Lifespan Development Exam 2 Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Dr. Alley's lecture ...

Description

Exam 2 Notes Intellectual Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood Theoretical Approaches to Studying Intellectual Development: ➔ Learning theory: can learn from our experiences and focuses on how we learn ◆ Classical conditioning (Pavlov) ● Even toddlers can learn things like fear when paired with a stimulus ◆ Operant conditioning ● Behaviors can be reinforced and increased in likelihood ◆ Observational conditioning ● Behaviors can be observed and imitated ➔ Psychometric theory: attempts to quantify intelligence; individual makes up an intelligence test and the score the taker gets is thought to reflect how smart they are; looking at individual differences ◆ Classifying intelligence tests ● Aptitude and achievement tests ○ Aptitude tests are intended to predict your ability to learn a new skill (IQ test); designed to predict a person’s future performance or one’s capacity to learn ○ Achievement tests are designed to assess what a person already has learned, that is, their current level of competence ● Individually and group administered tests ○ Group tests = administered to a group of individuals all at the same time and place; cost effective method ○

Individual tests = administered to one individual at a time by one tester; more reliable and valid estimate of the person’s level of intelligence

◆ Wechsler tests (David Wechsler) ● Most commonly used tests of intelligence ● Individually administered aptitude (IQ) tests ● WPPSI = Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scales of Intelligence (3-6 years)

● WISC = Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (6-18 years) ● WAIS = Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (18 years and up) ○ All three tests are made up of 2 scales (verbal scale and performance scale); each scale has subsets within them ○ They differ in terms of the questions being asked ◆ Psychometric properties of intelligence tests ● Standardization ○ Process of establishing “norms” for a test ○ Administer test to a large representative sample of the population ○ Obtain “norms” or “standards” ○ Compare test scores to “norms” (figure out what percentile you are at in comparison to the average test score) ● Reliability ○ Refers to consistency; not necessarily valid ○ Test-retest reliability ◆ Took a test last week, in two weeks time you take the same test and look to see if there is a relationship between the two tests ◆ If there is consistency over time, there will be some relationship between the two tests ○ Internal consistency ◆ Refers to consistency within a test ◆ The test we took had 50 questions, if it was divided in 2 (25 odd and 25 even questions), take the score from each of these two groups and if there is consistency within the test, there should be some relationship between the two parts of the test (it won’t be perfect but there will be some relationship) ● Validity ○ Degree to which test measures what it is supposed to measure ○ Valid tests are reliable but reliable tests are not necessarily valid

○ Not perfectly predicted, but has some predictive validity ○ In order for a test to be valid, it must first be reliable ◆ Stability of intelligence scores ● By the time children are 5, scores begin to have a little bit of predictive validity ● As the child gets older, scores becomes more and more predictive of intelligence ● Not until they are 7 is there any stability or significant predictability of what their adult intelligence is going to be ◆ Bayley Scales of Infant Development ● Assesses the current developmental status of children from 1 month to 3.5 years of age ● Used primarily with children at risk for abnormal development ● Renormed based on 2000 U.S. census ● Assesses cognitive, motor, and social-emotional development ➔ Piagetian theory ◆ Overview ● In the 1920s, Piaget believed that children think in a qualitatively different way than adults ● Piaget believed that as we grow, we move through a sequence of cognitive stages ● The stage that most closely overlaps with infancy and toddlerhood is the sensorimotor stage ◆ Sensorimotor stage = first two years of life; children learn about their world through their senses and their actions ● Object permanence = thought to occur at about 8 months of age ○ This is the awareness that objects exist even when they are not directly seen ○ It is thought that children understand this around 3-4 months (much earlier than Piaget thought) ● Stranger anxiety = thought to occur at about 8-9 months of age ○ Happens when someone new comes into their presence and they get frightened, anxious

