Physical
Researchers notice that children today are, on average, taller and heavier than children from 50 years ago, even without major genetic changes.
What is the secular trend?
An 8-year-old considers both the height and width of a container when thinking about how much water it holds, instead of focusing on just one feature.
What is decentration?
Two friends in elementary school begin sharing secrets and expect loyalty from one another, showing a deeper bond than in earlier childhood.
What is trust or loyalty?
A teacher helps a student see that failing a test doesn’t mean they’re incapable, but that they need to try different strategies and put in more effort.
What is attribution retraining?
Over several decades, researchers observe that average intelligence test scores gradually rise across generations.
What is the Flynn effect?
A health teacher explains that during late childhood, girls’ bodies begin changing in preparation for puberty, leading to increases in this body component.
What is body fat?
A student solves a multiple-choice math problem by narrowing it down to the single correct answer. This type of thinking is called what?
What is convergent thinking?
A child evaluates her abilities by noticing she reads better than one classmate but runs slower than another.
What is social comparison?
During testing, a teacher gives hints and guidance to see how much a student can improve with support.
What is dynamic assessment?
After a disagreement, a child takes action to fix the situation by inviting both friends to play together again.
What is problem-centered coping?
A child who has been practicing gymnastics for years becomes noticeably more bendable and elastic in movement. This reflects improvement in what motor capacity?
What is flexibility?
A child mentally adds numbers and then checks their answer by reversing the steps to see if it returns to the original problem.
What is reversibility?
A child feels proud after completing a difficult school project but worries about not doing as well as peers. This reflects which developmental conflict?
What is industry versus inferiority?
In a classroom, students and the teacher work together to solve problems, with everyone contributing ideas and decisions.
What are communities of learners?
A child shows exceptional skill in identifying plants, animals, and patterns in nature.
What is naturalist intelligence?
A child experiences repeated episodes of wheezing and shortness of breath, especially during exercise and in cold weather.
What is asthma?
A teacher asks students to arrange sticks from shortest to longest, and a child successfully completes the task.
What is seriation?
A child is often ignored by peers, avoids social interaction, and expects rejection in group situations.
What is a rejected-withdrawn child?
A reading teacher encourages students to learn by engaging with full stories and meaningful text rather than focusing first on individual sounds.
What is the whole-language approach?
A student begins to think about language itself, such as noticing grammar rules or word meanings.
What is metalinguistic awareness?
As children grow, they not only get stronger physically but also process information faster, leading to better coordination and performance. These improvements reflect physical growth combined with what cognitive factor?
What is more efficient information processing?
A child can logically solve problems involving real objects but struggles when asked to think about purely hypothetical situations. This reflects limitations of which stage?
What is the concrete operational stage?
On a sports team that emphasizes winning above all else, less skilled players are frequently excluded by teammates- an outcome especially common among boys.
What is social ostracism?
A school encourages students to focus on effort, improvement, and persistence rather than just grades or performance compared to others.
What is a mastery orientation?
To remember two unrelated words, a student creates a vivid mental image connecting them into a strange or funny scenario.
What is elaboration?