Chapter 1 the Science of human development notes and Born to Learn documentary PDF

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Chapter 1 the Science of human development notes and Born to Learn documentary...

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Chapter 1: The Science of Human Development  One lesson from human development is that everyone should consider the perspective of everyone else Science of human development: seeks to understand how and why people change over time or remain the same over time , the goal is for everyone of all age and cultures, and aspirations to have a happy and productive meaningful life. Developments over the life span is multi directional, contextual, cultural and plastic Empirical evidence: evidence that s based on observation, experience, or experiment; not just theory or opinion. (science-based_ Scientific Method  Curiosity (pose a question)  Develop a hypothesis (prediction tested or proved)  Test hypothesis. Gather empirical evidence ( evidence that is based on observation, experience, or experiment; not just theory or opinion: science-based)  Draw conclusions  Report results  Replication (sixth and crucial step) (repeating a study usually using different participants, perhaps of another age, socioeconomic status, or culture.) The Nature Nurture question  Nature: refers to the influence of the genes that people inherit. Thus raits capacities and limitations inherited at conception are nature.  Nurture: environmental influences that occur after conception, from the mother's nutrition while pregnant to the culture of the nation.  Nature always affects nurture, and then nurture affects nature, there is no how much factor- explosive interaction is crucial.  Epigenetics (study related to nature and nurture): the study of how environmental factors affect genes and genetic expression- enhancing, halting, shaping, or altering the expression of genes. (loneliness changes structures in the bran)  Differential susceptibility: The idea that people vary in how sensitive (for better or worse) they are to particular experiences, because of their genes or because of their past experiences (also called differential sensitivity)  Developmentalist use metaphor for two types of kids: come are like dandelions: those who seem to blossom no matter hwat kind of child rearing they experience and orchids are those who needs intense care and end up withering without it.  Children with serotonin gene were orchids and likely to be emotionally immature if their mothers were depressed but more mature than average if their mothers were not depressed.  Life Span Perspective: An approach to the study of human development that includes all phases from conception to death. Led to the realization that human development is multi directional, contextual, cultural and plastic Development Is multi directional:  All development advances until about 18 steadies and then declines is REFUTED  Multiple changes in every direction: if human traits were charted some traits would disappear, with increase, decreases, and zig zags  Change occurs rapidly and dramatically, sometimes continuity is found, growth can be gradual  Stability is possible chromosomal sex is lifelong  Life span theorist see gains and losses throughout life and often at same time

Critical Periods: time when a particular development must occur, If it does not as when something toxic prevents that growth then it cannot develop later.  Changes can be sudden because of the critical period  After day 54 of pregnancy the critical period is over, this is the period for humans to grow arms and legs, hands and feet. (we know this because of thalidomide anti nausea medication led to deformed limbs) Sensitive Periods: This occurs more easily, A time when a particular developmental growth is most likely to occur although it may still happen later.  If children do not communicate in their first language between 1 and 3 they might do later but grammar is impaired (sensitive). Similarly, childhood is a sensitive period for learning to speak a second or third language. A study of native Dutch speakers who became fluent in English found only 5 percent had truly mastered native English.  Sensitive periods occur at many ages and not just childhood. Development is Multi-contextual  Life span takes place within many contexts, including physical surroundings (climate, noise, population) , family configuration (married couple, single parent) - these contexts influence development sometimes for a moment or years.  Social contexts are powerful, nudging us to do what we do, Ecological Systems approach: A perspective on human development that considers all of the influences from the various contexts of development.  Bronfenbrenner recommended that developmentalists take an ecological systems approach which recognizes 3 nested levels that surround individuals and affect them. o Microsystems: each person's immediate surroundings, such as family and peer group o Exosystems: local institutions such as school and church o Macrosystems: larger social setting, cultural values, economic policies, and political processes. o Mesosystems: refer to interactions among systems, as when parents and teacher coordinate to educate a child. o Chronosystems: time systems: which encompasses historical conditions that affect each person. Bronfenbrenner renamed approach bioecological to highlight the role of biology. He recognized that systems within the body, affects the external contexts.  A contextual approach to development requires simultaneous consideration of may systems. Two contexts - historical and socioeconomic are crucial in understanding all of the systems of life- span development, yet The historical context: all people born within a few years of one another are said to be a cohort, a group defined by its members shared age, cohorts travel through life together, affected by the interaction of their chronological age with the values, events, tech, and culture of the era.  Adolescents are particularly affected by by historical shifts: example marijuana more and more students are using it. Socioeconomic Context: another influential context is economic reflected in a person;s socioeconomic status: A person's position in society as determined by income, occupation, education, and place of residence.

