Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
Physical Growth
Body Growth- growth rate slows during early childhood. Children add 2 – 3 inches in
height and 5 lbs. in weight each year. Baby fat declines, with children becoming leaner
and taller. This allows for better balance and coordination.
 Skeletal Growth
o Epiphyses are growth centers, cartilage which will harden into bone at
different times. Skeletal age is the most accurate measure of growth, so it
can help doctors detect growth disorders.
o Children also lose teeth at the end of the preschool years. It is important
to care for baby teeth, though, since rotted baby teeth will affect the
permanent teeth.
 Asynchronies in Physical Growth- different organ systems mature at different
rates.
o General Growth Curve shows fast growth during infancy, slowing
during early and middle childhood, with rapid growth spurts again in
adolescence. Genitalia don’t grow until the pubertal hormonally charged
growth spurt. Lymph glands grow rapidly in infancy and childhood, then
they decline to adult levels. Brain development is rapid in early childhood.
Brain Development- the brain increases from 70-90% from age 2 – 6. The brain is finetuning, through processes of synaptic pruning, synaptogenesis, & myelinization. The
left hemisphere is rapidly developing skills in planning, language development and
problem-solving. Spatial skills, negotiating the environment and creativity develop more
gradually as the right brain develops. The brain is continuing to lateralize.
 Handedness reveals the dominance of one side of the brain over the other (except
in ambidextrous individuals.) This seems to be linked to the way the fetus lies in
the womb- if the baby lies on the left side, the right side is freer to develop the left
side of the brain. Sometimes there is mild brain damage to the left side of the
brain, predisposing a child to use the left hand.
 Cerebral Hemispheric Dominance for 90% of people is left-brain, right-handed.
 Structures of the Brain
o Cerebellum at the back of the brain is responsible for balance and bodily
control and coordination. As it myelinates, the toddler develops better
control and exhibits crawling, walking, later skipping & throwing.
o Reticular Formation is in the brain stem and it controls sleep, arousal,
consciousness. As it myelinates, greater attentional control is possible for
more complex learning in school.
o Corpus Callosum is a bundle of fibers that connect the 2 hemispheres. It
serves to coordinate thinking, perception, attention, memory, language,
and problem solving. It is generally larger in women, as their brains are
wired in a more homogeneous manner, requiring more integration, but
also allowing more holistic thinking.
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Heredity and Hormones- genetic markers control hormone production, and
ultimately, the size of the person, as well as rate of growth.
o Pituitary gland deep inside the brain releases hormones that induce
growth from various glands in the body.
 Growth Hormone (GH) is essential for development of all tissues
except the CNS and genitals. Injections of GH can be used for
children without adequate hormone, allowing some catch-up
growth.
 Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) stimulates the thyroid to
release thyroxine which develops the neurons in the brain and to
aid GH to fully develop the body size. A deficiency in an infant
must be amplified with shots in order for normal mental
development to be possible.
Emotional Well-Being impacts physical growth. Stress or rejection can trigger
poor use of nutrition, respiratory illness, intestinal illness, & injuries in a child
(the child is subconsciously trying to disappear in response to the parents’
rejection.)
o Psychosocial dwarfism is a growth disorder appearing between 2 and 15.
This is a restricted growth pattern, poor skeletal development, adjustment
problems due to lack of affection and emotional security or abuse. It
actually shows up as low GH levels. This will return to normal if the child
is put in a nurturing environment.
Nutrition becomes tricky as toddlers often become picky in what they will try.
Given a variety of foods, though, most will get the basic nutritional needs met.
Their diets should be controlled around sugar, fats, and salt, however, since these
foods skew their tastes toward unhealthy products. They also contribute to tooth
decay and increase their risks for obesity. Culture does impact food preferences,
as children tend to eat what they are exposed to, and that is different for different
cultures. Children eat better if the environment at the table is pleasant, too.
