Physical & Cognitive Development (2-6 yrs.)

Página 1

Physical Development

Physical Growth:

Boys are generally bigger than girls

Loss of baby weight

Loss of baby teeth

The brain is well developed

Nutrition:

Getting a well balanced meal is difficult

Children likely to be consumers of bad food because it is used as bribery for children in order to solicit good behavior

Immunizations:

Children living in low socioeconomic status households are particularly at risk of not being vaccinated due to factors such as price, time, and convenience.

Some parents opt out of vaccinations for fear of adverse affects

Injuries:

Very easy time for children to get hurt

Imitation of dangerous behavior puts them at risk. Ex: Jumping off of the bed because their older brother did it.

Gross vs. Fine motor skills

Gross: Big athletic abilities such as running, skipping, climbing, jumping, etc. Boys have the advantage here.

Fine: Skills involving coordination such as writing, cutting with scissors, buttoning shirts, etc. Girls have the advantage here.

Página 2

Cognitive Development

Make believe play

This is the most common form of children's play

Contributes to the development of creativity

Examples: Playing doctor, house, teacher

Egocentrism

Children can't yet understand that others have a different perception of reality from their own

Animistic Thinking

The habit of attributing human characteristics and emotions to inanimate objects

Personalizing of objects

Example: Feeling sorry for a broken toy

Conservation:

Definition: the child understands that changing the form of a substance or object does not change its amount

At this age, children cannot tell "what object is bigger" or "which has more"

Appearance VS. Reality

At this age, children are unable to distinguish between real and fake

Example: Child won't distinguish between toy food and real food. They may try to eat the toy food as well.

Private speech

Verbal processing of thought

Children at this age say what they think out loud. A thought is not a thought to them until it comes out of their mouth.

Discipline is a major area of concern when dealing with verbal private speech since children may say inappropriate things, causing embarrassment or frustration to parents.

Scaffolding

A learning process designed to promote a deeper level of learning.

Scaffolding requires active parental involvement where they teach skills little by little through modeling and coaching

Parents or teachers help children master a task through providing support

Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory

An emerging theory in psychology that looks at the important contributions that society makes to individual development.

Parents, caregivers, peers and the culture at large were responsible for the development of higher order functions in children.

Children learn by watching and participation. They would also learn from TV and media examples.

Guided participation: Someone who is advanced in a skill teaches someone who is less skilled.

Literacy: Children are in the first stages of learning to read. Memorization, phonetics, and recognition of words are all key elements that precede the ability to read.

Math: Children are able to use ordinal numbers ("first", "second", etc.), but cannot actually count yet. Cardinality, the ability to tell which numbers are bigger, is also present at this age.

Language and grammar are learned through hearing and engaging in conversation, especially with parents.

Página 3

Emotional Development

Erikson's stage: Initiative vs. Guilt

Initiative is being able to say "I can do it myself"; Guilt is when a child says "I can't do it (right)"

When a child chooses guilt, it prohibits them from successfully passing to the next stage of development

Self-Concept: The description of who you are and what you are through a set of attributes.

Examples: "I am a nurse", "I am a female", "I am a Latina"

Self-concept can be changed whenever roles are changed.

Self-Esteem: A person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value; Our perception of those attributes that make up our self-concept.

Vital to choosing "initiative". If a child ends up choosing guilt, at the next "crisis" of industry vs. inferiority, they will end up choosing "inferiority"

Affects emotional development, behavior, and psychological adjustment

Children in early childhood begin to understand and recognize emotions in themselves and in others. At this age, children will often comfort each other or comfort a loved one, such as their mother. They will comfort those around them in the same way that they have been comforted. They learn these comforting techniques from their parents.

Self-conscious emotions:

A child becomes aware of emotions

More attention is given to how others see them

Children learn to control themselves (e.g. not throwing tantrums whenever) and learn to express feelings to parents

Shame and guilt:

Shame: Negative feelings that are directly about oneself; Painful feelings about oneself as a person. Ex: "You are bad, you are wrong"

Guilt: Negative feelings that are a direct result of an action against another person. Painful feelings of regret and responsibility for actions. Ex: "What you did was wrong"