Infancy and Childhood. Module 10: Infancy and Childhood. Baby Memory. Motor Development 9/26/2013. Experience and Brain Development

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1 Infancy and Childhood Infancy: newborns growing almost into toddlers Childhood: toddlers growing almost into teenagers Module 10: Infancy and Childhood For each of these stages, we will study: Physical development. cognitive development. social development. Brain Development: Building and Connecting Neurons In the womb, the number of neurons grows by about 250,000 new cells per minute in the middle trimester. Beginning at birth, the connections among neurons proliferate. The use-it-or-lose-it pruning process of neural networks. Experience and Brain Development Rats living in an enriched environment (more social interaction and physical play) experienced a greater growth in brain size and complexity than those rats living in an impoverished environment. Baby Memory Infantile Amnesia Most people cannot really recall memories from the first three years of life. A birthday party when turning three might be a person s first memory. The average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 Motor Development With occasional exceptions, the sequence of physical (motor) development is universal. Learning Skills Infants can learn skills (procedural memories). This three month old can learn, and recall a month later, that specific foot movements move specific mobiles. 1

2 Cognitive Development Cognition refers to the mental activities that help us function, including: thinking knowing remembering communicating Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget ( ) We don t start out being able to think like adults. Jean Piaget studied the errors in cognition made by children in order to understand in what ways they think differently than adults. The error below is an inability to understand scale (relative size). Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development: Schemas An infant s mind works hard to make sense of its experiences in the world. An early tool to organize those experiences is a schema, a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. Schemas can take the form of images, models, and/or concepts. This child has formed a schema called COW which he uses to think about animals of a certain shape and size. Cow! Cow! Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development: Assimilation and Accommodation How can this girl use her dog schema when encountering a cat? P.137 She can assimilate the experience into her schema by referring to the cat as a dog or she can accommodate her animal schema by separating the cat, and even different types of dogs, into separate schemas. Example, newborns reflexively suck everything that touches their lips and the characteristics of each new item are learned (i.e. texture, taste, etc.) trough ; however, if the infant sucks on something unpleasant (i.e., tastes bad, is sharp, etc.,) she quickly learns a new schema -- that certain things should not be sucked through. According to Piaget, schemas are A) fixed sequences of cognitive developmental stages. B) children's ways of coming to terms with their sexuality. C) people's conceptual frameworks for understanding their experiences. D) problem-solving strategies that are typically not developed until the formal operational stage. 2

3 Nine-year-old AJ enjoys participating in organized sports. He is developing an idea of belonging to a team. AJ s concept of being a team member is an example of a(n): a. abstract model symbol. b. accommodation. c. scheme. d. assimilation. The first time that 10-year-old Sarah saw her older brother play a flute, she thought it was simply a large whistle. Sarah's initial understanding of the flute best illustrates the process of A) assimilation. B) conservation. C) accommodation. D) maturation. Nageeb thought all nurses were young females until a middle-aged male nurse took care of him. Nageeb's altered conception of a nurse illustrates the process of A) conservation. Jean Piaget s Stages of Cognitive Development B) assimilation. C) accommodation. D) attachment. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to Age 2) In this stage, children explore by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. There s a game I ve learned to play all by myself: peekaboo! Object Permanence 6-8 months Through games like peekaboo, kids learn object permanence--the idea that objects exist even when they can t be seen. Hmm, a bear, should I put it in my mouth? 3

4 What can kids do in the preoperational stage? 1. Represent their schema with words and images. 2. Perform pretend play. 3. Picture other points of view, replacing egocentrism with theory of mind. 4. Use intuition, but not logic and abstraction yet. Egocentrism: I am the World. Do you have a brother? Does Jim have a brother? How does this relate to egocentrism? No. Yes. Jim. What mistake is this boy making? Maturing beyond Egocentrism: Developing a Theory of Mind Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts and perspective. With a theory of mind, you can picture that Sally will have the wrong idea about where the ball is. Examples of Operations that Preoperational Children Cannot Do Yet Conservation refers to the ability to understand that a quantity is conserved (does not change) even when it is arranged in a different shape. Which row has more mice? The Concrete Operational Stage Piaget s stages of development begins at ages 6-7 (first grade) to age 11 children now grasp conservation and other concrete transformations they also understand simple mathematical transformations the reversibility of operations (reversing = 10 to figure out that 10-7 = 3). 4

