Chapter Introduction
162
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Body Changes
Growth Patterns
Nutrition
Brain Development
Thinking During Early Childhood
Piaget: Preoperational Thought
A CASE TO STUDY: Stones in the Belly
Vygotsky: Social Learning
Children’s Theories
A VIEW FROM SCIENCE: Witness to a Crime
Language Learning
The Vocabulary Explosion
Acquiring Grammar
Learning Two Languages
Early-Childhood Education
Homes and Schools
Child-
Teacher-
OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES: Culture, Child-
Preparing for Life
163
CHAPTER 5
Early Childhood
Body and Mind
WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?
Why are some young children overweight?
How should adults answer when children ask, “Why?”
Does it confuse young children if they hear two or more languages?
What do children learn in early education?
Video: Early Childhood Body and Mind: A Brief Overview
When I was 4, I jumped off the back of our couch again and again, trying to fly. I tried it with and without a cape, with and without flapping my arms. My laughing mother wondered whether she had made a mistake in letting me see Peter Pan. An older woman warned that jumping would hurt my uterus. I didn’t know what a uterus was, I didn’t heed that lady, and I didn’t stop until I concluded that I could not fly because I had no pixie dust.
When you were 4, I hope you also wanted to fly and someone laughed while keeping you safe. Protection, appreciation, and fantasy are all needed in early childhood. Do you remember trying to skip, climb a tree, or write your name? Young children try, fail, and try again.
Imagination is strong and wonderful, language explodes, but logic (such the consequences of having no wings) and some words (such as uterus) are difficult. Advances in body and mind are themes of this chapter. Amazing growth and remarkable learning are all described.