smoothly, permitting achievement of mature functioning. begins halfway through gestations and continues into adulthood.

myelin

fatty substance that enables faster communication between cells.

1. Be familiar with the cognitive levels of play by Smilansky (1968)

functional play - repetitive muscular movements constructive play - use of objects or materials to make something dramatic play - play involving imaginary people or situations formal games with rules - organized games with procedures and penalties

neurons

nerve cells that send and receive information

integration

neurons that control various groups of muscles coordinate their activities

glia

nourish and protect neurons

dendrites

receive incoming messages from axons via synapses -(Nervous system's communication links bridged by neurotransmitters)

Axons

send signals to other neurons

lateralization

specialization of the hemispheres left - language and logical thinking right - visual and spatial functions

Be familiar with the development of autonomy in toddlers. What is "negativism"?

θ As children get older, they seek independence from their caregivers. ♣ Identified by Erikson as a period lasting from 18 months to 3 years (2nd stage in psychosocial development) ♣ Toilet training, language important steps toward autonomy and self control ♣ Parents must set limits during this period ♣ Toddlers express Negativism - Tendency to shout "no" just for the sake of resisting authority. ♣ Begins before 2 years, peaks at 3 ½ to 4 years' declines by age 6 years. ♣ Caregivers who view children's expressions of autonomy as normal, and healthy, can help them learn self-control, contribute to sense of confidence, and avoid excessive conflict.

Be familiar with the factors that influence language development. Influences on Language Development

θ Brain Development ¥ Brain growth is linked with language development. ¥ Crying controlled by brainstem and pons ¥ Babbling emerges with maturation of parts of the motor cortex ¥ Brain scan studies show emergence of link between brain's phonetic perception and motor systems by 6 months (connection strengthens by 6-12 mos) ¥ Development of language affect neuronal networks (commits them to recognition of native language sounds only). ¥ Brain scans confirm the sequence of vocabulary development. θ Social Interaction: The Role of Parents and Caregivers ♣ Language is a social act ♣ Parents or caregivers provide: ¬ Opportunities for communicative experience ¬ Models of language use ♣ Factors that affect language acquisition ¬ Age of parents ¬ Parent child interactions ¬ Birth order ¬ Child care experiences; schooling, peers, TV exposure ¬ Culture Prelinguistic Period ♣ At babbling stage, parents help infant advance toward true speech by repeating sounds baby makes and rewarding efforts. ¬ Babies then repeat sounds back ¬ Parental imitation of baby sounds affects amount of infant vocalization and pace of language learning. ¬ Helps babies experience social aspect of speech, the sense that a conversation consists of alternating or taking turns (7-8mos) ♣ Pointing is also important in language acquisition Vocabulary Development ♣ Parents help by repeating baby's first words and pronouncing words correctly ♣ Joint attention leads to more rapid vocabulary development. ♣ Relationship between mother's talkativeness and size of child vocabulary (higher SES related to richer vocab, longer utterances, and larger spoken vocabularies). ♣ In bilingual households, babies achieve similar milestones in each language on same schedule as monolingual children. ♣ Bilingual children have smaller vocabularies in each language. ♣ Code mixing: Use of elements of 2 languages, sometimes in same utterance. ♣ Code switching: Changing one's speech to match the situation. θ Child Directed Speech ♣ Form of speech used in talking to babies or toddlers. ¬ Slow, simplified speech ¬ High-pitched tone ¬ Exaggerated vowel sounds ¬ Short words and sentences ¬ Repetition ♣ CDS helps infants learn native language or pick up language faster by exaggerating and directing attention to distinguishing features of speech sound ♣ Infants captured attentionally by sound and find it engaging, which results in more rapid learning.

1. Be familiar with memory in early childhood (e.g., 3 types of memory storage, working memory, recall and recognition, 3 types of early memories). What factors influences children's memory retention? Be familiar with the social interaction model.

