Infancy and. Childhood CHAPTER OUTLINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION

Transcription

1 Ifacy ad 9 Childhood CHAPTER OUTLINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION INFANCY Physical ad sesory developmet Cogitive developmet The begiigs of laguage ad commuicatio Social ad emotioal developmet THE PRESCHOOL YEARS Perceptual ad motor developmet Cogitive developmet Laguage ad commuicatio Social ad emotioal developmet THE SCHOOL YEARS Perceptual ad motor developmet Cogitive developmet Laguage ad commuicatio Social ad emotioal developmet FINAL THOUGHTS SUMMARY REVISION QUESTIONS FURTHER READING

2 By the ed of this chapter you should appreciate that: Learig Objectives there are argumets for ad agaist stage theories of developmet; progressio through the various domais occurs cocurretly but at differet rates; ifats eed other people for more tha food ad physical care; a toddler might use the same word to covey several differet meaigs; the child s social developmet ad sese of geder are iflueced by stereotypig ad peer coflict; preschoolers are egocetric i that they ted to see the world oly from their poit of view; childre s cogitive developmet ca be reflected i the ature of their friedships. INTRODUCTION Thik about tadpoles for a momet. There are clearly some importat differeces betwee tadpoles ad childre, but they have some iterestig features i commo. It is remarkable how much chage a frog udergoes as it develops. Its whole physical shape is trasformed dramatically from its fishlike, log-tailed ifacy to pot-bellied, pop-eyed, strog-legged adulthood. It has little to say for itself iitially, but as a grow-up it ca croak for hours. Although the huma ifat has more i commo, visibly, with mature humas, it will also chage i appearace substatially over the course of its lifespa. For example, the body-to-head ratio chages, the limbs elogate ad stregthe, the child becomes able to stad upright ad move about idepedetly, ad it cotiues to icrease i size over a period of about two decades. The child also has a modest vocal repertoire at the start, but i due course ca sig sogs or discuss the sports results. As for our metal ad social capacities, a momet s reflectio tells us that these chage dramatically, too. The emergece of laguage durig childhood presages a far more remarkable metamorphosis tha the tadpole s emergig legs. The social life of a six-year-old is much more diverse tha that of a ifat. Ad the reasoig powers of a te-year-old provide for itellectual activity uimagiable i a toddler. The chages our bodies udergo are largely preordaied by ature. There may be some variatios as a fuctio of utritio, exercise or exposure to evirometal hazard but, by ad large, the physical progress of a youg huma follows a predictable course, as i tadpoles or the youg of other species. Ca we say the same of the huma child s metal progress? The tadpole s social future is dictated largely by ature the eed to fid food, survive ad reproduce. Are huma lives so predictable? Clearly, some of childre s major early tasks will be iflueced by the surroudig culture. The laguage a child begis to lear reflects the laguage of his commuity. Whether a child speds her leisure time surfig the Iteret or gatherig

3 182 Ifacy ad Childhood witchety grubs depeds o which society she is bor ito. Does this mea that developig mids are shaped by the eviromet? These are the kids of questios that are ivestigated by developmetal psychologists. As we examie specific aspects of developmet i ifacy ad childhood (this chapter) through adolescece ad adulthood (chapter 10), some geeral themes will recur. How much is give by ature, ad how much by experiece? How does chage come about? I particular, is chage gradual or stage-like? INFANCY What leads to oe youg perso growig up to beg o the streets, while his peer starts a career i the cetral busiess district? The ifluetial early behaviourist Joh B. Watso oce proclaimed: Give me a doze healthy ifats, well-formed, ad my ow specified world to brig them up i ad I ll guaratee to take ay oe at radom ad trai him to become ay type of specialist I might select doctor, lawyer, artist, merchat-chief, ad, yes, eve beggar-ma ad thief, regardless of his talets, pechats, tedecies, abilities, vocatio, ad race of his acestors (1924, p. 82). But are people really empty vessels to be filled up or shaped by their eviromets? People ofte thik of ifats as helpless ad malleable. Clearly, i some quite fudametal respects, they are depedet upo others. They are uable to meet their ow physical eeds (feedig, cleasig, fidig shelter) or to move aroud or egage i discussio. Observatios such as these have led to a traditioal belief that the child is shaped by experiece. The strogest expressios of this assumptio have bee provided by behaviouristic psychologists, like Watso, who assert that the child is the product of its reiforcemet history (see chapter 4). However, more recet research by developmetal psychologists has radically altered our uderstadig, ad the traditioal otio of babies as empty vessels waitig to be filled by experiece has ow bee abadoed. I this sectio, we will examie a array of evidece poitig to the remarkable complexity ad competecies of the ormal huma ifat. PHYSICAL AND SENSORY DEVELOPMENT You ad I experiece the world via our seses, ad our everyday egotiatio of the eviromet depeds upo our skills i exploitig ad coordiatig the iformatio they provide (see chapters 7 ad 8). But these abilities did ot emerge suddely. We have ejoyed the beefits of sesory equipmet sice we first came ito the world (ad maybe before). Babies have a rich array of perceptual ad physical capacities, which eable them to egage with the world i more complex ways tha was oce believed. Some of these capacities seem to be preset at birth, some develop rapidly durig the first year or so, ad some vary accordig to the opportuities for exercisig them. Figure 9.1 Sam is oe hour old. What does he make of the world? How does he deal with the iformatio from his seses: sight, hearig, touch? Visio The huma ifat s visual system provides a crucial meas of explorig ad reactig to the eviromet (Slater & Johso, 1998). Although ewbors visual acuity is less tha perfect, they ca certaily take i a great deal of visual iformatio, ad they soo show sigs of pursuig it actively (vo Hofste, 2001). If you hold a object about 30 cm from a eoate s face, he ca focus o it ad may track it if you move it slowly from side to side. At this stage, the baby s visual attetio is likely to be cocetrated o the object s edges, but over the ext few weeks he will begi to explore its whole surface (Asli, 1987). Withi the first couple of moths, ifats ca switch visual attetio from objects immediately i frot of them to evets (such as a light flashig) o the periphery of their visual field (Maurer & Lewis, 1998). By three or four moths, they are able to orgaize complex visual cofiguratios, distiguishig