Mealtimes should not be a time for exhortation and judgment. It actually causes
nausea, which becomes associated with eating and many foods- setting up later
eating disorders. Also parents should not try to bribe children to eat meat or
vegetables with desserts or sweets. It teaches that the sweets are the good things
and the vegetables, etc. are undesirable. Snacks are essential for toddlers and
young children, but they can always be good for them- cheese, pasta, fruits,
carrots.
Infectious Disease
o Malnutrition can set up a weak immune system so that children are more
vulnerable to infectious diseases, and then the disease impacts poorly fed
children more seriously, since the child has little reserves to fight illness.
Intestinal infections are severely affecting to children in underdeveloped
countries, as they may die from dehydration or organisms in the water.
Diarrhea is very dangerous to children in such environments.
o Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is used to help sick children over
diarrhea- this mix of glucose, salt and water can replace lost fluids and
keep the child from developing imbalanced amino acids, etc.
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o Immunization has eradicated most childhood diseases in the developed
world, but there is controversy over whether we are over-immunizing, and
whether these shots are contributing to autism and even juvenile diabetes.
As many as 40% of children in poverty in the US are not adequately
immunized. In Norway and Denmark, less than 10% of preschoolers are
not immunized. They have socialized medicine which insures adequate
health care for all children in their countries. There are free clinics in the
US for impoverished children, though. Children in daycare are more
likely to get sick more regularly than children at home, simply because of
regular exposure to bacteria in these places. Respiratory infections often
lead to otitis media- chronic ear infection.
o Chronic Ear Infection can be treated with antibiotics (the pink medicine)
but fluid often builds up in the middle ear, restricting hearing and slowing
language development at a crucial time in language formation. The effects
of this language delay are social isolation, poorer academic performance,
especially as related to reading. Because they can’t hear language sounds
as well, these children tend not to pay attention to speech.
 Prevention includes not exposing the baby to smoke or day care to
some extent.
 Xylitol can be given as a supplement and it produces a drop
in otitis media, since it has a bacteria-fighting ingredient.
 Screening should be done in regular check-ups, as well as
getting a child with fluid in the ears tubes to drain the ear.
 Child-care setting can control infection if they will
disinfect toys and not let babies share their things. Small
group size also helps control illness.
 Verbally stimulating interactions can overcome sideeffects of otitis media. Caregivers need to speak to the
children, expecting a verbal response so the children will
develop clear audition and speech.
Childhood Injuries include car accidents, drownings, poisonings, gun wounds,
burns, falls, and swallowing foreign objects and they are the leading cause of
childhood mortality in developed nations.
o Gender- boys are generally more active, and risk-taking than girls, so they
have a greater risk of being hurt.
o Temperament- children with inattentiveness, negative mood and
irritability are more likely to be hurt.
o Poverty, low parental education, many children in home also relate to
injury as parents are over-stressed and not adequately supervising. Also
the neighborhoods often have greater threats to safety.
o Cultural conditions such as rapid population growth, overcrowding,
heavy traffic, lack of safety devices, such as helmets or car seats affect
child safety. US and Canada still have high child injury rates due to the
large group of people in poverty in both places.
o Prevention comes in many forms: child-resistant caps on meds, laws
requiring safety seats, flameproof clothing, playground safety surfaces,
fenced pools (pools being the site of 90% of childhood drownings.) Even
so, preschoolers simply don’t remember the warnings about dangerous
behaviors, so they need careful monitoring of their behavior and of the
environments where they play and live. Homes need to be baby-proofed
for a long time while children are growing up.
Motor Development
 Gross Motor Development follows the cephalocaudal principle, moving down in
coordination from the head toward the trunk. This also has to do with the body
growing in proportion to the head, so the body isn’t so top-heavy. Once they are
steady on their feet, their skills move to throwing and catching, steering trikes,
swinging.
