Early Childhood

• At 3 years old, children begin to lose their babyish roundness and take on the slender, athletic appearance of childhood.
• The brain is approximately 90% of adult weight at birth and cannot turn or stop suddenly or quickly.
• Children can jump a distance of 15-24 inches and ascend a stairway unaided, alternating feet at 4 years old.
• Handedness is evident in children by 4 years old.
• All primary teeth are evident by 4 years old.
• Children can now pick up tiny objects between their thumb and forefingers and are still clumsy.
• Children know the difference between reality and imagination by 4 years old.
• Children can use 900 to 1000 words and typically begin to use plurals, possessives, and past tense by 4 years old.
• The peak of the density of synapses in the prefrontal cortex occurs at 4 years old.
• Children can start, turn, and stop effectively in games and descend a long stairway, unaided, by 5 years old.
• Hand, arm, and body move together under better command of the eye by 5 years old.
• Children can count to 20 or more and know the relative sizes of the numbers 1 through 10 by 5 years old.
• Children's speech is quite adultlike by 5 years old.
• Children understand the public aspects of emotions, understand the things that causes others to be sad or happy, by 6 years old.
• The brain is 90% of its peak volume at birth and permanent teeth begins to appear by 6 years old.
• In Autonomous Morality, intentions are considered.
• Conscience refers to an internal regulation of standards of right and wrong that involves integration of all three components of moral development.
• This stage of morality is observed in children aged 4-7 years.
• Autonomous Morality is when children become aware with the rules and laws created by people, and in judging an action they consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences.
• This stage of morality is observed in children aged 10 years and older.
• In Heteronomous Morality, children consider the consequences of an action, not its intentions.
• Heteronomous Morality is when children think of justice and rules as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people.
• The concept of "law is law" is prevalent in Heteronomous Morality.
• From 7-10 years old, children are in transition showing some features of the first stage of moral reasoning and some stages of the second stage of moral reasoning.
• Immanent Justice is the concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will happen immediately.
• Children have an expressive vocabulary of 2,600 words and understand more than 20,000 by 7 years old.
• Children start to understand that mental states can drive emotions by 7 years old.
• Preschool children are likely to pay attention to stimuli that stand out (salient).
• Intelligence: Psychometric Approach and Lev Vygotsky suggest that 3-5 yr old children are more proficient with language than younger children.
• The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence is an individual test taking 30 to 60 mins.
• Preschool children tend to use a haphazard comparison strategy, not examining all of the details before making a judgement.
• During the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, the child is asked to define words, string beads, build blocks, etc.
• The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence yields verbal, performance, and combined scores.
• Sustained Attention is the ability to focus and extend engagement with an object, tasks, and deal with novel or difficult circumstances.
• The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence includes subtests designed to measure both verbal and nonverbal fluid reasoning, etc.
• The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales measure fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, etc.
• The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales are used for ages 2 and up, taking 45 to 60 mins.
• The head is still large, but the other parts of the body continue to catch up as body proportions steadily become adult-like by 7 years old.
• Growth Hormone Deficiency is the absence or deficiency of growth hormone produced by pituitary gland to stimulate the body to grow.
• Sleep problems in children are occasional and usually outgrown.