Lifespan Development- Chapter 9

Jean Piaget, one of the most influential researchers in the study of cognitive development, believed that children's thinking changes in important ways as they move from the preschool years into middle childhood. This transition from preoperational thought to concrete operational thought involves the development of what Piaget called mental operations, which are logical principles of reasoning. Piaget's most well-known task for measuring this transition is the liquid quantity problem. In this task, a child is shown two identical glasses, each with identical amounts of liquid in them. After the child agrees that the amount of liquid in the two glasses is equivalent, the researcher pours the liquid from one of the glasses into a tall, narrow glass. Because the level of the liquid in the tall glass is now higher than the liquid level in the original glass, most young children in the preoperational stage say that the tall glass has "more." Play the video to view the response of a typical preoperational child. As you can see, young children fail to conserve the equivalence of the two amounts of liquid. They focus on the change in appearance, and they do not realize that the amount of liquid in the two different shaped glasses remains the same.

Piaget argued that the failure of a young child to demonstrate conservation could be explained as a problem of centration, the focusing on one dimension of the problem and the ignoring of the other dimensions. In this case, the young child centers or focuses on the height of the water in the glass and fails to consider the width of the glass. Therefore, an older child who can pass this task and demonstrates an understanding of conservation is moving toward decentration. Piaget believed that decentration is an important part of cognitive development from middle childhood through adolescence as it allows children to gradually develop the mental operations that will enable them to take more and more aspects of the situation into account when solving a problem. Viewed in this way, decentration is good preparation for the complexities of adult life!

A characteristic of preoperational thought involves a child's assumption that the world is unchanging, always in the state in which the child currently encounters it. This is called static _____.

Lev Vygotsky's term for the process by which people learn from others who help direct their experiences and explorations is called _____ participation.

The older a child gets, the more believable their _____ can become.

The belief that trees have personalities would be a form of _____.

Which theorist emphasized the sociocultural aspects of young children's cognition and learning?

The idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing _____ is called theory-theory.

Which term involves focusing on one idea or aspect of something, to the exclusion of all others?

Focus on appearance refers to a characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent.

Lev Vygotsky emphasized the _____ aspects of young children's cognition and learning.

According to research, before children employ their impressive ability to imitate others they:

The Piagetian principle that the amount of a substance remains the same despite changes in its appearance is called _____.

Lev Vygotsky's term for the skills that a person can experience only with assistance, not yet independently, is:

Guided participation is Lev Vygotsky's term for the process by which people learn from others who help direct their experiences and explorations.

Four-year-old Sally asks her father why her pregnant mother's stomach is so big. Her father should try to include which information in his answer?

Jean Piaget's term for cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6 is _____ intelligence.

According to Lev Vygotsky, children learn through their social context and interactions with parents, teachers, and older siblings. All of these individuals can be crucial to learning by:

When children ask "why" questions, adults should try to include how the information affects the _____ in their answers.

A(n) _____ on appearance is a characteristic of preoperational thought involving a child ignoring all attributes that are not apparent.

_____ emphasized the sociocultural aspects of young children's cognition and learning.

In the "puppy in the box" experiment described in the text, which was the reason for MOST 3-year-olds thinking that Max the doll would look in the blue box upon his return?

Franklin is helping his younger sibling learn how to ride a bicycle. Lev Vygotsky believed that this would facilitate learning because Franklin is:

Jen is 3 and was in the experiment with candies under a cup that was cited in the text. Jen checked under the cup. Which is the MOST likely reason Jen would give for how the candy got on the table?

According to Jean Piaget, which is one of the characteristics that limit a preoperational child's thinking?

Fast-mapping refers to the speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

The tendency for children to want explanations of various things, especially things that involve them, reflects:

According to _____, children want explanations of various things, especially things that involve them.

Culture and _____ interactions influence theory of mind.

According to theory-theory, children want _____ of various things, especially things that involve them.

A characteristic of preoperational thought involves a child's assumption that the world is unchanging, always in the state in which the child currently encounters it. This is called _____ reasoning.

According to Jean Piaget, centration is one of the characteristics that limit thinking in the _____ stage

According to Lev Vygotsky, Franklin serves as a(n) _____ when helping his younger siblings learn how to ride a bicycle.