θ More on working memory θ Located partly in prefrontal cortex θ Limited in capacity but increases rapidly θ Growth permits development of executive function: Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems θ Emerges after 1 and develops in spurts θ Changes between 2 and 5 years allow children to make up and use complex rules for solving problems. θ More on working memory θ Central executive: Element of working memory that controls the processing of information. ♣ Orders information encoded for transfer to LTM; and retrieves info from LTM for further processing. ♣ Temporarily expands capacity of working memory by moving info into 2 subsidiary systems: one for verbal info; other holds visual/spatial images ♣ Phonological loop: Holds auditory memory. ♣ Visuospatial scratch pad: Holds memory for information that is seen. ♣ Episodic buffer: Responsible for recalling information in long-term memory by bringing it temporarily back into working memory. ♣ Central executive: Integrates the other three components of working memory. Recognition and Recall θ Types of Retrieval ♣ Recognition: Ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus. ♣ Recall: Ability to reproduce material from memory. θ Preschool children are better at recognition than recall; ♣ Both improve with age θ Young children often fail to use strategies for remembering unless reminded ♣ May be due to lack of awareness of how a strategy would be useful Forming and Retaining Childhood Memories θ Early Memories: 3 Types 1. Generic memory: Memory that produces scripts of familiar routines to guide behavior (begins at age 2 years). ♣ Script: General remembered outline of a familiar, repeated event, used to guide behavior. ♣ Helps child know what to expect and how to act. 2. Episodic memory: Long-term memory of specific experiences or events, linked to time and place ♣ Children remember more clearly events that are novel ♣ Episodic memories in children are temporary - unless they recur over time in which they are transferred to generic memory. 3. Autobiographical memory: Type of episodic memory of distinctive experiences that form a person's life history. ♣ Emerges between 3 to 4 years; depends on development of self concept and language θ Influences on memory retention 1. Uniqueness of the event (rare/unusual events > retention) 2. Events with emotional impact (attention is focused in on central aspects of the situation). 3. Active participation in event or in retelling/reenactment event. 4. The way adults talk with a child about shared experiences. ♣ Social interaction model: Proposes that children construct autobiographical memories through conversation with adults about shared events. ♣ Adults initiate and guide conversations, and provide children with models of narrative structure of memory, placing past events in a coherent and meaningful framework 5. Talking about past events. Parents have two styles of talking to children about shared events 1. Low elaborative style - Repeating previous statements or questions. 2. High elaborative style - Asking a question that elicits more info sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory (ltm)

Be familiar with self-concept, self-definition, and self-esteem in early childhood.

θ Self-concept: Sense of self, descriptive and evaluative mental picture of one's abilities and traits. o A cognitive construction - system of descriptive and evaluative representations about the self o Has a social aspect o Comes into focus in toddlerhood as children develop self awareness θ Changes in Self-Definition: the 5 to 7 Shift o Self-definition: Cluster of characteristics used to describe oneself. • E.g., "My name is Jason and I live in a big house with my mom and dad and sister, Lisa. I have a kitty that's orange and a TV in my own room... I like pizza and I have a nice teacher. I can count 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!" - Jason, age 4 • Becomes more comprehensive as child ages o by 7 child describes himself in terms of generalized traits; recognize that one can have conflicting emotions; and be self critical while holding a positive overall self concept. 1. Single representations (4 yo): Children describe themselves in terms of individual, unconnected characteristics and all-or-nothing terms. ¥ Cannot acknowledge that the real self (Self one actually is) is not the same as the ideal self (Self one would like to be). 2. Representational Mappings (5 or 6 yo) ¥ Child makes logical connections between aspects of the self, but still sees these characteristics in all-or-nothing terms. 3. Representational systems (middle childhood) ¥ Children begin to integrate specific features of the self into a general, multidimensional concept. Self-Esteem θ Judgment a person makes about his or her self-worth θ Young children wildly overestimate their abilities. ♣ Self esteem not based on reality ♣ Self esteem tends to be unidimensional. θ Contingent self esteem: The "Helpless Pattern" θ When self-esteem is contingent on success ♣ Children may view failure or criticism as an indictment of their worth and may feel helpless to do better (learned helplessness). ♣ Children tend to become demoralized when they fail. θ When self-esteem is noncontingent on success ♣ Children attributes failure or disappointment to: θ Factors outside oneself θ A need to try harder

What is social referencing?

