NURS2003 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Egocentrism, White Noise, Childhood Obesity
CHAPTER 5 – PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Two Major Learning Challenges
Childhood comprises 2 phases: early and middle childhood
This period of life lasts longer in our species than in any other animal
We need this time to absorb the lessons passed down by previous
generations and to take advantage of our finely tuned ability to decode
intentions – the talent that has allowed us to advance
Early childhood: the first phase of childhood, lasting from age 3 through
kindergarten, or about age 5
Middle childhood: the second phase of childhood, covering the elementary school
years, from about age 6 to 11
Frontal lobes: the area at the uppermost front of the brain, responsible for
reasoning and planning our actions
Take 2 decades to become “adult”
As this region of the brain develops, every childhood ability improves
Physical Development
Physical growth slows down after infancy
Girls and boys are roughly the same height during preschool and much of the
elementary skills
Gross motor skills: physical abilities that involve large muscle movements such
as running and jumping
Boys are a bit more competent at gross motor skills
Fine motor skills: physical abilities that involve small, coordinated movements
such as drawing and writing one’s name
Girls are slightly superior in fine motor skills
Although cross-cultural studies suggest these biologically based skill can be
accelerated through practice, we need to be careful not to push young children
too hard
Undernutrition severely impacts motor skill development by making children
too tired to exercise and play
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Body mass index (BMI): the ratio of weight to height; the main indicator of
overweight an underweight
Childhood obesity: a BMI at or above the 95th percentile
Defined by a high BMI
Dramatically increased starting about 30 years ago, although the prevalence
of this epidemic differs across nations and in specific demographic groups
Main cause: toxic environmental forces (to little exercise, an abundance of
tasty, calorie-dense foods and so on)
There might also be hidden prenatal influences involved in twenty-first-century
child obesity and later overweight can be predicted early in life
Prejudices against overweight children and adults are intense in the West
Today, parents (and young adults) may be responding by minimising their
children’s weight issues and revising their own weight standards upward
Cognitive Development
Piaget’s pre-operational stage lasts from about age 3 to 7
The concrete operational stage lasts from about 8 to 11
Pre-operational thinking: in Piaget’s theory, the type of cognition characteristic of
children aged 2 to 7, marked by an inability to step back from one’s immediate
perceptions and think conceptually
Pre-operational thinkers focus on the way objects and substances (and
people) immediately appear
Concrete operational thinking: in Piaget’s framework, the type of cognition
characteristic of children aged 8 to 11, marked by the ability to reason about the
world in a more logical, adult way
Concrete operational thinkers can step back from their visual perceptions and
reason on a more conceptual plane
Conservation tasks: Piagetian tasks that involve changing the shape of a
substance to see whether children can go beyond the way that substance visually
appears to understand that the amount is still the same
One reason is that young children lack the concept of reversibility
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Document Summary
Childhood comprises 2 phases: early and middle childhood. This period of life lasts longer in our species than in any other animal. We need this time to absorb the lessons passed down by previous generations and to take advantage of our finely tuned ability to decode intentions the talent that has allowed us to advance. Early childhood: the first phase of childhood, lasting from age 3 through kindergarten, or about age 5. Middle childhood: the second phase of childhood, covering the elementary school years, from about age 6 to 11. Frontal lobes: the area at the uppermost front of the brain, responsible for reasoning and planning our actions. As this region of the brain develops, every childhood ability improves. Girls and boys are roughly the same height during preschool and much of the elementary skills. Gross motor skills: physical abilities that involve large muscle movements such as running and jumping. Boys are a bit more competent at gross motor skills.
