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Key Terms
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Autonomy  independence or freedom of will and actions; Erikson's second stage of emotional and social development to be achieved by age 3.
Cognitive conceit  an aspect of concrete-operational children's thinking described by psychologist David Elkind; as children begin to have some success in reasoning and problem solving, they tend to get the idea that they must be as able as adults, or even smarter.
Cognitive stage theory  Piaget's observations led him to conclude that there are distinct stages in the development of logical thinking. According to his theory, all children go through these stages in the same progression, but not necessarily at the same age.
Concrete-operational period  Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of seven and eleven; classifying and arranging objects in series are important abilities within children's command during this period, making them more systematic and orderly thinkers; their thought also becomes flexible and reversible, allowing them to unravel and rearrange a sequence of events.
Dynamic theory of response  response is dynamic and open to continuous change as readers anticipate, infer, remember, reflect, interpret, and connect.
Formal literary analysis  highly structured study procedures as opposed to opportunities to read, hear, and talk about well-chosen books under the guidance of an interested and informed teacher.
Formal operations period  Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of eleven through adulthood; children in this stage are no longer dependent on concrete evidence but can reason from hypotheses to logical conclusions.
Moral judgment  ability to make decisions regarding issues of morality.
Preoperational period  Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of two and seven; children learn to represent the world symbolically through language, play, and drawing, thinking seems to be based on direct experience and perception of the present moment.
Process of becoming  all learning is a meshing of cognitive dimensions, affective or emotional responses, social relationships, and value orientation; this is the matrix in which personality develops.
Response to literature  any outward sign of that inner activity, something said or done, that reveals a reader's thoughts and feelings about literature.
Self-actualization  the highest level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; the achievement of one's fullest potential.
Sense of story  conceptions about how language is put together to form a story; Arthur Applebee conducted research regarding children's sense of story.
Sensory-motor period  Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of infancy and two; infants and toddlers learn through coordinating sensory perceptions and motor activity.
Story grammars  common patterns found in stories, both the arrangement of words and the sequence of ideas.
Visual perception  the act of taking in through sight; the development of visual perception occurs in stages during infancy.







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