When students have mastered the material in Chapter 8, they should be able to:
1. Describe normal physical development in the preschool years, including the various characteristics and patterns of growth.
2. Describe the genetic influences on growth during the preschool years.
3. Identify and discuss the various irregularities that can occur in physical development and how these may be compensated for.
4. Discuss the nutritional factors that influence growth during the preschool years.
5. Discuss the relationship between health and poverty. Indicate how these problems can be addressed.
6. Characterize the changes that occur in brain development during the preschool years.
7. Identify the areas of growth and brain specialization during the preschool years, including hemispheric lateralization.
8. Describe the changes in visual and auditory acuity during the preschool years.
9. Describe the development of bladder control during the preschool period.
10. Identify and describe the changes that occur in motor skills and indicate how they come about.
11. Differentiate between fundamental and specialized motor skills. Indicate the differential effects of training on each.
12. Describe how drawing changes over the preschool period. Differentiate between prerepresentational and representational drawing.
13. Discuss the gender differences in physical development during the preschool years, including information on real and perceived changes.
14. Describe how parents change in response to physical changes and growth, including changes in surveillance and patience.
CHAPTER 9 Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
When students have mastered the material in Chapter 9, they should be able to:
1. Describe Jean Piaget’s stages of preoperational thinking and identify the three major developments during this stage.
2. Discuss the development of symbolic thought in early childhood.
3. Describe the egocentrism of early childhood.
4. Describe how the child’s theory of the mind evolves, including the belief-desire psychology and appearance-reality distinction.
5. Describe the work on classification skills and conservation. Indicate how extensions of these studies differ from Piaget’s original work.
6. Describe how a child’s concept of number develops over the preschool period and distinguish between cardinality and ordinality.
7. Describe animism in preschoolers and distinguish between natural kinds and artifacts.
8. Discuss how social interaction facilitates cognitive development, with reference to the zone of proximal development.
9. Identify and discuss the changes in Piaget’s original ideas that have been proposed by neostructuralists.
10. Describe the basic features of language acquisition during early childhood, with particular focus on the development of syntax.
11. Discuss the errors related to the understanding of syntax, including undergeneralization and overgeneralization.
12. Discuss the two major theories of language development and review the basic assumptions and concepts of each. Evaluate the two theories.
13. Describe the role that parents play in the acquisition of language.
14. Describe the gender and socioeconomic status differences found in language.
15. Discuss the development of language in deaf children. How does their language development compare to that of normal hearing children?
16. Compare and contrast the two views (Piaget and Vygotsky) concerning the relationship between thought and language.
17. Describe the characteristics of a good early education program.
CHAPTER 10 Psychosocial Development in Early Childhood
When students have mastered the material in Chapter 10, they should be able to:
1. Describe the authoritative style of parenting and discuss the probable outcomes for children.
2. Discuss why the authoritative style of parenting is viewed as the most desirable style.
3. Describe the permissive style of parenting, including the two forms (indulgent and indifferent), and discuss the probable outcomes for children.
4. Describe the nature of the relationship between siblings, especially ones of different ages. Discuss the consequences of being an only child.
5. Define and characterize the changes found in empathy and prosocial behavior during the preschool years.
6. Describe the development of aggression in children, including the various forms aggression takes and developmental changes. Discuss the impact TV has on aggression.
7. Discuss the characteristics of play in the preschool years. Identify and compare the three major theoretical approaches to play.
8. Identify and describe the four forms of cognitive play found in the preschool years and indicate the developmental patterns.
9. Identify and describe Mildred Parten’s levels of play and indicate the developmental patterns for each.
10. Describe the factors that contribute to the development of play.
11. Describe the development of friendships during the early childhood years.
12. Identify the three steps involved in understanding gender in preschoolers. Describe the characteristics of each step and how they progress.
13. Identify and define the various sex-role stereotypes and indicate what influences parents, peers, and teachers have on their development.
14. Discuss the various types of child abuse, its causes, and treatment