Fun stage…the preschool years!
Height and Weight
The average child grows 2½ inches and gains between 5 and 7 pounds a year
in early childhood. The percentage of increase in height and weight decreases
with each additional year. Body fat shows a steady decline during this time.
Girls are only slightly smaller and lighter than boys, but they have more body
fat while boys have more muscle tissue. Boys and girls slim down as their
trunks lengthen.
Individual Differences. Much of the variation in body size is due to heredity.
The two most important contributors to height differences are ethnic origin
and nutrition.
Contributors to Short Stature:
• Congenital Factors (genetic or prenatal problems). Preschool children
whose mothers smoked regularly during pregnancy are shorter than their
counterparts whose mothers did not smoke.
• Physical Problems That Develop in Childhood. Children who are chronically
sick are shorter than their counterparts who are rarely sick.
• Emotional Difficulties. Children who have been physically abused or
neglected may not secrete adequate growth hormone, which can restrict
their physical growth.
The Brain
The brain and the head grow more rapidly than any other part of the body. By
age 3, the brain is three-quarters of its adult size, and by age 5, the brain has
reached about nine-tenths of its adult size. Some of this size increase is due
to increase in size and number of nerve endings and an increase in
myelination. Myelination is believed to be important in the maturation of a
number of children’s abilities. From 3-6 years of age, researchers have found
that the most rapid brain growth occurs in the frontal lobe.
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Gross Motor Skills
• At 3 years of age, children enjoy simple movements, such as hopping,
jumping, and running, just for the fun of it and the pride they feel in their
accomplishment.
• At 4 years of age, children become more adventurous—taking on jungle
gyms and climbing stairs with one foot on each step.
• At 5 years of age, children begin to perform hair-raising stunts on anything
they can climb on, and they enjoy racing with each other and with parents.
Fine Motor Skills
• At age 3, children are still clumsy at picking up very small objects between
their thumb and forefinger. Three-year-olds can build very high block
towers, but the blocks are usually not in a perfectly straight line. Puzzles
are approached with a good deal of roughness and imprecision.
• By age 4, their coordination has improved and become more precise.
• By age 5, children are no longer interested in building towers, but rather
houses, churches, and buildings with more detail.
Handedness
Preference for one hand is linked with the dominance of one brain
hemisphere with regard to motor performance. Right-handers have a
dominant left hemisphere, while left-handers have a dominant right
hemisphere. Evidence of handedness is present in infancy, as babies show
preferences for one side of their body over the other. Many preschool
children use both hands without a clear preference emerging until later in
childhood. The origin of hand preference has been explored with regard to
genetic inheritance and environmental experience.
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Energy Needs
What children eat affects their skeletal growth, body shape, and susceptibility to
disease. An average preschool child requires 1,700 calories per day. Energy
requirements for children are determined by the basal metabolism rate (BMR):
the minimum amount of energy a person uses in a resting state. Differences in
physical activity, basal metabolism, and the efficiency with which children use
energy are among the possible explanation as to why children of the same age,
sex, and size vary in their energy needs.
Eating Behavior
Eating habits become ingrained very early in life. It is during the preschool years
that many children get their first taste of fast food. Our changing lifestyles, in
which we often eat on the run and pick up fast food meals, contribute to the
increased fat levels in children’s diets. Although such meals are high in protein,
the average American child does not need to be concerned about getting
enough protein.
Obesity in Childhood
Being overweight can be a serious problem in childhood. Overweight preschool
children are usually not encouraged to lose a great deal of weight, but to slow
their rate of weight gain so they will grow into a more normal weight for their
height. Prevention of obesity in children includes helping children and parents
see food as a way to satisfy hunger and nutritional needs, not as proof of love or
a reward. Routine physical activity should be a daily event.
The United States
Accidents are the leading cause of death in young children: motor vehicle
accidents, drowning, falls, and poisoning are high on the list. The disorders
most likely to be fatal during early childhood today are birth defects, cancer,
and heart disease. Despite the greatly diminished dangers of many childhood
diseases, it is still very important for parents to keep young children on an
immunization schedule. Exposure to tobacco smoke increases children’s risk
for developing a number of medical problems, such as pneumonia, bronchitis,
ear infections, burns, asthma, and cancer in adulthood.