4 Research close-up 1 How developmetal psychologists study ewbors The research issue Rigorous psychological research calls for careful cotrol of test procedures. This is difficult eough to arrage eve with adult participats, but how ca we get ifats to participate usefully i a experimet? Ifacy researchers exploit may igeious techiques, such as moitorig babies visual attetio, heartbeats or suckig rates i respose to chages i their sesory eviromets. I a good example of such work, Laplate, Orr, Vorkapich, ad Neville (2000) ivestigated whether ewbors ca atted simultaeously to more tha oe dimesio of visual stimuli. This is a importat questio: do babies perceive objects holistically from the outset or do they operate aalytically, attedig to oly oe compoet at a time? Desig ad procedure Babies just two to four days old were positioed to look ito a visual chamber (see figure 9.2), where they saw a opeig i which a 2 cm 13 cm stripe appeared. The stripe was either horizotal or vertical. Durig each trial, the stripe moved: either right-left-right or dow-up-dow (each ifat seeig oly oe directio). The researchers filmed the ifat s visual attetio durig a series of 30-secod trials. First, the researchers established how log the baby watched the stimulus, ad the kept o presetig it util the ifat showed habituatio (this was defied as a 40 per cet or more decrease i visual attetio, as idicated by the baby s eye movemets). I other words, they waited util the baby had got used to the stimulus ad how it moved. Next, the orietatio of the lie was chaged, or the directio i which it travelled was chaged, or both orietatio ad directio were chaged simultaeously. The researchers were kee to kow whether the baby s amout of lookig chaged, as this would idicate that the child was takig ote of the altered visual eviromet. Results ad implicatios The ewbors exposed to the chages showed icreases i lookig times, while cotrol ifats (who were exposed to o chages) did ot. Furthermore, the patter of results idicated that lookig time icreases were greatest i the coditios i which two chages i the stripe occurred (orietatio ad movemet). These fidigs suggest that, from the first days of life, stimuli ivolvig modificatios o two dimesios are processed differetly from stimuli cotaiig a chage i oly oe dimesio. These very youg participats could ot speak but they could tell us a lot about how they perceive the spatial world from the way i which they behaved overbally. Laplate, D.P., Orr, R.R., Vorkapich, L., & Neville, K.E., 2000, Multiple dimesio processig by ewbors, Iteratioal Joural of Behavioral Developmet, 24, Visual chamber Computer moitor Video camera Video moitor Figure 9.2 Visual chamber ad equipmet used to assess ewbors lookig behaviour. Source: Laplate et al. (2000).

5 184 Ifacy ad Childhood betwee itersectig forms (Qui, Brow & Streppa, 1998) ad exploitig illusory cotours to perceive boudaries ad depth ( Johso & Asli, 1998). Babies appear to be particularly iterested i faces, which hold their attetio ad elicit smiles (Fatz, 1961). Some evidece idicates that eve eoates less tha oe hour old prefer illustratios of a huma face to other patters of similar complexity, ad they prefer regularly orgaized represetatios to pictures that jumble the facial features ( Johso & Morto, 1991). Such early prefereces raise the serious (if cotroversial) possibility that ifats have iate face detectors, which direct their attetio to this aspect of the visual eviromet (Slater et al., 2000). Hearig, taste ad smell The ifat exploits all her seses as she lears about ad reacts to her world. Hearig, although ot fully developed at birth, is well developed at this stage, eablig youg ifats to discrimiate amog souds that vary i volume, duratio ad repetitiveess, ad to orgaize their perceptio of ad resposes to the spatial eviromet (Kellma & Arterberry, 1998). So whe exposed to the approach of a illusory object (a soud icreasig i volume), quite youg ifats lea away as the oise gets louder (Freiberg, Tually & Crassii, 2001). Perhaps oe of the starkest pieces of evidece agaist the empty vessel theory of huma ature comes from the ifat s discrimiatio amog tastes (Meella & Beauchamp, 1997). Babies are ot passive whe it comes to food ad drik, ad display clear prefereces. Their suckig rate icreases for sweet liquids, but decreases for salty or bitter liquids (Crook, 1978). They show by their facial or vocal expressios whether they like or dislike a particular taste, ad will protest vigorously if offered somethig they fid upalatable (Blass, 1997). These prefereces are by o meas arbitrary ad may well have survival value. Ifats do ot have coscious utritioal iformatio to help them decide whether a foodstuff is good or bad for them, but they kow what they like. For example, alcohol is potetially harmful to ifats, ad research suggests that they would prefer ot to drik it. Meella ad Beauchamp (1994) compared babies cosumptio of breastmilk whe their mothers had bee drikig either alcoholic beer or o-alcoholic beer. I the alcohol coditio, the babies drak sigificatly less milk. Babies taste prefereces ca also be exploited by adults certai tastes, such as milk or sweeteed driks, help to calm dow a cryig ifat (Blass, 1997). Ifats react to smells i similar ways. Their facial expressios or head orietatios reveal whether they fid a smell pleasat or upleasat (Soussiga, 1997). Agai, the sesory prefereces may have survival value. For istace, there is evidece that ifats are attracted to the smell of amiotic fluid ad to milk (Marlier, Schaal & Soussiga, 1998). Motor developmet The eoate has several reflexes (automatic physical resposes to exteral stimulatio), icludig: the rootig reflex a tedecy to oriet the head ad mouth towards a object touchig the face; the suckig reflex a tedecy to suck o objects placed i the mouth; the graspig reflex a respose to stimuli (such as a figer) placed i the ope palm; the Moro reflex a reactio to sudde loss of support to the eck ad head i which the baby thrusts out his arms ad legs as if strivig for support; ad the steppig reflex the ifat attempts to take steps if held upright with feet touchig a surface. Some of these reflexes have importat beefits. For example, the rootig ad suckig reflexes esure that the ormal ifat will respod to cotact with the mother s breast by seekig out the ipple ad feedig (Widstrom & Thigstrom, 1993). Although biology provides the reflexes, early experiece is importat isofar as it ca affect their maifestatio. I oe study, eoates who were separated from the mother durig the first hour after birth were less likely to demostrate correct suckig techiques, ad babies whose mothers were sedated durig the birth did ot suck at all durig the first two hours (Righard & Alade, 1990). COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cogitio is a broad term ecompassig reasoig abilities, kowledge ad memory (see chapters 11, 12 ad 17). The study of cogitive processes is fudametal to may topics i psychology. Developmetal psychologists are iterested i the origis ad course of cogitive capacities, with a great deal of iterest therefore beig paid to their maifestatio i ifacy. Ifats react to iformatio provided by their seses by attemptig to orgaize experiece, make sese of pheomea, ad aticipate evets or outcomes. I fact, whe we examie what ifats do with the data they obtai from the world, we fid that they appear to behave i much the same way as scietists. They try thigs out, they collect more evidece (by explorig ad by trial ad error), ad they start to develop theories. The idea that babies, without the beefit of a formal educatio ad ot eve able to speak, could geerate theories about the world seems surprisig o first cosideratio. Yet, oe of the most ifluetial psychologists of the last cetury has argued exactly this, ad his accout has attracted eormous iterest from other psychologists ad educators. The sesorimotor stage of developmet Jea Piaget ( ), a Swiss psychologist, developed a model of cogitive developmet which holds that childre s thikig progresses through a series of orderly stages. Accordig to Piaget, each stage reflects qualitative differeces i the way the child uderstads ad acts upo the world relative to its status at aother developmetal phase. Later i this chapter, ad i the ext, we will cosider the other stages of Piagetia developmet, but for the momet we will