○ Piaget thought this was very normal ● Causality = one event causes another event ○ Piaget believed that this developed between 4-6 months of age ○ At about 10 months, children begin to perform mini experiments; they look for causality, cause and effect ◆ Ex. flipping the switch, the lights go off ● Limited representational ability ○ Limited capacity to mentally represent objects and actions in their memory system ○ Occurs when children begin to learn words ○ Ex. they know what a chair looks like and they learn to that image associate with the word ‘chair’ ◆ His theory is accepted, but with a lot of modification ● It is thought that children actually move through the parts of the sensorimotor stage much earlier than Piaget had thought ➔ Information-processing theory ◆ Overview ● Newest theory ● Focuses on memory, problem solving, learning and perceptions ● Interested in understanding what we do with information from the time that we perceive it to the time that we actually use the information to solve problems ● Interested in how we perceive information, how we store information in our memory and then how we use the information ● Concerned with what goes on in our brain ● This approach is interested in individual difference ● Focus is on how efficient an individual is at processing information ○ The more efficient you are, the better able you are to accurately process what is out there in the real world ● This can be applied to infants ◆ Assessing the efficiency of information processing skills ● Habituation

○ How quickly babies habituate is one way of assessing how efficient a baby is at information processing ○ Habituation is a type of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus results in reduced response to that stimulus ○ To measure habituation in infants, we monitor responses when presented with a novel and then familiar stimulus ◆ Heart-rate (new pictures makes their heart rate increase) ◆ Eye movement ◆ Brain activity (as the child habituates, the brain activity decreases) ◆ Sucking ● When they are listening to a stranger’s voice, they stop sucking because it is new and different and they want to be able to process it; the more they listen to it the more familiar it gets, then they start to suck again ● When they hear their mother’s voice, it is old and familiar and the baby feels comfortable sucking continuously ● Visual novelty preference ○ Refers to how much time babies spend looking at new as opposed to familiar sights ○ This is a second way at assessing how efficient a baby is at information processing ● Attention recovery abilities ○ How fast babies’ attention recovers when exposed to new stimuli ○ The third way of assessing how efficient a baby is at information processing ●

These measures show promise as a predictor of later intelligence

Development of Language: ➔ Stages

◆ Prespeech (prelinguistic) ● Includes crying, cooing, babbling, imitation ● Young babies can perceive speech, they don’t understand it ● Cries vary in pattern, pitch, intensity ● A mom and dad are quickly going to learn to discriminate the cries (sometimes hungry, sometimes needs to have diaper changed, sometimes are bored) ● Children very early on will make a response to a sound that they hear ● At around 9 months of age, they are beginning to use gestures to speak (they imitate sounds) ◆ First words ● Occurs at about 10-14 months of age ● First form of linguistic speech ○ The use of spoken language in order to convey meaning ● Over the course of time, their vocabulary will increase ◆ First sentences ● Occurs at about 18-24 months of age ● The process of putting at least two words together ● Ex. “me eat” ◆ Early syntax ● Occurs at about 20-30 months of age ● Child is going to acquire the fundamentals of syntax (word order) ● They are going to start putting words in the right order ● By the time they are 3 years old, their speech and sentences are becoming longer, complex ○ Toddlers can say up to about 1000 words ➔ Characteristics of early speech ◆ Simplification ● Toddlers use what we call telegraphic speech (they use only enough words to get their message across) ◆ Understanding of grammatical relationships they cannot yet express ● Toddlers can understand more than they can express ● Receptive vocabulary (that which they can understand) is going to be

greater than their expressive vocabulary (that which they can express) ◆ Underextension of word meanings ● Children restrict a word to a single object or person ◆ Overextension of word meanings ● Applying a word to more than one object or person ◆ Overregulation of rules ● They apply the rules that they learn very rigidly ● Don’t recognize that some of the rules in our language have exceptions ○ I thinked (instead of I thought) ➔ Language Acquisition Device (LAD): Chomsky ◆ Theorized that babies are born with a LAD; a neurological capacity to develop language ◆ In order to fully develop their language skills, children need to socially interact (they need to practice speaking with someone) ➔ Motherse/Parentese/Child-Directed Speech ◆ The use of very short words, simple sentences, a high pitched tone, repetition, exaggeration of vowel sounds ◆ Infants prefer simplified, motherese speech (baby talk) ● Highly engaging and entertaining ◆ Results in better learning ● Experts believe babies will speak sooner and better if exposed to motherese ◆ Most adults and older siblings use motherese very naturally with babies Development of Competence: ➔ Competence is the acquisition of intellectual and social skills ➔ Harvard Preschool Research Project (White) ◆ Done by Burton White and his colleagues ◆ Longitudinal study ◆ Wanted to try to figure out why some children function better than others (why some seem to be more competent than others) ◆ Started with 400 preschool children and rated them based on their cognitive

and social skills and put them in one of three groups ● A group = children who seemed quite socially adept and showed a wide range of intellectual abilities ● C group = children who were deficient in their social skills and intellectual skills ●