The State of Illness and Health of the World’s Children
One death of every three in the world is the death of a child under 5 years of
age. Every week, more than a quarter million children die in developing
countries due to infection and undernutrition. The leading cause of childhood
death in the world is dehydration and malnutrition as a result of diarrhea.
This could be prevented if parents had available a low-cost breakthrough
known as oral rehydration therapy (ORT). Oral rehydration therapy involves a
range of techniques designed to prevent dehydration during episodes of
diarrhea by giving the child fluids by mouth.
Characteristics of the Preoperational Stage
The preoperational stage lasts from 2-7 years old. During this time stable
concepts form, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism begins, and magical
beliefs are constructed. Thought is flawed and not organized. This stage
involves a transition from primitive to more sophisticated use of symbols.
Children still do not yet think in an operational way.
Definition of Operations
Operations are internalized sets of actions that allow the child to do mentally
what before she did physically.
Symbolic Function Substage
The ability to think symbolically and to represent the world mentally
predominates in this substage. It occurs roughly between the ages of 2-4.
Symbolic function is demonstrated by the child’s ability to mentally represent
an object not present. Symbolism is evident in scribbled designs, language,
and pretend play. Two important limitations in thought at this stage are
egocentrism and animism.
• Egocentrism
Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective
and someone else’s perspective. It is a salient feature of preoperational
thought. Perspective-taking doesn’t develop uniformly in preschool
children, as they frequently show perspective skills on some tasks, but not
others.
• Animism
Animism is the belief that inanimate objects have “lifelike” qualities and are
capable of action. A child may believe that a tree pushes its leaves off in
the Fall, or that the sidewalk made him trip and fall down.
Intuitive Thought Substage
In this stage, children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the
answers to all sorts of questions. It occurs roughly between the ages of 4-7.
Piaget used the term intuitive because children say they know something, but
they know it without the use of rational thinking. Children in this stage also
ask a barrage of questions, signaling the emergence of their interest in
reasoning and why things are the way they are.
• Centration
Centration is the focusing or centering of attention on one characteristic to
the exclusion of all others. It is a major characteristic of preoperational
thought, evidenced in young children’s lack of conservation.
• Conservation
Conservation refers to an awareness that altering an object’s or a
substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties. Although
obvious to adults, preoperational children lack conservation. A lack of
conservation not only demonstrates the presence of centration, but also an
inability to mentally reverse actions.
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Here are a few examples.
The Zone of Proximal Development
The zone of proximal development is Vygotsky’s term for the range of tasks
too difficult for children to master alone, but which can be learned with the
guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children. The lower limit is
the level of problem solving reached by the child working independently. The
upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with
the assistance of an able instructor. Vygotsky’s emphasis on the ZPD
underscores his belief in the importance of social influences, especially
instruction, on children’s cognitive development.
Scaffolding in Cognitive Development
Scaffolding refers to changing the level of support. Over the course of a
teaching session, a more skilled person adjusts the amount of guidance to fit
the student’s current performance level. Dialog is an important tool of
scaffolding in the zone of proximal development. As the child’s unsystematic,
disorganized, spontaneous concepts meet with the skilled helper’s more
systematic, logical, and rational concepts, through meeting and dialogue, the
child’s concepts become more systematic, logical, and rational.
Language and Thought
Vygotsky believed that young children use language both for social
communication and to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior in a selfregulatory fashion. Language used for this purpose is called inner speech or
private speech. For Piaget, private speech is egocentric and immature, but for
Vygotsky it is an important tool of thought during early childhood. Vygotsky
believed all mental funtions have social origins. Children must use language
to communicate with others before they can focus on their own thoughts.
Researchers have found support for Vygotsky’s view of the positive role of
private speech in development.
