Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology

• Infancy and Childhood

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How do brain and motor skills develop?

• Good News
• While in the womb, you produce almost ¼ million
  brain cells per minute.
• Bad News
• That is basically all you are ever going to
  develop.

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The Brain and Infancy

• Although the brain does not develop many new
  cells, the existing cells begin to work more
  efficiently- forming more complex neural networks.

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Maturation

• Biological growth processes that enable orderly
  changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by
  experience.
• To a certain extent we all maturate similarly,
  but the time can vary depending on the person.

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Motor Development

• Sequence is the same- but once again timing
  varies.
• First learn to roll over, sit up unsupported,
  crawl, walk etc

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Walking

• Walking- in US 25 learn by 11 months, 50 within
  a week of 1st birthday, 90 by 15 months.
• Varies by culture- if the culture emphasizes
  walking then babies can walk at younger ages
  (NURTURE).
• But identical twins tend to learn to walk on the
  same day (NATURE).

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Toilet Training

• NO MATTER WHAT, THE BABY NEEDS THE PHYSICAL
  MATURATION TO HOLD HIS OR HER BLADDER OR BOWEL
  MOVEMENTS BEFORE TOILET TRAINING.
• NO TRAINING WILL WORK IF THE CHILD IS NOT
  PHYSICALLY READY.

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Cognitive Development

• This field is Dominated by a man named Jean
  Piaget.
• He was developing IQ tests and noticed that many
  children got the same answers wrong.
• Thought to himself, maybe these kids are not
  stupid, but instead think differently than
  adults.

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Piagets important concepts

• Children are active thinkers, always trying to
  make sense of the world.
• To make sense of the world, they develop schemas.
• Schema- a concept or framework that organizes and
  interprets information.

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Piagets important concepts

• Assimilation- interpreting ones new experiences
  into ones existing schemas.

• Accommodation- adapting ones current
  understandings (schemas) to incorporate new
  information.

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Cognition

• All mental activities associated with thinking,
  knowing and remembering.

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational

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Sensorimotor Stage

• The Sensorimotor Stage is from approximately
  birth to 2 years of age.
• Babies take in the world purely through their
  senses- looking, hearing, touching, tasting and
  grasping.

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Sensorimotor Stage

• At 4 to 8 months of age, your child will learn
  that she can make things move by banging them and
  shaking them. (Example--shaking a rattle, banging
  on toys, banging on tray of high chair)

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Sensorimotor Stage

• Between 9 and 15 months your child will be able
  to represent hidden objects in her mind (Object
  Permanence). In other words, she will be able to
  see objects even when they are out of sight.
• Before Object Permanence- what is out of sight,
  is gone from the universe forever.

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Sensorimotor Stage

• At 18 to 24 months of age, a child will begin to
  use images to stand for objects. In other words,
  a physical object can represent something else.
  Symbols represent objects or events in ones own
  environment.

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Sensorimotor Stage

• This ability is called mediation and is very
  important in a childs development because it
  means the child can think about more than just
  the objects that are around her she can think
  about the whole world.

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Preoperational Stage

• The Preoperational Stage is from approximately 2
  to 7 years of age.

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Preoperational Stage

• At the early part of this stage, a child will
  develop the ability to use symbols.

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Preoperational Stage

• Between the ages of 3 and 4, your child will be
  able to apply this ability to symbolize with
  objects, to people (names represent people).

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Preoperational Stage

• By the end of this stage, the child will
  understand the concept of conservation.

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Preoperational Stage

• Children in the preoperational stage are
  egocentric (the inability to take on anothers
  point of view).

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Concrete Operational Stage

• 7-11 years old
• Understand concept of conservation.
• Can think logically, use analogies, and perform
  mathematical transformations (59 is the same as
  95) also known as reversibility.

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Formal Operational Stage

• We can reason abstractly.

If John is in school, then Mary is in school.
John is in school. What can you say about Mary?
Stevie Wonder is god.
God is love.
Love is Blind
Stevie Wonder is Blind.