B group = children that fell somewhere in between A group and C group

◆ White considered the children in the A group and C group and looked at their home environment to see if he could determine what was causing the difference in their levels of competence ● He concluded that the difference was due to parenting style ○ Children in the A group had parents who used a more effective parenting style and as a result the children developed a higher level of competence ➔ The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) (Bradley) ◆

A measure/research tool

◆ Used in a lot of different studies ◆ Tried to assess the home environment ◆ Considered 4 different factors ● A scale of parental responsiveness ○ Experiments would observe the mom, the dad, and they would rate them on how responsive they were ● Counted the number of books ○ Books might encourage intellectual development ● Looked for the presence of challenging toys ● Assessed the parents involvement in the child’s play (what was their degree of involvement) ◆ The findings of this measure were very similar to the findings made by Burton White

Psychosocial Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Mother-Child Relationship: ➔ What is attachment? (page 48) ◆ Intense and emotional relationship; a bond that ties them together; very adaptive ◆ Child is fed, changed, entertained, etc. because of this relationship ➔ Ainsworth’s research on attachment ◆ Strange situation ● Studied and observed the relationship between the mother and the child in laboratory setting ○ Used multiple scenarios in which mother would leave and come back ◆ Patterns of attachment ● Securely attached = represents about 2/3rds of all babies; most adaptive of all attachments; most cooperative and generally the happiest, used mom as a base to which to explore ● Avoidant = did not reach out to mom when upset and did not like being held ● Ambivalent = did very little exploration, harder to comfort ● Disorganized-disoriented = least secure pattern ◆ Changes in how to determine the type of attachment ● Used to look at child’s relationship at time of separation from the mother to determine type of attachment ● Now look at the child’s reaction upon the mother’s return to determine type of attachment ➔ How is attachment established? ◆ Role of the mother ● Affectionate, attentive, and responsive to baby’s needs ◆ Role of the baby ● Engages in attachment behaviors such as crying, smiling, and clinging ○ Any kind of behavior or response that elicits a response from the mother ➔ Long-term effects of early, secure attachment on later development ◆ A child who is securely attached with their mom in infancy is more likely to be

more curious, competent, and get along better with their peers in childhood ◆ More likely to be self-reliant and more adaptable in middle childhood ◆ Tend to have a higher self-esteem and better peer relationships

Father-Child Relationship: ➔ What is engrossment? ◆ When the dad is preoccupied and interested in what the child is doing ◆ Gets established at about the same time that attachment between the mother and infant is formed ◆ Babies generally prefer their mom to their dad ➔ How do fathers interact with their infants? ◆ More often times going to play with their children compared to mother’s caring for their child’s needs ◆ Have the potential to be very bit of attentive to child’s need as the mother, but often times are not ◆ Tend to play more physical compared to how mother’s play with their children ➔ Cross-cultural differences in fathers ◆ In some countries, dads do not play more physical with their children Disturbances in Family Relationships: ➔ Loss of parents ◆ Institutionalization and the Spitz (1940s) research study ● One group had consistent care-taking done early in life ● Another group was taken care of in small groups, but by inconsistent and non-continuous caregivers ○ These children were physically less developed; smaller in size, more prone to disease and getting sick; more likely to have psychological problems and intellectual deficits; most impact on very young children ○ Frequent change in caregivers did not allow these children to establish attachment to any one individual ● Another group had been taken care of by their parents at home ◆ Hospitalization and the Bowlby (1960s) research study