Evaluating and Comparing Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories
Vygotsky’s theory is a social constructivist approach, which emphasizes the
social contexts of learning and that knowledge is mutually built and
constructed. Piaget’s theory does not have this social emphasis. For Piaget,
children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing, and reorganizing
previous knowledge. For Vygotsky, children construct knowledge through
social interaction. The implication of Piaget’s theory for teaching is that
children need support to explore their world and discover knowledge. The
implication of Vygotsky’s theory for teaching is that students need many
opportunities to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers. Vygotsky’s
theory has been embraced by many teachers and successfully applied to
education.
Teaching Strategies Based on Vygotsky’s Theory
•Use the child’s zone of proximal development in teaching.
•Use scaffolding.
•Use more skilled peers as teachers.
•Monitor and encourage children’s use of private speech.
•Assess the child’s ZPD, not IQ.
•Transform the classroom with Vygotskian ideas.
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A comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky.
Attention
The child’s ability to pay attention changes significantly during the preschool
years. Preschool children are influenced strongly by the features of a task that
stand out, or are salient. This deficit can hinder problem solving or performing
well on tasks. By age 6 or 7, children attend more efficiently to the dimensions
of a task that are relevant. This is believed to reflect a shift in cognitive control
of attention.
Memory
Short-Term Memory
In short-term memory, individuals retain information for up to 15-30 seconds,
assuming there is no rehearsal, which can help keep information in STM for a
much longer period. Differences in memory span occur across the ages due to:
• Rehearsal: older children rehearse items more than younger children.
• Speed and efficiency of processing information: the speed with which a child
processes information is an important aspect of the child’s cognitive abilities.
Long-Term Memory
Young children can remember a great deal of information if they are given
appropriate cues and prompts. Sometimes the memories of preschoolers seem
to be erratic, but these inconsistencies may be to some degree the result of
inadequate prompts and cues.
Strategies
Strategies consist of using deliberate mental activities to improve the
processing of information, such as rehearsal and organizing information.
Young children typically do not use rehearsal and organization. Children as
young as 2 can learn to use other types of strategies to process information.
The Young Children’s Theory of Mind
Theory of mind refers to individuals’ thoughts about how mental processes
work. Even young children are curious about the nature of the human mind.
Children’s developing knowledge of the mind includes the awareness that:
• The mind exists. By the age of 2 or 3, children refer to needs, emotions,
and mental states. They also use intentional action or desire words, such
as wants to. Cognitive terms such as know, remember, and think usually
appear after perceptual and emotional terms, but are used by age 3. Later
children distinguish between guessing vs. knowing, believing vs. fantasizing,
and intending vs. not on purpose.
• The mind has connections to the physical world. At about 2 or 3 years of
age, children develop an awareness of the connections among stimuli,
mental states, and behavior. This provides them with a rudimentary mental
theory of human action. Children can infer connections from stimuli to
mental states, from mental states to behavior or emotion, and from
behavior to mental states. Children also develop an understanding that the
mind is separate from the physical world.
• The mind can represent objects and events accurately or inaccurately.
Children develop an understanding that the mind can represent objects and
events accurately. Understanding of false beliefs doesn’t usually occur until
4 or 5 years.
• The mind actively interprets reality and emotions. Children develop an
understanding that the mind actively mediates the interpretation of reality
and the emotion experienced. In the elementary school years, children
change from viewing emotions as caused by external events without any
mediation by internal states to viewing emotional reactions to an external
event as influenced by a prior emotional state, experience, or expectation.
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Young children’s understanding sometimes gets ahead of their speech. Many
of the oddities of young children’s language sound like mistakes to adult
listeners, but from the children’s perspective, they are not. As children go
through early childhood, their grasp of the rules of language increases
(morphology, semantics, pragmatics).
Morphology
As children move beyond two-word utterances, they know morphology rules.
They begin using plurals and possessive forms of nouns. They put appropriate
endings on verbs. They use prepositions, articles, and various forms of the
verb to be. Children demonstrate knowledge of morphological rules with
plural forms of nouns, possessive forms of nouns, and the third-person
singular and past tense forms of verbs.
Semantics
As children move beyond the two-word stage, their knowledge of meanings
rapidly advances. The speaking vocabulary of a 6-year-old ranges from 8,000
to 14,000 words. According to some estimates, the average child of this age is
learning about 22 words a day!
