Chapter 6: 3-6 years old

Body Growth:
- continues to slow down (as compared to first year)
- loses body fat
o body proportion becomes similar to that of adults
- height/weight is lower in developing countries
- full set of 20 teeth ( fall off and replaced by 32 teeth)
Brain Development:
o growth of brain outpaces rest of body
increase in brain size due to increase in dendrite
connection between neurons and myelination
4 parts of brain notable for myelination:
corpus collossum: fiber connecting right and
left hemisphere
cerebellum : balance + motor movement
reticular formation: involved in attention
hippocampus: transfer of info from short long
term memory
o Frontal lobe grows fastest (responsible for emotional
regulation)
o Infantile amnesia:
Inability to remember anything before age 2
Eating Habits:
- may vary:
o food consumption may decrease, but Ok if not for long
period of time
- calcium is a major issue
- 80% of children in developing countries lack sufficient food or
essential nutrients
- especially protein and iron (anemia)
- Nutrition and malnutrition
Ouch:
- worse injury in childhood
o active children, limited cognition- cant foresee potential
dangerous situations
o this is a dangerous mix
- 1/3 children under 10 are injured enough for medical attention
- boys> girls
- in developing countries- not rough and tumble but motor vehicle
o not enough safety rules
o 97% still due to illness

o car accidents #1 in developed countries

Canada:
o Canada: unintentional injuries kills more 14 year olds than
all disease combined!
Almost 300 children die, 21,000 hospitalized/year
3 or 4 times greater among aboriginal communities
(under 10 fires and motor accidents)
other injuries: drowning, choking falls, fires

Motor Development:
Gross Motor:
- jumping, running, throwing ball
o father and more accurately
- boys: better at activities that need strength or size, jumping
throwing
- girls: better at body coordination- balancing on one foot
Fine motor:
- Toddlers- can pick up items with 2 fingers
- Now, quicker
- Can draw recognizable objects
- Dress themselves, brush teeth
- Handedness from birth: sucking thumb?
o 90% right handed
Handedness and culture:
- sinister: Latin for on the left
- left handed seen as evil: pictures of devil seen left handed
- left handedness: links with health problems : brain damage,
difficulty learning
- of leftys process language in both hemispheres rather than
primarily on left hemisphere
- leftys also associated with geniuses, show exceptional verbal
and math abilities
Cognitive Development:
Piaget: PRE-operational
- cognitive stage from 2-7
- child becomes capable of representing world symbolically
(limited in ability to use mental operations: cognitive procedures
that follow certain logical rules)
- sensorimotor: sense and motor activities:
o touching, grasping
- preoperational is representational (symbols)

o words represent an object/person

o can now use words to describe past present and future
mental operations: where things follow a logical rule (like
properties)
Operational: mental acts in which objects are changed and
transforms and can then be returned to their original states
Pre: before so not

Piaget specified a number of preoperational cognitive mistakes

in early childhood:
1) Conservation:
- understanding that quantity of a substance remains same even if
appearance changes
- 3-6 lack ability to understand conservation
- why?
o Centration: focus on one aspect (ie. height) and exclude
other important factors
o Lack reversibility:
Cant revers: thinking (from one cup to another)
2) Egocentrism:
ego= I
centrism: Centre
me, me, me
what I see, you see
3) Animism: attributing thoughts and feelings that they might have
themselves to objects
4) Classification:
3-6 lack this capacity
Sub-stages:
Sub-stage 1: symbolic function 92-4 years)
- able to use symbols to represent something- hair brush is a
cellphone
Sub-stage 2: intuitive though (4-7 years)
- ask why? to learn about the world
- they know things but don't know how they know-intuitive
o may understand conservation, but have a hard time
explaining it
Criticism of Piagets Theory:

underestimated cognitive abilities- occurring earlier, with less

mistakes (e.g., perspective taking)
o Development not in stages
empathy?
o Annoying siblings, perspective taking

Theory of Mind:
- ability to understand ones thinking process and others
- infancy:
o joint attention : so understand others have own thoughts,
intentions (brother is mad)
- pretend play:
o imaginary event and act as if real
o once realize that it is possible for them to imagine
something that is not physically present
- false beliefs tasks: smarties or crayons
o believe others will think they are crayons
Early Childhood Education:
- cultural learning is early childhood : early childhood period when
cultural learning comes to the force
- high capacity for learning culturally specific skills
- past kids started school at 7, now at 4
- Pros and cons of Preschool:
o Positive:
Higher verbal skills
Stronger performance on memory
Listening comprehension
Better on school readiness measures
Social: more dependent, socially confident
o Negative:
Less complaint
Less respectful
More aggressive
o All depends on quality
Qualified staff
Class size and child teacher ratio
No more than 20/classroom, up to 10/teacher
Age appropriate materials and activities
Teacher child interactions
o Cross-national variations:
Some countries emphasize academic skills while
other emphasize social skills
Ie. Japan smartest kids (emphasize social)

