1. Kathleen Stassen Berger
Part III Chapter Eight
The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Body Changes
Brain Development
Injuries and Abuse
Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield 1
Tattoon, M.A.

2. The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Children grow bigger and stronger…
become more skilled at tasks… by
age 6, they can skip, write, and much
more, as long as they have had
enough practice.
2

3. Body Changes
– 1-year-olds are cute and chubby, while
6 year olds are “grown up”
– …the body and brain develop according
to powerful epigenetic forces,
biologically driven as well as socially
guided, experience-expectant and
experience-dependent…
3

4. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– during the play years:
• children become slimmer
• the lower body lengthens
• baby fat turns to muscle
– at age 5 the body mass index is lower than at
any other age in the entire life span
4

5. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– during the play years:
• gone is the protruding belly
• round face
• short limbs
• large head (that characterize the toddler)
5

6. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– children increase in height and weight
• Each year from age 2–6, well-nourished
children add almost 3 inches and gain
about 4 ½ pounds
• 6-year-olds weigh about 46 pounds
6

7. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– A typical 6-year-old:
• is at least 3 ½ feet tall
• weighs between 40 and 50 pounds
• looks lean, not chubby
• has adult-like body proportions
7

8. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– ethnic groups living together in the same
developed nation, children of:
• African descent tend to be the tallest, then
• European descent
• Asian descent
• Latino descent
8

9. Body Changes
• Growth Patterns
– “Over the centuries, low-income families
encourage their children to eat, so that they
would have a reserve of fat to protect
themselves in times of famine.”
– by 2020 it is predicted that more than 228
million adults worldwide will have diabetes as a
result of unhealthy eating habits acquired in
childhood
9

10. Body Changes
• Eating Habits
– Infants and young children today play
outside less than their parents or
grandparents did
10

11. Body Changes
• Eating Habits
– Nutritional deficiencies
• children in developed nations consume
enough calories but lack iron, zinc, and
calcium
• most cultures encourage their children to
eat sweets
11

12. Body Changes
• Eating Habits
– Just right
• “just right” or “just so” phenomenon is
normal and widespread among children
• most young children’s food preferences
and rituals are far from ideal
12

13. Body Changes
• Eating Habits
– Just right
• 75% of 1500 parents reported that their
children’s just-right phase peaked at about age
3...
– have things done in a particular order or in a
certain way
– strong preference to wear or not wear cerain
clothes
– prepare for bedtime by engaging in a special
activity, routine, or ritual
– strong preference for certain foods
13

14. Body Changes
• Eating Habits
– Just right
• by age 6 the “just right” fades
• parents should be patient until the “just
right” obsession fades
14

15. Brain Development
“Brains grow rapidly even before birth.”
• by age 2 the brains increase in size
– a great deal of pruning of dendrites has
already occurred
– brain growth after infancy is a crucial
difference between humans and other
animals
15

16. Brain Development
• Speed of Thought
– after infancy, continued proliferation of the
communication pathways (dendrites and axons)
results in some brain growth
– the effects of myelination are most noticeable in
early childhood
• Myelination is the process by which axons
become coated with myelin, a fatty substance
that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses
from neuron to neuron
– parent must be patient when listening to young
children talk or when helping them get dressed
16

17. Brain Development
• Connecting the Brain’s Hemispheres
– corpus callosum
• a long band of nerve fibers that connect the left
and right hemispheres of the brain
– lateralization
• literally, sidedness; the specialization of certain
functions by each side of the brain, with one
side dominant for each activity
– the left side of the brain controls the right side of the
body, and vice versa
17

18. Brain Development
• The Left-Handed Child
– infants and toddlers usually prefer one hand
over the other
– For centuries, parents who saw a preference
for the left-hand forced their children to be
right-handed
• since most people are right-handed the
assumption was that right-handedness was
best
18

19. Brain Development
• The Left-Handed Child
– developmentalist advise against trying
to switch a child’s handedness… not
only because of parent-child conflict but
because it might interfere with the
natural and necessary process of
lateralization
19

20. Brain Development
• The Whole Brain
– The left half controls the right side of the body
and contains the areas dedicated to logical
reasoning, detailed analysis, and the basics of
language.
– The right half controls the left side of the body
and contains the area dedicated to
generalized emotion and creative impules,
including appreciation of most music, art, and
poetry.
20

21. Brain Development
• The Whole Brain
– The left side notices details and the right
side grasps the big picture
21

22. Brain Development
• The Whole Brain
– severely brain-damaged people are
exclusively left-brained or right-brained
– every cognitive skill requires both sides of the
brain
– Because older children have more myelinared
fibers in the corpus callosum, they have better
thinking and less clumsy actions are possible
for them
22

