life span development

• Egocentrism refers to the tendency to view things only from one's own perspective during childhood.
• Children are more likely than adults to make false-belief errors due to their egocentric thinking.
• Theory of mind is the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires.
• Piaget believed that children are egocentric until they reach formal operational thinking at about age eleven.
• Piaget believed that cognitive development occurs through four stages: sensorimotor (birth to age 2), preoperational (ages 2 to 7), concrete operational (ages 7 to 11 or 12), and formal operational (adolescence onward).
• Social learning theory suggests that children acquire behavior through observing and imitating others.
• Preoperational stage: Children begin to use symbols such as words but still think concretely rather than abstractly.
• Concrete operational stage: Children can perform mental operations on real-world problems but not hypothetical ones.
• Cliques: A group of students who are close friends and have a common interest. loyal and exclusive
• Crowds: a large group of students who share the same interests and values, not necessarily friends, but have signs of identity. Not close friends
• How does peer organization helps to maintain social order? It helps to maintain social order by providing a sense of belonging and a sense of identity
• what do cliques and crowds provide?

  Both provide guidance, support, and control via comments, exclusion, and admiration.
• relationship with peers
• peer pressure: the desire to be liked by others, especially by one's social group
• peer pressure: provide encouragement to conform to ones friends or comtemporaries in behavior, dress and attitude
• identity: constant defintion of self, how we see ourselves, how others see us in terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs, and aspirations
• identity versus role confusion
• eriksons term for the fifth stage of development is the identity vs role confusion stage
• identity achivement: is the process of developing a sense of self and a sense of belonging to a group
• foreclosure: the action of taking possession of a mortgaged property when the mortgagor fails to keep up their mortgage payments
• moratorium: an adolescents choice of a socially acceptable way to postpone making identity achievement decisions
• • Fast mapping - Preschool years 
  • Context used to narrow meaning (rest of sentence, other info etc)
  • Applies after only 1 exposure 
  • Social-pragmatic cues help infer meaning indirectly (e.g. eye gaze)
  • Indirect learning as fast as direct 
  • Example:
  • “Bring me the chromium tray, not the red one” - 3 year old infers meaning of chromium
• • Overregularization 
  • Application of rules even when exceptions are needed 
  • Makes language seem more “regular” than it actually is 
  • Less common in earlier stage of 1 to 1 mapping, becomes a problem when children fast-map rules 
  • E.g. “I goed to the store”
• • Code Mixing 
  • Mix 2 words from 2 languages in same sentence 
  • Why?
  • Doing what they hear adults do 
  • Borrowing words they don’t know 
  • Sign of  ingenuity 
  • Modify language when they can based on speaker 8th o
• What are some methods parents may use to facilitate metacognitive strategies in early childhood?

   asking open-ended questions about their ideas and the reasons for them
• Potential challenges of growing up bilingual:

  • Bilingual children are more likely to have language delays according to scientific research
  • Difficulty in everyday language, like conceptual vocabulary across languages
  • Bilingual children may be slightly ahead in bilingual skills
  • More experience with language switch situations, like in modified Theory of Mind (ToM)
  • Better executive functioning, including inhibiting incorrect responses
• Advantages of growing up bilingual:

  • Helps with travel
  • Enhances employment opportunities
  • Maintains connections to family and history
  • Leads to a more diverse group of friends
• . What happens with brain development during early childhood? 

  The brain develops connections faster in the first five years than at any other time in their lives. Babies are born ready to learn, and their brains develop with repetitive, consistent, and familiar everyday routines and practices.
• What are some methods parents may use to facilitate metacognitive strategies in early childhood? How do these strategies contribute to their cognitive development and learning abilities?

  • Behavior strategies
  • Change expression 
  • Metacognitive strategies 
  • Change internal emotional reaction 
  • Piaget: 5-6 year olds unable to do metacognition due to irreversibility and static emotion 
  • Evidence suggests otherwise
  • Davis, Levine, Quas et al 
  • Describe experiences that made you sad/mad?
  • What did you do to make them go away?
  • Coded response for strategies 
  • Behavioral (change expression or situation)
• • bilingual study : Romanian Study 
  • Romanian and Romanian-English children completed theory of mind tasks 
  • Anthony puts book on table, Sonya moves book to drawer, where will Anthony look for the book? 
  • 2 Possibilities 
  • Bilingual children get more experience with language-switch situations 
  • Bilingual children have better executive functioning 
  • Result 
  • Bilingual kids outperform monolingual kids 
  • Experience in language shapes how you think 
• Potential advantages of growing up bilingual:

  • In all languages combined, bilingual individuals know more words
  • Bilingual individuals are smarter on average
  • Bilingual children get more experience with language-switch situations
  • Bilingual children have better executive functioning
• Challenges of growing up bilingual:

  • Less vocabulary in each language or common language
  • Slightly more advanced in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks
  • Better in understanding others' perspectives
  • Enhanced sensitivity to communication
• Bilingualism impacts cognitive development and language skills by:

  • Providing more vocabulary across languages
  • Enhancing cognitive abilities such as executive functioning
  • Improving performance in Theory of Mind tasks
  • Shaping how individuals think based on their language experiences
• 4. What happens with brain development during early childhood? How does brain

  maturation impact the development of cognitive and emotional skills? Or influence the

  expression and regulation of emotions in young children?

  • Brain 
  • 75% of final size at 2, 90% at 6
  • Maturation of Prefrontal Cortex 
  • Regular sleep 
  • Emotional regulation 
  • Increased speed of thought - myelination 
  • Cognitive/Emotional Skills 
  • Nuanced, responsive emotions 
  • Temper tantrums decrease/subside 
  • Uncontrollable emotions less common 
• 5. How does the development of the “theory of mind” influence a child's ability to

  communicate effectively and engage in social interactions?

  1. Discuss its significance in understanding social cognition in early childhood.

  • Theory of Mind 
  • Person’s theory of what others are thinking 
  • Understanding that others have different thoughts and mind 
  • Emergent ability, slow but begins to develop at 4 
  • Can be seen when young children try to escape by lying 
  • What it does
  • Helps children form responses to what others may be thinking 
  • Aids social development z
• Piaget's concept of preoperational intelligence:

  • Children think in symbols
  • Recognize an object/word can stand for something else
  • Use symbols to learn and interact with the world
  • Cannot reason with symbols or think abstractly
  • Symbol needs to be present and visible in real time
• Piaget's limitations:

  • Age of skill acquisition younger than he thought
  • Required motor skills or language
  • New methods and technology available
  • Alternate explanations for development
  • Social interactions/cultural development critical to advance development
  • Children gradually build knowledge, don't go through different stages
• Vygotsky's sociocultural theory:

  • Every aspect of cognitive development embedded in social context
  • Social interactions critical to development
  • Learning occurs when a more knowledgeable person teaches us
  • Mentors and peers help with learning
  • Mentors provide guidance and present challenges
  • Zone of proximal development
  • Scaffolding
• Piaget's concept of preoperational intelligence and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory both explain children's cognitive development

  • Piaget focuses on how children think in symbols and interact with the world
  • Vygotsky emphasizes the role of social interactions and cultural development in cognitive advancement
• Factors influencing children's cognitive abilities during early childhood:

  • Social interactions and cultural development play a critical role
  • Exposure to mentors and peers who provide guidance and challenges
  • Zone of proximal development and scaffolding are important concepts in learning
  • New methods and technology can impact cognitive development