 Fine Motor Development allows preschoolers to manage puzzles, blocks, cutting
and pasting, stringing beads. It is especially apparent in their drawings.
o Self-Help Skills improve, allowing small children to use forks and spoons,
dress themselves, and tie shoes. Tying shoes is a complex skill requiring
memory, attention, dexterity of hand motion.
o Scribbles to Pictures – Children’s pictures illustrate their cognitive
development as well as fine motor skills. There is a sequence to drawing:
 Scribbles- gestures serve as illustration- hopping a crayon as a
rabbit.
 First representational forms- around age 3 they label their
scribbles, especially if adults help them see the images they have
created. A significant milestone occurs when children draw
boundaries of objects. The first human shape is the tadpolecircular head with lines off it representing arms and legs- the
simplest form that looks human.
 More realistic drawings occur as they add realistic images to
enhance their drawings.
o Cultural Variations in Drawings – more artistically interested cultures
will produce children who do more complex drawings.
o Early Printing happens as children observe writing and try to imitate it.
 Individual Differences in Motor Skills come as a result of genetic advantages or
disadvantages- certain cultures offer genetic advantages physically- allowing
advanced skills to develop. Boys have some motor skills advantages, even in
elementary school. Boys have greater muscle mass all through life. Girls have
better balance and fine precision of movement. Social experiences channel boys
and girls into different activities, building in different sets of skills. Socialization
also makes a difference in how children feel about sports, etc. If parents use play
time to criticize the child’s skills, or act too competitive, children don’t develop
self-confidence and may not even want to participate in activities.
Cognitive Development
 Piaget’s Theory: The Preoperational Stage spans ages 2 – 7, as children
develop sophisticate mental symbolism.
o Mental Representation is seen in development of language. Language
allows us to think in terms of the future and past, not just the present. It
allows us to make up things we have never seen before.
o Make-Believe Play is very popular with this group, showing the
fascination with mental representation- pretending in order to learn
sequences, roles, behaviors and expectations of other people.
 Play detaches from real-life conditions that associate with it.
After age 2 children can pretend in less real ways- using toys for
other purposes, imagining events with no props.
 Play becomes less self-centered with age. Play can include others
in interactive ways as part of the script.
 Play includes more complex scheme combinations. When
children combine schemes with others, they engage in
sociodramatic play- make-believe with others. They even become
aware that make-believe is a symbolic, representational activity.
Children who spend more time in dramatic play are considered
more socially competent by teachers. This activity enhances
memory, attention, logic, language, imagination, and perspectivetaking.
o Limitations of Preoperational Thought- children in this stage are not
logical, as they will become, so they are called preoperational. Their
thinking is rigid, limited to one aspect of a problem at a time, and
influenced by how things look at the moment.
 Egocentrism is the failure to recognize that there are more
viewpoints than one’s own. Children’s first understandings are
clearly their own, and no other can be understood. Piaget used the
three-mountains problem to illustrate their egocentric reasoning.
 Animistic thinking is the belief that inanimate objects
have lifelike qualities, such as feelings or thoughts. This
particularly seems to be a result of preschool egocentrism.
 Magical thinking is another result of egocentrismassigning human purposes to physical events – Angels must
be beating a drum- when it’s thundering outside.
 Inability to Conserve
 Conservation is the idea that certain characteristics of
objects remain the same, even if the appearance changes.
 Centration means children this age focus on one aspect of
a situation, neglecting other things that affect it. Children
this age are distracted by the appearance of objects and fail
to factor in other things that change. They also ignore any
transformations that the object may have experiences.
 Irreversibility is the inability to go through a series of
steps in a problem and then reverse direction and return to
the starting point. This skill is essential for mastering math.
 Lack of Hierarchical Classification- children this age
aren’t able to organize objects into classes on the basis of
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similarities and differences. Class inclusion problem
illustrates this lack of understanding.
o Current Research
 Egocentric, Animistic, and Magical Thinking – Using different
testing scenarios, even 4-year-olds can show they understand
others have a different vantage point than they do. Also children
were underestimated by Piaget in many tests because he used
objects that they had little concrete experience with- clouds, stars.