Pragmatics
No difference is as dramatic as the difference between a 2-year-old’s language
and a 6-year-old’s language in terms of pragmatics—the rules of conversation.
At about 3 years of age, children improve their ability to talk about things that
are not physically present—referred to as “displacement.” Displacement is
revealed in games of pretend. Large individual differences seen in
preschoolers’ talk about imaginary people and things.
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Children in academically oriented, direct-instruction approaches did better on
achievement tests and were more persistent on tasks than were children in
other approaches. Children in effective education programs were absent less
often and showed more independence. Long-term effects have included lower
rates of placement in special education, dropping out of school, grade retention,
delinquency, and use of welfare programs.
The Child-Centered Kindergarten
In the child-centered kindergarten, education involves the whole child and
includes concern for the child’s physical, cognitive, and social development.
Instruction is organized around the child’s needs, interests, and learning styles.
The process of learning, rather than what is learned, is emphasized.
Experimenting, exploring, discovering, trying out, restructuring, speaking, and
listening are all part of an excellent kindergarten program.
The Montessori Approach
The Montessori Approach is a philosophy of education in which children are
given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities. They are
allowed to move from one activity to another as they desire. The teacher acts
as a facilitator, rather than a director of learning. While it fosters independence,
it de-emphasizes verbal interaction. Criticism of the approach is that it neglects
children’s social development and restricts imaginative play.
Young Children
Young children learn best through active, hands-on teaching methods.
Schools should focus on improving children’s social as well as cognitive
development. Developmentally appropriate practice is based on knowledge of
the typical development of children within an age span, as well as the
uniqueness of the child. Developmentally inappropriate practice ignores the
concrete, hands-on approach to learning. Direct teaching largely through
abstract paper-and-pencil activities presented to large groups of young
children is believed to be developmentally inappropriate.
Does Preschool Matter?
Preschool matters if parents do not have the commitment, time, energy, and
resources to provide young children with an environment that approximates a
good early childhood program. If parents have the competence and resources
to provide young children with a variety of learning experiences and exposure
to other children and adults, along with opportunities for extensive play, this
may be sufficient.
Education for Children Who Are Disadvantaged
Project Head Start is a compensatory education program designed to provide
children from low-income families the opportunity to acquire skills and
experiences important for success in school. Project Follow Through was
implemented as an adjunct to Project Head Start to determine which types of
educational programs were the most effective, and those were then carried
through the first few years of elementary school.
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Initiative Versus Guilt
Children use their perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make
things happen. The governor of initiative is conscience, as children begin to
hear the inner voice of self-observation. Initiative may bring rewards or
punishment. Widespread disappointment leads to an unleashing of guilt that
lowers self-esteem. Leaving this stage with a sense of initiative rather than
guilt depends on parental responses to children’s self-initiated activities.
Self-Understanding
The child’s cognitive representation of self, the substance and content of the
child’s self-conceptions. Based on the various roles and membership
categories that define who they are. In early childhood, children usually
conceive of the self in physical terms. The active dimension is a central
component of the self, as children describe themselves in terms of such
activities as play.
Emotional Development
Among the most important changes in emotional development are the
increased use of emotion language and the understanding of emotion.
Between 2 and 3 years, children considerably increase the number of terms
they use to describe emotion. Children also begin to learn about the causes
and consequences of feelings. At 4-5 years, children show an increased ability
to reflect on emotions. They also show a growing awareness about
controlling and managing emotions to meet social standards.
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What Is Moral Development?
Involves thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding standards of right and
wrong. Has an intrapersonal dimension and an interpersonal dimension. The
former regulates a person’s activities when he or she is not engaged in social
interaction. The latter regulates people’s social interactions and arbitrates
conflict.
Piaget’s View of Moral Development
Heteronomous Morality
The first stage of Piaget’s theory of moral development occurs from
approximately 4-7 years of age. Justice and rules are conceived of as
unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people.
This stage involves the belief in imminent justice—the concept that, if a rule is
broken, punishment will be meted out immediately.