6 Ifacy 185 focus o the first, sesorimotor sesorimotor stage the first stage of stage, which Piaget described cogitive developmet, accordig to as extedig from birth to Piaget, extedig from birth to approximately two years, whe the child approximately two years. Piaget saw the child i this costructs a elemetary uderstadig stage as actig to lear about of the world ad thought is tied closely itself ad its relatios to the to physical or sesory activity eviromet. A key emphasis here is o the child s actios. Piaget believed that childre lear by doig, ad that they advace their uderstadig by testig what they kow to its limits (much as scietists do). Piaget argued that iitially ifats lack the ability to reflect cosciously o their experieces, but they do have a set of reflexive capacities (icludig those that we cosidered earlier i this chapter) that cause them to react to evirometal stimuli. These are simple, but importat processes. If somethig is placed ear a ifat s mouth, she will attempt to suck it. If you place your figer i a baby s had, she will grasp it. The baby ca also make vocal souds. All of these actios ca be repeated, ad babies do ideed repeat them, geerally becomig more proficiet with practice. The actios ca also be modified to cope with ew experieces. As well as graspig your figer, ifats will respod similarly if you place a rattle or toy i their had, or if they fid a bar o the side of their crib. I this way, the ifat develops actiobased schemes orgaized patters of behaviour that she comes to rely o i dealig with her world. Before log, the ifat discovers iterestig ew cosequeces from her iitially reflexive schemes. Graspig some objects (toys) causes the ifat to produce iterestig oises (squeaks or music). Sometimes a shake (of a rattle) or a push (of a mobile) yields other appealig souds or movemets. The ifat repeats the actio, ad the same thig happes. I these ways, babies are learig about cause effect relatios, ad their ow ability to ifluece the world. Ifats show delight as they lear how to cotrol thigs, ad repeat the actios frequetly util it becomes too easy, ad the they seek ew challeges. Pioeer Jea Piaget ( ) was oe of the most ifluetial psychologists of the twetieth cetury. Bor i Neuchâtel, Switzerlad, i 1896, he published his first paper (a short ote o a albio sparrow) at the age of 11. He studied zoology at the Uiversity of Neuchâtel, but his iterests i biological chage ad the origis of kowledge led him ito psychology. I 1920, he moved to the Alfred Biet laboratory i Paris, where he udertook research o itelligece testig, leadig to a fasciatio with the reasos that childre suggested for their aswers to stadard test items. This resulted i some 60 years igeious research ito the developmet of childre s thikig. I 1955, Piaget established the Iteratioal Cetre for Geetic Epistemology i Geeva. Object permaece I the course of all this seemigly playful activity, ifats are learig a great deal. But at ay oe stage, there are limits to what they kow. For example, i the first few moths of life, although babies get better at maipulatig objects, the stability of objects i their lives is geerally beyod their cotrol thigs (such as toys) come ad go. Piaget maitaied that very youg ifats have o coceptio of the durability of objects: accordig to Piaget, at this age, while somethig is withi reach or sight, it exists, but out of sight is out of mid. The otio that a object ca cotiue to exist eve whe we caot see it is termed object permaece. Piaget believed that this is a relatively late achievemet of the sesorimotor period (aroud ie moths). Other developmets durig this sesorimotor stage of developmet iclude greater experimetatio with the thigs the ifat ca do with objects, learig to use objects as tools, ad systematically copyig others behaviour to achieve ew skills. Piaget challeged object permaece uderstadig that a object cotiues to exist eve whe it caot be see or touched Piaget s descriptios ad explaatios of ifat activities are persuasive ad cotiue to have a great deal of ifluece upo developmetal psychology. But they have bee challeged. Subsequet research has demostrated that Piaget teded to uderestimate ifats abilities. For example, several studies have show that object permaece is available earlier tha Piaget believed to be the case. Hood ad Willatts (1986) preseted five-moth-olds with objects withi their reachig distace. The researchers tured off the lights, removed the objects ad released the babies arms. The ifats teded to reach towards the place where the object had bee located before the lights wet out, idicatig that the ifats could maitai a represetatio ot oly of the object but also of its locatio. Some of the perceptual abilities that have bee described i ifats (e.g. face perceptio, discrimiatio amog speech souds) also preset a problem for Piaget s theory. Oe of his core assumptios was that childre have oly a limited amout of iate kowledge ad that they costruct their uderstadig of the world through active ad geeral developmetal processes. By geeral, Piaget has i mid that chages are proceedig at roughly the same pace i most areas of the child s kowledge. There is a broad sweep improvemet goig o i metal capacities that is reflected i differet areas of uderstadig roughly simultaeously. This seems to make sese: after all, we kow that babies ca do a lot more at 15 moths tha they ca at five moths. But if some abilities are built i, the cosiderably more is iate tha Piaget maitais. As well as face perceptio ad speech discrimiatio, there is also itriguig evidece that ifats as youg as five moths ca add ad subtract with small umbers, leadig to speculatio that humas are bor with the capacity to

7 186 Ifacy ad Childhood perform simple arithmetical operatios (Wy, 1992). There is little basis for explaiig the developmet of these abilities by the outcome of geeral chages resultig from cotiuous activity. Furthermore, whether these abilities are iate or ot, they seem to develop at differet times. Some emerge quite early, such as face perceptio, which is well developed (though ot complete) i the preschooler. Others take a bit loger, such as laguage, which starts durig the first year but progresses ito middle childhood. Arithmetic ability is still developig ito the tees. Maybe, the, Piaget is mistake to coceive of developmet as oe all-embracig geeral process, with chages occurrig at about the same time across all areas of kowledge. O the basis of observatios like these, some psychologists believe that it may be better to regard the growth of kowledge as ivolvig specific domais, each with its ow developmetal course (Keil, 1999). This debate betwee those who (like Piaget) favour domaigeeral theories ad those who favour domai-specific theories highlights fudametal questios about the ature of the huma mid ad is cetral to much of cotemporary developmetal psychology (see Garto, 2004; Hatao & Iagaki, 2000). Piaget made a key cotributio to psychology by highlightig the importace of the costructivist theorist who attributes the acquisitio of kowledge to the ifat s actios as a source active processes of the learer, buildig of developmet. Piaget was o icreasigly complex represetatios of reality a costructivist: he saw developmet as a kid of selfdirected buildig process, i which the idividual costructs schemes of actio, applies them repeatedly util reachig their limits, ad the improves upo them i the light of ew discoveries. Although details of his theory have bee challeged, i the light of Piaget s cotributios most researchers agree that ifats are active cogitive beigs, ot the blak slates supposed by the early behaviourists. THE BEGINNINGS OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION The word ifat meas literally without speech. Babies caot joi us i verbal coversatio, caot aswer our queries, ad caot articulate all of their eeds ad iterests. Yet they ca certaily commuicate. Commuicatio betwee the ifat ad others does ot await the emergece of laguage but proceeds throughout the first year. Very youg ifats tell us about their feeligs ad eeds by cryig ad smilig. They show resposiveess to voices, orietig their attetio to speakers, ad eve their larger body movemets idicate sesitivity to the rhythm of speech. Caregivers are usually very resposive to the ifat s souds, treatig vocalizatios eve the humble burp as though they were cotributios to a coversatio (Kaye, 1982). Iitially, caregivers have to do much of the work to sustai the to-ad-fro of the iterchage, but gradually the ifat comes to take a icreasigly active role (Rutter & Durki, 1987; Schaffer, 1996). Ifats ability to discrimiate amog speech souds appears to be quite geeral at first. I their first few moths, they ca discrimiate amog souds that are critical i the laguage of their ow commuity but, iterestigly, they ca also distiguish souds i foreig laguages that are ot used i their ow (Heradez, Aldridge & Bower, 2000; Werker & Tees, 1999). But this capacity does ot last, which is why you (depedig o your liguistic backgroud) may ow experiece difficulties with some of the souds of, say, Catoese or Estoia. Sometime durig the secod half of your first year of life, you probably bega to lose your sesitivity to phoetic cotrasts i laguages other tha the oe(s) you were learig. Polka ad Werker (1994) foud that while four-moth-old America ifats could discrimiate vowel cotrasts i Germa, six-moth-old Americas could ot. I due course, the child becomes able to uderstad some of the thigs that are addressed to him. Labels for key objects or evets (e.g. biscuit, bedtime ) are repeated frequetly i meaigful cotexts, ad may parets try to coax words out of the ifat (e.g. Da-da. Say da-da ). Aroud the ed of the first year, ormally developig childre typically have a few words available (Barrett, 1995; Barrett, Harris & Chasi, 1991). At this stage, these words may ot always coform perfectly to the structure of the adult laguage (e.g. da for daddy, mi for give me ), but they are typically used appropriately, ad people familiar with the child usually kow what is meat. At this stage, the child s utteraces typically cosist of just sigle words, but, by chages i itoatio, ad coupled with gesture, these ca be used to express a variety of meaigful relatios, icludig possessio, locatio, egatio ad iterrogatio. For example, da, i differet situatios, could mea It s daddy s, Daddy has it, Not daddy, or Did daddy do it? Exactly how the child begis to master laguage presets may mysteries, but two thigs are clear: the process begis well before overt speech appears, ad it occurs i a social cotext. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Huma beigs are social creatures (see chapters 17 ad 18). Coectig to the social world is all the more crucial for the ifat, because without the attetio ad care of others, she would ot survive. Fortuately, others (particularly parets) ted to be strogly motivated to ivolve childre i the social world, ad to atted to their eeds. Just as importatly, the ifat is well equipped to participate i the social world from the begiigs of life. Perceptual abilities are closely implicated i the ifat s early social experieces. For example, we oted earlier that ifats reveal a very early iterest i the huma face. This is a iterestig perceptual preferece, but it is still more importat as a social characteristic. After all, faces are oe of the best meas of differetiatig betwee people, ad a valuable source of iformatio about how others are reactig to us or the eviromet. There is evidece that ifats ca gather iformatio about faces remarkably swiftly. Researchers usig visual preferece techiques or measuremets of suckig rates have show that ewbors oly days or eve hours old prefer their mother s face to that of a female strager (Bushell, Sai & Mulli, 1989; Walto, Bower & Bower, 1992). The other seses are exploited