Preschool as cognitive intervention:

o Early intervention program
Head start: targets children from low income homes

Language Development:
Vocabulary and Grammar: (language
- 3 years: 1000 words
- 6 years: 2500 words
- early childhood: sensitive period for language
- Social cultural rules of language:
o Pragmatics:
Social and cultural context of language that guides
people as to what is appropriate to say and not to
say in a given social situation
Represents cultural knowledge
Emotional Development:
- early childhood is a life stage of great importance, with children
gaining a fuller understanding of :
o gender roles of their culture
o enforce on self and others
Emotional Regulation:
- emotional self regulation:
o milestone
o great advances in emotional regulation
- crucial to social relations: cant have a fit whenever you want
- effortful control:
o child focuses attention on managing their emotions
o strategies for regulating emotions
o ie. reacting positively to a crappy present
- Ericksons stage 2: initiative vs. guilt:
o Children need to learn emotional control without being
tightly regulated that they feel guilt, initiative undermined
o Learn to plan activities in purposive way (self initiative) and
being cooperative with others
o Under-control: risk for externalizing problem (problem
involves others) (male)

o Over-control: internalizing problems (female)

Moral Development:
Conceptions in morality:
- gradual work in morality
- definition of right and wrong
- EARLY CHILDHOOD:
o Children gain more detailed/complex understanding of
rules
o More capable than toddlers of anticipating potential
consequences of action and avoids behavior
o By age 5 childrens moral standards of their culture
How this does this happen?
Observation
Consequence reward
Stories
Explicit. Ie. 10 commandments
Gender Development:
Boy/Girl?
- age 2: gender identity-labeling (know when they are
male/female)
- age 3-4: clothes, toys-gendered
- age 6-7: gender constancy
o content always
o understand that maleness and femaleness are biological
and cannot change
- culture tells us how males and females are to behave
Parenting:
- parents play an important role in gender socialization
- gender schemes and self socialization
o gender based cognitive structure for organizing and
processing info
expectations of male/female behavior
o gender schemas influence how we interpret behavior of
others and what we expect from them

o self socialization:
process by which people seek to maintain
consistency between their gender schemas and
behavior
Parenting Styles: Baumrind
- Purpose of study:
o To examine alternative patterns of parental authority on
the development of instrumental competence in children
- Instrumental competence:
o social responsibility
Friendly, facilitative, cooperative
o independence
o achievement orientation
seek intellectual challenges and problems
o vitality
biological energy and vigorous appearance
- based on two dimensions
o responsiveness: degree of warmth and control
child or parent centered?
Childs Freedom?
o Demandingness: rules and expectations
Maturity demands
- Baumrinds Study:
o Study: 3-4 year olds in daycare
o Observed childrens interactions with peers and mothers
Dimensions of Parenting Factors:
- Maturity Demands: pressures on child
o Perform: intellectually, socially and emotionally
o Space for child to make decisions
- Clarity of Parent Child Communication
o Compliance: reasoning or force
o Childs opinions, feelings
- Nurturance:
o Love, support
o Childs physical and wellbeing
- Expressed by warmth and involvement

Responsiveness

High
Low

Demandingness
High
Authoritative
Authoritarian

Low
Permissive
Disengaged

Authoritative:
- rational, issue-orientated manner
- autonomy/self will, disciplined conformity are values
- child-centered, but also sets standards for future conduct
- use reason and power to achieve objects
- negotiate and compromise
Authoritative Outcome:
- independent, creative self-assured
- high achievement motivation, reasoning ability
- socially skilled, cooperative, empathetic
- making own decisions lead to thoughtful and responsible
bahaviour
- less risk for dealing drugs