Autonomous Morality
Piaget’s second stage of moral development, which begins around age 10 and
continues throughout life. At this point, the child realizes that rules and laws
are created by people and that, in judging an action, one should consider the
actor’s intentions as well as the consequences. Children between the ages of
7 and 10 are in transition and show features of both stages.
Moral Behavior
The study of moral behavior has been influenced by behavioral and cognitive
theories. The processes of reinforcement, punishment, and imitation are
used to explain moral behavior. The social cognitive view believes that moral
behavior is influenced extensively by the situation. Social cognitive theorists
also believe that the ability to resist temptation is closely tied to the
development of self-control. They believe cognitive factors are important in
the development of self-control.
Moral Feelings
The Psychoanalytic Approach
The superego is the moral branch of personality. It develops as the child
resolves the Oedipus conflict and identifies with the same-sex parent.
Through identification with the same-sex parent, children internalize the
parents’ standards of right and wrong that reflect societal prohibitions.
Children conform to societal standards to avoid guilt, brought on by hostility
originally directed at the same-sex parent, now internalized and directed
toward the self.
Empathy
Reacting to another’s feelings with an emotional response that is similar to
the other’s feelings. Empathy is experienced as an emotional state, but it also
has a cognitive component. The cognitive component is the ability to discern
another’s inner psychological states—perspective taking. Emotions such as
empathy, shame, guilt, and anxiety provide a natural base for the child’s
acquisition of moral values.
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What Is Gender?
Sex - the biological dimension of being male or female.
Gender - the social dimensions of being male or female.
Gender identity - the sense of being male or female.
Gender role - a set of expectations that prescribe how males or females
should think, act, and feel.
Biological Influences
The 23rd pair of chromosomes in humans either contains two X chromosomes
to produce a female, or an X and a Y chromosome to produce a male.
Estrogens influence the development of female physical sex characteristics.
Androgens promote the development of male physical sex characteristics.
Some research is exploring possible differences in aspects of male and female
brains.
Social Influences
Psychoanalytic and Social Cognitive Theories
Psychoanalytic theory maintains a preschool attraction to the opposite-sex
parent ultimately results in identification with the same-sex parent. Social
cognitive theory emphasizes gender development occurs through observation
and imitation of gender behavior, and through the rewards and punishments
for gender appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Critics of this approach
argue that gender development is not as passive as it indicates.
Parental Influences
Both mothers and fathers are psychologically important in children’s gender
development. By action and example, they influence their children’s gender
development. Fathers are more likely to ensure that boys and girls conform to
existing cultural norms. Fathers are more involved in socializing their sons
than their daughters. Fathers are more likely than mothers to act differently
toward sons and daughters, thus contributing more to distinctions between
genders.
Peer Influences
Children show a clear preference for being with and liking same-sex peers.
This tendency becomes stronger during the middle and late childhood years.
Boys teach one another the required masculine behavior and enforce it
strictly. Girls pass on female culture and congregate with one another. Peer
demands for conformity to gender roles become especially intense during
adolescence.
School and Teacher Influences
Girls’ learning problems are not identified as often as boys’ are. Boys are
given the lion’s share of attention in schools. Girls start school testing higher
in every academic subject, yet graduate scoring lower on the SAT. Boys are
most often at the top of their classes, but most often at the bottom as well.
Pressure to achieve is more likely to be heaped on boys than on girls.
Cognitive Influences
Cognitive Developmental Theory
This theory says children’s gender typing occurs after they have developed a
concept of gender. Once they consistently conceive of themselves as male or
female, children often organize their world on the basis of gender. Children
use physical and behavioral clues to differentiate gender roles and to gendertype themselves in early development. They then select same-sex models to
imitate.
Gender Schema Theory
States that an individual’s attention and behavior are guided by an internal
motivation to conform to gender-based sociocultural standards and
stereotypes. “Gender typing” occurs when individuals are ready to encode
and organize information along the lines of what is considered appropriate for
males and females in society. A general readiness to respond to and
categorize information on the basis of culturally defined gender roles fuels
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children’s gender-typing activities. This theory acknowledges, like Kohlberg’s
cognitive developmental theory, that gender constancy is important along
with other cognitive factors.
Gender Constancy
Gender constancy refers to the understanding that sex remains the same even
though activities, clothing, and hair style might change.
