Week 4 Glossary Terms:

Early Childhood

(Paris et al., 2019)
During the early childhood years of three to five we see significant changes in the way children look, think, communicate, regulate their emotions, and interact with others. Children are often referred to as preschoolers during this time period. 

Physical Development

Growth in Early Childhood

Children between the ages of 2 and 6 years tend to grow about 3 inches in height each year and gain about 4–5 pounds in weight each year. The three-year-old is very similar to a toddler with a large head, large stomach, short arms and legs. But by the time the child reaches age six, the torso has lengthened and body proportions have become more like those of adults. The average six-year-old weighs approximately 46 pounds and is about 46 inches in height. This growth rate is slower than that of infancy.

Motor Skill Development

Early childhood is a time when children are especially attracted to motion and song. Days are filled with jumping, running, swinging, and clapping and every place becomes a playground. Even the booth at a restaurant affords the opportunity to slide around in the seat or disappear underneath and imagine being a sea creature in a cave! Of course, this can be frustrating to a caregiver, but it’s the business of early childhood.

Gross Motor Skills

Children continue to improve their gross motor skills as they run and jump. They frequently ask their caregivers to “look at me” while they hop or roll down a hill. Children’s songs are often accompanied by arm and leg movements or cues to turn around or move from left to right.

Gross Motor Milestones 

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023)
Here is a table showing the progression of gross motor skills that children will typically develop during early childhood:

Activities to Support Gross Motor Skills

Here are some activities focused on play that young children enjoy and that support their gross motor skill development:

• Tricycle

• Slides

• Swings

• Sit-n-Spin

• Mini trampoline

• Bowling pins (can use plastic soda bottles)

• Tent (try throwing blankets over chairs and other furniture to make a fort)

• Playground ladders

• Suspension bridge on playground

• Tunnels (try throwing a bean bag chair underneath for greater challenge)

• Ball play (kick, throw, catch)

• Simon Says

• Target games with bean bags, ball, and so on

• Dancing and moving to music

• Pushing self on scooter or skateboard while on stomach

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are also being refined as they continue to develop more dexterity, strength, and endurance. Fine motor skills are very important as they are foundational to self-help skills and later academic abilities (such as writing).

Fine Motor Milestones 

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023)
Here is a table showing how fine motor skills progress during early childhood for children that are typically developing.

Activities to Support Fine Motor Skills

Here are some fun activities that will help children continue to refine their fine motor abilities. Fine motor skills are slower to develop than gross motor skills, so it is important to have age appropriate expectations and play-based activities for children. See the list below for examples: 

• Pouring water into a container

• Drawing and coloring

• Using scissors

• Finger painting

• Fingerplays and songs (such as the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”)

• Play dough

• Lacing and beading

• Practicing with large tweezers, tongs, and eye droppers

Nutritional Concerns

(Leon & West Hills Community College Lemoore, 2021)
That slower rate of growth is accompanied by a reduced appetite between the ages of 2–6. This change can be surprising to parents and lead to the development of poor eating habits. However, children between the ages of 2 and 3 need 1,000–1,400 calories, while children between the ages of 4 and 8 need 1,200–2,000 calories (Mayo Clinic, 2022).

Caregivers who have established a feeding routine with their child can find the reduction in appetite a bit frustrating and become concerned that the child is going to starve. However, by providing adequate, sound nutrition and limiting sugary snacks and drinks, the caregiver can be assured that the child will not starve, and the child will receive adequate nutrition.

Preschoolers can experience iron deficiencies if not given well-balanced nutrition or if they are given too much milk as calcium interferes with the absorption of iron in the diet. Caregivers need to keep in mind that they are setting up taste preferences at this age. Young children who grow accustomed to high fat, very sweet and salty flavors may have trouble eating foods that have more subtle flavors such as fruits and vegetables. Consider the following advice about establishing eating patterns for years to come (Rice, 1997). Notice that keeping mealtime pleasant, providing sound nutrition, and not engaging in power struggles over food are the main goals.

Tips for Establishing Healthy Eating Habits

(Leon & West Hills Community College Lemoore, 2021)

1. Don’t try to force your child to eat or fight over food. Of course, it is impossible to force someone to eat. But the real advice here is to avoid turning food into a power struggle so that food doesn’t become a way to gain favor with or express anger toward someone else.

2. Recognize that appetite varies. Children may eat well at one meal and have no appetite at another. Continue to provide good nutrition at each mealtime (even if children don’t choose to eat the occasional meal).

