Transcript Child Development

Child Development
Child Development
Lecture Outline:
• What develops?
• How does it develop?
• How do we know?
• What drives development?
----- break----• Nature vs. Nurture?
• How to make a better baby?
What Develops?
What do babies have at the start?
• Reflexes
grasp, sucking
• Perception
hearing (loudness, pitch, mom)
vision (brightness, color, faces?) < 4ft.
integration of both (head-turns)
So, where do they have to get to?
How does it develop?
How does development happen?
• Differentiation
cell division
& behavior
• Growth
bigger brain, bigger body
more connections
How does development happen?
Orderly and Sequentially…
Motor Development
(sit up, crawl,
walk, etc.)
LanguageDevelopment (coo, babble, one-word,etc.)
How does development happen?
In stages?
According to Piaget:
• sensory-motor stage (0-2)
• preoperational stage (2-7)
• concrete operations (7-11)
• formal operations (11-on)
Sensory-Motor Stage (0-2)
Child is dealing with:
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“object permanence” (peek-a-boo)
“A not B” problem (objects--actions)
“lay physics” (magic & Baillargeon)
beginning of representational thought
(words & gestures)
Preoperational Stage (2-7)
Child is dealing with:
• conservation (liquid, mass, number)
• egocentrism (not in an obnoxious way)
• “theory of mind” (false-belief, a/r)
What do these have in common?
Formal & Concrete Operations
Child (adolescent) is working on:
• mentally relating representations
(4+1= odd & 6+1= odd)
• then abstract and hypothetical thoughts
(any even number + 1= odd)
plus, puberty…
How do we know?
How do we know?
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Sucking (HAS)
Looking (preferentially)
Habituation (distinction)
Pointing
Answering questions (task demands)
Affective response (qualitative?)
Brain imaging (ERP’s)
What drives development?
Mechanisms
• Biological maturation
gene expression (proteins)
information processing (packing the trunk)
• Learning
Piaget-- assimilation and accomodation
Vygotsky--scaffolding
THE BIG DEBATE:
NATURE VS. NURTURE
NATURE?
GENETIC TRANSMISSION:
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23 PAIRS OF CHROMOSOMES
EACH HAS CA. 1,000 GENES
GENE PAIRS--recessive/dominant
POLYGENIC INHERITANCE
NATURE?
FROM GENOTYPE TO PHENOTYPE
GENES --> PROTEINS --> BIOCHEM SEQUENCES -->
TRAITS, HORMONES, & NEUROCHEMICALS -->
CHARACTERISTICS & BEHAVIOR
What is inherited?
tiger
Twin studies
monozygotic
dizygotic
NURTURE?
EARLY EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT
How does each cell with same genes
develop into different parts?
Physical environment! (salamander)
How does each baby with same structures
develop into different people?
NURTURE?
AFTER BIRTH
• Social environment (family, peers)
• Economic environment
• Cultural environment
• Etc…
HOW TO MAKE A BETTER
BABY…
In parents’ the genes…
Or in the parents’ hands…
“BETTER?”
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Smarter?
Happier?
Healthier?
More creative?
More athletic?
Earlier?
How?
How?
• From rat studies to baby toys…
(Turner & Greenough, 1985)
• What about pre-natal Mozart?
(UC Irvine, 1993)
What does the child need?
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nutrition
stimulation
care & interaction from parent
certain exposure during sensitive
(critical?) periods
• good childcare & social interaction
What doesn’t the child need?
The “perfect” experiment…
…your homework.