CHAPTER 7
Early Childhood: Physical and
Cognitive Development
Growth Patterns
Growth Patterns
• Growth rate
-Slows during preschool years
-Girls and boys gain 2 to 3 inches in height per year
-Weight gains remain fairly even at about 4 to 6 pounds per year
-Children become “slender” as height increases
-Boys become slightly taller and heavier than girls
• Variations are shown from child to child
Development of the Brain
• Brain
-Brain develops more quickly than any other organ during childhood
-At 2 years, brain is 75% of adult weight
-At 5 years, brain is 90% of adult weight
• Increase in brain size due in part to myelination of nerve
fibers
• Completion of myelination of neural pathways that link
the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex helps development
of fine motor skills, balance, and coordination.
Brain Development (cont’d)
• Parts of the brain involved in the ability to sustain
attention and screen out distractions have become
increasingly myelinated (between ages 4 and 7).
• Perseveration
» Examples: “Mom,” “Are we there yet…?”
• Visual processing speed improves and reaches adult
level (at adolescence)
• Functions of left and right hemispheres overlap
• The hemispheres are aided in cooperation by the
myelination of the corpus callosum.
- a thick bundle of nerve fibers that connects the
hemispheres
Brain Development (cont’d)
• Plasticity
-Brain’s ability to compensate for injuries to particular
parts of the brain
-Greatest at 1 to 2 years of age
• Preschoolers with damage to language areas
can overcome them due to plasticity.
Motor Development
Motor Development
• Gross motor skills
-Involve large muscles used in locomotion
-ex.: balancing on one foot, walking up stairs, pedaling a bike
-By age 4 to 5, most older preschoolers have mastered
large motor skills.
• Boys and girls similar in motor skills
-Girls somewhat better in balance and precision
-Boys show some advantage in throwing and kicking
• Motor experiences in infancy may affect the
development of motor skills in early childhood.
Physical Activity
• Preschoolers spend an average of 25 hours a week in
large muscle activity.
-Decreases as child ages
• Rough-and-tumble play helps develop physical and
social skills in children.
-Is not the same as aggressive behavior
• Physically active parents are likely to have physically
active children.
-Children of active fathers 3.5 times as likely to be active
-Twin studies also suggest there is a genetic tendency
for activity level
Fine Motor Skills & Children’s Artistic
Development
• Fine motor skills involve the small muscles used in
manipulation and coordination.
-Development of drawing is linked to the development of
motor and cognitive skills
Handedness
• Handedness emerges
during infancy
-By 4 months
-clear preference for right
hand
-By 6 to 14 months
-preference to grasping with
particular hand increases
-By childhood
-clear preference for right or
left hand
• Origins of handedness
• If both parents are righthanded, 92% chance that child
will be right-handed
• If both parents are left-handed,
50% chance that child will be
left-handed
Health and Illness
Nutrition
• Nutritional needs vary by age.
-1- to 3-year-olds need 1,000 to 1,300 calories a day
-Appetite becomes erratic during 2nd and 3rd year of life and
caloric needs decrease
-4- to 6-year-olds need 1,400 calories a day
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Children are often fed too much salt and sugar.
Food preferences are somewhat environmental.
Repeated exposure to a food increases the liking of it.
Parents are the role model for which types of food a
child will like to eat.
Minor Illnesses
• Minor illnesses include
-respiratory infections
-gastrointestinal upsets
-last a few days to a week
• These diseases in childhood are normal
-Leading killer of children in developing countries is
diarrheal illness
• American children between the ages of 1 and 3 average
eight to nine minor illnesses a year
– Between the ages of 4 and 10, the average drops to four to six
Major Illnesses
• Advances in immunization along with development of
antibiotics have reduced and/or eradicated illnesses
such as rubella, measles, tetanus, mumps, whooping
cough, diphtheria, and polio.
• 1/3 of children in the U.S. (younger than 18 years of
age) suffer from a chronic illness such as:
– arthritis, diabetes, cerebral palsy, or cystic fibrosis
• Worldwide, 8 to 9 million children die from:
– pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, tetanus, whooping
cough, and tuberculosis
• Air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels for
heating and cooking causes many respiratory infections.