θ Social Referencing ♣ Understanding an ambiguous situation by seeking out another person's perception of it (occurs around 1-year-old). ♣ May play a role in key developments in toddlerhood such as rise of self conscious emotions (e.g., embarrassment or pride), development of sense of self, and process of socialization and internalization)

Be familiar with socialization, and the development of self-regulation. What factors influence the success of socialization?

θ Socialization: Learning of habits, skills, values, and motives shared by responsible, productive members of a society. ♣ Compliance with societal standards begins with compliance with parental expectations. ♣ Socialization depends on internalization of standards: Process by which children accept societal standards of conduct as their own. θ Developing Self-regulation: Independent control of behavior of a person to conform to understood social expectations. ♣ Foundation of socialization ♣ Links all domains of development (Physical, Cognitive, Social, Emotional). ♣ Depends on cognitive awareness and emotional control θ Developing Self-regulation ♣ Before children can control behavior they nee to be able to regulate attentional processes and modulate negative emotions. ♣ Attentional regulation enables children to develop willpower and cope with frustration. ♣ Parallels the development of the self-conscious and evaluative emotions (e.g., empathy, shame, guilt). ♣ Requires the ability to wait for gratification. ♣ Correlated with measures of conscience development (e.g., resisting temptation, making amends for wrongdoings). ♣ Development takes about three years θ Factors in the Success of Socialization ♣ Security of attachment (fosters committed compliance and conscience development) ♣ Observational learning from parents' behavior ♣ Mutual responsiveness of parent and child ♣ Constructive conflict over a child's misbehavior (conflict that involves negotiation, reasoning, and resolution) ♣ Helps children develop moral understanding by enabling them to see another point of view ♣ Leads to conscience development

Be familiar with development of emotions in infancy and toddlerhood; how does emotional development correspond to the organization of the brain? Emotions

θ Subjective reactions to experience that are associated with physiological and behavioral changes. θ Develop during infancy and are a basic element of personality. θ Individual differences in how strongly an emotion is felt, kinds of events that produce emotions, physical manifestations shown, and behavior θ Culture influences the way people feel about a situation and show their emotions θ First Signs of Emotion θ Crying θ Most powerful way infants can communicate their needs θ Patterns - Hunger, anger, pain, and frustration cries θ Smiling and Laughing θ Earliest smiles occur spontaneously soon after birth (appear during periods of REM) θ Social smiling - When newborn infants gaze at their parents and smile at them - develops during 2nd month θ Laughter - Smile-linked vocalization - more common between 4 and 12 months θ Anticipatory smiling - when infants smile at an object and then gaze at an adult while continuing to smile - increases between 8-10 months θ When Do Emotions Appear? θ Emotional development is an orderly process: Complex emotions unfold from simpler ones. θ Babies show signs of contentment, interest, and distress soon after birth (mostly physiological responses to sensory stimulation or internal processes) θ Next 6 mos, early emotional states differentiate into true emotions (e.g., joy, sadness, anger, fear) θ Related to biological clock of neurological maturation. θ Self-conscious emotions (e.g., embarrassment, empathy, envy) develops between 15-24 months θ Depends on Self-awareness: Realization that one's existence and functioning are separate from those of other people and things. θ Self-evaluative emotions (e.g., pride, shame, guilt) develop 3 yrs θ Depends on both self-awareness and knowledge of socially accepted standards of behavior θ Brain Growth and Emotional Development θ Development of the brain after birth is closely connected with changes in emotional life. θ Bidirectional process - Emotional experiences are affected by brain development, but also can have long-lasting effects on the structure of the brain

Be familiar with brain development in infancy (e.g., major parts of brain, neurons, glia, axons, dendrites, synapses, processes of integration, differentiation, cell death, and myelination).