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SES brings opportunities or limitations- all affecting housing, health, knowledge, and habits. Poverty is a developmental issue as well as a personal one. Average income increases with age. Greatest gap in income is among the old. Unemployment rises as education falls, in the united states we are the most unequal among developed nations

Born to Learn: A baby's Brain  A work in progress: the only organ that is unfinished at birth. Billion of neurons are waiting to be wired together to create neural pathways  Constantly changing, and is adaptable,  Most important time period, sets up their potential contribution to society, ability to form relationships.  A baby's brain's job is to be born ready to learn o Its job is to form connections, to wire the brains network of neural pathways for processing information o Brain are ready to build networks to detect the systems, language and mannerisms  Why is this species, human beings that are so smart why are they born so immature? o Immaturity allows them to learn more, outside the womb, and that is a clever trick for ending up with a smart human being. Nature and Nurture  Genes are the seeds: potential, early experiences are the soil, and sun which will determine how the kid will grow  Choice points, where a child's experiences make the right decisions.  Rapid development occurs in the first three years of life by age three a child has more brain activity than an adult, over produces number of synaptic connections it will eventually need. It becomes dense and remains that way  The brain is getting ready for everything so the brain ahs more connections than it actually needs.  The process of the brain is to over proliferate then prune the one you don’t need. Repeated experiences determine which circuits stay in service the ones less experience will be pruned away. (The brain becomes customed design to function in its own environment. Plasticity

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The human brain is constantly changing, and very adaptable, those circuits are ecoclving and developing on a fly This flexibility makes the developing brain very vulnerable to both positive and negative experiences.

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Babies know more but they learn more rapidly than adults, why is the brain so opened to learning? o brains shaped by the language experience for the first seven years o A baby brain is selectively choosing sounds that they need for their native language  Language: Critical Period for Learning  Up until seven babies are good at learning languages but after seven their abilities decline, after puberty it falls off the map  At I lab - what sounds are used in their culture's languages: computational and social mechanisms are what babies use:  In the world of language they are sensitive to sounds and language coming through…  The baby brain recognizes the frequency of sounds before words, and the frequency of sounds changes their brain creating this more dedicated listener.  Babies put social brains to work,  Babies can distinguish sounds perfectly well, in the presence of a live huma being talking babies learned so well in eleven months they were indistinguishable from babies in those countries.  Will watching baby on tv do the something? Those babies learn nothing, live human being creates opportunity to put the computation genius at work. However adults statistics of language are to being picked up anymore.  In developing expertise we have lost some of that openness that the baby brain comes with and the ability to learn what is in front of you no matter what MEG Brain Imaging  Look at baby brains as they touch someone else… see a child's brain in action.  Images show how interconnected the brain really is.  7 monthers beginning to rehearse, so socially driven, sound of speech makes hem do similar things.  Talking to babies sing and rhyming teaches them about language.  Babies love to listen to parent ease: Animated; face and voice, picture contours are wildly gyrating and you speech is clearer. Does Parent Ease help the baby understand the language?  There is more babbling going on but language development at two is greatly advanced. 433 words by the age of two- Parent tease make a huge change to learning outcomes. Learning imitation  Showing babies gestures and that babies were able to imitate gestures of a human being.  Imitation is a key mechanism babies learn about all the interesting things in the world. Cause and Effect Experiments  Babies need to learn using cause and effect experiments (gravity example) Power of touch  If you foot is stimulated or you hand then your brain is stimulated.  No one knows the body maps of infants, when the mother hold the baby's hand lights upt the mothers brain and also lights up the parallel part of the baby's brain

