Psych140 Module 4 - Early Childhood - Portage Learning

Psych140 Module 4 - Early Childhood - Portage Learning gross motor skills in early childhood Ans- throwing a ball, hopping, catching a ball, running, and kicking a ball fine motor skills in early childhood Ans- cutting paper, pasting, pouring, building blocks, lacing, cutting along a line, writing a name, tracing, coloring 2-3 years gross & fine motor skills Ans- gross: jump, throw/catch ball fine: zip/unzip, use a spoon 3-4 years gross & fine motor skills Ans- gross: walk upstairs alternating both feet, walk downstairs one foot leading, throw/catch ball fine: scissors, button 4-5 years gross & fine motor skills Ans- gross: walk upstairs and downstairs alternating feet, catch ball with hands fine: use a fork, cut on a line with scissors 5-6 years gross & fine motor skills Ans- gross: skip, ride a bike fine: tie shoes, write numbers & basic words brain development in early childhood Ans- further development of neurons at synapses, myelination, synaptic pruning preoperational stage Ans- in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic substages of preoperational stage Ans- symbolic function and intuitive thought symbolic function substage Ans- (ages 2-4( Child continues to develop the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present, working towards abstract thought but not there yet At the beginning of the preoperational stage, how do children often play? Ans- parallel play (in same room as other children but play next to them rather than with them) What is the main function of a child's speech during the preoperational stage? Ans- to externalize the child's thinking rather than to communicate with others. egocentrism Ans- the preoperational child's difficulty of taking another's point of view animism Ans- a child's belief that inanimate objects can have human-like qualities such as feelings intuitive thought Ans- (ages 4-7) children start to develop reasoning ability to help fulfill the desire to answer questions centration Ans- in Piaget's theory, the tendency of a young child to focus only on one feature of an object while ignoring other relevant features When a child can focus on more than one aspect of a situation at the same time, they have the ability to __________. Ans- decenter conservation Ans- the understanding that physical properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in appearance Centration prevents _______. Ans- conservation What features of Piaget's theory have been influential in how teachers are trained to work with young children? Ans- • Teachers should be aware of a child's readiness to learn (don't rush) • Learning through exploring the environment (discovery learning) • Recognize individual differences in learning, don't compare to national norms but rather compare current progress to previous development Lev Vygotsky Ans- emphasized that cognitive development always occurs in a social context and with collaborative learning; zone of proximal development; scaffolding zone of proximal development Ans- the difference between what children can do with assistance and what they can do alone scaffolding Ans- Adjusting the support offered by a teacher to fit the child's current level of performance Contrast Piaget's and Vygoysky's theories of education. Ans- • For Piaget, language is seen as secondary to action, i.e., thought precedes language. Vygotsky argues that the development of language and thought go together and that the origin of reasoning is more to do with our ability to communicate with others than with our interaction with the material world. • Piaget believed cognitive development follows universal stages while Vygotsky believed it is dependent on social context with no stages. Compare Piaget's and Vygoysky's theories of education. Ans- Both theories view children as actively constructing their own knowledge of the world; they are not seen as just passively absorbing knowledge. They also agree that cognitive development involves qualitative changes in thinking, not only a matter of learning more things. gender vs. sex Ans- Gender refers to the social dimensions of being male or female. One's sex refers to biological dimensions. biological influences on gender Ans- 23rd pair of chromosomes determines how our sex and sex hormones influence the development of sex characteristics social influences on gender Ans- parents, teachers, peer groups, and the media treat girls and boys differently cognitive influences on gender Ans- Children obtain knowledge from the world about gender and incorporate this into their own understanding. They may ch