Growth of the Body
What do impulse control and preservation have in common?
Both require the prefrontal cortex, which fosters emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility.
What barriers to logic are evident in preoperational children?
Preoperational children are egocentric and more emotional than logical. They focus on the present, not the past or future.
What is the evidence that early childhood is a sensitive time for learning a language?
Without explicit instruction, young children learn several vocabulary words, more advance grammar, and better pragmatics every day of early childhood. Many learn more than one language.
What are the long-term benefits of early-childhood education?
Intensive longitudinal studies find benefits in academic achievements, graduation, employment, and health.
What does ZPD stand for?
Zone of proximal development
How is the corpus callosum crucial for learning?
Many learned skills require both sides of the brain. that makes the corpus callosum, which facilitates communication between the brain's hemispheres, crucial.
According to Vygotsky, what should parents and other caregivers do to encourage children's learning?
Understanding the Zone of proximal development (ZPD) requires knowing what the child already knows, and what is the next step in learning. Then motivation, apprenticeship, and scaffolding are useful.
How does fast mapping aid language explosion?
Quick association of a new word with similar words speeds understanding of new vocabulary. More accurate, nuanced understanding (slow-mapping) comes later.
In child-center programs, what does the teacher do?
Focus is on the development of each child, so teachers work with individuals and small groups, helping each child develop their creative expression, their listening and talking skills, and their social interactions.
The application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur, makes the language seem more "regular" than it is.
What is overregularization?
How does myelination advance skill development?
Myelination speeds impulses from on neuron to another, improving the rate of practice and this increasing mastery of skills.
How does scaffolding relate to a child's ZPD?
Scaffolding allows the child to build on what is already known to venture into a new learning. Once the new learning has occurred, the scaffolding is no longer needed.
How can overregularization of a cognitive advance?
Overregularization requires recognizing and applying rules of grammar. children eventually learn that there are many irregular words, but recognition and application of the regular rules indicate language comprehension.
Why are Montessori schools still functioning 100 years after the first such school opened?
The basic concept, that each child is proud to accomplish many tasks, and that teachers need to prepare materials and guide learning, still seem relevant to many caregivers and children.
A characteristic of preoperational thought in that a young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever is not has always been and always will be.
What is static reasoning?
How is childhood obesity affected by family income?
In developed nations, because cheap food is available, obesity rates increase as income falls. There are many reasons for this, including that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive, and that safe exercise is less available.
How does the development of the theory of mind relate to Piaget and Vygotsky?
The theory of mind includes social understanding. Piaget noted that the egocentrism of the young child makes the theory of mind difficult, and Vygotsky emphasized sociocultural learning, necessary for the theory of mind.
When should children learn grammar?
Children learn grammar as they learn language, listening to others talk, and gradually master the art of clear and complex communication. The formal rules of grammar are not usually understood until formal education.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of teacher-directed preschools?
Teacher-directed preschools prepare children for formal education: they teach letters, shapes, numbers, and respect for adults. The disadvantage is that creativity and independence are lost.
Schools that offer early-childhood education are based on the philosophy of Maria Montessori, which emphasizes careful work and tasks that each young child can do.
What are Montessori schools?
The fatty substance coating axons speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron.
What is myelin?
What are the three aspects of executive function?
Inhibition
Memory
Flexibility
What aspects of language seem difficult for young children?
Young children have difficulty with words that have no concrete reference, such as words that refer to the future and past, to political or economic systems, or complex family relationships.
Who benefits most from Head Start?
A long, thick band of nerve fibers connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them.
What is the corpus callosum?