Major Illnesses (cont’d)
• Diarrhea
-kills nearly 2 million children under the age of 5 each year
-is due to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation/hygiene
• Lead exposure
-Consuming lead
-Breathing in dust from paint with lead in it
-Drinking tap water with lead in it
-Can contribute to neurological damage and lowered cognitive
functioning and other delays in childhood
Accidents
• Number one cause of death in early childhood
-Motor vehicle accidents
• Boys
-More likely than girls to incur accidental injuries at all ages
and in all socioeconomic groups
• Poor children
-Five times as likely to die from fires
-More than twice as likely to die in motor vehicle accidents
• High accident rate of low-income children may result in
part from living in dangerous housing and
neighborhoods.
Sleep
Sleep Disorders
• Sleep terrors
-More severe than nightmares
-Occur during deep sleep (not during REM)
-Begin in childhood; end in late adolescence
-Can be associated with stress
-May wake suddenly with a surge in heart and
respiration rates, talk incoherently; thrash about
• Sleep terrors can contribute to child’s fear of going to
sleep and insomnia; caretakers have to be
understanding and give affection; regular sleep routine
helps
Sleep Disorders (cont’d)
• Sleep walking (somnambulism)
-Children may walk, rearrange toys, go to the
bathroom, go to the refrigerator
-Will have no memory of the activity
-Awakening does not cause aggressive behavior
-Onset is between ages of 3 and 8
-Occurs during deep sleep
-Associated with immaturity of thenervous system
Table 7-3, p. 141
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JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister.... After a while he
asked: 'Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?'
MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was.. Granny replied she was so old she
didn't remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you must look in the back
of your panties. Mine say five to six.’
STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom good night. 'I love you so much that when
you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'
BRITTANY (age 4) had an ear ache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid
off the bottle.. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a child-proof cap and
she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: 'How does it
know it's me?’
SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't give me this
juice again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough..’
DJ (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I cost?’
CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried When his Mom asked what was
troubling him, he replied, 'I don't know what'll happen with this bed when I get
married.. How will my wife fit in it?'
MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a
restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he whispering in
her mouth?’
TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her
Mom knew.. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, 'Why doesn't your skin fit
your face?’
JAMES (age 4)was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named Lot was
warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to
salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the flea?’
Sunday sermon.....'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and
a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have
continued but at that moment Sarah, who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite
audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
• Preoperational stage lasts from age 2 to age 7.
• Language ability is the greatest symbolic activity during
this stage.
-Scribbling/drawing begins at start of this stage
• Symbolic play (pretend play) is engaged in from
15 months of age.
-Increases in complexity as child ages
• Quality of child’s play has long-term implications.
-Preschoolers who engage in violent pretend play are less
empathic, less likely to help other children, and more likely to
engage in antisocial behavior later on
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (cont’d)
• 65% of preschoolers have imaginary friends.
-More common among first born and only children than
children with older siblings
• Children with imaginary playmates are
-less aggressive, more cooperative, more creative than
children without imaginary friends; show better ability to
concentrate and are more advanced in language development
• Egocentrism
-One-dimensional thinking
-Think parents are aware of everything that is happening to
them
-Piaget used “three-mountains” test to measure it
-Examples: Mary, stairs, movies, “I’m this many…”
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (cont’d)
• Precausal
-Unless preoperational children know the natural causes of an
event, their reasons are likely to be based egocentrically and
not based on science.