• Brain at birth only 1/4 to 1/3 adult volume • Reaches 90% of adult weight (3 ½ lbs.) by age 3. • Almost at adult weight by age 6, but specific parts of brain continue to grow and develop into adulthood. • Brain growth occurs in fits and starts (aka: brain growth spurts) Major Parts of the Brain: • Spinal Cord and Brain Stem (developed by birth) - Responsible for basic bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycle • Cerebellum (Grows faster during 1st year) - Maintains balance and motor coordination • Cerebrum: Divided into right and left hemispheres, with specialized functions o Corpus Callosum: Tough band of tissue that joins the two hemispheres ♣ Enables sharing information and coordinating commands ♣ Grows dramatically during childhood, reaching adult size by 10 years. • Lateralization: Specialization of the hemispheres (left=language, logical thinking; right=visual and spatial functions). • Each cerebral hemisphere has 4 lobes 1. Occipital Lobe: Visual processing 2. Parietal Lobe: Integrating sensory info from body 3. Temporal Lobe: Interpret smells and sounds and is involved in memory 4. Frontal Lobe: Involved in a variety of higher order processes • Regions of the cerebral cortex (the outer surface of the cerebrum) that control vision, hearing, and other sensory information grow rapidly in the first few months after birth and are mature by 6 months o Smiling, babbling, crawling, walking, and talking reflect rapid development of brain (especially cerebral cortex) • Area of the frontal cortex responsible for abstract thought, mental associations, remembering, and deliberate motor responses grow very little during infancy and remain immature through adolescence. • Brain growth spurt that begins at about third trimester of gestation and continues until 4 years old is important to development of neurological functioning. • Brain is composed of neurons and glia o Neurons: Nerve cells that send and receive information. o Glia, or glial cells - Nourish and protect the neurons. • Mitosis - cell division process by which immature neurons are produced every minute (250,000) - by 2nd month of gestation (at birth, 100 billion neurons) • Initially the neurons are cell bodies with a nucleus composed of DNA, but as the brain grows, cells migrate to different parts of the brain. o Most neurons in place by 20 weeks of gestation; structure becomes well defined during next 12 weeks. • Once in place, neurons produce axons and dendrites o Axons- Send signals to other neurons. o Dendrites receive incoming messages from axons via synapses - (Nervous system's communication links bridged by neurotransmitters). • From birth, the dendrites and synaptic connections become to multiply. • Multiplication accounts for much of the brain growth and permits emergence of new perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities. Brain Cells • As neurons multiply, migrate, and develop connections they undergo processes of integration and differentiation. o Through integration, the neurons that control various groups of muscles coordinate their activities. o Through differentiation, each neuron takes on a specialized structure and function. Initially the brain produces more neurons and synapses than it needs o As early experience shapes brain, paths are selected, and unused paths are pruned. o Process involves cell death: Normal elimination of excess cells ♣ To achieve more efficient functioning. Myelination Glia coats neural pathways with myelin - fatty substance that enables faster communication between cells. o Myelination enables signals to travel faster and more smoothly, permitting achievement of mature functioning. o Myelination begins halfway through gestation (in some parts of the brain) and continues into adulthood in other parts. ♣ Pathways related to touch myelinated by birth ♣ Pathways related to vision begin to be myelinated at birth and continue during first 5months. ♣ Pathways related to hearing begin to be myelinated 5th month of gestation and completed by age 4.

Be familiar with advances in fine and gross motor skills in early childhood.

• Children ages 3 to 6 years make great advances in motor skills o Gross motor skills: Physical skills that involve large muscles. ♣ Running and jumping o Fine motor skills: Manipulative skills involving eye-hand and small-muscle coordination. ♣ Buttoning and drawing • Motor skills that emerge in early childhood build on achievements in infancy and toddlerhood • Sensory and motor areas of cerebral cortex developing o Permits better coordination • Bones and muscles are stronger; lung capacity greater o Makes it possible to run, jump, climb farther, faster • Children integrate new and previously acquired skills into systems of action (combinations of skills that permit a wider or more precise range of movement) o Produce more complex capabilities Gross and Fine Motor Skills o Gross motor skills developed during early childhood are the basis for sports, dancing, and other activities that begin during middle childhood. ♣ Young children develop best physically when they can be active at an appropriate maturational level in unstructured free play. ♣ Parents and teachers can help by offering children opportunity to climb and jump on safe, properly sized equipment. ♣ Gains in fine motor skills allows for more responsibility for personal care

Be familiar with brain development in early childhood.

