Child Development 9th Edition

Weekly Schedule – Study Period 3, 2014

History, Theory, and Applied Directions	The Field of Child Development comprises conception through to adolescence and is part of developmental science. Divided into Physical, cognitive, emotional and social domains. Age periods: conception to birth, infancy to toddlerhood (0-2), early childhood (2-6) middle childhood (6-11) adolescence (11-18) emerging adulthood (18-25) The three basic issues a) continuous or discontinuous, b) one course of development or many c) nature v nurture and stable v plastic. History a) children as seperate beings b) Children are sinful (harsh punishment required) c) Locke Tabula Rasa d) Rousseau Noble savages e) Hall and Gessell Normative approach f) Binet and Simon IQ test. g) Baldwin Nature v nurture. Mid 20th Century a) Freud Psychosexual 5 stages with three parts of personality b) Erickson Psychosocial 8 stages c) Skinner Operant conditioning (behaviourism) d) Bandura social learning theory e) Piaget Cognitive Developmental theory. Recent Theories a) Information processing (symbols) b) cognitive neuroscience (biology) c) Ethology (sensitive periods) d) evolutionary development e) Vygotsky Sociocultural f) Bronfenbrenner ecological systems g) Dynamic systems Social Policy: how society makes laws and policies to protect children and influenced by whether society is individualistic or collectivist.
Research Strategies	Research; begins with a hypothesis (a prediction about behaviour based on theory or question) Select research method and design Naturalistic observation, Structured Observation, (event sampling, time sampling) but observer influence and bias can reduce accuracy. Self reports: clinical and structured interviews. Neurobiological methods ie pulse saliva EEG ERP to detect changes in processes behaviours hormones and activities. PET, FMRI, NIRS Clinical or case study, including ethnology, but this may be biased by observers own cultural heritage. Reliability and Validity: Reliability (repeatability)incl interrater reliability. Validity (measures what it was intended to measure) and applies to internal and external validity. General Research Designs: Correlational; relationships between variables. (correlation coefficient (is the significance test) Experimental design: usually a DV and a IV with two treatments. Lab experiments or field experiments. Designs for studying development. Longitudinal design (problems: biased sampling, selective attrition, practice effects, cohort effects) Cross sectional: limited to age groups and vulnerable to cohort effects Sequential designs: tests for cohort effects and longitudinal cross sectional comparisons. Microgenic designs test changes as they occur. can be affected by practice effects. Ethics in Research: Risk v benefits assessment, protection from harm, informed and parental consent, debriefing.
Biological Foundations, Prenatal Development, and birth	Genetic Foundations: Phenotype (directly observable characteristics. Product of Genotype and environment) Chromosones (rod like structures part of our DNA) Gametes (sex cells are produced through cell division [meiosis]) once the sperm and ovum unite  a zygote forms and duplicates through Mitosis. Genetic Inheritance: Homozygous (identical) Heterozygous (one of each) allels. Dominant recessive is determined by the allels. Where defect is on the X males are more severely affected (due to having only one x) Chromosomal abnormalities: errors during meiosis common abnormalities are Downs, Triple X Klinefelter and turner syndrome. Assistance for prospective parents comes in i) genetic counselling ii) prenatal diagnostic methods iii) reproductive technologies. Prenatal development a) zygote (to implantation) b) Embryo (weeks 2-8) c) Fetus (lasting till end of pregnancy- and viable from 22-26 weeks) Prenatal environmental influences i) teratogens like alcohol, drugs, radiation etc affect fetus depending on exposure and timing. ii) babies born to those on drugs typically have low birthweight and developmental delays. iii) those born to tobacco addicted often are underweight and have attn and learning difficulties. iv) other disorders are FAS FASD p-FAS and ARND all related to alcohol abuse. v) radiation exposure  can lead to malformations and brain damage and emotional and cognitive disorders. vi) infectious diseases such as rubella herpes and HIV  can lead to early death. vii) malnutrition and emotional stress can also lead to complications and developmental issues. viii) age and the physical condition of the mother can also affect the fetus. Childbirth: 3 Stages 1) contractions 2) pushing 3) delivery (babies measured on apgar scale) Approaches to childbirth: natural, homebirth, assisted, unassisted. The use of pain relief can affect the newborn. Birth Complications: lack of oxygen, birth weight, birth trauma. some effects are long lasting Heredity, environment and behaviour: nature v nurture and kinship studies. the interaction between hereditry and environment. epigenises development in context.