3. Keep it pleasant. This tip is designed to help caregivers create a positive atmosphere during mealtime. Mealtimes should not be the time for arguments or expressing tensions. You do not want the child to have painful memories of mealtimes together or have nervous stomachs and problems eating and digesting food due to stress.

4. No short order chefs. While it is fine to prepare foods that children enjoy, preparing a different meal for each child or family member sets up an unrealistic expectation from others. Children probably do best when they are hungry and a meal is ready. Limiting snacks rather than allowing children to snack continuously can help create an appetite for whatever is being served.

5. Limit choices. If you give your preschool aged child choices, make sure that you give them one or two specific choices rather than asking “What would you like for lunch?” If given an open choice, children may change their minds or choose whatever their sibling does not choose!

6. Serve balanced meals. Meals prepared at home tend to have better nutritional value than fast food or frozen dinners. Prepared foods tend to be higher in fat and sugar content as these ingredients enhance taste and profit margin because fresh food is often more costly and less profitable. However, preparing fresh food at home is not costly. It does, however, require more effort . Including children in meal preparation can provide a fun and memorable experience.

7. Don’t bribe. Bribing a child to eat vegetables by promising dessert is not a good idea. First, the child will likely find a way to get the dessert without eating the vegetables (by whining or fidgeting, perhaps, until the caregiver gives in). Secondly, it teaches the child that some foods are better than others. Children tend to naturally enjoy a variety of foods until they are taught that some are considered less desirable than others. A child, for example, may learn the broccoli they have enjoyed is seen as yucky by others unless it’s smothered in cheese sauce!

Child Safety

By the time they are preschool-aged, children are more independent in their play and their ability to meet their own needs. They focus on learning rules and routines to know what is safe and appropriate. Their constant dialogue with peers and caregivers helps them to form specific ideas about what is safe and why.

Preschoolers move and play with ease. Climbing, running, and jumping are favorite activities, and they are becoming much better at them. Many children also begin to pedal tricycles, play sports, and attempt more difficult climbing equipment. Their stronger motor skills give them the confidence to constantly try new things. During these years, preschoolers challenge themselves and develop a better understanding of the consequences of their actions. This trial-and-error approach complements the structure and rules teachers and families provide.

Preschoolers' growing cognitive and language abilities help them identify and avoid risks. Some children are able to talk about the challenges they would like to take with teachers and family members, while others are more likely to act impulsively. Many children this age are able to discuss safety rules for their classrooms, homes, or communities. They may ask why something happens or why a certain rule exists. When preschoolers question the rules, teachers can help them understand the possible consequences of not following the rules. Through these conversations, preschoolers learn to identify guidelines that will help them make safe choices.

Depending on a preschooler's temperament, some may question and test every rule. Others may be more cautious and will follow the rules they are given. Preschoolers also may take on a leadership role by offering warnings and praise to their peers and younger children as they begin to understand what is safe and why.

Preschoolers are active learners. Teachers who talk with children about rules and routines help them to make safe choices.

Daily Routine Safety

Early childhood is an age of exploration and adventure. Children may feel invincible and fearless. Adults can encourage curiosity and exploration while also maintaining safe environments for the children. Below are several safety tips to help provide a secure place for children to play and learn.

Safety Tip No. 1: Actively supervise 

(U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.)

What to do:
Closely watch, engage, and redirect preschoolers to create safe learning opportunities. Provide active supervision with preschoolers at all times.

Why it works:
Preschool children engage in understanding the world beyond their home and family through developing rules and routines. Their natural excitement about new things may lead them to take risks. While their judgment is improving, they may not always make good choices. Caregivers who constantly observe preschoolers are careful to engage them in safe activities and redirect them when necessary. They also help preschoolers learn and create rules and routines to prevent injuries.

Safety Tip No. 2: Create safe environments

What to do:
Create indoor spaces with age-appropriate furniture. Use safety locks and gates to allow preschoolers to explore safely. Avoid furniture that obstructs a clear line of vision and prevents caregivers from seeing and hearing children at all times. In outdoor play spaces, use playground equipment that is appropriate for preschoolers.

Why it works:
Preschoolers continue to challenge themselves and learn the rules about what is safe. Safety locks and gates guard against unsafe exploration. Furniture that is waist-high allows caregivers to see and hear everything that is happening in the room, regardless of whether they are sitting or standing.

Preschoolers' growing confidence may cause them to take on challenges on the playground. They have some sense of danger, but still  want to try things that are beyond their ability. By creating a developmentally appropriate playground and providing active supervision, preschoolers can engage in risk taking safely and practice new or emerging skills while learning safety rules.