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Parenting: Nature and Nurture
Two types of recent studies that effectively disentangle children’s heredity and
their rearing experiences are:
•Studies of the effects of rearing experiences on the behavior of
children who differ in their temperament.
•Studies that compare the effects of high- and low-risk environments
on children of different vulnerability.
Another way to examine links between parenting and child behavior is to
study risk and resiliency in children. As with other areas of life-span
development, evidence on the role of parenting shows that neither heredity
alone nor environment alone is responsible for children’s development.
Good Parenting Takes Time and Effort
Good parenting takes a lot of time and effort. There is an unfortunate theme
in today’s society which suggests that parenting can be done quickly.
Compact discs are marketed for parents to simply play Mozart’s music in order
to enrich young children’s brains. One-minute bedtime stories are also
available, so parents can read to their children—but not for long. These items
are seen as supporting parental neglect and reducing guilt of uninvested
parents.
Authoritarian Parenting
A restrictive, punitive style in which parents exhort the child to follow their
directions and to respect work and effort. These parents place firm limits and
controls on the child and allow little verbal exchange. Authoritarian parenting
is associated with children’s social incompetence. Children of authoritarian
parents often are unhappy, fearful, anxious, fail to initiate activity, and have
weak communication skills.
Authoritative Parenting – usually the best method!
This style encourages children to be independent but still places limits and
controls on their actions. Extensive verbal give-and-take is allowed, and
parents are warm and nurturant toward the child. Authoritative parenting is
associated with children’s social competence. Children of authoritative
parents are often cheerful, self-controlled and self-reliant, achievementoriented, maintain friendships with peers, cooperate with adults, and cope
well with stress
Neglectful Parenting
A style in which the parent is very uninvolved in the child’s life. It is associated
with children’s social incompetence, especially a lack of self-control. Children
whose parents are neglectful frequently have low self-esteem, are immature,
and may be alienated from the family. In adolescence, they may show
patterns of truancy and delinquency.
Indulgent Parenting
A style of parenting in which parents are highly involved with their children,
but place few demands or controls on them. Indulgent parenting is associated
with children’s social incompetence, especially a lack of self-control. The
result is that children never learn to control their own behavior and always
expect to get their way. Children of indulgent parents may be aggressive,
domineering, and noncompliant.
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The Basics of Child Abuse
It is estimated that as many as 500,000 children are physically abused every
year. Experts believe that the view that parents who abuse their children are
bad, sick, monstrous, sadistic individuals, who cause their children to suffer is
too simple. The most common form of abuse is not a raging uncontrolled
physical abuser, but an overwhelmed single mother in poverty who neglects
the child.
The Multifaceted Nature of Abuse
Developmentalists are increasingly using the term child maltreatment rather
than child abuse. The term does not have the same emotional impact of
abuse, and acknowledges that maltreatment involves a number of different
conditions:
• Physical and sexual abuse
• The fostering of delinquency
• Lack of supervision
• Medical, educational, and nutritional neglect
• Drug and alcohol abuse
Severity of Abuse
Less than 1% of maltreated children die. Eleven percent suffer lifethreatening, disabling injuries. Almost 90% of cases suffer temporary physical
injuries, although they tend to be experienced repeatedly. Neglected
children, who suffer no physical injuries, often experience extensive, longterm psychological harm.
The Cultural Context of Abuse
The extensive violence that takes place in American culture is reflected in the
occurrence of violence in the family. This contrasts with China, where physical
punishment is rarely used as discipline and the incidence of child abuse is
reported to be very low. Many abusive parents report not having sufficient
resources or help from others. Community support systems are important in
alleviating stressful family situations.
Family Influences
To understand abuse in the family, the interactions of all family members need
to be considered, regardless of who actually performs the violence. About
one-third of parents who were abused when they were young abuse their
own children. Mothers who break out of the intergenerational transmission
of abuse often have at least one warm, caring adult in their background, have
a close, positive marital relationship, and have received therapy.
