Chapter 5 HGD

The average child grows 2 1/2 inches & 5-7 pounds per year.

Brain growth slows in early childhood. At age 6, it's 95% of adult volume.

The brain increases myelination, which improves processing speed.

Gross motor skills vs. Fine motor skills

Gross Motor Skills:

• Simple movements at 3 (hopping, skipping jumping)
• More adventurous at 4 (climbing)
• Hair-raising risks by 5

Fine Motor Skills:

• Clumsy at 3 (force vs precision)
• Improved fine motor coordination by 4
• Body coordination by 5

Children should still sleep 11-13 hrs/night, uninterrupted.

Common sleep problems: sleep walking and night terrors.

45% of kids' meals exceed dietary recommendations!!!

33% of their daily intake comes from restaurants.

Improve by: eating on a predictable schedule, modeling eating healthy foods, making mealtime pleasant, minimizing distractions

Guidelines are kids get 2 hours of physical activity per day. 1 hour structured; 1 hour unstructured.

One of the most common nutritional problems in early childhood is iron deficiency anemia.

Leading cause of death in US children?

Accidental injuries; motor vehicle accidents, primarily.

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

Ages 2 to 7 years

represent the world with words, images, and drawings

form stable concepts; begin to reason

Cognitions dominated by egocentrism and magical beliefs

Egocentrism: cannot distinguish one’s own perspective from someone else’s

Animism: the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

Intuitive thought includes primitive reasoning. "Why?"

Centration: centering attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others

Conservation: altering a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties

Vygotsky's Theory

Vygotsky was another cognitive theorist. (His career was cut short with an early death.)

He developed the Zone of Proximal Development, which is a range of tasks too difficult for a child alone but can be learned with guidance.

Scaffolding: changing the level of support during a teaching session

Piaget & Vygotsky had differing opinions on self-directed speech.

Piaget thought it demonstrated immaturity.

Vygotsky thought it helped with self-regulation;
more self-directed speech=more social competence!

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Attention – the focusing of mental resources on select information

Controlling and sustaining attention is associated with school readiness.

Speed and efficiency of short term memory processes improve with age and experience .

Strategies are deliberate mental activities to improve the processing of information

The Child’s Theory of Mind: awareness of one’s own mental process and the mental processes of others

Adapt their speech in different settings around age 4-5

Child-centered kindergarten: emphasizes the education of the whole child and concern for his or her physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development.

Montessori approach: teacher is a facilitator; child is given freedom and spontaneity

Project Head Start:

-Federally funded, created in 1965
-Provides low-income children the opportunity to acquire skills and experience