After noticing that her 4-year-old brother was experiencing difficulty putting together a jigsaw puzzle, Rose helped him with the task by praising his successes and helping him to recognize progress. From Lev Vygotsky's perspective, this is an example of:

A color-matching activity is within Cleo's zone of proximal development. In other words, Cleo:

A young child's belief that natural objects and phenomena are alive is called:

Take a minute to think about some of the ways in which you are the same today as when you were two years old. Now, consider how you have changed since that age. How would you explain how you have or have not changed since you were a toddler? The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people (all kinds of people, everywhere) change or remain the same over time. The scientific study of human development, including that of children and adolescents, is based on empirical evidence rather than on theory. Any view of human development is inherently influenced by subjective perceptions because the study of human development is humans studying other humans! Scientific research attempts to parse subjective opinions and empirical findings (Lerner, 2006).

Many of the research questions presented by those who study children and adolescents are inspired by or nested within developmental theories. These theories connect facts and observations with patterns and explanations. They guide hypotheses, generate discoveries, and often provide the basis of practice guidance.

A major proponent of the position that language acquisition depends largely on environment (nurture) was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner, who theorized that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events as well as by imitating others. In particular, adults play an important role in language acquisition by speaking to children in a slow, grammatical, and repetitive way. In turn, children discern patterns in language and experiment with speech gradually through interaction with their speaking world. Although nurture may have historically referred primarily to the care given to children by their caregivers, it has been suggested more recently that any non-genetic environmental factor could also be considered as nurture in a contemporary nature versus nurture debate. This broader definition of nurture may include influences from childhood friends, early experiences with media of all types, and even incidents in the womb (Lust & Foley, 2004). Play the video clip to explore how children learn to communicate and to speak with such fluency and competence.

Before the 1970s, most deaf children in Nicaragua were homebound and isolated from others who could not hear. In 1981, a vocational school opened in Managua, and deaf children were permitted to attend. Upon exposure to their deaf peers, these previously secluded children began to communicate with one another using a rudimentary set of gestures. With each generation of students, these gestures evolved from crude and pantomime-like movements into a more sophisticated sign language (referred to as Nicaraguan Sign Language or NSL). In spite of its organic evolution in a rather insular community, NSL demonstrates characteristics found in nearly all other spoken and signed languages. Dr. Ann Senghas and her colleagues (2004) reported that the deaf Nicaraguan children at the Managua school developed distinct signs to signify movement and direction. This distinction is especially significant because this child-created sign language mirrors a distinction that also appears in spoken language. Based on her research, she concluded that these children instinctively broke information into small chunks for signing. This strategy provided great flexibility. The deaf students were able to string these small chunks back together in order to form sentences with a wide range of meaning. This feature of the spontaneously-generated NSL is similar to all spoken and signed languages throughout the world. Her findings suggest that there is an instinctive component to the way in which language is learned.

The average child knows about 500 words at age 2 and more than _____ at age 6.

In the United States in 2011, about _____ percent of children spoke a language at home other than English.

Early childhood is NOT a(n) _____ period for language learning; Language learning can still occur in middle childhood.

Some adults are afraid that children who are taught two languages might become semilingual. In general, research indicates that children who are taught two languages from birth will:

Fast-mapping refers to the:

Denny and Alesya live in the United States and have two children. Denny's native tongue is English and Alesya's is Russian, but she is also fluent in English. Alesya speaks to her children exclusively in Russian, and Denny speaks to them only in English. The children are consistently exposed to both English and Russian every day and have been since birth. Research suggests that Denny and Alesya's children will:

According to the text, children could be referred to as language sponges in _____ childhood.

Patrick's parents and family are careful to expose him to two different languages as well as the culture connected to each of these languages. By doing this, his parents and family are encouraging him to be:

George, who is 3 years old, seems to talk almost constantly, even if no one is listening. George also seems not to notice mistakes in his language, such as stuttering. This illustrates the importance of _____ to language learning in early childhood.

Claude has grown up hearing his mother speak French, his father speak Spanish, and his peers at school speak English. If Claude was equally exposed to all of these languages, he could be:

According to the text, a child told to "stay there" or "come here" may not follow instructions because the terms are _____.

