.

Chapter 5

The Early Years of Childhood

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-1

.

What is 'childhood'?

• A period of the lifespan based as much on social

norms as biological time

• In Pacific cultures, status depends on the situation,

not just age

• Also common in European cultures:

a person may be a "child" to their parents, even when

they are at midlife

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-2

.

Cultures differ in dividing the lifespan into phases

• NZ government:– Tamariki (0-14 years)– Rangatahi (15-24 years)

• Many cultures distinguish between– Infants dependent on the caregiver (first 18

months or so)– Early childhood (18 months to school age)– Transition to school

• Countries differ greatly in ages at which children start school

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-3

.

Big issues about childhood

• Period of life often seen as special and protected in various cultures

• In earlier centuries in Europe children were not seen as special or vulnerable (Aries, 1962)

• Today many children globally suffer abuse, neglect and genocide (United Nations web pages)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-4

.

Childhood as a cultural construction

Some sociologists argue that cultures' views of

childhood depend on:

– Wealth of a society & views of child labour

– Life expectancy

– Boys' and girls' access to schooling

(James, Jenks & Prout, 1998)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-5

.

Diversity in children's lives

• There is no "typical child"• Affluent Euro-Western children differ greatly from

children in much of the world• Access to enough food and healthcare differs• Low birthweight and early birth babies survive less

often in poorer countries• Children without resources may not reach their full

potential

(Melchior et al., 2007)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-6

.

Discourses about childhood

1. Childhood is a distinctive stage

2. Childhood is about progress

3. Childhood is about independence

4. Children as the future

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-7

.

1. Childhood is a distinctive stage

• The theories of Piaget and Freud have stages to

describe childhood

• This is linked with views of biologists about

immature forms of organisms

(e.g. tadpoles turning into frogs)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-8

.

2. Childhood is about progress

• The child is often contrasted with the adult– As though the child is half-formed– Progressing towards maturity– Deficient but constantly improving

• Children do, however, have their own competencies and are unique, valuable people in their own right

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-9

.

3. Childhood is about independence

• Key concept used in describing children's changes

across age

• Cultures differ in definitions and views of independence – Affluent US mothers less likely than Mayan to let

toddlers get their own way (Rogoff, 2003)

– NZ children playing outdoors unsupervised may be unusual

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-10

.

4. Children as the future

• Many cultures value childhood as representing the

next generation

• Special recognition given to hopes for the future

E tipu e rea mo nga ra o tou ao

(In our children lies our future)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-11

.

Nature and nurture

• Recap:– Genome is a person's unique genetic description

("nature")– Often contrasted with the environment around the

person ("nurture")– But the two are always intertwined

• Very hard to predict what a child will be like later in life

• Famous quote from John B. Watson (1930) against fixed nature:

“Give me a dozen healthy infants … and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist … and, yes, even beggar-man and thief”

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-12

.

Are some children doomed from the start?

• Research has NOT found risk factors that inevitably give a child a poor outcome in life (see Masten & Gewirtz, 2006)

• Influences are multi-directional– Not just poverty that affects the child's nutrition

but– Children respond differently to different types of

food and nurturing– In a two-way causal process

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-13

.

Temperament in early childhood• Is the temperament (emotional constitution) of a child

set early on?• Parents' observations of their own children in the

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Study (2009) noted stability from age 3 to 9– Some children consistently more 'approachable' – Others more 'sluggish' or 'restless'

• But cultures differ greatly in interpreting children's moods & behaviour

• Children do change over time• Cultures differ in what temperaments they value or

avoid, e.g. talkativeness!

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-14

.

Predictions about development

• Piaget's theory suggests that children's development could determine their ‘readiness’ to understand many concepts

• Recent research shows children understand many things earlier than previously thought

• Cultural diversity means that there is NO single universal path in child development

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-15

.

Children with disabilities

• May not fit expected norms in development,

but norms (e.g. expected ages for answering the phone or looking after siblings) differ by culture

• One in five New Zealanders will be disabled at some time in life

www.odi.govt.nz

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-16

.

Language development

• Acquiring a language– Phonology: sounds– Lexicon: vocabulary– Syntax: rules of grouping– Grammar: phonology + syntax– Pragmatics: everyday uses of language

• Narratives bring cultural knowledge to conversation

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-17

.

When families have more than one language• Many children acquire more than one language

– Language in home may differ from majority in the country

– Bilingualism: some fluency in two languages

– Many different types of bi- and multi-lingualism

– No clear disadvantage in development

– Can enhance child's cultural understanding

• Strengthening te reo Māori in Aotearoa– Te Kōhanga Reo

– 'Language nests' support young children & families who speak many minority languages in NZ

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-18

.

Figuring out the basics: Jean Piaget

• Pre-operational thinking– Poor on understanding of conservation

(i.e. understanding that physical propertiesremain the same despite appearances to the contrary)

• Ages for success on Piaget's tasks are lower in 'child friendly' testing situations

• Piaget's theory still useful but has evolved into new directions

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-19

.

Understanding how others see the world

• Egocentrism: centering on your own point of view

• Importance of play: trying out new actions & understandings through assimilation

• Learning about others through interest in and responding to others (Dunn, 1988, 1991)

• Learning about emotions through hearing people talk about them

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-20

.

Theory of Mind

• At some point children learn that everyone has a unique mind or mental life

• This helps us to understand others by anticipating what they might think or why they did something

• Pretend play can show evidence of Theory of Mind (Kavanaugh, 2006)

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-21

.

Cultural setting for development: Lev Vygotsky• Language is a much bigger part of development

in this theory compared to Piaget

• Zone of Proximal Development:– Space between what the child can do alone in

comparison to accomplishment with others' help

• Caregivers and older peers may 'scaffold' (provide supporting structure) for the child on a task• Example: tuakana (older child) / teina (younger

child) relationships

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-22

.

Knowing oneself helps social understanding

• Moral development : Kohlberg's theory– Preconventional stage: Punishment defines

what is bad!

• Emotional self-regulation improves, as does capacity of empathy for others

• Improving language skills help in social relationships

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-23

.

Early Childhood Education (ECE)

• 94% of NZ children attended some kind of early childhood service in 2006

• Cultures differ in the developmental changes considered most important in early childhood

• In Aotearoa there is a national ECE curriculum:– Te Whāriki

• ECE can be an important support for the child’s development

Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development 5-24