Children have some understanding of what objects have human
qualities, but they don’t know a lot about objects themselves.
Magical beliefs decline from 4 – 8, as children get more experience
with the physical world. Culture and religion can serve to extend
this belief or shut it down.
 Illogical Thought – Piaget underestimated children’s ability to use
logic- they can use it with relevant tasks they have some
familiarity.
 Categorization is also present in some large areas- furniture,
animals, vehicles, or plants. These categories differ in perceptual
features, even though these children are swayed by appearance.
They form basic-level categories (at an intermediate level of
generality- chairs, tables), general categories (furniture), and
subcategories (breakdowns of categories- sofas or benches.)
 Appearance vs. Reality is challenging for these children to
master- since the appearance of something contradicts its real
image (white paper changed to blue by a filter.)
o Piaget and Education – Piaget has an impact on education during early
childhood- as teachers are coached in offering learning environments and
challenges for children to explore- as they are ready. Readiness is very
important in Piaget’s view of education.
 Discovery learning is learning through interacting with the
environment- art, puzzles, games, dress-up, blocks, books, tools,
musical instruments.
 Sensitivity to Children’s readiness to learn – Teachers need to
watch and listen to students, and introduce experiences that allow
them to practice schemes they are discovering.
 Acceptance of Individual Differences – children go through the
stages at their own rates, so teachers should plan varying activities
to stimulate all children individually, not just teach to a group. The
child should be assessed against his own portfolio of work, not
competitively against other children.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory- Vygotsky particularly differed with Piaget
about the role of language in cognitive development. Vygotsky also stressed the
social context of cognitive development.
o Private Speech is speech directed at oneself- particularly in shaping
responses to a new challenge. Piaget thought this self-directed speech was
characteristic of the egocentric stage of Preoperational children. But even
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as adults we use this speech when we are learning something new and
difficult. Vygotsky believed this self-guiding speech helps children think
about their mental activities and select solutions to problems, So this is
the foundation for higher cognitive processes- attention, recall,
categorization, & planning. As children become more competent, their
speech becomes internalized as inner speech (internal verbal dialogues
we have with ourselves.) This speech actually helps children to stay
attentive and motivated in new tasks.
o Social Origins of Cognition
 Zone of Proximal Development is a range of tasks too difficult
for a child to do by himself, but possible with help.
 Scaffolding is the process of a teacher, mentor, parent, even
sibling who adjusts support offered during a teaching session with
a child to fit the child’s level of performance. This initial wide
support is gradually pulled back, allowing the child a sense of
accomplishment as s/he masters a new skill. Mentors break the
task into manageable parts, asking critical questions to help the
child sense the specific task needed for completion.
o Vygotsky and Education – Vygotsky has a large place in shaping the
classroom for young children, also. He encourages assisted discoverywhere teachers guide children’s learning with explanations, and verbal
prompts useful at that child’s level of proximal development. Peer
collaboration is also important- using classmates to help one another in
study groups, reading groups, etc. Vygotsky believed that language is a
very important way of learning to think. In cultures that are not so schooloriented as Western cultures, children are expected to watch and model
important skills. Language is not as essential to learning there.
Information Processing
o Attention extends during the preschool years. Children are also able to
plan their activities to reach a goal.
o Memory
 Recognition memory is the ability to tell whether a stimulus is the
same as one seen before. 4 & 5 year olds are good at recognition
memory.
 Recall is generating a mental image of something not present,
without cues. This more challenging memory is still weak in these
years.
 Memory strategies are deliberate mental activities that help us to
remember. Rehearsal & organization are important strategies for
enhancing memory. Even preschoolers are somewhat able to use
strategies. They don’t use them too much, though, because these
strategies tax their working memory capacity.
 Scripts are general descriptions of what occurs and in what order
and in what situation. These scripts are used to predict experiences
and interpret events. They are used in make-believe a lot.