8 Ifacy 187 ally broades. However, before log, it becomes very clear that the ifat prefers the compay of particular idividuals ot surprisigly, but importatly, the primary caregivers. Schaffer ad Emerso (1964) followed a sample of Scottish ifats durig the first year, observig them i various social situatios at home with their primary caregivers (mother, father, gradparets, etc.) ad with female stragers. By moitorig the babies overbal reactios, they foud a gradual icrease i preferece for specific idividuals from aroud the age of five moths. It appears from research such as this that, by at least the middle of the first year, the child has formed a attachmet (or attachmets) to a specific perso (or persos). At aroud the same time, the child begis to show a quite differet reactio axiety whe approached by ufamiliar people. At this poit, spare aother thought for the tadpole. Oe of the gravest problems about beig a tadpole is that fish cosider them a gourmet delight. As a result, tadpole survival rates are poor. But evolutio has give tadpoles a chace of escapig the uwelcome attetios of passig fish. Tadpoles respod to chemical ad tactile cues from predators, ad swim fast to get as far away from them as they ca (Stauffer & Semlitsch, 1993). This respose appears to be built i, as it has bee observed i laboratory-reared tadpoles, which have had o opportuities to lear about escape tactics. What does this have to do with the huma ifat? At aroud five to eight moths, huma ifats begi to display a form of behaviour that has much i commo with that of the cuesesitive tadpole: they start to show wariess of stragers ad strive to maximize their distace from them. Huma ifats also seem to be sesitive to a umber of cues emitted by the strager. All of their perceptual capacities seem to Figure 9.3 Babies as youg as oe or two weeks ca recogize the smell of their ow mother s breasts. similarly. For example, ifats as youg as oe or two weeks of age ca discrimiate the smell of their ow mother s breasts from those of other breastfeedig wome (Porter et al., 1992). Fear of stragers Ayoe with a iterest i babies ad a little patiece could provide much of the stimulatio (coos, cuddles, facial displays, getle hadlig) that ifats ejoy, ad babies will geerally respod to opportuities for iteractio with others. However, quite early i life, ifats begi to show oe of the distiguishig features of huma social behaviour selectivity (Schaffer, 1996). Durig the first few moths, much of the ifat s early social experiece takes place i the microcosm of the family, ad the most itesive iteractios will usually be with the primary caregiver(s). But other people appear from time to time (healthcare professioals, visitors, eighbours) ad the ifat s social world gradu- Figure 9.4 This child was playig happily util a strager appeared.

9 188 Ifacy ad Childhood help them to determie that this perso is ot mum or dad. But, ulike the tadpole, the huma ifat s reactio also etails a cogitive compoet. The child teds to cease other activity ad moitors the strager carefully. If the strager attempts direct iteractio (e.g. by pickig the child up), there may be resistace, protest ad distress o the part of the ifat. Whe this happes, the ifat ca usually be calmed oly by beig retured to the caregiver. Formig a relatioship model The developmet of the two aspects of social selectivity attachmet ad wariess of stragers are closely related i oset ad developmetal sigificace (Schaffer, 1996; Schaffer & Emerso, 1964; see also chapters 1 ad 6). May social developmetalists believe that the formatio of attachmets is a vital aspect of early relatios. Through attachmet, the ifat maximizes opportuities for urturig ad protectio, establishig a secure base from which to explore the rest of the world (Bowlby, 1988). Accordig to Bowlby (a British psychiatrist who developed a ifluetial theory of attachmet ad its cosequeces), through the course of the first attachmet (i.e. to the pricipal iteral workig model a set of basic caregiver) the ifat also assumptios (a schema) about the begis to formulate a iteral workig model of what a ature of relatioships relatioship ivolves. If this is correct, early attachmet could be the most importat relatioship that the child ever forms. I fact, a great may studies by attachmet researchers idicate that the type of attachmet formed durig this first relatioship has log-term implicatios. Mary Aisworth, a America colleague of Bowlby s, proposed that there are three mai types of attachmet relatioship formed by ifats ad their caregivers (Aisworth et al., 1971). She tested her typology by observig ifats reactios to a laboratory test the strage situatio. The baby is iitially playig with his mother ad is the approached by a strager. After a while the mother leaves, ad later she returs. This departure retur sequece may be repeated. Based o a careful codig system for scorig details of the child s resposes throughout the sessio, Aisworth idetified the followig three types of relatioship: Type A Isecurely attached/avoidat. This ifat is relatively idifferet to the mother s presece, does ot seem greatly disturbed by her departure, ad does ot show ethusiasm for cotact o her retur. Type B Securely attached. The ifat plays happily i the ew eviromet, shows some distress whe the mother departs (especially for a secod time), but respods positively to her retur. Type C Isecurely attached/resistat. The ifat teds to explore less, is greatly distressed by the mother s departure, is difficult to cosole upo her retur, ad may struggle to be released from her embrace. Pioeer Mary D. Salter Aisworth ( ) was oe of the leadig scietists i the study of huma attachmet. Bor i Ohio, she grew up i Toroto, Caada, where she studied, ad the taught, psychology. I 1950, she joied Joh Bowlby at the Tavistock Cliic i Lodo, iitiatig a lifelog iterest i the relatioship betwee child ad caregiver. She moved i 1954 to the East Africa Istitute for Social Research, Ugada, where she coducted a logitudial study of mother ifat attachmet. I 1962, she bega the Baltimore logitudial study, which proved a semial ivestigatio ad itroduced ew techiques for classifyig attachmet types. Much subsequet research has supported this classificatio, which has bee used i studies of early child developmet aroud the world (Va Ijzedoor & Sagi, 1999). Aisworth ad colleagues (1978) foud that approximately 70 per cet of ifats form Type B relatioships, about 20 per cet fall ito the category referred to as Type A, ad aroud 10 per cet of ifats form Type C relatioships. If it is true that the primary attachmet is the base from which the ifat begis to tackle the rest of life s challeges, the you ca see at oce that the Type B child appears to have a advatage. Feelig secure ad supported, she is ready to explore ad lear. If problems occur, the caregiver is there, but the child feels cofidet to try thigs out. Furthermore, because the basic relatioship is a positive ad ejoyable oe, the child should expect (i.e. have a iteral workig model) that other relatioships will be ejoyable, ad hece respod favourably to opportuities to iteract with other people. May studies show that Type B ifats ted to demostrate higher levels of cogitive ad social skills durig their preschool or later years (Meis et al., 1998; Suess, Grossma & Sroufe, 1992; Yougblade & Belsky, 1992). The topic is cotroversial (see Schaffer, 1996), but it does appear that the quality of the ifat s iitial relatioship ca help predict aspects of subsequet developmet. THE PRESCHOOL YEARS Durig ifacy, childre develop cosiderably ad lear a great deal about themselves ad the world. I some respects, the child has already udergoe major trasformatio, from the relatively depedet eoate to a idividual capable of expressig ad meetig may of her ow eeds. Nevertheless, there is much developmet ahead. I this sectio, we cosider some of the developmets of the preschool years, from approximately age two to five years.