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You can imagine when you touch the baby's hand you stimulate their brain; primitive sense of touch is a foundation for other social and emotional development. Right to left Brain thinking?  Emotional outlook is tied to every piece of learning; the full brain is involved in everything.  Are bilingual kids more smart/ creative? Connected in a way where more creative pathways are formed, language one and language two occur more in contexts Bilingual Brains (open longer Better a problem solving, More creative):  They learn over a longer period of time; broader opening, secondly more creative in problem solving, more creative in solving new problems  Baby brain neurons are like young tree saplings, by the time they group there is like a forest canopy of neuros.  Dendrites grow rapidly in early development, by age three the brain wil have grown to eighty percent and age 5 - 90 percent  Most brain cells do not reproduce themselves by six months the babies have all the neurons that they have.  Myelin insulates axons, continues ll the ay into our mid twenties. Hwne a brain area is myelinated it loses plasticity Myelination: affected by experience, the more the teenager practiced piano the thicker myelination became Neuroplasticity: Malleability of a child's brain (flexibility)  A young brain is more plastic and opened to more rapid learning. Will I go right or left?  Massive growth of the branches that complete the wiring. Critical Period:  Baby's vision is not hardwired at birth, depends on, experience, call Strabismus they tend to squint that eye, and when you squint your eye you deprive your brain of vision, and when your brain is deprived of that electrical activity from the visual circuit, it literally cuts off the input, it literally loses connection to the eye. And if that problem is untreated in that child, for the first year or so of life, they can end up functionally blind in the eye. The eye may look fine, but the brain isn't getting the connection. Brain Building:  Step by step process, simple neural pathways form first and then more complex ones.  The brain builds a firm foundation through serve and return reactions…  A caregiver and a child send various forms of communications: smile, touch, coo  Interactions build the child's skills and willingness to move forward, a caregiver noticing their interests and needs.  Interactions form the basis of brain development. Children learn best when they feel sense of safety and security within a relationship  Shapes the adult life and health, very impactful… What happens to the brain when the child does not get healthy "serve and return" interactions?  They miss healthy inputs and it can ignite their stress response system because what they are expecting to get is just not happening  Good kinds of stress and bad stress which is toxic stress; when a child suffered from ongoing hardships: abuse and so on(struggle in relationships with all sorts of people); unrelenting stress and raises your activation system: always stressed, always fight or flight, kids are either overly afraid, or nothing bothers them because they are over loaded.  Children experiencing a great deal of stress are overwhelmed so they cannot focus or learn  Children not only need enriching opportunity they need protection from sources of toxic stress.

Executive Function - Self control  If you are unable to pay attention because you are distracted (wont be successful  Helps kids get along with others, children who poor executive function skills have difficulty in friendships or peer learning situations, or organize behavior that is prosocial.  Cognitive and social development for children.  Children are not born with executive function - starts at the moment when kids interact with another person, so in infancy those responses, set the stage for executive function development; high spike preschool age group and after kids learn a language…  Those are things kids actively work on (develops the latest) Low income Babies:  Do not perform well academically, when does that start?  Executive function: what she found is differences by six months of age, how little they change from six to twelve months.  Attention behavior: how long can infants stay looking at the toy; selective exploration skills, does the infant explore the object? All of that info is active and purposeful  Most interventions begin in head start and early head start we miss prime opportunities, Interventions:  Troubled teens/ kids struggling with so many behavioral challenges, suffering tremendous pain.  All the teens had a traumatic early childhood, early childhood,  Courtney wants to work on the solution. Prevent the problem, One program is called FIND; using parents strength to encourage more responsive and frequent serve and return behaviors. Early Achievers  Training program for early learning professionals.  Mechanism to help boost quality in under resource environment  Data in an objective way to help programs understand that data for techniques and new ideas to help them think about quality improvement...