| development | The more-or-less predictable changes in behavior associated with increasing age.
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| developmental psychology | The field of psychology that focuses on development across the life span.
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| maturation | Systematic physical growth of the body, including the nervous system.
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| imprinting | A form of early learning that occurs in some animals during a critical period.
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| critical period | A biologically determined period in the life of some animals during which certain forms of learning can take place most easily.
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| early experiences | Experiences occurring very early in development, believed by some to have lasting effects.
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| stage | One of several time periods in development that is qualitatively distinct from the periods that come before and after.
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| neonatal period | The first two weeks of life following birth.
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| rooting reflex | An automatic response in which an infant turns its head toward stimulation on the cheek.
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| sensorimotor stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from birth to 2 years.
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| object permanence | The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are not in view.
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| telegraphic speech | The abbreviated speech of 2-year-olds.
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| attachments | The psychological bonds between infants and caregivers.
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| separation anxiety | The distress experienced by infants when they are separated from their caregivers.
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| preoperational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from ages 2 to 7.
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| egocentric | The self-oriented quality in the thinking of preoperational children.
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| animism | The egocentric belief of preoperational children that inanimate objects are alive, as children are.
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| transductive reasoning | Errors in understanding cause-and-effect relationships that are commonly made by preoperational children.
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| solitary play | Playing alone.
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| parallel play | Playing near but not with another child.
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| cooperative play | Play that involves cooperation between two or more children.
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| concrete operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from ages 7 to 11.
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| reversibility | The concept understood by concrete operational children that logical propositions can be reversed (if 2 + 3 = 5, then 5 - 3 = 2).
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| conservation | The concept understood by concrete operational children that quantity (number, mass, etc.) does not change just because shape or other superficial features have changed.
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| decenter | To think about more than one characteristic of a thing at a time; a capacity of concrete operational children.
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| adolescence | The period from the onset of puberty until the beginning of adulthood.
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| puberty | The point in development at which the individual is first physically capable of sexual reproduction.
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| primary sex characteristics | Ovulation and menstruation in females and production of sperm in males.
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| menarche | The first menstrual period.
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| secondary sex characteristics | Development of the breasts and hips in females; growth of the testes, broadening of the shoulders, lowered voice, and growth of the penis and facial hair in males; and growth of pubic and other body hair in both sexes.
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| adolescent growth spurt | The rapid increase in weight and height that occurs around the onset of puberty.
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| formal operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of intellectual development usually reached by about age 11 and characterized by the ability to use abstract concepts.
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| adolescent egocentrism | The quality of thinking that leads some adolescents to believe that they are the focus of attention in social situations, to believe that their problems are unique, to be unusually hypocritical, and to be "pseudostupid."
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| climacteric | The period between about ages 45 and 60 in which there is a loss of capacity to sexually reproduce in women and a decline in the reproductive capacity of men.
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| menopause | The cessation of menstruation and the capacity to reproduce in women.
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