23. Brain Development
• Planning and Analyzing
– the prefrontal cortex or frontal cortex is
an area in the front part of the brain’s
outer layer under the forehead.
• this area underlies higher-order cognition
– planning and complex forms of goal-directed
behavior
• the prefrontal cortex is the executive part
of the brain… ruling all the other areas
23

24. Brain Development
• Planning and Analyzing
24

25. Brain Development
• Planning and Analyzing
– Maturation of the Prefrontal Cortex
• Notable benefits of maturation of the
prefrontal cortex occur from age 2 – 6
– sleep becomes more regular
– emotions become more nuanced and
responsive to specific stimuli
– temper tantrums subside
– uncontrollable laughter or tears become less
common
25

26. Brain Development
• Planning and Analyzing
– Attention
• a major function of the prefrontal cortex
is to focus attention and thus curb
impulsiveness
– perseveration is the tendency to persevere
in, or stick to, one thought or action for a long
time
26

27. Brain Development
• Emotions and the Brain
– amygdala
• a tiny brain structure that registers emotions,
particularly fear and anxiety
– hippocampus
• a brain structure that is a central processor of
memory, especially the memory of location
– hypothalamus
• a brain area that responds to the amygdala and
the hippocampus to produce hormones that
activate other parts of the brain and body
27

28. Brain Development
• Emotions and the Brain
28

29. Brain Development
• Emotions and the Brain
– stressful experiences… can foster growth if
the child has someone or something to
moderate the stress
– prolonged physiological responses to stress
and challenge put children at risk for a variety
of problems in childhood including:
• physical and mental disorders
• poor emotional regulation
• cognitive impairments
29

30. Brain Development
• Motor Skills
– maturation of the prefrontal cortex
improves impulse control
– myelinaton of the corpus callosum and
lateralization of the brain permits better
coordination
30

31. Brain Development
• Motor Skills
– Gross Motor Skills
• involves large body movement
– Fine Motor Skills
• involve small body movement (are harder to
master)
– hands and fingers
• many fine motor skills involve two hands… both
sides of the brain
31

32. Brain Development
• Artistic Expression
– during the play years children are imaginative,
creative, and not yet very self-critical
– all forms of artistic expression blossom during
early childhood
– in every artistic domain, maturation of brain
and body is gradual and comes with practice
32

33. Brain Development
33

34. Brain Development
• Artistic Expression
34

35. Injuries and Abuse
• more children die of violence, either
accidental or deliberate than from any
other cause
• in the U.S. out of every 100,000:
– 1 to 4-year-olds, 10.9 died accidentally
– 2.5 died of cancer (the leading fatal disease at
this age)
– 2.4 were murdered
35

36. Injuries and Abuse
• young children are more vulnerable to
injuries and abuse than older children
– they are impulsive, yet depend on
others
36

37. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
– worldwide injuries cause millions of
premature deaths among young adults
as well as children
37

38. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
– injury control/harm reduction
• practices that are aimed at anticipating,
controlling, and preventing dangerous
activities;
– these practices reflect the beliefs that
accidents are not random and that injuries
can be made less harmful if proper controls
are in place
38

39. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
– three levels of prevention
• primary prevention
– actions that change overall background
conditions to prevent some unwanted event
or circumstances, such as injury, disease, or
abuse
39

40. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
– three levels of prevention
• secondary prevention
– actions that avert harm in a high-risk
situation, such as stopping a car before it hits
a pedestrian
40

41. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
– three levels of prevention
• tertiary prevention
– actions, such as immediate and effective
medical treatment, that are taken after an
adverse event such as illness or injury
occurs, and are aimed at reducing the harm
or preventing disability
41

42. Injuries and Abuse
• Avoidable injury
42

43. Child Maltreatment
• Maltreatment Noticed and Defined
– child maltreatment
• intentional harm to, or avoidable endangerment
of, anyone under 18 years of age
– child abuse
• deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s
physical, emotional, or sexual well-being
– child neglect
• failure to meet a child’s basic physical,
educational, or emotional needs
43

44. Child Maltreatment
• Maltreatment Noticed and Defined
– reported maltreatment
• harm or endangerment about which
someone has notified the authorities
– substantiated maltreatment
• harm or endangerment that been
reported, investigated, and verified
44

45. Child Maltreatment
• Warning Signs of Maltreatment
– The first signs of maltreatment are:
– delayed development
– slow grow
– immature communication
– lack of curiosity
– unusual social interaction
45

46. Child Maltreatment
• Warning Signs of Maltreatment
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
– is a delayed reaction to a trauma or shock,
which may include hyperactivity and hyper-
vigilance, displaced anger, sleeplessness,
sudden terror or anxiety, and confusion
between fantasy and reality
46

47. Child Maltreatment
• Consequences of Maltreatment
– is effected by cultural context
• customs
– maltreatment compromises basic health
• abused and neglected children are often
injured, sick, hospitalized
– maltreated children and adolescents are often
bullies or victims or both
– these perspectives can last for a life span
47