Chapter 3
Understanding
Children’s Behavior
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Every Child is Unique
• Although typical patterns can be identified,
children have individual patterns and rates
of development
• The only valid reason for comparing a
child’s rate of development to standard
rates is to be alert to any “red flags” that
may indicate a need for professional
screening and possibly a need for medical
or therapeutic intervention
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Developmental Red Flags
• Signs a child may need referral for
screening or therapeutic intervention:
– excessive aggression
– extreme withdrawal
– delays in motor skill development
– language delays
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PIAGET’S Sensorimotor
Period
• Birth to two years
• Piaget’s first stage of cognitive
development
– Cognitive system is limited to motor reflexes at birth
– Infant builds on reflexes to practice motor coordination
– Activities become generalized into increasingly complex
chains of behavior
– Child has physiological urge to practice motor skills and
explore surroundings
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Appropriate Guidance for the
Sensorimotor Period
• Provide responsive, affectionate
caregiving
• Provide consistent, predictable routines
• Nurture the development of trust by
responding promptly to the child’s needs
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PIAGET’S Preoperational
Thought
• Two to six years
• In Piaget’s second stage of cognitive
development, the child
– begins with achievement of object permanence
– is egocentric and cannot take another’s point of view
– develops representational skills in imagery and language
– in imaginative play, can let one object stand as a
representation for another
– believes quantity changes when objects are rearranged
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Appropriate Guidance for the
Preoperational Period
• In a caring and consistent way, teach self- help skills
such as self-feeding, toilet learning, and dressing
• Give children opportunities to make choices within
reasonable limitations
• Provide a developmentally appropriate environment
for the child to explore and challenge emerging skills
• As children grow, increase their responsibilities to
match their abilities
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PIAGET’S Concrete Operations
• Six to 12 years
• In Piaget’s third stage of cognitive
development, the child
– develops the ability to take another’s point of view
– takes into account more than one perspective simultaneously
– understands and solves concrete, but not abstract, problems
– develops the ability to replay events mentally and evaluate
experience logically
– does not consider all logically possible outcomes
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Appropriate Guidance for the
Concrete Operational Period
• Provide creative activities
• Give encouragement and deserved
recognition to support the development of
competence and self-esteem
• Use class meetings to solve problems
• Teach conflict resolution skills
• Nurture each child to help her discover and
develop her own special talents and abilities
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Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial
Stages
• STAGE 1: INFANTS—BIRTH TO ONE YEAR
• Crisis: Trust versus mistrust
• Description: Early in life, infants depend on others for food,
care, and affection, and must be able to blindly trust
caregivers to meet their needs
• Positive outcome: A sense of hope—If their needs are met
consistently and responsively, infants will develop a secure
attachment and will develop a sense of trust
• Negative outcome: If not, infants will not develop a sense of
trust
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Trust versus Mistrust
In Erikson’s first stage, babies need…
• Consistent, warm, loving caregivers
• To have their comfort needs met immediately
• To be held much of the time, or carried in a
sling or baby carrier so they can feel the warmth
of the adult’s body
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Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial
Stages
• STAGE 2: TODDLERS—ONE TO TWO YEARS
• Crisis: Independence versus doubt and shame
• Description: Toddlers begin to develop self-help skills, selffeeding, potty learning, dressing, etc., at this age. Their selfconfidence in this stage hinges on their negotiation of this
difficult new territory with caregivers
• Positive outcome: A strong will—If caregivers encourage
the child’s initiative and encourage her when she fails, she
will develop confidence
• Negative outcome: If caregivers are overprotective,
negative, or disapproving of her newfound independence,
she may doubt her abilities and feel shame
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Autonomy versus Shame and
Doubt
In Erikson’s second stage, toddlers need to…
• Discover that their behavior is their own
• Assert their new sense of independence
• Have a safe environment to explore freely
• Be assured of unconditional affection
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Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial
Stages
• STAGE 3: PRESCHOOLERS—TWO TO SIX YEARS
• Crisis: Initiative versus guilt
• Description: Children find a new sense of power and freedom as
they develop the motor skills and the language skills they need to
become fully engaged in the environment and the social
interactions around them