10 The Preschool Years 189 PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT By the ed of the secod year, the child s perceptual abilities have developed cosiderably. I may respects, they are ow o a par with those of a adult. But there is still a log way to go i terms of motor skills ad coordiatio, ad substatial progress will take place over the ext few years. By the age of two, may childre have begu to walk uaided ad ca maipulate objects idepedetly, but their gait is usteady ad their maual dexterity is limited. Over the ext couple of years, they gai competece i these respects, becomig more certai of their cotrol over their bodies. A three-year-old is likely to be quite mobile (e.g. able to ru) but may fid it difficult to respod to a eed to chage directio or stop leadig to mishaps with icoveietly placed furiture or walls ad may have difficulties with balace (Grasso et al., 1998). A four-year-old is more agile ad begiig to develop skills such as throwig ad catchig, jumpig ad hoppig. Ad a five-year-old is quite competet i basic movemets. Motor developmet durig these years reflects a iteractio betwee biological maturatio, experiece ad cogitio (Thele, 2000). COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Whe we left the ifat towards the ed of the sesorimotor period, he had attaied object permaece, was icreasigly able to maipulate objects as playthigs ad tools, ad was exploitig the greater skills of others by copyig behaviours that appeared successful. These kids of developmets eable the child to egage i a higher level of represetatio. While the early sesorimotor ifat s schemes cosisted of cocrete actios, towards the ed of this stage he becomes able to develop metal schemas. Figure 9.5 By the age of two, may childre have begu to walk uaided, but their gait is usteady. Over the ext couple of years, they become surer of their cotrol over their bodies. By the age of four, the child is more agile ad begiig to develop skills such as throwig ad catchig, jumpig ad hoppig.

11 190 Ifacy ad Childhood preoperatioal period the secod major phase of cogitive developmet, accordig to Piaget, extedig from approximately two to six years, whe the child begis to represet the world symbolically but remais ituitive ad egocetric The child ca ow use objects to symbolize others, ad is begiig to use souds (words) for the same purpose. These skills are very useful, ad the child exploits them icreasigly. This leads to a ew stage i developmet, which Piaget called the preoperatioal period. aother perso s perspective. Piaget foud may illustratios of egocetrism i his iterviews with childre, i his studies of their laguage i preschool settigs, ad i his experimets. The ext time you get a opportuity to liste to the laguage of preschool childre, cosider the extet to which they are coversig i the way you ad I would uderstad a coversatio, such as exchagig a series of liked remarks about the same topic. A typical preschooler i oe of Piaget s major studies, Lev, egaged regularly i moologues, talkig about his ow activities to o oe i particular: Figure 9.6 The preoperatioal period egocetrism iability of the preoperatioal child to distiguish betwee his/her ow perspective o a situatio ad the perspectives of others This stage of developmet exteds from approximately two to six years, ad a umber of importat cogitive developmets are achieved durig this time. Foremost is the ability to symbolize to represet the world i images ad laguage. This eables childre to exted their uderstadig fudametally. The child becomes able to represet past ad future, ad to thik about objects or evets that are ot immediately preset. This soo becomes evidet i forms of activity like preted play (figure 9.6). If the sesorimotor child disappoits her parets by playig more with the wrappig tha the preset, the preoperatioal child will surprise them with the ews that the box is actually a helicopter ad it plas to lad o the buildig represeted by the coffee table. Although Piaget saw the preoperatioal period as a time of importat cogitive advaces, he also emphasized the limitatios of the child s thought processes at this stage. He believed that oe of the most profoud limitatios durig this phase is egocetrism a tedecy to see the world from our ow poit of view, alog with a iability to take Abel uses buildig blocks as traffic lights: he is clearly capable of formig metal represetatios of objects ot immediately preset, ad of makig oe object stad i for aother. (Sittig dow aloe at a table): I wat to do that drawig, there...i wat to draw somethig, I do. I shall eed a big piece of paper to do that. (After kockig over a game): There! Everythig s falle dow. (Upo fiishig his drawig): Now I wat to do somethig else. (Piaget, 1926, p. 14) Preschoolers like Lev accompay their actios with words i this way whe aloe ad whe i the presece of audieces. Close coectios to others utteraces do ot appear to be essetial to the activity: Pie (aged 6y 5m): Where could we make aother tuel? Ah, here, Eu? Eu (4y 11m): Look at my pretty frock. (Piaget, 1926, p. 58) Pie (the older child) is tryig to establish coordiated efforts but Eu has her ow cocers. I a major study of the laguage of preschoolers (1926), Piaget oted that, although the childre were beig studied i close proximity to their peers, more tha oe-third of their utteraces were either ot directed to ayoe or were so esoteric that obody else could uderstad them. So, accordig to Piaget, the preoperatioal child teds to be domiated by his perceptual experieces ad fids it difficult to imagie other aspects of a experiece, such as how aother perso perceives thigs. The preschooler talks but does ot always lik her remarks to those of others. I a experimetal task, the child cetres attetio o oe aspect of a task, ad fails to cosider the relevace of other dimesios. Piagetias call this cogitive bias cetratio. Probably the best kow example of this is Piaget s famous coservatio test. A preoperatioal child is preseted with two beakers of the same shape ad size. The equivalet amout of water cetratio whe a preoperatioal child focuses o oly oe aspect of a problem at a time coservatio ability to recogize that a object or amout remais the same despite superficial chages i appearace is poured ito each beaker, ad the child is asked whether the amout i each is the same. Oce this is agreed, a ew beaker, taller ad thier tha the origial, is produced. The liquid from oe of the origial beakers is trasferred to the third. The child is asked agai whether the amout is the same. Preoperatioal childre ofte isist that the amout has chaged. They might