Infancy, Early Learning, Motor Skills and Perceptual Capacities	The organised infant: Reflexes, 5 states of arousal incl REM and NREM. 50% of newborns time is spent in REM, disturbed sleep is a sign of CNS abnormalities. Neonatal behavioural assessment scale (NBAS) Classical conditioning (association and pairing UCS with CS) Operant conditioning (reinforcement, punishment, retention) Habituation and recovery: good indicators of intelligence as they test reflexes and and memory. Immitation is also a skill. Motor Development: dynamic systems theory = combining existing skills with new skills. Movement opportunity, cultural values and child rearing practices contribute. Reaching and grasping, ulnar grasp becomes pincer grasp. Perceptual Development: the 5 senses are well developed at birth, sensitive to pain, prefer sweet tastes till 4 mnths then get a taste for salty. Can distinguish sound patterns. mothers voice and native language. around middle of first year they screen sounds and word boundaries. Vision: least developed of all senses improving over first few months.motion develops first followed by binocular and pictorial cues. Contrast sensitivity: pattern recognition, contrast, internal features and over time increasingly complex patterns. Faces: there is debate over whether babies habituate towards faces however around 5 mnths they can percieve emotional expression and the beginnings of group bias. Constancy: size and shape, around 4 mnths they detect increasingly featural information Intermodal perception: combining information across modalities. this fosters all psychological development. differentiation theory posits that we detect an increasingly fine amount  of invariant features  giving us access to possibilities. Deprivation and sensitive periods: early deprivation can be overcome when intervention is intense and given early. Envoronments too stimulating can overwhelm and challenge a child developmentally.
Physical Growth	Patterns of physical growth: height and weight gains are rapid, slower during early and middle childhood and rapid again at puberty. Proximodistal growth:  fat growth rapid in first 9 mnths then again at puberty, muscle growth slow then rises dramatically at puberty. The best measure of physical maturity is skeletal age. Centre of gravity shifts toward trunk in early childhood paving the way for gross motor skills. in school years refined flexibility, agility, balance and strength lead to a refinement in motor skills.  during childhood motor skills are the same and any proficiency is largley socially oriented sex wise by adolescence real differences occur. Physical growth is affected by hormones released by pit gland near the hypothalamus, growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone. sexual maturity is controlled by estrogen and androgen. worldwide trends in body size are the combined influence of heredity and environment. access to improved health and nutrition mean children grow taller and reach puberty quicker. Brain Development: neurons form synapses releasing neurotransmitters, planned cell deaths make room for neural fibres to form synaptic connections. Stimulation dictates which cells will establish new synapses and which will be pruned. Glial cells (mylienation) increases rapidly during early childhood and then slower leading to gains in brain weight. Cerebral cortex: prefrontal cortex reaches maturity in adolescence, during the early years the brain is essentially plastic  and both heredity and environment contribute. this includes handedness or dominant cerebral hemisphere. Changes in brain structure: Reticular formation (alertness) hippocampus (memory) and amygdala (emotions) the corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres supoorts co ordinated movement. teens tend to do less well then adults in cognitive control tasks like inhibition planning and future orientation. During teen years neurons become more responsive leading to the drive for novel experiences emotional and social. sensitive periods show experience/expectant brain growth depends on ordinary experiences. environments that overwhelm can harm the brains potential. Adequate diet and health affects height  and physical growth. breastmilk is the ideal nutrition and at around 2  apetites become unpredictable. during puberty food intake rises dramatically but food choice is the poorest. in developing countries two malnutrition diseases are common, marasmus and kwashiorkor whichcan lead to permanent impairment. Obesity can also affect children and is often linked to parental eating habits, exercise and rest disruptions. extreme and prolonged emotional deprivation can lead to psychosocial dwarfism. Puberty: the body develops then periods in males the growth spurt occurs later and is accompanied by deepening voice and hair. periods can be delayed where there is malnutrition. Puberty is usually met with mixed feelings which can be smoothed by education prior, also present are teenage parent conflicts reflecting increased reasoning abilities. early maturing boys and late maturing girls have the most positive self image where the opposite is also true. Anorexia: usually presents in controlling mothers emotionally distant fathers. bulima often associated with disengaged parenting. Teen pregnancy can be both the result of heredity and environment.
Cognitive and Language development