● Children would protest in the first stage; shake the crib, scream and cry ● Babies withdraw in second stage; cry less or more quietly, assumed that they are adapting ● Babies start responding again in third stage (apathy, detachment); do not respond to mother and father upon return ➔ Child abuse and neglect (page 49) ◆ Four forms ◆ Frequency ● In the 1980s, is was estimated that 2 million children were being physically abused by their parents, today it is estimated that 4 million children are being physically abused by their parents; large majority are 3 years old ● 90% of abuse occurs at home ● If only focusing on sexual abuse, the perpetator is most likley the father ● If all four forms of abuse are used, the perpetrator is most likely the mother ◆ Recognition as a social problem ● Kemp (pediatrician) suggested that children were being physically abused at home; coined the term “battered child syndrome” and raised the idea that abuse was a social issue that needed attention ◆ Misconceptions ● Many believe in the psychaitric model of child abuse that suggests that parents who abuse their children are intellectually disabeld, psychotic, or are criminals ○ No evidence to support this model ● Many believe that child abuse is rare and only occurs within poor and disadvantged groups ○ Child abuse cuts across all demographic groups ◆ Characteristics of abusive parents ● Many experienced abuse during their own childhood ● Many have a negative perception of their child ● Many experience stress and crisis in their own lives

● Many lack support of family and friends ◆ Effects of abuse on child ● Children who are abused are more like to suffer from behavioral problems, social problems, and emotional problems ● Short term effects include developing a conduct disorder; anxiety and depression; difficulty interacting with their peers; more likely to be overly aggressive ● Long term effects include being more likely to abuse their own children/partner; manifest this behavior in the real world ◆ Intervention ● Early detection is key ● Requires that people report cases of suspected abuse ● Experts believe parents who abuse their children can be helped ○ Can be taught parenting skills ○ Can undergo therapy ○ Can establish a support group ● If child is taken out of the home, the goal is to eventually reunite parent and child but parent rights may be terminated in some cases Relationships with Other Children: ➔ Siblings ◆ Sibling relationships tend to be much more affectionate ➔ Sociability ◆ Child’s interest in other children ◆ Tends to increase as child gets older; increases in toddlerhood ◆ Children with sociable moms tend to be more sociable themselves

Physical Development in Early Childhood (Ages 3-6, preschool and kindergarten) Physical Growth and Change:

➔ Height, weight, and appearance ◆ At 3 years of age their body shape has changed ◆ Start looking like mini adult ● More of an athletic appearance ◆ Head becomes more proportional ◆ Grow about 2-3 inches every year ◆

Gain 4-6 lbs every year

◆ Boys on average are taller and heavier than girls ➔ Structural and systemic changes ◆ Body systems growing stronger, child is stronger ◆ More stamina ◆

Motor skills are developing

◆

Immune system becoming healthier

➔ Development of teeth ◆ All of the baby (primary) teeth are in place by the time the child is 3 years old ◆ By 6 years of age, permanent teeth start to come in if not already ◆ If child is still sucking their thumb at the age of 5, their teeth might not come in straight Health: ➔ Health problems ◆ Minor illnesses ● Small children in early childhood get sick a lot (7-8 times per year) ● Respiratory problems are common ◆ Major illnesses ● Vaccines had basically eliminated major diseases until recently ○ 25% of people will not vaccinate their children ● Increase in AIDs, obesity and malnutrition

◆ Accidents ● Leading cause of death in early childhood is accidents ● Most typically car accidents ○ Every state has laws for children to be in car seats

➔ Influences on health ◆ Exposure ● The young child is exposed to other people, other situations, other infections/illnesses ◆ Stress ● If the family is experiencing some stress, it means they are probably less likely to tend to the needs of their children ● If mom and dad are in the process of getting a divorce, they are not focused on their children, they are focused on themselves; puts the child at greater risk of getting sick ◆ Poverty ● Chief factor of illness in young children ● Young children are the largest poverty group in the United States ● If mom and dad don’t have a lot of money, they can’t provide the proper clothing, food, can’t afford medicine/doctors appointments, etc. ◆ Homelessness ● Children are particularly vulnerable if they are homeless ○ Families with small children compromise the large majority of homeless families ○ Most homeless children are under the age of 3 Motor Skills: ➔ Gross and fine motor skills ◆ 3 year olds ● Cannot stop or turn suddenly or quickly ● Can ascend stairway, alternating feet unaided ● Can draw circles ● Can button and unbutton ◆ 4 year olds ● Have more ...