12 The Preschool Years 191 Figure 9.7 Piaget s famous coservatio test is the best-kow example of a experimetal task i which the child cetres attetio o oe aspect of a task ad fails to cosider the relevace of other dimesios. Piagetias call this cogitive bias cetratio. Source: Slater & Bremer (2003). see it as more tha before, or less tha before, but certaily ot the same. Although the amout of liquid is actually uchaged, the child s perceptual experiece idicates otherwise it looks taller ad this teds to domiate the child s judgemet. The child appears to have cetred o oe aspect of the trasformatio i the liquid (the icrease i height) but has failed to take accout of the other (the decrease i width). Aother example is the three moutais perspective task (see Research close-up 2). Piaget challeged Piaget s accout of the limitatios o preschool childre s thikig has bee subject to may challeges. Some researchers have objected that the stadard coservatio task iduces the child to give erroeous resposes by askig the same questio Are they the same or differet? twice. I betwee, the experimeter has chaged the display, ad, i ay case, every child kows that whe a grow-up asks you a questio twice, it usually meas you gave the wrog aswer the first time. Whe the questio is asked oly oce, higher proportios of preschoolers give the correct (coservig) aswer (Rose & Blak, 1974). The task demads also appear to bear heavily o childre s performace. Borke (1975) provided three- ad four-year-olds with a perspective task, which ivolved viewig a set of familiar objects o a turtable. The task was to rotate the set to show how the objects would look from the perspective of a Sesame Street character, Grover, as he drove aroud the display. A majority of the childre performed well, ad oly a small proportio made egocetric errors. It seemed as if the combiatio of more familiar materials ad a more motivatig task appeared to eable these preschoolers to demostrate competecies that Piaget believed are attaied much later i developmet. Other research has also show that preschool childre are able to icorporate complex ideas ito their preted play, to follow successive actios ad to make predictios about their cosequeces. For example, Harris, Kavaaugh, ad Meredith (1994) had two- ad three-year-olds watch puppets pour preted cereal ito a bowl. Childre could uderstad this idea, ad could also follow the ext step, i which the puppet preteded to use the preted cereal to feed a toy aimal. They could aticipate that if a puppet poured preted milk or powder ito a bowl ad the tipped the bowl over a aimal, the aimal would get wet or powdery. This seems simple eough to us, but it poits to impressive represetatioal abilities i the child, who creates a metal image of the cereal, milk or powder ad the operates o the metal image to imagie subsequet trasformatios. These are cogitive skills that Piaget maitaied were ot available durig the preoperatioal stage. Piaget certaily poited to some itriguig aspects of child thought, idicatig that preschoolers may sometimes iterpret the world quite differetly from adults. Subsequet research idicatig that he may have uderestimated the competece of the preschooler (see also Bryat, 1974; Doaldso, 1978) qualifies rather tha ivalidates his work. After all, eve if the coservatio task ad the three moutais task do have methodological limitatios, these tasks do appear to pose problems for preschoolers

13 192 Ifacy ad Childhood Research close-up 2 Piaget s three moutais experimet The research issue Ca youg childre appreciate how the world appears from someoe else s perspective? Or are they boud by their ow outlook (egocetrism)? Oe of Piaget s best kow demostratios of egocetrism comes from his three moutais experimet (Piaget & Ihelder, 1956). Desig ad procedure Oe hudred childre were tested, aged betwee 4 ad 12 years. Each child was asked to stad i frot of a model of three moutais. The moutais differed i height, colour ad other characteristics. Oce the child was familiar with the layout of the moutais, a doll was placed at aother locatio (say, at the opposite side). The childre were tested i various ways. First, they were give three miiature cardboard moutais, ad asked to lay them out i the way the doll saw them. The childre the looked at a set of pictures take from various positios aroud the moutais ad had to decide which oe represeted what the doll would see from its curret positio. Fially, the childre were show a picture ad asked where the doll would have to stad to get that view of the three moutais. The doll was moved to differet positios ad the childre tested agai. The childre were also moved to differet positios ad asked to select the picture that represeted their ew perspective. Results ad implicatios Childre aged aroud four years fid this task very difficult ad do ot appear to uderstad the istructios. Childre below about age seve seem to fail to discrimiate betwee their ow perspective ad that of the doll: istead, almost ivariably, they pick the picture that represets their ow poit of view. For example, oe six-year-old boy selected his ow poit of view, eve though the doll was to his right, ad aouced: It s this oe because the gree [moutai] is here [poits to his right] ad so is the little ma [also o his right] (Piaget & Ihelder, 1956, p. 219). At aroud eight years, childre show awareess that people i differet locatios have differet perspectives o the moutais, but they are ot very cosistet i workig out exactly how thigs look from positios other tha their ow. For example, i the situatio described above, they might realize that a object to their ow right would be to the left of the doll, or that a object that is i frot from their perspective is behid from aother s perspective, but they fid it difficult to process these cues simultaeously. You might be thikig this would be hard for a adult too. It is certaily a challegig task, but by aroud ages eight ad a half to ie, Piaget ad Ihelder foud that most childre were able to hadle it successfully. They cocluded that the trasitio from egocetric thikig to beig able to coordiate relatios i space is a legthy process, developig over several years i middle childhood. Piaget, J., & Ihelder, B., 1956, The Child s Coceptio of Space, Lodo: Routledge & Kega Paul. Figure 9.8 The three moutais task. The child walks aroud the display ad is the asked to choose from photographs to show what the scee would look like from differet perspectives.

14 The Preschool Years 193 Pioeer Paul L. Harris (1946 ) is curretly based at the Harvard Graduate School of Educatio. Harris is iterested i the early developmet of cogitio, emotio ad imagiatio. His recet book, The Work of the Imagiatio, gathers together several years of research carried out at Oxford Uiversity, where he taught developmetal psychology. Curretly, he is studyig how far childre rely o their ow first-had experiece or alteratively o what people tell them especially whe they cofrot a ew domai of kowledge. Pioeer Margaret Doaldso (1926 ), author of the highly ifluetial book Childre s Mids, worked as a child developmet psychologist at Ediburgh Uiversity. Doaldso challeged Piaget s method of studyig egocetricity i childre, after producig differet results whe she applied a social dimesio to Piagetia tasks give to preschoolers. Doaldso argued that the preschoolers iability to perform Piaget s tasks was due to their difficulties with uderstadig (or abstractig) the questios, ad ot to their egocetricity or lack of logical skills. but ot for older childre. If you ca, try the tasks out yourself with a few childre aged three to eight. Ivite the childre to explai their resposes, ad judge for yourself whether Piaget has provided us with fasciatig (or misleadig) isights ito developmetal chages i childre s thikig. Theory of mid Aother importat aspect of early cogitive developmet is a capacity that we take for grated. Ad yet it is a distictive huma ability whose origis ad developmetal course prove difficult to ucover. This is the pheomeo of theory of mid. Theory of mid refers to the uderstadig that people (oeself ad others) have metal states (thoughts, beliefs, feeligs, desires) ad that these metal states ifluece our behaviour. It seems pretty obvious to you ad me that we have mids. But how do we kow? We ca ever see or touch a mid; we caot directly observe metal processes i actio. The mid is quite a abstract cocept. Ideed, perhaps you are studyig psychology because you would like to fid out more about this itriguig but elusive possessio. Preschoolers caot read psychology textbooks. So how do they fid out about mids? Do youg childre appreciate that they ad other people are thikig beigs? Do they uderstad that what a perso thiks or believes ca affect what she does? Imagie this sceario, put to youg childre by the developmetal psychologists Wimmer ad Perer (1983): Maxi has a bar of chocolate, which he puts i the gree cupboard. He goes out to play, ad while he is out his mother moves the chocolate to the blue cupboard. The Maxi comes i, ad he wats to eat some chocolate. Where will he look for the chocolate? Would you expect Maxi to look i the gree cupboard, where he last saw his chocolate ad where he believes it still to be? Or would he look i the blue cupboard, where you kow the chocolate is ow? If you have a theory of mid so you uderstad that people act accordig to what they believe to be the case the you will aswer that Maxi will look i the gree cupboard. Iterestigly, Wimmer ad Perer foud that childre uder the age of about five or six ofte aswer, with great cofidece, that Maxi will look i the blue cupboard. So preschoolers seem to be domiated by their ow kowledge ad fid it difficult to grasp that Maxi would be guided by his ow false belief. Slightly older childre are more likely to take accout of Maxi s metal state. They kow that he is wrog, but they ca uderstad that, o the evidece available to him, he is likely to thik that his chocolate should be where he stashed it. The researchers also checked whether the preschool participats could remember where this was: they could, yet they still isisted that Maxi would look i the ew locatio. This experimet led to a great deal of discussio about youg childre s grasp of metal processes. It seemed to idicate that preschoolers have serious difficulties uderstadig that people s behaviour is a outcome of their metal states (i this case, their beliefs). Because the difficulty could ot be explaied merely as a problem with memory, Wimmer ad Perer suggested that some special cogitive skill must be emergig aroud the period betwee four ad six years of age: the child is developig a theory of mid. This topic excited a great deal of subsequet research. Other ivestigators showed that, if the task is simplified a little, fouryear-olds demostrated uderstadig of false belief (Baro- Cohe, Leslie & Frith, 1985). I o-experimetal settigs (such as everyday coversatios), others foud that eve youger childre do make spotaeous ad cotextually appropriate refereces to metal states, which suggests that they do have some early awareess of the relevace of mid to huma behaviour (Flavell, 2000). For example, Du (1999) reports that a three-year-old participat tured to her four-moth-old siblig ad said: You do t remember Judy. I do! This brief remark idicates ot oly that the child had some uderstadig of the pheomeo of memory but also that she could simultaeously (ad accurately) appraise the relevat cotets of her ow mid ad that of her baby sister. The emergece of theory of mid raises some fasciatig questios ad has provoked a lot of igeious research (see Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2003). For our purposes, it is eough to state that importat developmets i childre s uderstadig of metal states seem to occur at aroud age three to four years. Give the complexity of the cocept of mid, this is remarkably early. Yet, give the cetrality of mid to our everyday iteractios with