Developmental Consequences of Abuse
Maltreated children show poor emotion regulation. They show attachment
problems, as they are typically categorized as disorganized. They have
problems in peer relations due to their aggressiveness, avoidance, and
aberrant responses to distress and positive approaches from peers. They have
difficulty in adapting to school due to problematic interactions with teachers.
Other psychological problems: anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, and
delinquency.
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Birth Order
When differences in birth order are found, they are usually explained by
variations in interactions with parents and siblings associated with the unique
experiences of being in a particular position in the family. Given the
differences in family dynamics involved in birth order, it is not surprising that
firstborns and later-borns have different characteristics. Birth order alone is
often not a good predictor of behavior.
Firstborns Versus Later-Borns
Parents have higher expectations for firstborns. They put more pressure on
them for achievement and responsibility. They also interfere more with their
activities. Firstborn children are more adult-oriented, helpful, conforming,
anxious, and self-controlled than their siblings. Parents give more attention to
firstborns; this is related to firstborns’ nurturant behavior. Due to the
pressure placed on them, firstborns have more guilt, anxiety, and difficulty in
coping.
The Only Child
Only children are often achievement-oriented and display a desirable
personality, especially in comparison with later-borns and children from large
families. They are very similar to first borns.
The Middle Child
Middle children tend to be peacemakers. They may be the class clown or get
into mild trouble in a bid for attention.
The Youngest Child
The youngest child is often allowed to make more mistakes than the others
because he/she’s “just a baby”. This child may grow up to be less responsible
than the other children.
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Working Parents
Because household operations have become more efficient and family size
has decreased in America, it is not certain that when both parents work
outside the home that children actually receive less attention. Mothering
does not always have a positive effect on the child. The rigid gender
stereotyping perpetuated by the divisions of labor in the traditional family is
not appropriate for the demands that will be made on children of either sex as
adults.
Effects of Divorce on Children
Children’s Adjustment in Divorced Families
Most researchers agree that children from divorced families show poorer
adjustment than their counterparts in nondivorced families. Children in
divorced families are more likely to have academic problems, to act out and
be delinquent, and to experience depression and anxiety. They are likely to be
less socially responsible, and to have less competent intimate relationships, as
well as become sexually active earlier. They are more likely to take drugs and
have low self-esteem.
Other Findings
The majority of children in divorced families do not have these problems. The
weight of research underscores that most children competently cope with
their parents’ divorce, but that significantly more children from divorced
families have adjustment problems (20- 25%) than children from nondivorced
families (10%).
Should Parents Stay Together for the Sake of Their Children?
If the stresses and disruptions in family relationships associated with an
unhappy , conflictual marriage that erode the well-being of children are
reduced by the move to a divorced, single-parent family, divorce may be
advantageous. If the diminished resources and increased risks associated with
divorce also are accompanied by inept parenting and sustained or increased
conflict, the best choice for the children would be for an unhappy marriage to
be retained.
How Much Do Family Processes Matter in Divorced Families?
Family processes matter a great deal in divorce. In the year following divorce,
a disequilibrium, based partly on diminished parenting skills, occurs. By 2
years after the divorce, restabilization has occurred and parenting skills have
improved.
How Much Do Family Processes Matter in Divorced Families?
About 25% of children from divorced families become disengaged from their
families. This disengagement is higher for boys than girls. If there is a caring
adult outside the home, the disengagement might be a positive experience.
What Factors Are Involved in the Child’s Individual Risk and Vulnerability in a
Divorced Family?
• The child’s adjustment prior to the divorce
• The child’s personality
• The child’s temperament
• The child’s gender
• The custody situation
What Role Does Socioeconomic Status Play in the Lives of Children in Divorced
Families?
Custodial mothers experience the loss of about one-quarter to one-half of
their pre-divorce income, compared to a loss of only one-tenth by custodial
fathers. The income loss for mothers is accompanied by increased workloads,
high rates of job instability, and residential moves to less desirable
neighborhoods with inferior schools.
Cultural and Ethnic Variations in Families
• The role of the father in the family
• The extent to which support systems are available to families
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• The ways in which children should be disciplined
• Discipline styles (Praise and reasoning vs. criticism and physical
punishment)
• Views on education (Encouraged by both teachers and parents vs. teacher’s
responsibility)
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Peer Relations
Good peer relations appear to be necessary for normal social development.
