Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.

Standard 1.1

Picture
Rationale:
To document my knowledge of human development, I have selected a piece I wrote for a class in educational psychology. The paper described various aspects of child development including physical, cognitive, linguistic and personal and social development. The paper looked at children's developing sense of others and sense of morale. A ' look inside the classroom' vignette provides readers with a sense of how theory (i.e., Piaget & Vygotsky) can be applied in the classroom. 
My previous knowledge of psychological theory and research into educational best practice have greatly              influenced my outlook on child develpment. As I make plans for learning opportunities for my students in my future classes, I will continue to observe children closely and reflect these principles in my teaching.

Artifact 1:

Physical Development

Age

infancy
(Birth - 2 Years)


































Early Childhood
(2-6 Years)


































Middle Childhood
(6-10 Years)






























Early Adolescence
(10-14 Years)




























Late Adolescence
(14-18 Years)
Observations

  • Emergence of reflexes.
  • Rapid growth and change in proportions of body parts.
  • Increasing ability to move around.
  • Increasing ability to coordinate small muscles of hands and eyes.
  • Increasing self-help skills.





















  • Loss of rounded, babyish appearance, with arms and legs lengthening and taking on more mature proportions.
  • Boundless physical energy for new gross motor skills.
  • Acquisition of fine gross motor skills, such as pencil grip.
  • Transition away from afternoon nap.
















  • Steady gains in height and weight.
  • Loss and replacement of primary teeth.
  • Refinement and consolidation of gross motor skills and integration of such skills into structured play activities.
  • Participation in organised sports.
  • Increasing fluency in fine motor skills, such as handwriting and drawing.











  • Periods of rapid growth.
  • Beginnings of puberty.
  • Self-consciousness about physical changes.
  • Some risk-taking behaviour.




















  • In girls, completion of growth spurt and attainment of mature height .
  • In boys, ongoing increases in stature.
  • Ravenous appetites.
  • Increasing sexual activity.
  • Some serious risky behaviours (e.g., drinking alcohol, taking illegal drugs, engaging in unprotected sexual contact, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol), due to greater independence.
Diversity

  • Children vary in timing and quality of gross motor skills, depending on genetic and cultural factors.
  • Fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination may appear earlier or later than others.
  • Self-help skills appear earlier when encouraged, but virtually all children learn them eventually.


















  • Children differ in the ages at which they master various motor skills.
  • Boys are more physically active than girls, but girls are healthier overall; these differences continue throughout childhood and adolescence.
  • Some home environments limit the degree to which children can engage in vigorous physical activity; others may present hazardous environmental conditions (e.g., lead paint).
  • Children with mental retardation may have delayed motor skills.




  • Variations in weight and height are prominent.
  • Children begin to show specific athletic talents and interests.
  • Gender differences appear in children's preferences for various sports and physical activities.
  • Some children have delays in fine motor skills as a result of neurological conditions or lack of opportunity to practice fine motor tasks.
  • Some children spend much of their non-school time in sedentary activities.



  • Onset of puberty may vary over a span of several years; puberty occurs earlier for girls than boys.
  • Leisure activities may or may not include regular excercise.
  • Young teens differ considerably in strength and physical endurance, as well as in their specific talents for sports. Boys are generally faster, stronger, and more confident about their physical abilities than girls.
  • Peer groups may or may not encourage risky behaviour.



  • Gender differences in physical abilities increase; boys are more active in organised sports programs.
  • Some teens begin to limit risky behaviours and make better decisions.
  • Eating disorders may appear, especially in girls.
  • Adolescents are less likely than younger children to get regular medical care.
  • Adolescents differ in their exposure to risky substances.
In the Classroom

  • Celebrate each child's unique growth patterns, but watch for unusual patterns or differences that may require accommodation or intervention.
  • Provide a choice of appropriate indoor and outdoor experiences to help children practice their developing motor skills.
  • Don't push infants to reach milestones. Allow them to experience each phase of physical development thoroughly.
  • Be aware of serious developmental delays that call for professional intervention.



  • Provide frequent oportunities to play indoors and outdoors.
  • Intersperse vigorous physical excercise with rest and quiet time.
  • Encourage fine motor skills through puzzles, blocks, and art and crafts.
  • Choose activities that accommodate diversity in gross and fine motor skills.

  • Integrate physical movement into academic activities.
  • Provide daily opportunities for children to engage in self-organised play activities.







  • Teach children the basics of various sports and physical games, and encourage them to participate in organised sports program.
  • Encourage practice of fine motor skills, but don't penalise children whose fine motor precision is delayed.















  • Be a role model by showing a commitment to physical fitness and good eating habits.
  • Provide privacy for changing clothes and showering during physical education classes.
  • Explain what sexual harassment is, and do not tolerate it.
  • Encourage after-school clubs and leisure activities that help teenagers spend their time constructively.
  • Explain to adolescents that risky behaviours can cause real harm.



  • Make sure that adolescents know "the facts of life" about sexual intercourse and conception.
  • Encourage abstinence when adolescents are not sexually active.
  • When adolescents are sexually active and committed to remaining so, encourage them to use protective measures and to restrict the number of partners.
  • Encourage young people to form goals for the future that motivate productive actions.
  • Reduce adolescents' exposure to potentially risky situations.
  • Develop and enforce policies related to sexual harassment.

Sources: Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Gallahue & Ozmun, 1998; V.F. Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg, 2007; J. M. Tanner, 1990.



