5.6 Summary

Body Changes

1. Children continue to gain weight and add height during early childhood. Many adults overfeed children, not realizing that young children are naturally quite thin.

2. Many young children consume too much sugar and too little calcium and other nutrients. One consequence is poor oral health. Children need to brush their teeth and visit the dentist years before their permanent teeth erupt.

3. Gross motor skills continue to develop; clumsy 2-year-olds become agile 6-year-olds who move their bodies well, guided by their culture. By playing with other children in safe places, they practise the skills needed for formal education.

4. Unintentional injuries cause more preventable deaths than diseases do. Young children are more likely to suffer a serious injury or premature death than are older children. Close supervision and public safeguards can protect young children from their own eager, impulsive curiosity. Pollutants hamper development, with lead proven to impair the brain and motor skills.

5. Injury control occurs on many levels, including long before and immediately after each harmful incident. Primary prevention protects everyone. Secondary and tertiary prevention also save lives.

Brain Development

6. The brain continues to grow in early childhood, reaching 75 percent of its adult weight at age 2 and 90 percent by age 5. Lateralization becomes evident.

7. Myelination is substantial during early childhood, speeding messages from one part of the brain to another. The corpus callosum becomes thicker and functions much better. Maturation of the prefrontal cortex, known as the executive of the brain, reduces both impulsivity and perseveration.

8. The expression and regulation of emotions are fostered by several brain areas collectively called the limbic system, including the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus.

Thinking During Early Childhood

9. Piaget stressed the egocentric and illogical aspects of thought during the play years; he called thinking at this stage preoperational because young children often cannot yet use logical operations. They sometimes focus on only one thing (centration) and see things only from their own viewpoint (egocentrism), remaining stuck on appearances and current reality.

10. Vygotsky stressed the social aspects of childhood cognition, noting that children learn by participating in various experiences, guided by more knowledgeable adults or peers who scaffold to aid learning. Such guidance assists learning within the zone of proximal development.

11. Children develop theories to explain human behaviour. One theory about children’s thinking is called theory-theory—the hypothesis that children develop theories because people innately seek explanations for everything they observe.

12. In early childhood, children develop a theory of mind—an understanding of what others may be thinking. Notable advances in theory of mind occur at around age 4. Theory of mind is partly the result of brain maturation, but culture and experiences also have an impact.

Language Learning

13. Language develops rapidly during early childhood, a sensitive period but not a critical one for language learning. Vocabulary increases dramatically, with thousands of words added between ages 2 and 6. In addition, basic grammar is mastered.

14. Many children learn to speak more than one language, gaining cognitive as well as social advantages. Ideally, children become balanced bilinguals, equally proficient in two languages, by age 6.

Early Childhood Education

15. Organized educational programs during early childhood advance cognitive and social skills. Many child-centred programs are inspired by Piaget and Vygotsky. Behaviourist principles led to many specific practices of teacher-directed programs.

16. Many types of preschool programs are successful. It is the quality of early education—whether at home or at school—that matters.