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Autobiographical memory for events in one’s experience become
better organized and include more details, but this process requires
some help from adults. Using the elaborative style parents ask
questions, add information, and share their own recollections of
shared events. In the repetitive style parents ask the same
questions over and over, so they don’t produce as detailed personal
stories in children’s dialogues.
o Theory of mind is a coherent set of ideas about mental activities.
 Metacognition means “thinking about your thinking.” By age 3
children realize that thinking happens in their heads and people can
think about something without seeing it. They don’t understand the
difference between beliefs and desires, however.
 Awareness of mental life- even 2 year olds include words such as
“think” or “pretend”, indicating some awareness of mental life.
They just don’t understand less obvious mental states like beliefs.
 False Belief is an understanding that does not represent reality
accurately. Children don’t understand that such faulty beliefs can
still guide behavior. Children do recognize that both beliefs and
desires can motivate behavior, though. During preschool years
children understand false belief.
 Factors that contribute to theory of mind – language helps
children to reflect on their thinking to think flexibly & to inhibit
their speech or responses. Peer interaction also promotes
understanding of the mind. Culture also makes a difference, since
some cultures have few words for think or believe.
 Limitations of young children’s understanding- they don’t
realize that people continue to think when they are not obviously
doing something. They believe all things must be observed to be
known. They don’t understand mental inference. They view the
mind as a passive container of information.
 “Mindblindness” and Autism – Children with autism do not
grasp false belief. They seem to be missing an important brain
mechanism that allows people to detect mental states. Autism is
the most severe behavior disorder of childhood. The term means
“absorbed in the self” and that is descriptive, as these children are
impaired in emotional expression and nonverbal behaviors
necessary for social interaction. Language is often delayed, as well.
One aspect of the condition is no theory of mind. These children
have a hard time with false-belief tasks. They rarely use social
referencing to guide their behavior, engage in joint attention, or
imitate an adult’s behavior. They also don’t pick up on nonverbal
signals from speakers and adjust their behavior accordingly. There
also may be a severe memory deficit, which would explain an
autistic child’s obsession with repetitive acts. Problems with
integration of parts into a whole solution also explain social
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problems- they can’t combine information from many sources to
determine the correct behavior expected.
o Early Childhood Literacy – children understand what writing is for long
before they can read or write themselves. They are interested in decoding
the symbols of language. So they “read” memorized parts of familiar
books, or recognize a part of a word and try to suggest what it says. They
make out pretend grocery lists that are formed like Mom’s list. The more
parents can provide an environment rich in words and language, reading,
etc, they better these children will be prepared for school tasks.
Unfortunately, this is less common in lower-SES households, since there
are fewer books and parents have less energy for such activities.
o Mathematical Reasoning
 Ordinality is ordering relationships between quantitiesunderstanding “more” and “less”. This is developed between 14
and 16 mo.
 Cardinality is the understanding that the last number in a counting
sequence shows the quantity of items in the group or set. This
occurs between ages 4 & 5. They will experiment with counting by
holding up fingers and calling out number words. They even learn
to count up to add, and count down to subtract. Parenting
enhances these skills if children will be asked to compare
quantities, etc.
Individual Differences – IQ Testing is designed to measure human cognitive
abilities. Test results can be skewed by cultural biases shown in the tests for the
majority culture. For young children, environment can make a difference in
developing these basic cognitive skills.
o HOME and Mental Development the Home Observation for
Measurement of the Environment test assesses aspects of the home that
aids intellectual growth. Children who develop best have parents who are
warm, affectionate, stimulate their language and knowledge, find outings
with interesting things to do. They also expect socially mature behavior
from children, as well as using reason for discipline, not physical force.
When lower SES homes get some training in these areas, their children do
better on IQ tests, and later in school.
 Stimulation through toys, games, and reading.