5 Lev Vygotsky: Alternative to Jean Piaget Which of the following represents the correct order of Piaget's stages of cognitive development? A) preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational, sensorimotor B) sensorimotor, preoperational, formal operational, concrete operational C) sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational D) preoperational, sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational Lev Vygotsky focused on how they learn in the context of social communication. Principle: children learn thinking skills by internalizing language from others and developing inner speech. Vygotsky saw development as building on a scaffold of mentoring, language, and cognitive support from parents and others. Social Development Stranger Anxiety Stranger anxiety develops around ages 9 to 13 months. This is the age at which infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face. Social Development: Attachment Attachment refers to an emotional tie to another person. In children, attachment can appear as a desire for physical closeness to a caregiver. Origins of Attachment Experiments with monkeys suggest that attachment is based on physical affection and comfortable body contact, and not based on being rewarded with food. Body contact Much parent-infant emotional communication occurs via touch. Human attachment also consists of one person providing another with a secure base from which to explore and a safe heaven when distressed As we mature, our secure base and safe haven shift. Origins of Attachment: Familiarity Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor that causes attachment. Most creatures tend to attach to caregivers who have become familiar. Birds have a critical period, hours after hatching, during which they might imprint: become rigidly attached to the first moving object they see. 29 5

6 Attachment Variation: Styles of Dealing with Separation Strange situations test: 1. a mother and infant child are alone in an unfamiliar ( strange ) room; the child explores the room. 2. the mother leaves the room. 3. After a few moments, the mother returns. Reactions to Separation and Reunion Secure attachment: mild distress when mother leaves, seeking contact with her when she returns Insecure attachment (anxious style): not exploring, clinging to mother, loudly upset when mother leaves, remaining upset when she returns Insecure attachment (avoidant style): seeming indifferent to mother s Insecure Attachment Harlow s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth mother is removed. departure and return 32 Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin What causes these different attachment styles: nature or nurture? Is the strange situations behavior mainly a function of the child s inborn temperament? Temperament refers to a person s characteristic style and intensity of emotional reactivity. Some infants have an easy temperament happy, relaxed, and calm, with predictable rhythms of hunger and sleep. Some infants seem to be difficult ; they are irritable, with unpredictable needs and behavior, and intense reactions. Is the child s behavior actually caused by previous parenting behavior? Mary Ainsworth believed that sensitive, responsive, calm parenting is correlated with the secure attachment style. Training in sensitive responding for parents of temperamentally-difficult children led to doubled rates of secure attachment. Fathers Count Too Many studies of the impact of parenting have focused on mothers. Correlational studies show a strong relationship between paternal (father) involvement in parenting and the child s academic success, health, and overall well-being. Deprivation of Attachment Non-attached children are often withdrawn, frightened, even speechless. The unloved sometimes become the unloving. Approximately 30% of people who have been abused abuse their children. However, today s victim is not predictably tomorrow s victimizer. If children live without safe, nurturing, affectionate caretaking, they may still be resilient, that is bounce back, attach, and succeed. However, if the child experiences severe, prolonged deprivation or abuse, he or she may: have difficulty forming attachments. have increased anxiety and depression. have lowered intelligence. show increased aggression. Attachment and Adult Relationships Erik Erikson said that securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust a sense that the world is predictable and reliable. Although debate continues, many researchers now believe that our early attachments form the foundation for our adult relationships and our comfort with affection and intimacy. 36 6

7 Childhood: Parenting Styles Outcomes of these Parenting Styles Style Response to Child s Behavior Style Long term outcomes for the child Authoritarian Too Hard Permissive Too Soft Authoritative Just Right Parents impose rules because I said so and expect obedience. Parents submit to kids desires, not enforcing limits or standards for child behavior. Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards but also explain, discuss, listen, and express respect for child s ideas and wishes. Authoritarian Too Hard Permissive Too Soft Authoritative Just Right Rebellion, compulsivity, identity issues. Legal trouble, substance abuse, disorganization, unemployment. Internalized rules, self-discipline, follow through, life planning. Outcomes with Parenting Styles Authoritative parenting, more than the other two styles, seems to be associated with: high self-reliance. high social competence. high self-esteem. low aggression. But are these a result of parenting style, or are parents responding to a child s temperament? Or are both a function of culture? Or genes? 7