Safety Tip No. 3: Store and lock harmful products

What to do:
Place cleaning products and medications in locked cabinets out of preschoolers' reach.

Why it works:
Preschoolers explore their environment by testing out the unknown. Preschoolers who find a bottle of chemicals might try to use it or spill it onto their skin. They may try to open a medication bottle and take the medication. These actions could burn or poison the child. Storing all harmful products  in a locked area and keeping personal belongings out of reach protects children from injury. Furthermore, talking to preschoolers about why unsafe materials need to be kept out of reach and locked away will help them learn why certain products are unsafe.

Safety Tip No. 4: Teach children how to eat safely

What to do:
Teach preschool children how to use cups, spoons, and forks safely.

Why it works:
Preschoolers use various eating utensils with their meals. Their love of imaginative play may cause them to want to use a utensil as a toy, leading to unsafe behaviors at the table. When caregivers sit with children during family style eating, they promote healthy and safe mealtime behaviors.

Safety Tip No. 5: Instruct preschool children in the safe use of materials and equipment

What to do:
Teach preschool children how to use scissors and other tools safely. For example, scissors need to be held closed with the loops out when passing them to a friend.

Why it works:
Preschoolers use a variety of tools for projects and play. By offering clear instruction and rules for using equipment and materials, caregivers make it possible for them to engage safely in new kinds of activities. Learning these rules helps children know how to interact with similar items in other settings as well, ensuring their safety beyond the program.

Safety Tip No. 6: Teach pedestrian safety techniques

What to do:
Offer basic instruction in walking on sidewalks and crossing streets, including looking both ways before crossing and holding hands with an adult. 

Why it works:
Children have opportunities to walk to the neighborhood park, school, and other community locations. Pedestrian safety guidelines allow them to become more independent while teaching them to explore safely. It can be difficult for drivers and cyclists to see them. Therefore, preschoolers need to understand pedestrian safety and learn how to follow rules in order to avoid risks that could place them in danger.

Childhood Stress and Development

(Leon & West Hills Community College Lemoore, 2021)

What is the impact of stress on child development? Children experience different types of stressors. Normal, everyday stress can provide an opportunity for young children to build coping skills and poses little risk to development. Even more long-lasting stressful events such as changing schools or losing a loved one can be managed fairly well. But children who experience toxic stress or live in extremely stressful situations of abuse over long periods of time can suffer long-lasting effects. The structures in the midbrain or limbic system such as the hippocampus and amygdala can be vulnerable to prolonged stress during early childhood (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008). High levels of the stress hormone cortisol can reduce the size of the hippocampus and effect the child's memory abilities. Stress hormones can also reduce immunity to disease. The brain exposed to long periods of severe stress can develop a low threshold making the child hypersensitive to stress in the future. However, the effects of stress can be minimized if the child has the support of caring adults. Let's take a look at childhood stressors.

Effects of Domestic Abuse

Roughly 3.3 million children witness domestic violence each year in the US. There has been an increase in acknowledgement that children exposed to domestic abuse during their upbringing will suffer in their developmental and psychological welfare. Because of the exposure  to domestic violence that some children have to face, it also impacts how the child develops emotionally, socially, behaviorally, and cognitively. Some emotional and behavioral problems that can result due to domestic violence include increased aggressiveness, anxiety, and changes in how a child socializes with friends, family, and authorities. Bruises, broken bones, head injuries, lacerations, and internal bleeding are some of the acute effects of a domestic violence incident that require medical attention and hospitalization.

Child Maltreatment

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child or children. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from their family and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. There are four major categories of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological and emotional abuse, and neglect. Neglect is the most common type of abuse in the United States and accounts for over 60 percent of child abuse cases.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse involves physical aggression directed at a child by an adult. Most nations with child-abuse laws consider the deliberate infliction of serious injuries, or actions that place the child at obvious risk of serious injury or death, to be illegal. Beyond this, there is considerable variation. The distinction between child discipline and abuse is often poorly defined. Cultural norms about what constitutes abuse vary widely among professionals as well as the wider public. Some professionals claim that cultural norms that sanction physical punishment are one of the causes of child abuse, and have undertaken campaigns to redefine such norms.

Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Effects of child sexual abuse include guilt, self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, and fear of things associated with the abuse. Approximately 15 percent to 25 percent of women and 5 percent to 15 percent of men were sexually abused when they were children.