• They discover that with this power and freedom comes new adult
pressure to control immature impulses and to follow rules
• Positive outcome: A sense of purpose—If adults are encouraging,
positive, and consistent in guidance, children learn to accept rules
without guilt
• Negative outcome: If not, children may develop a sense of guilt
and may become clingy and dependent, or rebellious and resistant
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Initiative versus Guilt
In Erikson’s third stage, preschoolers need…
• Materials for creative play such as
» Arts, crafts and other construction supplies
» Dress-ups for role play
» Hands-on cooking experiences
» Outdoor play equipment that challenges their
motor skills
• A non-critical, supportive environment in which to try out
their new skills
• Help, ideas, questions and enthusiasm about their new
abilities
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Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial
Stages
• STAGE 4: ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLAGERS—SIX TO TWELVE YEARS
• Crisis: Industry versus inferiority
• Description: School is the critical factor of this stage. Children make a
transition from the world of home into the world of community, school,
and peers. Home is still important, but succeeding outside the home
takes on new importance
• Positive outcome: A feeling of competence—If children learn that they
can succeed, that others value their work, they develop a sense of
competence
• Negative outcome: If not, they will develop a sense of inferiority and
may start looking for negative ways to win status with peers (Erikson,
1959)
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Industry versus Inferiority
In Erikson’s fourth stage of development,
children need to…
– Expand their understanding of their world
– Continue to develop appropriate gender-role
identity
– Learn basic skills required for school success
– Achieve sense of industry, setting and attaining
personal goals
Failure to do so results in a sense of inadequacy
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Developing Self-Awareness
• Egocentrism
– cognitive limitation of children in the
preoperational stage
– inability to view reality from standpoint of another
• Self-concept
– one’s idea or image of oneself
• Self-esteem
– perceiving oneself as worthwhile and valuable
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Conditioning
• Classical
conditioning
• Operant
conditioning
– associative
learning made
famous by
Pavlov’s
experiments
with dogs
– no contingency
between
response and
reinforcer
– associative
learning like
Skinner’s
experiments with
rats and pigeons
– contingency
between
response and
reinforcer
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Terms
•
Metacognition
– This is the ability to reflect on or evaluate one’s own
behavior or actions
– Preschoolers gradually become more aware of their
own choices and intentions
• Cephalocaudal
– Growth follows a pattern
– It begins with the head and proceeds down the body
• Proximodistal
– Development proceeds from center of the body
outward
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Appropriate Touch
• Casual, affectionate, reciprocal and
welcome physical contact
• Never sexual, exploitative or aggressive
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Behaviors
• Habituated
– One is accustomed to stimuli because of
repetition
– Stimulus may be ignored once it becomes usual
• Learned helplessness
– Prior repeated exposure to negative stimuli that
is inescapable
– Retards one’s ability to learn when avoidance is
possible
– Develops in children who have no control over
their environment
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Parental Bedsharing
• Sleeping with an infant may be beneficial if…
• The baby sleeps on his back (unless the doctor
says otherwise)
• The baby’s face does not come in contact with
soft surfaces or loose covers
• The sides or edges of the bed do not present
entrapment possibilities
• The bed is not also shared with other siblings
• The adults do not smoke or use substances such
as alcohol or drugs
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Conditions that Affect a Child’s
Behavior
• External environment…
– physical surroundings
– daily routines
– interactions with others
• Internal sensations…
– inner feelings
– biological urges
– pleasurable sensations
– discomforts
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Guidance Styles
• Authoritarian
– “The Sledgehammer”
• forcibly gains control over children
• Permissive
– “The Doormat”
• gives up responsibility for children
• Authoritative
– “The Guide”
• assertively develops children’s self-discipline and
self-control
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The attachment of babies to
their adult caregivers is a
critical part of their overall
healthy social and emotional
development
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Anxiety
• Stranger anxiety is apprehension in the
presence of unfamiliar people
• Separation anxiety is apprehension when
separated from caregiver
• Stranger and separation anxieties usually
peak in young toddlers
• Occurrence varies widely among children
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Babies & Toddlers Are
Egocentric
• In the first months of life, babies perceive
themselves as part of their caregivers and
surroundings
• Toddlers have some sense of personal
identity, but perceive everything apart from
themselves as belonging to them.