15 194 Ifacy ad Childhood other people, it is clearly a essetial capacity, ad it would be hard to imagie life without it. I fact, there are people who do have particular difficulty with theory of mid tasks childre with autism (Baro-Cohe et al., 1985). Iterestigly, oe of the defiig characteristics autism early oset, biologically caused of people with autism is that disorder of commuicatio ad social they have severe difficulties iteractio, usually accompaied by commuicatig ad iteractig with other people. Could obsessive ad stereotyped behaviour ad itellectual disability this be because they lack a theory of mid? The ature of childre s theory of mid, ad its implicatios for other aspects of their reasoig ad social behaviour, are cetral topics i cotemporary developmetal psychology. Cumulative umber of ew words (obs. + diary) ad combiatios Words Combiatios Week of observatio LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION By the ed of ifacy, childre are begiig to attempt words. They add to these first efforts slowly for a while, but the durig their secod year (usually betwee 18 ad 24 moths) they eter a period that some developmetal psycholiguists call the amig explosio (Barrett, 1995). Durig this time, vocabulary amig explosio a period, usually i icreases rapidly, with childre the secod half of the secod year after addig betwee eight ad birth, whe childre s early vocabulary forty ew words to their productive lexico each moth developmet accelerates rapidly (Goldfield & Rezick, 1990). To put this i perspective, imagie you were to take a class i Gujarati or Russia, ad your istructor expected to hear you usig aroud 40 ew words each moth over the ext year. The remember that the ifat does ot have your advatage of already kowig at least oe laguage, ad of beig able to use explicit tools (dictioaries, prouciatio guides, tape recordigs). You would be surprised to see a 18-moth-old sittig beside you i the laguage laboratory. Yet she is already performig much more impressive feats at home. Puttig words together Learig a lot of words is useful, but it is oly oe compoet of laguage acquisitio. Childre also have to discover how to put words together, ad this proves to be a still more remarkable process. Researchers who have compiled detailed observatioal records of childre s early laguage have foud that after a period of sigle word utteraces, may childre udergo a trasitioal period i which they begi to place separate utteraces i close ad meaigful juxtapositio. Hoff (2001) describes a girl she was studyig who woke up with a eye ifectio. The child poited to her eye ad said, Ow. Eye. Hoff-Gisberg reports that each word was spoke as if it had bee said by itself, ad there was a pause betwee them. This is ot a setece, but the meaig is coveyed as effectively as if the child had said, Dar it! My eye hurts. The child has begu to Figure 9.9 Cumulative plots, at weekly itervals, of the umber of ew words ad ew word combiatios of a boy learig America Eglish (studied from moths). A expoetial fuctio has bee fitted to the lexical curve. Source: Aisfield et al. (1998). exploit the potetial for laguage to express relatioships by placig words ext to each other. These trasitioal efforts are soo replaced by frequet uses of loger word strigs usually two-word utteraces at first, ad the legthier combiatios (Braie, 1976; Brow, 1973). There is evidece that the icrease i word combiatios i tur prompts the child to lear more words perhaps because the child is compelled to search for more specific ways of expressig more complex meaigs (Aisfeld et al., 1998; see figure 9.9). These early laguage structures ca tell us a great deal about developmetal processes. Firstly, they display regularity childre ted to use particular words i particular locatios. For example, a child studied by Braie (1976) produced the followig utteraces (at differet times): daddy coffee daddy shell daddy hat daddy chair daddy cookie daddy book daddy bread I each case, the child appeared to be expressig a possessive relatioship talkig about daddy s coffee, daddy s hat, etc. Very occasioally, the child produced possessives with a differet structure ( juice daddy ), but showed a clear preferece for the order give above. The child s early utteraces are also revealig for what they omit. The examples above covey possessive relatioships but do ot iclude the covetioal iflectio ( s), ad there are o articles, proous or verbs.