• Rapid and profound during the first few years. o Accelerated growth continues until about age 3 (Brain is 90% of adult weight). • From 3 to 6 years: Most rapid brain growth occurs in frontal area that regulates planning and goal setting. o Density of synapses in prefrontal cortex peaks at 4 years. o Myelin continues to form (myelination of pathways for hearing complete) • By age 6 years, brain is 95% of its peak volume. • 6-11 years: rapid brain growth in areas that support associative learning, thinking, and spatial relations. • Corpus Callosum continues to be myelinated until 15 years. o Allows more rapid and efficient integration between hemispheres, improved coordination of senses, attention, arousal, speech, hearing. • Affects growth in motor skills.

Be familiar with sleep patterns and problems in early childhood.

• Sleep patterns change throughout the growing-up years. o Young children sleep more deeply at night than ever will. o Average 11 hours of sleep by 5 years; daytime naps decrease. • Sleep timing varies with culture. • Bedtime brings separation anxiety. o Children avoid it. o Regular and consistent sleep routines can help minimize problems. o Transitional objects - Help a child shift from the dependence of infancy to the independence of later childhood. • Sleep Disturbances and Disorders θ Causes ♣ Accidental activation of the brain's motor control system ♣ Incomplete arousal from a deep sleep ♣ Disordered breathing or restless leg movements θ Tend to run in families and often associated with separation anxiety. θ Occasional and outgrown in most cases. ♣ If persistent, may indicate an emotional, physiological, or neurological condition. θ Sleep terrors - Awakening abruptly from a deep sleep in a state of agitation; no memory of episode in the morning (between 3 and 13 yrs and mostly boys). θ Walking and talking during sleep are common θ Nightmares are common. ♣ Often caused by staying up too late, eating close to bedtime, or overexcitement. ♣ Persistent nightmares - Sign of stress

Be familiar with the cognitive advances children make during the preoperational stage in early childhood, specifically with symbolic function, understanding causality, categorization, and understanding number.

• Symbolic Function • Ability to think about something in the absence of sensory or motor cues. • Ability to use mental representations (words, numbers, or images) to which a child has attached meaning. • Shown by preschool children via 1. Deferred imitation (imitation of an action at some point after having observed it - stronger after 18 mths) 2. Pretend play (play involving imaginary people or situations) 3. Language Understanding Causality • According to Piaget, preoperational children cannot reason logically • Instead they reason by transduction - Tendency to mentally link particular experiences, whether or not there is logically a causal relationship. • Research shows that young children (3-5 yos) can understand cause-and-effect when tested in situations that are appropriate to their overall level of cognitive development Identities: • Concept that people and many things are basically the same even if they change in form, size, or appearance. • Underlies emerging self concept Categorization • Requires a child to identify similarities and differences • 4 yo: many children can classify 2 criteria (e.g., color and shape) • 3-4 year olds can distinguish living from non living things o avoid Animism: tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive • Understanding Number o 4 ½ month olds have a basic concept of number • Ordinality begins at 9-11 mos (concept of comparing quantities [e.g., more or less]) but limited to comparisons of a few items o By 4 yo: children have words for comparing quantities; and can solve numerical ordinality problems (e.g., Jorge picked 6 tomatoes and Elizabeth picked 4, which child picked up more tomatoes?) • Cardinality at ages 3 ½ (concept that the last number reached when counting items in a set represents the entire set o e.g., When asked to count 6 items, children can say how many items there are altogether instead of recite number names. • 5 years, children count up to 20 or more and know relative sizes of 1-10); can devise strategies for adding o Elementary school: children have developed basic number sense