Biological Dimensions of Difference
Christopher J. Nicholls in Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children and Adolescents, 2018
In considering all of the foregoing ways in which early development can go awry, it is not surprising that some children lag behind others in the achievement of developmental milestones. Just as there are reference charts for height and weight across the childhood years, against which physicians compare a child’s growth trajectory, there are norms for when children should acquire various developmental stages. The scientific field of developmental psychology is a rich source of knowledge about how children move from one stage to another. There are many factors involved such as attachment, separation and individuation, and ultimately identity development and self-concept. Normative data helps us to identify children who may be lagging behind expectations in various areas, so that we can involve those children in early intervention activities to help them catch up.
Psychology across the lifespan
Dominic Upton in Introducing Psychology for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals, 2013
Despite the impact of Piaget’s research on cognitive development, it has not escaped criticism. Apart from the fact that Piaget based his observations on his own children, his work has recently been criticised for the lack of consideration given to contextual factors. For instance, Piaget neglects to acknowledge the view that children develop within a complex system of relationships and that these are affected by multiple levels of their environment (Carey, 1985). It has also been argued that Piaget’s experiments were often too complex and unfamiliar for children and lacked in ecological validity. For instance, the three mountains experiment is unrelated to some children, who are not from mountainous countries, as this is not a normal experience for them. Subsequent research suggested that when experiments used objects which were more familiar to children they were able to see things from another’s perspective at a much younger age than predicted by Piaget (Donaldson, 1978; Yoshida et al., 2009). However, Piaget’s theory has had a substantial impact on developmental psychology and has been the fundamental underpinning theory of child development for a number of years.
Learning Engineering is Human-Centered
Jim Goodell, Janet Kolodner in Learning Engineering Toolkit, 2023
Exploration began by gathering information from the research literature on developmental psychology and design for young children. The team sought to develop a basic understanding of what it means to be two and three and how children of these ages learn and develop. Two books were particularly helpful: Design for Kids, Digital Products for Playing and Learning by Debra Levin Gelman 44 and Designing Games for Children, Developmental, Usability, and Design Considerations for Making Games for Kids by Carla Fisher.45 Both books offered specific information about what children can do at different ages. That information, in turn, helped in developing design recommendations that became part of the persona. (See Figure 3.1 for the persona and corresponding design guidelines.)
Beyond the Bayley: Neurocognitive Assessments of Development During Infancy and Toddlerhood
Published in Developmental Neuropsychology, 2019
Natalie H. Brito, William P. Fifer, Dima Amso, Rachel Barr, Martha Ann Bell, Susan Calkins, Albert Flynn, Hawley E. Montgomery-Downs, Lisa M. Oakes, John E. Richards, Larissa M. Samuelson, John Colombo
The state of neurocognitive assessment of children up to 3 years of age has been neglected and inconsistently addressed in the current scientific literature. There is a need to build consensus around reliable tasks and best practices for such assessments in order to evaluate the efficacy of various early interventions. Agreement from the developmental science community would permit more domain-specific measures to be utilized during clinical research trials. The purpose of this review is to identify candidate measures of a possible standard “toolkit” for inclusion in future clinical trials and interventions evaluating the effects of early neurocognitive development. Not all domains are covered and as the field of developmental psychology contains numerous potential candidates for inclusion, we focus on tasks and paradigms that have been reliably used within our own respective laboratories. The domains included for consideration in this age range (0–3) are attention, memory, executive function (EF), language, and socioemotional development. Sections include discussions across different levels of measurement (e.g., behavior, electrophysiology), with a concluding section devoted to additional variables of interest that may help to contextualize early neurocognitive findings. First, a brief overview of the most commonly used global assessment for early neurodevelopment, as well as example of a collection of domain-specific tasks for older children is presented.
Strategic Clarity on Different Prevention Levels of School Bullying and Violence: Rethinking Peer Defenders and Selected Prevention
Published in Journal of School Violence, 2019
Paul Downes, Carmel Cefai
An inclusive systems approach focuses less on describing the shifting sands of cultural power imbalances at macrosystem level and their impingement on school microsystem and mesosystem levels, and more on putting in place background structural conditions to prevent discriminatory bullying and to redress power imbalances. This is less a focus on prepackaged programs than on system structures and processes. This builds on a key point that change to background supporting conditions has been frequently overlooked within developmental psychology: It is commonly but wrongly assumed that a significant main effect in a multivariate analysis means that that variable has an effect on its own. It does not. What it means is that there is a significant main effect for that variable, after other variables have been taken into account: that is not tantamount to an effect in the absence of all other variables. (Rutter, 1985, p. 601)
Examining the Field of Applied Sport Psychology in Denmark
Published in Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2023
Niels Boysen Feddersen, Knud Ryom
Our findings show that various educational backgrounds exist in Denmark, and some sports psychological practitioners have dual-roles as coach and sport psychological practitioner. Few have a clinical background, and few work as sports psychological practitioners full-time. There seem to be missing guidelines on how practitioners must meet standards of providing mandatory child certificates (similar to the Disclosure and Barring services check in the UK or Working with Children Check in Australia). Besides these results, we also find that the next steps for developing sport psychology in Denmark are at the organizational and regulatory levels to enhance the profession’s credibility and competencies. Educational institutions should consider focusing on youth and developmental psychology to prepare young practitioners for their jobs. The findings should also encourage governing bodies, such as the Danish Football Association, to consider the requirements they demand of clubs and psychology practitioners.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Adolescence
- Adult Development
- Ageing
- Child
- Cognitive Development
- Infant
- Developmental Biology
- Social Emotional Development
- Motor Skill
- Executive Functions