16 The Preschool Years 195 As childre s utteraces icrease i legth, there are clear cosistecies i terms of what they iclude ad omit (Brow, 1973). Childre select the words with high iformatioal cotet ( daddy, book, cookies ), ad ecoomize o the mior (fuctio) words ad iflectios. They produce occasioal overregularizatios mas, foots, rued, shooted i which a regular rule (such as add s to get the plural, or add ed to get the past tese) is applied to a irregular word. Three mai poits have emerged from research coducted i this field so far: 1. Childre are selective ad structured i their early attempts at laguage. 2. Childre sometimes commit errors, but their errors suggest that they are tryig to covey meaigs as effectively as they ca, ad they are sesitive to grammatical rules. 3. Progress is quite rapid, from a hadful of words at moths to large vocabularies ad complex word combiatios at age three or four. Chomsky ad the iate ature of laguage We have oly touched upo a few examples of how laguage is acquired, but they speak directly to the debate about the ature of child developmet. May laypeople ad some psychologists have assumed that laguage is leared by observatio, imitatio ad reiforcemet (Skier, 1957; Staats, 1968). But the examples give above pose some fudametal challeges to this accout. Whom is the child imitatig whe she says, Ow. Eye, daddy bread, I brush my toothes or Me do t wat oe? The child is very ulikely to have heard adults produce these strigs of words. I fact, eve whe adults produce a setece deliberately ad ivite the child to imitate it, toddlers ad preschoolers frequetly respod with versios of the origial setece that reflect the processes of selectivity ad omissio discussed above (Fraser, Bellugi & Brow, 1963). A ifluetial America liguist, Noam Chomsky (1965, 1972), argued that it is impossible to accout for childre s laguage acquisitio i terms of traditioal learig theories (see chapter 4). As we have see, childre are learig may aspects of laguage quickly. Chomsky poits out that the rules of laguage childre have to master are very complex, ad most parets are ot able to articulate them. I fact, i much of everyday adult speech we do ot eve reveal the rules very clearly we make errors, false starts, iject er s ad um s, leave seteces icomplete. Yet ot oly do childre make rapid progress i their laguage developmet (masterig most of the basic rules by about age five), but they are able to create ad uderstad ovel liguistic expressios. Chomsky argues that laguage acquisitio i the ormal child costitutes a remarkable type of theory costructio (1959, p. 58). Chomsky seems here to be agreeig with Piaget, who also saw the child as costructig theories (see above). But Chomsky took the argumet i a differet directio. He maitaied that ay theory ivolved i comig to grips with a huma laguage has to be extraordiarily complex. It must be geeral eough to accommodate ay laguage that a child is exposed to, ad it must be shared by all ormal humas (because we all lear a laguage, ad we all do so at roughly the same pace). Where could such a theory come from if parets are ot able to teach it or eve model it? How does everybody get access to it? Chomsky s cotroversial aswer is that it must already be there: the child must have some iate kowledge of what the structure of laguage will be like. I fact, Chomsky isists that laguage is ot leared at all it grows ad matures, rather like limbs ad orgas grow. Chomsky challeged Chomsky has may supporters, but also may critics. There is much research to cofirm that laguage acquisitio is complex ad relatively rapid. O the other had, there is plety of evidece that parets do play a role i their childre s laguage acquisitio. Cosider, for example, the research we discussed above cocerig the social cotext of early commuicatio, ad the ways i which adults modify their speech for the beefits of the learer (see Durki, 1995). There are also objectios from Piagetias, who regard laguage ot as a iate, highly specific ability, but as oe aspect of the child s broader represetatioal capacity, which emerges durig the preoperatioal period (Siclair-de-Zwart, 1969). SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT The family is the primary social eviromet for childre durig the preschool years, but it is also the base from which they veture ito ew social cotexts. The family is ifluetial i several ways, particularly i the kids of social behaviour it fosters, ad with respect to the kids of social cotacts it offers for the preschooler (Du, Creps & Brow, 1996; Schaffer, 1996). Makig frieds May researchers believe that the patters of behaviour predomiat i the preschooler s home ifluece the behaviour the child maifests outside the home (Barth & Parke, 1993; Rubi et al., 1998). A good illustratio of this priciple is Russell ad Fiie s (1990) study of Australia preschoolers ad their mothers i situatios where the child had to joi ufamiliar peers. The researchers foud that the mothers guided their childre towards strategies that affected the child s acceptace. Mothers of popular childre suggested ways i which they might joi i with peers curret activity, while mothers of childre eglected by their peers were more likely to guide them to focus o the materials to had. There is also evidece that childre with a Type B (securely attached) attachmet relatioship i ifacy ted to score higher o measures of social participatio with peers at preschool (LaFreiere & Sroufe, 1985). I other words, aspects of the relatioship with the primary caregiver are

17 196 Ifacy ad Childhood reflected subtly but ifluetially i how the preschooler begis his peer relatios. Peer relatios amog preschoolers show aother cotiuity with early relatios: they are selective. Although childre of this age will play with a wide array of peers if give the opportuity, they do demostrate clear prefereces (Hartup, 1999). Idividuals idetify others with whom they play more frequetly; they seek out each other s compay ad they become frieds (Hartup, 1999). These early friedships serve a umber of importat fuctios, icludig fosterig the growth of social competece ad providig sources of emotioal support (Asher & Parker, 1989; Erwi, 1993). The value of these relatioships is made clearer by the problems suffered by childre who lack them. Ufortuately, some childre do ot establish friedships ad are either eglected or rejected by their peers. Childre who experiece difficulties like this i the preschool years are at risk of cotiuig problems i peer relatios ad persoal adjustmet throughout childhood ad eve ito adulthood (Coie et al., 1995). Learig about geder Oe of the major areas of social developmet durig the preschool years is learig about geder. Eve i the preschool years, childre ted to segregate by geder ad to show differet behavioural prefereces. Boys ted to be more physical ad active i their play, while girls ofte like to play with dolls (Maccoby, 2000). Oe theory is that these differeces reflect biological pre-programmig. We kow that the youg of other species such as tadpoles are pre-programmed to develop particular patters of behaviour accordig to their geder, ad these behaviours uderpi later social ad reproductive activities, such as patters of aggressiveess or how they call out to attract mates (Emerso & Boyd, 1999; Summers, 2000). It has bee argued that, i a similar way, evolutio has desiged huma males ad females for differet fuctios ( males as providers, females as caregivers ), ad childre s play behaviours are early emergig sigs of this biological imperative (Hutt, 1978). A alterative view is that childre are shaped by the surroudig culture. Ulike tadpoles, huma youg receive a lot of direct ad idirect advice from their parets about geder expectatios. This could serve to reiforce some behaviours (see chapter 4) ad extiguish others (e.g. by dressig daughters i pik or tellig sos ot to cry). Childre themselves try to ifluece each other s geder behaviour, too. Eve preschoolers develop strog opiios about how boys ad girls should behave. For example, boys might itervee to stop a peer playig with girls toys (Bussey & Badura, 1992). Fially, childre also receive may stereotyped messages from the larger commuity ad the mass media about geder role expectatios (Durki, 1985). But some developmetalists have argued that both of these explaatios (biology versus eviromet) overlook a still more basic questio: how does a child kow that he or she is a male or female i the first place? This brigs us to aother aspect of geder role developmet cogitio, or the child s active search for ad iterpretatio of iformatio about what is expected of males ad females (Kohlberg, 1966). Ulike tadpoles, by the ed of ifacy most childre kow whether they are a boy or girl ad ca distiguish me from wome (Thompso, 1975). Durig the ext few years, they begi to appreciate how fudametal this distictio is. For example, preschoolers discover a iterestig fact about geder that is ot apparet to the ifat: whichever geder oe belogs to, it is goig to be a lifelog commitmet. While this seems obvious to a adult, it is ot uderstood istataeously by toddlers. Childre lear the labels for male ad female ad begi to apply these durig their third year of life (Fagot & Leibach, 1993). Over the ext couple of years, they build up a icreasig amout of kowledge about what it meas to be a male or a female (Marti, 2000), ad this learig appears to be liked to broader cogitive developmet (Szkrybalo & Ruble, 1999). Rather tha simply absorbig messages from parets or the mass media, by age four or five childre ca predict accurately the geder of a perso stereotypically associated with a particular activity (such as fixig a car or doig the sewig) before they have actually see the perso (Durki & Nuget, 1998). It is clear that, eve at this early age, geder is a fudametal category aroud which the social world is orgaized, ad that childre are active i determiig their ow social experieces. Figure 9.10 Childre receive may messages from the larger commuity ad the mass media about geder role expectatios. I the past, these messages have bee more stereotyped tha they are today.