Emotional Abuse

Out of all the possible forms of abuse, emotional abuse is the hardest to define. It could include name-calling, ridicule, degradation, destruction of personal belongings, torture or killing of a pet, excessive criticism, inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding communication, and routine labeling or humiliation.

Neglect

Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for themselves, but fails to provide adequate care. Neglect may include the failure to provide sufficient supervision, nourishment, medical care, or the failure to fulfill other needs for which the victim cannot provide for themselves. The term is also applied when necessary care is withheld by those responsible for providing it from animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. Neglect can have many long-term side effects, such as physical injuries, low self-esteem, attention disorders, violent behavior, and even death. In the US, neglect is defined as the failure to meet the basic needs of children: housing, clothing, food, and access to medical care. Researchers found over 91,000 cases of neglect in one year using information from a database of cases verified by protective services agencies.

Cognitive Development

(Overstreet & Lumen Learning, 2017)

Early childhood is a time of pretending, blending fact and fiction, and learning to think of the world using language. As young children move away from needing to touch, feel, and hear about the world toward learning some basic principles about how the world works, they hold some pretty interesting initial ideas. For example, while adults have no concerns with taking a bath, a child of three might genuinely worry about being sucked down the drain.

A child might protest if told that something will happen tomorrow but be willing to accept an explanation that an event will occur today after we sleep. The young child may ask, “How long are we staying? From here to here?” while pointing to two points on a table. Concepts such as tomorrow, time, size, and distance are not easy to grasp at this young age. Understanding size, time, distance, fact, and fiction are all tasks that are part of cognitive development in the preschool years.

Cognitive Milestones 

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023b)
The many theories of cognitive development and the different research that has been done about how children understand the world, has allowed researchers to study the milestones that children who are typically developing experience in early childhood. Here is a table that summarizes them. 

Piaget’s Preoperational Intelligence

(Lally & Valentine-French, 2022)
Piaget’s stage that coincides with early childhood is the preoperational stage. The word operational means logical, so these children were thought to be illogical. However, they were learning to use language or to think of the world symbolically. Let’s examine some of Piaget’s assertions about children’s cognitive abilities at this age.

Pretend Play

Pretending is a favorite activity at this time. A toy has qualities beyond what it was designed for and can now be used to stand for a character or object unlike anything originally intended. A teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land!

According to Piaget, children’s pretend play helps them solidify new schemes they were developing cognitively. This play, then, reflects changes in their conceptions or thoughts. However, children also learn as they pretend and experiment. Their play does not simply represent what they have learned (Berk, 2007).

Egocentrism

Egocentrism in early childhood refers to the tendency of young children to think that everyone sees things in the same way as the child. Piaget’s classic experiment on egocentrism involved

showing children a three-dimensional model of a mountain and asking them to describe what a doll that is looking at the mountain from a different angle might see. Children tend to choose a picture that represents their own view, rather than that of the doll. However, children tend to use different sentence structures and vocabulary when addressing a younger child or an  adult. This indicates some awareness of the views of others.

Conservation Errors

Conservation refers to the ability to recognize that moving or rearranging matter does not change the quantity. Let’s look at an example. A father gave a slice of pizza to ten-year-old Keiko and another slice to three-year-old Kenny. Kenny’s pizza slice was cut into five pieces, so Kenny told his sister that he got more pizza than she did. Kenny did not understand that cutting the pizza into smaller pieces did not increase the overall amount. This was because Kenny exhibited centration, or focused on only one characteristic of an object to the exclusion of others. Kenny focused on the five pieces of pizza to his sister’s one piece even though the total amount was the same. Keiko was able to consider several characteristics of an object rather than just one. Because children have not developed this understanding of conservation, they cannot perform mental operations.

The classic Piagetian experiment associated with conservation involves liquid (Crain, 2005). Tthe child is shown two glasses, which are filled to the same level and asked if they have the same amount. Usually the child agrees they have the same amount. The researcher then pours the liquid from one glass to a taller and thinner glass. The child is again asked if the two glasses have the same amount of liquid. The preoperational child will typically say the taller glass now has more liquid because it is taller. (Lally & Valentine-French, 2022).

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

As introduced earlier, Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who argued that culture has a major impact on a child’s cognitive development. He believed that social interactions with adults and more knowledgeable peers can facilitate a child’s potential for learning. Without this interpersonal instruction, he believed children’s minds would not advance very far as their knowledge would be based only on their own discoveries. Let’s review some of Vygotsky’s key concepts.

Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding

Vygotsky’s best known concept is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky stated that children should be taught in the ZPD, which occurs when they can perform a task with assistance. With the right kind of teaching, they can accomplish it successfully. A good teacher identifies a child’s ZPD and helps the child stretch beyond it. Then the adult (teacher) gradually withdraws support until the child can then perform the task unaided. Researchers have applied the metaphor of scaffolds (the temporary platforms on which construction workers stand) to this way of teaching. Scaffolding is the temporary support that parents or teachers give a child to do a task.

Private Speech

Do you ever talk to yourself? Why? Chances are this occurs when you are struggling with a problem, trying to remember something, or feeling very emotional about a situation. Children talk to themselves too. Piaget interpreted this as egocentric speech or a practice engaged in because of a child’s inability to see things from another’s point of view. Vygotsky, however, believed that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts. As children learn to think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips and engaging in private speech or inner speech.

Thinking out loud eventually becomes thought accompanied by internal speech, and talking to oneself becomes a practice only engaged in when we are trying to learn something or remember something. This inner speech is not as elaborate as the speech we use when communicating with others (Vygotsky, 1962).

Memory

Based on studies of adults, people with amnesia, and neurological research on memory, researchers have proposed several types of memory. Sensory memory (also called the sensory register) is the first stage of the memory system, and it stores sensory input in its raw form for a very brief duration; essentially long enough for the brain to register and start processing the information. Studies of auditory sensory memory show that it lasts about one second in two-year-olds, two seconds in three-year-olds, more than two seconds in four-year-olds, and three to five seconds in six-year-olds (Glass et al., 2008). Other researchers have also found that young children hold sounds for a shorter duration than older children and adults, and that this deficit is not due to attentional differences between these age groups, but reflects differences in the performance of the sensory memory system (Gomes et al., 1999). The second stage of the memory system is called short-term or working memory. Working memory is the component of memory in which current conscious mental activity occurs.

Working memory often requires conscious effort and adequate use of attention to function effectively. Children in this age group struggle with many aspects of attention and this greatly diminishes their ability to consciously juggle several pieces of information in memory. The capacity of working memory—the amount of information someone can hold in consciousness—is smaller in young children than in older children and adults. The typical adult and teenager can hold a seven digit number active in their short-term memory. The typical five-year-old can hold only a four digit number active. This means that the more complex a mental task is, the less efficient a younger child will be in paying attention to, and actively processing, information in order to complete the task.

Children’s Understanding of the World

Both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that children actively try to understand the world around them. More recently developmentalists have added to this understanding by examining how children organize information and develop their own theories about the world.

Theory-Theory

The tendency of children to generate theories to explain everything they encounter is called theory-theory. This concept implies that humans are naturally inclined to find reasons and generate explanations for why things occur. Children frequently ask question about what they see or hear around them. When the answers provided do not satisfy their curiosity or are too complicated for them to understand, they generate their own theories. In much the same way that scientists construct and revise their theories, children do the same with their intuitions about the world as they encounter new experiences (Gopnik & Wellman, 2012). One of the theories they start to generate in early childhood centers on the mental states; both their own and those of others.

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind refers to the ability to think about other people’s thoughts. This mental mind reading helps humans to understand and predict the reactions of others, thus playing a crucial role in social development. One common method for determining if a child has reached this mental milestone is the false belief task described below.

The research began with a clever experiment by (Wimmer & Perner, 1983), who tested whether children can pass a false-belief test. The child is shown a picture story of Sally, who puts her ball in a basket and leaves the room. While Sally is out of the room, Anne comes along and takes the ball from the basket and puts it inside a box. The child is then asked where Sally thinks the ball is located when she comes back to the room. Is she going to look first in the box or in the basket? The right answer is that she will look in the basket, because that’s where she put it and thinks it is; but we have to infer this false belief against our own knowledge that the ball is in the box.

This is very difficult for children before the age of four because of the cognitive effort it takes. Three-year-olds have difficulty distinguishing between what they once thought was true and what they now know to be true. They feel confident that what they know now is what they have always known (Birch & Bloom, 2003). Even adults need to think through this task (Epley et al., 2004).

To be successful at solving this type of task the child must separate what they know to be true from what someone else might think is true. In Piagetian terms, they must give up a tendency toward egocentrism. The child must also understand that what guides people’s actions and responses are what they believe rather than what is reality. In other words, people can mistakenly believe things that are false and will act based on this false knowledge. Consequently, prior to age four children are rarely successful at solving such a task (Wellman et al., 2001).