Caregivers often hear the word “MINE”!
•My Mommy
•My Daddy
•My house
•My toys
•My food
•My tricycle
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Toddlers Can’t Yet Control
Their Actions or Emotions
• They flip-flop between testing their new
independence and being clingy
• They use their senses (touch, sight, smell,
taste, and hearing) to explore the physical
attributes of their environment
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Toddlers Repeatedly Explore
Cause and Effect
• Cause-and-effect relationships are an
important focal point for toddler learning
• Cause & Effect = “If I push this button, a bell
always rings.”
• Toddlers also explore the cause-and-effect
relationships that occur in social interactions
• “If I touch the outlet, my mommy always says
‘no, no.’”
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Toddlers Need to Explore
• Healthy, well-developing toddlers have
a curiosity that is boundless
• Their desire to explore at times
overshadows all other needs
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Safety is Critical for Toddlers
Because…
• They can move around the environment
• They can’t learn or remember rules yet
• Their desire to explore is so powerful that it
drives them to touch, taste, climb and
otherwise explore everything
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Toddlers
Communication
• Body language
– nonverbal communication
– facial expression, tone of voice, body posture, or gestures
• Expressive language
– ability to actively communicate
– vocal speech, writing, or sign language
• Receptive language
– ability to comprehend
– vocal speech, writing, or sign language
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• Autonomy
– Self-sufficiency and self-reliance
• Social and emotional growth
– Affective development
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Competition versus Community
of Learners
• Community of learners
– collaborative learners who cooperate as a team
– sharing ideas, helping each other and solving
problems together
• Competitors
– Opponents are adversaries who contend against
each other
– Competition discourages cooperation and may
damage self-esteem
– Competitors use comparisons that label and
stereotype children
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Competition versus Community
of Learners
• Competition
• Children become acutely aware of comparison among
themselves
• Whenever there are winners, by definition, there will be losers
• Winners may feel stressed and pressured about continuing to
win
• Losers may feel inadequate
• Community of Learners
•
•
•
•
Children share a sense of belonging
Children contribute to each other’s learning
Children work toward common goals
Children help each other, and cooperate as a team
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Security Blankets, Pacifiers and other
Cuddlies
• In most primitive cultures, children stay in close physical
contact with their mothers’ bodies most of the time during
their first three years of life
• In fast-moving modern industrialized societies, some babies
and toddlers use “cuddlies” to help them feel comfortable
• As much as possible during the day, a child over three should
be gently encouraged to refrain from sucking a pacifier or
thumb
• It is difficult for an older toddler or preschooler to practice
language effectively with his mouth immobilized for long
periods by a pacifier or thumb
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Group Contagion
• In a group, silly behavior sometimes becomes
“contagious” and spreads like wildfire
• A well-behaved group can suddenly go gleefully
out of control
• Children who would not normally behave
inappropriately can get caught up in the moment
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Competent Three-Year-Olds
Are…
• Self-confident and trusting
• Intellectually inquisitive
• Able to use language to communicate
• Physically and mentally healthy
• Able to relate well to others
• Empathic toward others
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Preschoolers Can Make…
•
•
•
Plans
Decisions
Choices
Preschoolers become more
consciously aware of their own
interests and intentions
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Using Words to Express
Feelings
• Preschoolers can be guided firmly to use
words to get a point across rather than
relying on aggression
• They can be helped to practice appropriate
words and allowed to express strong
emotions, even anger, through their words
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Stress Traps
for parents and educators
• Perfectionism
• People pleasing
• Self-doubt
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Friendship Is Critical to
Preschoolers
• Preschoolers are elated when they feel
liked by peers
• Preschoolers feel emotionally crushed
when they feel disliked
• Some preschoolers make friends easily
• Others experience a roller-coaster of
emotional turmoil
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Responsible Preschoolers
• Allow them to do challenging things
• Never do for them what they can do for
themselves
• Help them learn to follow rules
• Be safe
• Be respectful
• Be responsible
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Schoolagers Ask Questions
• Schoolagers become more aware of the
world around them
• They want to know a simple answer to
every puzzling phenomenon encountered
• Early school-aged children are less gullible
than preschoolers
• They are quick to see discrepancies in
adult actions
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