After reading this chapter, the student should be able to address the following:

1. Describe some major physical and motor accomplishments of the early childhood years.



2. Discuss the five major biopsychosocial forces that interact to influence physical development.



3. Describe brain lateralization and its correlation with the preference of handedness in children.



4. Discuss gross and fine motor skill development in early childhood. Identify the major motor accomplishments of the early childhood period.



5. Describe some major features of preoperational thought and provide examples of each feature. Describe how these features build upon the skills developed in infants' sensorimotor abilities.



6. Discuss Piaget's and Vygotsky's views on cognitive development and how they differ from those of information-processing theorists.



7. Detail Vygotsky's theory of the zone of proximal development. How is the concept of scaffolding linked to ZPD?



8. Identify the information-processing theory.



9. Describe the preschool programs based on the ideas of Piaget, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia, Italy schools.



10. Discuss the Head Start program and its origin.



11. Summarize the rules of language acquisition in early childhood development.



12. Analyze the role of the family in development during the early childhood years.



13. Explain the four major parenting styles and the likely effects on child development.



14. Assess the influence of siblings in development, including how siblings help each other and how they affect development.



15. Outline the effects of divorce on children and ways in which children adjust to and react to divorce.



16. Discuss long-term developmental outcomes of day care.



17. Discuss the age-related milestones that occur in the development of the self, including the various levels of self-awareness.



18. Summarize the various theories of gender development.



19. Examine the influence of family, peers, and the media in teaching children about gender roles.



20. Describe the different types of play, and the activities that characterize those different types and at what age they appear. Include some developmental implications for each type of play.



21. Discuss children's drawings as examples of emerging physical and cognitive development, and how this begins skill in representational thought.