 Language stimulation
 Organization of the environment
 Affection & warmth
 Academic stimulation
 Modeling of social skills
 Variety in stimulation
 No use of physical punishment
o Preschool and Child Care – as 64% of American preschoolers have
mothers who work, they are spending much more time in day care.
 Preschool is a program with planned educational experiences for
2 – 5 year olds.
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Child care is a variety of supervisory arrangements for children
of working parents. Many preschools have extended their hours for
parents to meet the needs of working parents. Good child care
integrates learning experiences.
 Child-centered programs – teachers provide a variety of
activities and the child selects what s/he wants to do, so learning
happens through play.
 Academic programs – are more structured to teach letters,
numbers, colors, shapes through repetition and drill and songs.
There is a lot of pressure in our society to keep children busy with
learning activities, since children kept in passive environments
where they are not actively engaged have more stress behaviors,
less attention span, less confidence in their abilities, & they
perform more poorly in school.
 Project Head Start was begun in 1965 to aid disadvantaged
children, to get them ready for school. Head Start includes
preschool, nutritional and healthy services, along with parent
training.
 Aboriginal Head Start was developed in Canada for Native
children, many of whom were in poverty. These programs show
children scoring higher in IQ and school achievement than children
not in Head Start. Unfortunately these gains declined after 3 years
of school. Even so, they were less likely to be placed in special
education, fail a grade, and more graduated from high school.
Later benefits were reduction in delinquency and teen pregnancy,
as well as greater employment, educational attainment, earnings
and marital stability. Amazing benefits for such early learning.
 Measures of Good Early Childhood Programs –unfortunately
much child care, even in US, lacks high quality. A child in poor
day care will score lower on cognitive and social skills. Better
programs have low caretaker- child ratio, educational programs,
commitment to learning child development, low turnover of
employees, clean and stimulating environment, and parents are
encouraged to observe and participate.
Educational TV is a major learning environment- as the average 2- 6 year
old watches TV up to 2 hours a day. In middle childhood, children watch TV 3 ½
hours a day. Sesame Street has held up a high quality to their presentation of
literacy and math concepts, as well as social skills, altruism and diversity.
Children who watch this program score higher on tests of cognitive skills, and
later get higher grades, read more books, and have higher achievement motivation
in high school. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and Barney and Friends teach
imagination, social skills, etc. But the more children spend time watching TV,
they less time they spend reading and playing with others. As long as TV time is
monitored, though, it can have a beneficial effect on children’s development.
Language Development
 Vocabulary grows very fast- from 200 words at age 2 to 10,000 words by age 6.
o Fast-mapping is the process of connecting a new word with an
underlying concept after only a brief encounter. This allows for the
explosion of new words in these critical years. They first learn labels for
objects, then verbs, finally modifiers. They adopt the principle of mutual
exclusivity- meaning they assume words refer to entirely separate
categories. It is confusing when adults use different words for the same
thing- so they figure out word meanings by observing how words are used
in the sentences. They also use social cues to identify the word meanings.
Once they have a vocabulary, they creatively coin words to stand for
things they don’t have a word for yet- “plant-man” for gardener.
 Grammar is the way we combine words into meaningful phrases and sentences.
The first sentences are simple: noun-verb-object. Then they learn to add “s” to
make plural, add prepositions, and form tenses.
o Overregularization happens when children apply the rules to irregular
verbs, etc. They will do this even after they have used the correct form of
the word originally. “feets” or “breaked”.
 Conversation
o Pragmatics is the social side of language- the social rules of give and take
in conversation. Early in language development children take turns and
respond appropriately to others. By age 4 they can adjust their speech to
the age and status of the listener- using baby talk for babies and more
formal speech for adults. They use commands that fit the character when
acting out parts.
 Supporting Language Development in Early Childhood occurs when parents
clarify the right language usage when children make errors.
o Expansions occur when parents elaborate on children’s speech, adding
complexity to it.
o Recasts occur when parents restructure inaccurate speech using the
correct grammar, etc.