Authoritarian:
- obedience= virtue, restrict autonomy
- order and traditional structure
- no verbal give and take, parent= right
- my way or the highway
- Asian families:
o Guan= warmth dimension
o High involvement= care
Authoritarian Outcome:
- lack of o=independent thinking, look to parents for approval,
answers (parents intimidate children)
- rob children of their human spirit, inhibit normal emotional state
- dependent, passive, conforming, less self assured, less socially
adept
- higher risk for dealing drugs
- more likely to turn to peers for advice
Permissive and Indulgent:
- affirmative, acceptant, and benign manner toward the childs
impulse and actions
- indulgent- extremely lax
- freedom: absence of restraint
Indulgent Outcome:
- irresponsible
- conforming
- immature
Disengaged:
- minimize time and emotion on child

- require little of their child

- neglect!
Disengaged Outcome:
- impulsive
- behavioral problems
- risky behaviors (sex, drugs)
Parental Behavior:
- direct instruction
- learning by observing
- feedback
- immediate
- consistency
Reciprocal/ bidirectional effect:
- principal that both children and parents affect one another
Parenting Culture:
- authoritarian: collectivist culture
- Asian parents found to be more strict and controlling of their
children than European/American/Canadian families
- Filial Piety:
o Belief that children should respect, obey and revere their
parents throughout life
- Familismo:
o Cultural belief among Latinos that emphasize the love,
closeness and mutual obligations among family members
o Early Childhood: age when children are first disciplined for
not following expectations
- West: praises + authoritative:
o 1) explain reason for discipline
o 2) be consistent: consequences should be predictable
o 3) exercise discipline at time of behavior
Tiger Parents:
- tiger mom:
o children never allowed to do:
attend sleepover
have a play date
be in a school play
complain about not being in a school play
watch TV or play computer games
choose their own extracurricular activities
get any grades less than A

not be #1 student in every subject except for gym

and drama
play any instrument other than piano and violin
not play the piano or violin

Asian Vs. American Praise:

- Chinese parents have two things over their western
counterparts:
o higher dreams for their children
o higher regard for their children in the sense of knowing
how much they can take
Confucianism and Parenting:
- common good and social harmony over individual interest
- clear lines of authority
- respect for the status of others
- subordination (lower rank) of self for the good of the collective is
deemed necessary of peace and riches are to follow
- collective group is the ultimate measure for approval or rejection
of behavior
Filial Piety:
- cornerstone of Confucianism
- one behaves in a manner that will bring honor not disgrace to
the family name
- children devoted and obedient to parent
- filial piety justifies adult authority over children and authority for
elders over members of younger generations
- serves as a building principal that governs the general behavioral
patterns of socialization
- 5 virtuous principals:
o humanity, benevolence, righteous, propriety, knowledge,
fidelity
Social Changes Leads to Family Transformation:
- communist revolution
- policies of gender equality
- rights for women and children
- increase of maternal employment
- one-child policy
- market driven economy:
o 20years fourth largest economy in the world
Todays Asian Families:
- shift towards more egalitarian mother-father relationship

more child centered: little emperor (4-2-1)

Parenting Strategies:
o Promoting independence, assertiveness, self confidence
o Less emphasis on obedience, cooperation

Physical Punishment + consequences:

- aka corporal punishment
- leads to anti-social behavior
- high likelihood of bullying
- compliance in short run, damage in long run (opposite effect in
Africa)
o CRUCIAL ROLE OF CULTURE CONTEXT IN HOW YOUNG
CHILDREN RESPOND TO PARENTS BEHAVIOUR
o USA: physical punishment combined with anger (ie. loss of
control)
o Africa: it is widespread, mild in degree and delivered calmly
(parent still has self control)
- Physical abuse:
o Children who are difficult and aggressive are in higher risk
o Parents who are single, live in poverty, unemployed more
likely to abuse
o Consequence: damages social skill, impairs emotional and
self development
Childs Expanding Social World:
- lap knee yard
- lessening of dependence on mother and increasing dependence
on peers and older children
Siblings and only Children:
- gap 2-4 years between children
- jealousy of sibling is universal
o response by parent is different
- young look up to older siblings
- 20% of children in USA are only children
o less successful in social relations
o higher cognitive ability
- Peers + friends:
o Can form friendships
o More capable of understanding what friendship is
o Becomes segregated by gender
- Aggression:
o Instrumental: child wants something, uses aggression to
get it
o Hostile aggression: intent to harm and pain someone

o Relational aggression: rumor about person, damaging their

reputation
Negative impact of TV:
o Violence increases aggression
o Advertising: I want this!
Positive:
o Educational
o Promoting imaginative play
Electronic games + music
o Don't know effects on young children