Children who are rejected by peers are at risk for depression. Aggressive
children are at risk for many problems.
Play
Play is a pleasurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake. It is exciting
and pleasurable in itself because it satisfies our exploratory drive.
Play’s Functions
• Increases affiliation with peers and increases the opportunity for
interaction
• Releases tension
• Advances cognitive development due to its symbolic and make-believe
components
• Provides an opportunity to practice roles children will assume later in life
• Offers the possibilities of novelty, uncertainty, surprise, and incongruity
Parten’s Classic Study of Play
• Unoccupied play - the child is not engaging in play as it is commonly
understood.
• Solitary play - the child plays alone and independently of others. More
frequent in 2- to 3-year-olds than older children.
• Onlooker play - the child watches other children play, but may still talk and
ask questions.
• Parallel play - the child plays separately from others, but with similar toys
or in a manner that mimics their play.
• Associative play - involves social interaction with little or no organization.
• Cooperative play - involves social interaction in a group with a sense of
group identity and organized activity.
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Sensorimotor and Practice Play
• Sensorimotor play - behavior engaged in by infants to derive pleasure from
exercising their existing sensorimotor schemas.
• Practice play - the repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned
or when physical or mental mastery and coordination of skills are required
for games or sports.
Sensorimotor play, which often involves practice play, is primarily confined to
infancy, while practice play can be engaged in throughout life.
Pretense/Symbolic Play
Pretense/symbolic play - occurs when the child transforms the physical
environment into a symbol. Between 9 and 30 months of age, children
increase their use of objects in symbolic play. Experts consider the preschool
years the “golden age” of pretense/symbolic play. In the early elementary
school years, children’s interest often shift to games.
Social Play
Social play - involves social interaction with peers. Parten’s categories are
oriented toward social play. Social play with peers increases dramatically
during the preschool years. Rough-and-tumble play appears at this time.
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Constructive Play
Combines sensorimotor and practice repetitive activity with symbolic
representation of ideas. Occurs when children engage in self-regulated
creation or construction of a product or a problem solution. Increases in the
preschool years. A frequent form of play in the elementary school years.
Games
Games - activities engaged in for pleasure. They include rules and often
competition with one or more individuals. Games play a big part in the lives
of elementary school children, with one study finding the highest incidence of
game playing occurred between 10 and 12 years of age.
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Television’s Many Roles
• Negative influences: taking children away from homework, making them
passive learners, teaching them stereotypes, providing them with violent
models of aggression, and presenting them with unrealistic views of the
world.
• Positive influences: presenting motivating educational programs, increasing
information about the world beyond children’s immediate environment,
and providing models of prosocial behavior.
Amount of Television Watching by Children
In the 1990s, children averaged 11-28 hours of television per week, which is
more than for any other activity except sleep. Considerably more children in
the U.S. than their counterparts in other developed countries watch television
for long periods. A special concern is the extent to which children are
exposed to violence and aggression on television, even in cartoons.
Effects of Television on Children’s Aggression
Several studies have demonstrated the relationships between the amount of
violence viewed on television and subsequent aggressive and violent behavior.
These studies are correlational, thus the only conclusion can be that television
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violence is associated with aggressive behavior, not that it causes aggressive
behavior. Many experts argue that TV violence can induce aggressive or
antisocial behavior in children.
Effects of Television on Children’s Prosocial Behavior
Television can teach children that it is better to behave in positive, prosocial
ways than in negative, antisocial ways. Children who watched episodes of
“Sesame Street” that reflected positive social interchanges copied the
behaviors and, in later social situations, applied the prosocial lessons they had
learned.
Television and Cognitive Development
Children’s greater attention to television and their less complete and more
distorted understanding of what they view suggest that they may miss some
of the positive aspects of television and be more vulnerable to its negative
aspects. Regular television is negatively related to children’s creativity,
however, educational programming may promote creativity and imagination
due to its slower pace and coordination of video and audio input. Television is
primarily a visual modality, thus verbal skills are enhanced more by aural or
print exposure.
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