Physical and Cognitive
Development in Early
Childhood
Chapter 7
Body Growth
• Slower growth rate than during infancy
• 2 to 3 inches in height and about 5 pounds
in weight each year
• Boys slightly larger than girls
• Baby fat drops
• By end of preschool years children begin to
lose primary “baby” teeth
• Important to care for teeth
• Childhood tooth decay is high for low SES
children (poor diet, lack of flouridation and
inadequate health and dental care
Children and High Fat
Foods
• 34% of energy in America’s diet is derived
from fat
• In course of school day, most eaten foods
(candy, potato chips, cheese, peanut
butter) contains at least 50% of fat
• Children’s food preferences are influenced
by what adults eat
• Certain foods (high in fat) should be
discouraged as a means for rewards with
children
• Health foods as rewards may be viewed as
something to endure not to enjoy
Brain Development
• Between 2 and 6 years the brain
increases from 70 to 90 percent of
its adult weight
• Left hemisphere- growth between 3
to 6 years and levels off-language
skills
• Right hemisphere- spatial skills
(drawing, recognizing shapes)
develops gradually over childhood
and adolescence
Lateralization and
Handedness
• Dominant cerebral hemisphere- an individual’s
strong hand preference reflecting the greater
capacity of one side of the brain
• Right handers- 90% of population- language and
hand control in left side of brain
• Lefties- 10% of population- language shared in both
hemispheres
• Ambidextrous- let preferred but can be skillful with
right hand
• Hand preference of twins relate to body position
during prenatal period
• Small number of lefties show developmental
problems
Emotional Well-being
• Preschoolers with very stressful home lives
suffer more respiratory and intestinal
illnesses and injuries do to accidents
• Deprivation dwarfism- growth disorder that
appears between 2 and 15 years of age and
is caused by the interference with the
production of the growth hormone due to
emotional deprivation- short stature, low
weight in relation to height, decrease
hormone production (GH)
• Removal from emotionally inadequate
environment GH levels return to normal;
delay in treatment can cause permanent
dwarfism
Nutrition
• Picky eaters and unpredictable eating
pattern are not uncommon in preschool
years
• Decline in appetite is normal-slower growth
• Wariness to new foods- adaptive skill in
learning safety of foods
• Preschoolers need high quality diet- fats,
oils, sugars to a minimum
• Common dietary deficiencies in preschool
years- iron (anemia, calcium-bones and
teeth; Vitamin A-eyes, skin and internal
organs; Vitamin C- immune system, iron
absorption and wound healing
Nutrition cont’d
• Encouraging Good Nutrition in
Children
• Page 215
Immunizations
• Childhood immunizations- polio, measles, mumps, rubella
(German measles) pertussis (DTP) (whooping cough)
diphteria, tetanus, hepatitis B, and chicken pox.
• Infants- first 5 diphteria, tetanus, and DTP injections at 2
months
• Polio vaccine in 3 injection series starting at 2 months
• Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) given at 15 monthssingle shot
• Hep B 3 shots starting at birth
• Chicken pox as early as 12 months
• Irritable, less energetic, low grade fever not beyond 24
hrs
• 1% chance of serious side effects
• 4 out of 10 people who get tetanus die; 1 out of 100
babies under 6 months who get pertussis dies
Cognitive Development
Preoperational Stage-Piaget
• Piaget’s preoperational stagechildren are not capable of
mental actions that obey logical
rules
Make Believe Play
• Increases in early childhood
• Becomes increasing detached form
real life situations associated with it
• Less directed on self and begins to
focus on objects
• Gradually contains more complex
scheme
• Sociodramatic play- combines
scheme and includes role playing of
childrenn
Egocentrism
• Inability to imagine the perspectives
of others and reflect on their own
thinking
• Leads to illogical features of thought
• Animistic thinking- belief that
inanimate objects have lifelike
qualities
• Magical thinking
• Rigid thinking and illogical nature of
young children’s thinking
Conservation
• Certain physical characteristics of objects remain
the same even when their outward appearance
changes
• Preschoolers have not yet developed this concept
– Understanding is centered (one aspect of
situation
– Perception- bound ( easily distracted by the
appearance of objects)
– Focus on states rather than transformations
(focus on beginning and end states
• Irreversibility- can not revise steps in a problem to
get to the beginning
Conservation cont’d
• Recently 2 year old Brooke’s
father shaved off his thick beard
and mustache. When Brooke
saw him she was very upset.
