CHAPTER OUTLINE

Body Changes

Growth Patterns

Improved Motor Skills

Nutritional Challenges

Avoidable Injuries

A VIEW FROM SCIENCE: Eliminating Lead

OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES: Safety Versus Freedom

Brain Development

The Maturing Cortex

Speed of Thought

Connecting Hemispheres Emotions and the Brain

Thinking During Early Childhood

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

Vygotsky: Social Learning

Children’s Theories

Brain and Context

Language Learning

A Sensitive Time

The Vocabulary Explosion

Learning Two Languages

Early Childhood Education

Homes and Schools

Child-Centred Programs

Teacher-Directed Programs

Long-Term Gains from Intensive Early Childhood Programs

WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

• Does obesity in early childhood have lasting impacts?
• To what extent are emotions rooted in a child’s brain?
• How do children learn about the world around them?
• What are the developmental impacts of bilingualism?
• Does preschool attendance give children an educational advantage?

My oldest brother, Sam, and his wife, Kelly, have four children: three girls and a boy. The two youngest, Brenna and Kaitlyn, are 2½ years apart. When Kaitlyn was about 1½, she started trying to follow her big sister’s example. Even though Brenna was 4 years old at the time and much more developmentally advanced, Kaitlyn, like many younger siblings, wanted to be “just like her sister.”

Kaitlyn did her best to walk and talk like Brenna, and to jump as high and run as fast as her sister. She even wanted to wear Brenna’s clothes, which didn’t come close to fitting her. Although it was clear to everybody around Kaitlyn that it was developmentally impossible for her to be just like her older sister, that didn’t stop Kaitlyn from trying.

It didn’t help matters when people would stop my brother and ask if the two girls were twins, even though Kaitlyn was half the size of Brenna and their facial features were not at all similar. Perhaps this reflects the power of Kaitlyn’s desire to be like her sister!