Cultural Differences in Theory of Mind

Those in early childhood in the US, Australia, and Germany develop theory of mind in the sequence outlined above. Chinese and Iranian preschoolers acquire knowledge access before diverse beliefs (Shahaeian et al., 2011). Shahaeian and colleagues suggested that cultural differences in childrearing may account for this reversal.

Parents in collectivistic cultures, such as China and Iran, emphasize conformity to the family and cultural values, greater respect for elders, and the acquisition of knowledge and

academic skills more than they do autonomy and social skills (Frank et al., 2010). This could reduce the degree of familial conflict of opinions expressed in the family. In contrast, individualistic cultures encourage children to think for themselves and assert their own opinion, and this could increase the risk of conflict in beliefs being expressed by family members.

As a result, children in individualistic cultures would acquire insight into the question of diversity of belief earlier, while children in collectivistic cultures would acquire knowledge access earlier in the sequence. The role of conflict in aiding the development of theory of mind may account for the earlier age of onset of an understanding of false belief in children with siblings, especially older siblings (McAlister & Peterson, 2007); (Perner et al., 1994).   

This awareness of the existence of theory of mind is part of social intelligence, such as recognizing that others can think differently about situations. It helps us be self-conscious or aware that others can think of us in different ways and it helps us be understanding or empathetic toward others. Moreover, this mind reading ability helps us to anticipate and predict people’s actions. The awareness of the mental states of others is important for communication and social skills.

Language Development

Vocabulary Growth

A child’s vocabulary expands between the ages of 2 and 6 from about 200 words to over 10,000 words through a process called fast-mapping. Words are easily learned by making connections between new words and concepts already known. The parts of speech that are learned depend on the language and what is emphasized. Children speaking verb-friendly languages such as Chinese and Japanese tend to learn nouns more readily.  Less verb-friendly languages such as English, seem to need assistance in grammar to master the use of verbs (Imai et al., 2008).

Literal Meanings

Children can repeat words and phrases after having heard them only once or twice.  They do not always understand the meaning of the words or phrases. This is especially true of expressions or figures of speech which are taken literally. For example, two preschool-aged girls began to laugh loudly while listening to a tape-recording of Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” when the narrator says, “Prince Phillip lost his head!” They imagine his head popping off and rolling down the hill as he runs and searches for it.  A classroom full of preschoolers hears the teacher say, “Wow! That was a piece of cake!” The children began asking “Cake? Where is my cake? I want cake!”

Overregularization

Children learn rules of grammar as they learn language but may apply these rules inappropriately at first. For instance, a child learns to add “ed” to the end of a word to indicate past tense. Then form a sentence such as “I goed there. I doed that.” This is typical at ages two and three. They will soon learn new words such as “went” and “did” to be used in those situations.

Language Milestones

The prior aspects of language development in early childhood can also be summarized into the progression of milestones children typically experience from ages 3–5. Here is a table of those milestones:

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023a)

Psychosocial Development

Motivation as Self-Efficacy

(Seifert et al., 2009)

In addition to being influenced by their goals, interests, and attributions, students’ motives are affected by specific beliefs about the student’s personal capacities. In self-efficacy theory the beliefs become a primary, explicit explanation for motivation (Bandura, 1997) . Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of carrying out a specific task or of reaching a specific goal. As mentioned previously, the optimal level seems to be either at or slightly above true capacity (Bandura, 1997). As we indicate below, large discrepancies between self-efficacy and ability can create motivational problems for the individual.

Motivation

Motivation refers to a desire, need, or drive that contributes to and explains behavioral changes. In general, motivators provide some sort of incentive for completing a task. One definition of a motivator explains it as a force “acting either on or within a person to initiate behavior.” In addition to biological motives, motivations can be either intrinsic (arising from internal factors) or extrinsic (arising from external factors).

Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsically motivated behaviors are performed because of the sense of personal satisfaction that they bring. According to (Deci, 1971), these behaviors are defined as ones for which the reward is the satisfaction of performing the activity itself. Intrinsic motivation thus represents engagement in an activity for its own sake. For example, if comforting a friend makes a child feel good, they are intrinsically motivated to respond to their friend’s distress.

Extrinsically motivated behaviors, on the other hand, are performed in order to receive something from others or avoid certain negative outcomes. The extrinsic motivator is outside of, and acts on, the individual. Rewards—such as a sticker or candy—are good examples of extrinsic motivators. Social and emotional incentives like praise and attention are also extrinsic motivators since they are bestowed on the individual by another person.