Using Piaget’s theory, explain
why Brooke was upset by her
father’s appearance
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural
Theory
• Social context of cognitive
development
• Rapid growth in language in
early childhood
• Paritcipation in culturally
meaningful tasks
Private Speech
• Piaget called children’s utterances to
themselves- egocentric speech
• Vygotsky- children speak to
themselves for self-guidance and
self-direction (private speech)
• Private speech is used more often
when tasks are difficult or when a
child is confused about how to
proceed
Zone of Proximal
Development
• A range of tasks too difficult for
the child to do alone but that
can be accomplished with the
help of others
• Adults and more skilled peers
can assist with development
through dialogue
Zone of Proximal
Development cont’d
• Tanisha sees her 5 year old son
Toby talking to himself when he
plays. Should she discourage
this behavior? Use Vygosky’s
theory to support your answer.
Attention
• Preschoolers spend short time
on activities
• Average time for single activity
in preschool- 7 minutes
• Attention more “planful” by end
of preschool years
Memory
•
•
•
•
Age 2 recall is 1 to 2 items
Age 4 recall is 3 or 4 items
Recall is poorer than recognition
Young children are less able to use memory
strategies- mental activities that improve
chances of remembering
• Children remember in terms of scripts
• Children’s memory can be assisted by
discussing past events, asking questions,
and providing elaborate information
Language Affects
Memory
• First verbs in children’s vocabulary
– Think, remember, and pretend
• By age 4 children understand that
beliefs and reality can differ- people
can hold false beliefs
• Young children believe that all events
must be directly observed to be
known
Literacy
• Preschoolers understand a great deal
about written language long before
they learn to read or write in
conventional ways
• Preschoolers are aware of some
ideas about symbols but may revise
these ideas as their perceptual and
cognitive capacities improve and as
they encounter writing in many
different contexts.
Mathematical Reasoning
• Built on foundation of informally acquired
knowledge
• Early years- big, little, small, lots
• Between 2 yrs and 3 yrs they begin to
count- memorization
• 3 yrs to 4 yrs- one to one correspondence
• 4 yrs and 5 yrs- cardinality- last number in
a counting sequence indicates the quantity
of items in a set
• By end of preschool- count on concept
• Eventually later develop count down
concept
Preschool and Daycare
• Over 30 years the number of
young children in preschool has
increased steadily
• Due to large number of women
in workforce
• Types of preschools- child
centered preschools, academic
programs
Early Intervention
• Project Head Start- 1965 for children with
Low SES
• Encourages parental involvement
• Children in Head Start scored higher in IQ
and school achievement than controls
during first 2 to 3 years of elementary
school
• Less likely to be placed in special
education or retained a grade and a greater
number graduated from high school
• Good child care can reduce negative
impact of an underprivileged home life
Important Factor For
Good Childcare
• Group size
• Caregiver to child ratio
• Caregiver’s educational
preparation
• Caregiver’s personal
commitment to learning about
and caring for children
Television
• Sesame Street works as an
academic tutor
• TV can support cognitive
development as long as
children’s viewing is not
excessive and programs meet
developmental needs
Language
• By age 2, 200 words
• BY age 6, 10,000 words
• Fast-mapping- connecting a new
word with an underlying
concept after only a brier
encounter
• Preschoolers extend language
meanings through metaphor
Grammar
• The way we combine meaningful
phrases and sentences
• 2 and 3 yrs old English speakers use
simple sentences- subject verb order
• Overregularization- by about 3.5
children learn many grammar rules
and may use them in error
• Difficulty with passive form
Pragmatics
• Preschoolers are learning how
to use appropriate
communication tools effectively
• By age 4 children know
culturally accepted ways of
adjusting speech to fit age, sex,
and social status role of persons
Pragmatics cont’d
• One day Sammy’s mother explained
to him that the family would take a
vacation in Miami. The next morning
Sammy emerged from his room with
his belongings spilled out of a
suitcase and remarked, “I gotted my
bag packed. When are we going to
Your-ami?” What do Sammy’s error’s
reveal about his approach to
language?