• Animism
-Attribution of life and intentions to inanimate objects
-Examples: Curb, dolls
• Artificialism
-Assumes environmental factors such as rain and thunder have
been designed and made by people
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (cont’d)
• Preoperational child has difficulty making distinctions
between mental and physical events; may believe
dreams are real
• Can only focus on one dimension at a time
– Examples: Colors vs. shapes, dogs, photos
• Conservation
-Law that holds that properties of substances such as volume,
mass, and number remain the same even if you change their
shape or arrangement
-Attainment of this skill moves the child into concrete
operational stage
• Preoperational child has not mastered reversibility
– Examples: Coloring, hamburger
Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (cont’d)
• Class inclusion
-Including new objects or categories in broader mental
classes or categories
-Requires child to focus on two aspects of a situation at
once
-This skill not observed during preoperational stage
Factors in Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Factors in Cognitive Development
• Scaffolding
-Temporary support provided by a parent or teacher to
learning children
-Guidance by adult decreases as child is capable of carrying
out task on their own
-Examples: Painting, letters
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
-Vygotsky’s term for the situation in which a child carries out
tasks with the help of someone who is more skilled
-Gap between what children are capable of doing now and
what they could do with help from others
-Adults or older children help in guiding by gearing assistance
to children’s capabilities
-Examples: Puzzles, reading
The “HOME” Environment
• HOME
-Home Observation for the Measurement of the
Environment
-Caldwell et al. (2003) developed measure for evaluating
children’s home environments
-Contains six subscales
-Better predictor of young children’s IQ than social class,
mother’s IQ, or infant IQ scores
-Home environment is connected with occupational success as
an adult
• Factors such as parental responsiveness, stimulation,
encouraging independence of preschooler are
connected with higher IQ scores and greater school
achievement.
Effects of Early Childhood Education
• Preschool education enables children to get an early
start on achievement in school.
• Children from lower SES
-show lower performance on standardized
intelligence tests
-are at greater risk for school failure
• Effects of preschool intervention programs
-Studies of Head Start and other enrichment programs show
that environmental enrichment as well as parent education can
enhance the cognitive development of economically
disadvantaged children.
Television
• U.S. children spend more time watching television than
they do in school.
– 3-year-olds watch 2 to 3 hours of TV per day
• Children’s programming
– Shows mild to moderate effects on preschoolers’ cognitive
development (differs for under 2 years)
• Sesame Street
– Regular viewing increases children’s learning of numbers,
letters, and cognitive skills
Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind
• Preschoolers can accurately predict and explain human
action and emotion in terms of mental states.
• Preschoolers can separate their beliefs from those of
another person who has false knowledge of a situation
by age 4 to 5.
– Examples: Mean monkey, M&Ms
• By age 4, children understand that senses contribute to
understanding qualities of an object.
• Appearance-reality distinction
-Understanding the difference between real events and mental
events
Development of Memory
Development of Memory
• By age 4, children can remember events from 1 1/2
years earlier.
• Scripts
-Young children form scripts when describing what happens
during a particular event.
-Script becomes more elaborate as it is told
• Autobiographical memory (episodic memory)
-Memory or specific events is facilitated by children talking
about them with others
• Parental interest and questioning increases
preschooler’s memory.
Development of Memory (cont’d)
• When preschoolers are younger, they remember more
than they reported.
• Verbal reports used to measure accuracy of
preschoolers’ memory appear to underestimate their
memory.
• Rehearsal
-Memory strategy using repetition; engaged in around 5 years
• Sorting objects enhances preschoolers’ memory.
• Memory strategies advance during middle childhood.
Language Development:
Why “Daddy Goed Away”
Development of Vocabulary
• Preschoolers learn an average of 9 words a day.
• Fast-mapping
-Process where child quickly attaches a new word to its
appropriate concept
• Whole-object assumption
-Assume that words refer to whole objects and not to their
component parts or characteristics
• Contrast assumption
-The assumption that objects have only one label
Development of Grammar
• Children’s sentence structure increases during 3rd year
of life
• Overregularization
-Children acquire grammatical rules as they learn language;
young ages apply rules rigidly
-Reflects accurate knowledge of grammar
• Certain “wh” questions (what, who, where) appear earlier
than others (why, when, which, how).
• Passive sentences are difficult for 2- and 3-year-olds.
Pragmatics and Language
• Pragmatics
-Practical aspects of communication
-Children demonstrate pragmatism when they adjust speech to
fit the social situation
• Language and cognitive development are interwoven.
• Piaget maintained cognitive development precedes
language development.
-Children learn the word and then apply it to the category
• Research on which develops first is inconclusive
• Vygotsky maintained that vocalizations and thoughts are
separate during the first year.
• Inner speech
-Spoken aloud thoughts are internalized