Receptive language refers to the:

A valuable trait of young children that aids in language development is that they _____ a lot.

Dmitri is 4 years old and is asking many "why," "when," and "how" questions. His parents should answer as many of these questions as they can in order to facilitate the _____ period of language development.

When an adult is unable to fast-map, his or her learning is _____.

_____ children who do not know a word in the language they are speaking often insert a word from the other language.

Overregularization demonstrates a child's understanding of:

Matt is 3 years old and is repeating almost everything he hears. His parents have to carefully choose the words that they say because Matt seems to soak up every word like a sponge. Matt is MOST likely demonstrating these behaviors because he is:

Telegraphic speech involves

The teacher-directed approach to early childhood education emphasizes preparation for school through _____-group instruction.

Which is MOST likely to foster learning in early education programs regardless of curriculum or strategy?

The results of a 2006 study of 5-year-olds in inner-city Milwaukee revealed that, compared to other children, children exposed to a Montessori program were better at prereading and early _____ tasks.

When was Head Start established in the United States?

Children who develop skills in two languages are called:

In the United States, the MOST widespread early-_____ education program is Project Head Start.

Problems with the Head Start program include all of the following EXCEPT:

Some Head Start programs employ _____-centered approaches, some are more child-centered.

The percentage of Hispanic-Americans in early education would be even lower if the statistics included _____ children.

Tommy goes to a Head Start school in North Carolina, and Ginny attends a Head Start school in California. Which statement is MOST likely to be true?

Reinforcement is used to facilitate learning in a _____ early childhood education program.

Some Head Start programs employ teacher-centered approaches; some are more _____-centered.

Children who experience Spanish-only care at home in the United States, may experience issues with _____ when they begin elementary school.

Ronnie is 4-years-old. He lives in rural Wyoming, his family is very poor, and he has dyslexia. Based on a major evaluation of Head Start programs:

Shaylee is 4-years-old and is not receiving much education in her home. Her mother works two jobs, and Shaylee is often left at home with her teenage sisters, who make sure her basic needs are met, but do not spend time reading or playing with Shaylee. There are no books in the home, nor are there crayons or paper for Shaylee to use to color or practice writing. She spends most of her time at home watching television. For Shaylee:

According to the text, parents need to find the BEST _____ for their child's early-childhood education, taking into account their values and income.

The _____-directed approach to early childhood education emphasizes preparation for school through large-group instruction.

Sylvia did well in her Montessori preschool which emphasized self-discovery and self-pacing in learning. She is now doing equally well in her new teacher-directed preschool program which emphasizes academic skills and structure. Her ability to do well in both settings illustrates that:

Each year, almost a(n) _____ children enter first grade in the United States with poor English skills, often because they had no early education.

Which early childhood approach MOST emphasizes individual pride and accomplishment?

One reason that Hispanic immigrant children may be unlikely to be enrolled in Head Start is that mothers who speak only Spanish are LEAST likely to _____.

Child-centered programs stress children's development and growth through:

Montessori schools emphasize _____ pride and accomplishment.

An early-education program whose goal is to make all children "ready to learn" and to prepare them for entering elementary school is MOST likely a(n) _____-directed program.

Jessica's father works long hours and her mother, who keeps Jessica at home, typically just sends her to her bedroom to play by herself. This may indicate that Jessica could benefit from:

Josephine is in a preschool that is very crowded and stressful. The teacher sometimes, out of exhaustion, simply turns on cartoons and sits in the corner. This example illustrates the importance of _____ of the early learning context.

Low attendance in early education programs for young Spanish-speaking children is partially because of their parents' fear of _____ for family members.

Child-centered programs stress children's development and growth by allowing children to follow their own _____ rather than adult directions.

Children who develop skills in two languages are called _____.

In the United States in 2010, about _____ percent of 3- to 4-year-olds were enrolled in preschool.

_____-centered programs stress children's development and growth through self-discovery.

Hispanic-American children are among the _____ likely to attend preschool in the United States.

Reinforcement is used to facilitate learning in _____-directed early childhood education programs.

Jen is 3 and was in the experiment with candies under a cup that was cited in the text. Jen checked under the cup. Which is the MOST likely reason Jen would give for how the candy got on the table?