Learned Helplessness and Self-Efficacy

If a person’s sense of self-efficacy is very low, they can develop learned helplessness, a perception of complete lack of control in mastering a task. The attitude is similar to depression, a pervasive feeling of apathy and a belief that effort makes no difference and does not lead to success. Learned helplessness was originally studied from the behaviorist perspective of classical and operant conditioning by the psychologist (Seligman, 1995). In people, learned helplessness leads to characteristic ways of dealing with problems. They tend to attribute the source of a problem to themselves, generalizing the problem to many aspects of life, and seeing the problem as lasting or permanent. More optimistic individuals, in contrast, are more likely to attribute a problem to outside sources, seeing it as specific to a particular situation or activity. Consider, for example, two students who each fail a test. The one with a lot of learned helplessness is more likely to explain the failure by saying something like: “I’m stupid; I never perform well on any schoolwork, and I never will perform well at it.” The other, more optimistic student is more likely to say something like: “The teacher made the test too hard this time, so the test doesn’t prove anything about how I will do next time or in other subjects.”

What is noteworthy about these differences in perception is how  the more optimistic of these perspectives resembles high self-efficacy and how  learned helplessness seems to contradict or differ from it. As already noted, high self-efficacy is a strong belief in one’s capacity to carry out a specific task successfully. By definition, therefore, self-efficacy focuses attention on a temporary or time-limited activity (the task), even though the cause of successful completion (oneself) is internal.

Family Life

Relationships between parents and children continue to play a significant role in children’s development during early childhood. We will explore two models of parenting styles. Keep in mind that most parents do not follow any model completely. Real people tend to fall somewhere in between these styles.  Sometimes parenting styles change from one child to the next or in times when the parent has more or less time and energy for parenting. Parenting styles can also be affected by concerns the parent has in other areas of their life. For example, parenting styles tend to become more authoritarian when parents are tired and more authoritative when they are more energetic. Sometimes parents seem to change their parenting approach when others are around, maybe because they become more self-conscious as parents or are concerned with giving others the impression that they are a tough parent or an easygoing parent.  Of course, parenting styles may reflect the type of parenting someone saw modeled while growing up.

Baumrind

Baumrind offers a model of parenting that includes four styles (Baumrind, 1971). The first, authoritarian, is the traditional model of parenting in which parents make the rules and children are expected to be obedient. Baumrind suggests that authoritarian parents tend to place maturity demands on their children that are unreasonably high and tend to be aloof and distant. Consequently, children reared in this way may fear rather than respect their parents and, because their parents do not allow discussion, may take out their frustrations on safer targets, such as bullying  peers.

Permissive parenting involves holding expectations of children that are below what could be reasonably expected from them. Children are allowed to make their own rules and determine their own activities. Parents are warm and communicative, but provide little structure for their children. Children fail to learn self-discipline and may feel somewhat insecure because they do not know the limits.

Authoritative parenting involves being appropriately strict, reasonable, and affectionate. Parents allow negotiation where appropriate and discipline matches the severity of the offense. A popular parenting program  offered in many school districts is called “Love and Logic” and reflects the authoritative or democratic style of parenting just described. 

Uninvolved parents (also referred to as rejecting-neglecting) are disengaged from their children. They do not make demands on their children and are unresponsive. These children can suffer in school and in their relationships with their peers (Howard & Callero, 1991) ; (Gecas & Seff, 1990).

Lemasters and Defrain

LeMasters and DeFrain (1989) offer another model of parenting. This model is interesting because it looks more closely at the motivations of the parent and suggests that parenting styles are often designed to meet the psychological needs of the parent rather than the developmental needs of the child (LeMasters & DeFrain, 1989).

The martyr is a parent who will do anything for the child; even tasks that the child should do for themselves. All of the good deeds performed for the child, in the name of being a good parent, may be used later should the parent want to gain compliance from the child. If a child goes against the parent’s wishes, the parent can remind the child of all of the times the parent helped the child and evoke a feeling of guilt so that the child will do what the parent wants. The child learns to be dependent and manipulative as a result.

The pal is like the permissive parent described previously in Baumrind’s model. The pal wants to be the child’s friend. Perhaps the parent is lonely or trying to win a popularity contest against an ex-spouse. Pals set few limitations and let the child do what they want. They focus mostly on being entertaining and fun. Consequently, the child may have little self-discipline and try to test limits with others.

