REVIEW Infancy and Childhood

Learning Objectives

Test Yourself by taking a moment to answer each of these Learning Objective Questions (repeated here from within the module). Research suggests that trying to answer these questions on your own will improve your long-term memory of the concepts (McDaniel et al., 2009).

Question

11-1 During infancy and childhood, how do the brain and motor skills develop?
ANSWER: The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. As a child's brain develops, neural connections grow more numerous and complex. Experiences then trigger a pruning process, in which unused connections weaken and heavily used ones strengthen. This process continues until puberty. Early childhood is an important period for shaping the brain, but our brain modifies itself in response to our learning throughout life. In childhood, complex motor skills—sitting, standing, walking—develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture. We have no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 3½. This infantile amnesia occurs in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

Question

11-2 From the perspectives of Piaget, Vygotsky, and today's researchers, how does a child's mind develop?
ANSWER: In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the preoperational stage (about age 2 to about 6 or 7), they develop a theory of mind. In the preoperational stage, children are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations. At about age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation. By about age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development more continuous, than he believed. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.

Question

11-3 What is autism spectrum disorder?
ANSWER: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disorder marked by social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors. By age 8, 1 in 68 U.S. children now gets diagnosed with ASD, though the reported rates vary by place. The increase in ASD diagnoses has been offset by a decrease in the number of children with a “cognitive disability” or “learning disability,” suggesting a relabeling of children's disorders.

Question

11-4 How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?
ANSWER: At about 8 months, soon after object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety. Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar, and responsive. Many birds and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.

Question

11-5 How have psychologists studied attachment differences, and what have they learned?
ANSWER: Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached. Infants' differing attachment styles reflect both their individual temperament and the responsiveness of their parents and child-care providers. Adult relationships seem to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question

11-6 How does childhood neglect or abuse affect children's attachments?
ANSWER: Children are very resilient, but those who are severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments at an early age, may be at risk for attachment problems.

Question

11-7 What are three parenting styles, and how do children's traits relate to them?
ANSWER: Parenting styles—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—reflect varying degrees of control. Children with high self-esteem tend to have authoritative parents and to be self-reliant and socially competent, but the direction of cause and effect in this relationship is not clear. Child-raising practices reflect both individual and cultural values.

Terms and Concepts to Remember

Test yourself on these terms.

Question

maturation (p. 127)
critical period (p. 128)
cognition (p. 130)
schema (p. 130)
assimilation (p. 130)
accommodation (p. 130)
sensorimotor stage (p. 130)
object permanence (p. 130)
preoperational stage (p. 131)
conservation (p. 132)
egocentrism (p. 132)
theory of mind (p. 133)
concrete operational stage (p. 133)
formal operational stage (p. 133)
autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (p. 135)
stranger anxiety (p. 138)
attachment (p. 138)
imprinting (p. 139)
temperament (p. 140)
basic trust (p. 142)
a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.
according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Experience the Testing Effect

Test yourself repeatedly throughout your studies. This will not only help you figure out what you know and don’t know; the testing itself will help you learn and remember the information more effectively thanks to the testing effect.

Question 4.6

1. Stroke a newborn's cheek and the infant will root for a nipple. This illustrates

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 4.7

2. Between ages 3 and 6, the human brain experiences the greatest growth in the lobes, which enable rational planning and aid memory.

Question 4.8

3. Which of the following is true of motor-skill development?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 4.9

4. Why can't we consciously recall how we learned to walk when we were infants?
ANSWER: We have no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 3½, in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.
Page 147

Question 4.10

5. Use Piaget's first three stages of cognitive development to explain why young children are not just miniature adults in the way they think.
ANSWER: Infants in Piaget's sensorimotor stage tend to be focused only on their own perceptions of the world and may, for example, be unaware that objects continue to exist when unseen. A child in the preoperational stage is still egocentric and incapable of appreciating simple logic, such as the reversibility of operations. A preteen in the concrete operational stage is beginning to think logically about concrete events but not about abstract concepts.

Question 4.11

6. Although Piaget's stage theory continues to inform our understanding of children's thinking, many researchers believe that

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 4.12

7. An 8-month-old infant who reacts to a new babysitter by crying and clinging to his father's shoulder is showing .

Question 4.13

8. In a series of experiments, the Harlows found that monkeys raised with artificial mothers tended, when afraid, to cling to their cloth mother, rather than to a wire mother holding the feeding bottle. Why was this finding important?
ANSWER: Before these studies, many psychologists believed that infants became attached to those who nourished them.

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