The police officer/drill sergeant style of parenting is similar to the authoritarian parent described by Baumrind. The parent focuses primarily on making sure that the child is obedient and they have full control of the child. Sometimes this can be taken to extremes by giving the child tasks that are  designed to check on their level of obedience. For example, the parent may require that the child fold clothes and place items back in the drawer in a particular way. If done incorrectly , the child might be scolded or punishedThis type of parent has a difficult time allowing the child to grow and learn to make decisions independently. The child may have a lot of resentment toward the parent that is displaced on others.

The teacher-counselor parent is one who pays a lot of attention to expert advice on parenting and believes that as long as all of the steps are followed, the parent can rear a perfect child. “What’s wrong with that?” you might ask. There are two major problems with this approach. First, the parent indirectly is taking all of the responsibility for the child’s behavior. If the child has difficulty, the parent feels responsible and thinks that the solution lies in reading more advice and trying diligently to follow it .

Parents can certainly influence children, but thinking that the parent is fully responsible for the child’s outcome is misguided. A parent can only do so much and can never have full control over the child. Another problem with this approach is that the child may get an unrealistic sense of the world and what can be expected from others. For example, a teacher-counselor parent decides to help the child build self-esteem and read that telling the child how special they are or how important it is to compliment the child on a job well done is beneficial. The parent may convey the message that everything the child does is exceptional or extraordinary. A child may come to expect that all of his efforts warrant praise  in the real world. This is not something one can expect. Perhaps children get more of a sense of pride from assessing their own performance than from having others praise their efforts.

LeMasters and DeFrain (1989) offer another model of parenting: the athletic coach style. Before you draw conclusions here, set aside any negative experiences you may have had with coaches in the past. The principles of coaching are important to Lemasters and Defrain. A coach helps players form strategies, supports their efforts, gives feedback on what went right and what went wrong, and stands at the sideline while the players perform. Coaches and referees make sure that the rules of the game are followed and that all players adhere to those rules. Similarly, the athletic coach as parent helps the child understand what needs to happen in certain situations whether in friendships, school, or home life, and encourages and advises the child about how to manage these situations. The parent does not intervene or do things for the child. Their role is to provide guidance while the child learns firsthand how to handle these situations. The rules for behavior are consistent and objective and presented in that way. So, a child who is late for dinner might hear the parent respond in this way, “Dinner was at six o’clock,” rather than, “You know good and well that we always eat at six. If you expect me to get up and make something for you now, you have got another thing coming! Just who do you think you are showing up late and looking for food? You’re grounded until further notice!” (LeMasters & DeFrain, 1989).

The most important thing to remember about parenting is that you can be a better, more objective parent when you are directing your actions toward the child’s needs while considering what  can be reasonably be expected at their stage of development. Parenting is more difficult when you are tired and have psychological needs that interfere with the relationship. Some of the best advice for parents is to try not to take the child’s actions personally and be as objective as possible.

Cultural Influences on Parenting Styles

The impact of class and culture cannot be ignored when examining parenting styles. The two models of parenting described above assume that authoritative and athletic coaching styles are best because they are designed to help the parent raise a child who is independent, self-reliant, and responsible. These are qualities favored in individualistic cultures such as the United States, particularly by the white middle class. African-American, Hispanic, and Asian parents tend to be more authoritarian than non-Hispanic whites.

In collectivistic cultures such as China or Korea, being obedient and compliant are favored behaviors. Authoritarian parenting has been used historically and reflects cultural need for children to do as they are told. In societies where family members’ cooperation is necessary for survival, as in the case of raising crops, rearing children who are independent and who strive to be on their own makes no sense. But in an economy based on being mobile in order to find jobs and where one’s earnings are based on education, raising a child to be independent is very important.

Working class parents are more likely than middle-class parents to focus on obedience and honesty when raising their children. In a classic study on social class and parenting styles called Class and Conformity (Kohn, 1997), explains that parents tend to emphasize qualities that are needed for their own survival when parenting their children. Working class parents are rewarded for being obedient, reliable, and honest in their jobs. They are not paid to be independent or to question the management; rather, they move up and are considered good employees if they show up on time, do their work as they are told, and can be counted on by their employers. Consequently, these parents reward honesty and obedience in their children.

Middle-class parents who work as professionals are rewarded for taking initiative, being self-directed, and assertive in their jobs. They are required to get the job done without being told exactly what to do. They are asked to be innovative and to work independently. These parents encourage their children to have those qualities as well by rewarding independence and self- reliance. Parenting styles can reflect many elements of culture.

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