Personal and Social Development


Developing a sense of self

Grade Level


Reception - Grade 2











Grades 3 - 5















Grades 6 - 8
















Grades 9 - 12
Characteristics


  • Self concept largely limited to concrete, easily observable characteristics.
  • Tendency to overestimate abilities and chances of future success.




  • Increasing awareness of, and differentiation among, paricular strengths and weaknesses.
  • Association of such emotions as pride and shame with various self-perceptions.








  • Increasingly abstract conceptions of self.
  • For many, a decline in self-esteem after the transition to middle school.
  • Heightened sensitivity to what others may think.
  • Excessive belief in one's own uniqueness, often accompanied by risk taking and a sense of invulnerability to normal dangers.



  • Continuing risk taking behaviour.
  • Gradual increase in self-esteem.
  • Increasing integration of diverse self-perceptions into an overall, mulitfaceted sense of self.
  • Search for the "real me" and an adult identity.
In the Classroom


  • Encourage students to stretch themselves by tackling the challenging tasks they think they can accomplish.
  • Provide sufficient scaffolding to make success possible.



  • Focus students' attention on their improvements over time.
  • Encourage pride in individual and group achievements but be aware that some ethnic groups may prefer that attention be given only to group achievement.
  • Provide opportunities for students to look at one another's work only when all of them have something to be proud of.


  • After students make the transition to middle school, be especially supportive and optimistic about their abilities and potential for success.
  • Be patient when students show exceptional self-consciousness; give them strategies for presenting themselves well to others.
  • Show no tolerance for risk taking behaviours on school grounds.



  • When discussing the potential consequences of risky behaviours, present the facts but don't make students so anxious or upset that they can't effectively learn and remember.
  • Give students opportunities to examine and try out a variety of adultlike roles.

Sources: Dweck, 2000; Elkind, 1981; Lockhart et al., 2002; Marcia, 1980; Nell, 2002; Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005.



Developing a sense of others

Grade Level


Reception - Grade 2















Grades 3 - 5
















Grades 6 - 8











Grades 9 -12
Characteristics


  • Awareness that mental events are not physical entities.
  • Awareness that others' knowledge and thoughts may be different from one's own.
  • Ability to draw inferences about people's thoughts, feelings, and intentions from their behaviours.



  • Growing recognition that others interpret experiences and so may misconstrue events.
  • Realisation that other people's actions may hide their true feelings.











  • Increasing interest in other people's thoughts and feelings.
  • Recognition that people may have multiple and possibly conflicting motives and emotions.
  • Abiltiy to think recursively about one's own and others' thoughts.




  • Recognition that people are products of thier environment and that past events and present circumstances influence personality and behaviour.
  • Realisation that people are not always aware of why they act as they do.
In the Classroom


  • Talk frequently about people's thoughts, feelings, and motives; use words such as think, remember, feel, and want.
  • Ask questions about thoughts, feelings, and motives during storybook readings.





  • As students read literature, ask them to consider why various characters might behave as they do.
  • Have students speculate about what people might have been thinking and feeling during events in history.
  • Help students resolve interpersonal conflicts by asking them to consider one another's perspectives and develop a solution that addresses everyone's needs.


  • Encourage students to look at historical and current events from perspectives of various historical figures and cultural groups; use role playing activities to enhance perspective taking.
  • In discussions of literature, talk about other people's complex motives.



  • Explore the possible origins of people's perspectives and motives in discussions of real and fictional events.
  • Schedule debates in which students must present convinving arguements for perspectives opposite to their own.
  • Offer units or courses in psychology, with a focus on such internal activities as cognition, motivation, and emotion.

Sources: Astington & Pelletier, 1996; Bosacki, 2000; Brophy & Alleman, 1996; Brophy & VanSledright, 1997; Eisenberg, Carlo, Murphy, & Van Court, 1995; Flanagan & Tucker, 1999; Flavell, 2000; Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1995; Flavell & Miller, 1998; Flavell et al., 2002; Harter & Whitesell, 1989; Perner & Wimmer, 1985; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, 2002; Schult, 2002; Selman, 1980; Wellman, et al., 2001; Wellman, Phillips, & Rodriguez, 2000; Woolfe, Want, & Siegal, 2002; Woolley, 1995.



Developing a sense of morale

Grade Level


Reception - Grade 2






















Grades 3 - 5




















Grades 6 - 8
















Grades 9 - 12
Characteristics


  • Ability to distinguish between behaviours that violate human rights and dignity and those that violate social conventions.
  • Some awareness that behaviours causing physical or psychological harm are morally wrong.
  • Guilt about misbehaviours that cause obvious harm or damage.
  • Some empathy for, and attempts to comfort, people in distress.
  • Greater concern for one's own needs than for those of others.



  • Knowledge of social conventions for appropriate behaviour.
  • Feelings of shame and guilt for moral wrongdoings.
  • Increasing empathy for unknown individuals who are suffering or needy.
  • Recognition that one should strive to meet others' needs as well as one's own; growing appreciation of cooperation and compromise.
  • Increase in the desire to help others as an objective in and of itself.



  • Some tendency to think of rules and conventions as standards that should be followed for their own sake.
  • Interest in pleasing and helping others.
  • Tendency to believe that distressed individuals (e.g., the homelss) are entirely responsible for their own fate.





  • Understanding that rules and conventions help society run more smoothly.
  • Increasing concern about doing one's duty and abiding by the rules of society as a whole rather than simply pleasing certain authority figures.
  • Genuine empathy for those in distress.
  • Belief that society has an obligation to help others in need.
In the Classroom


  • Make standards for behaviour very clear.
  • When students misbehave, give reasons that behaviours are not acceptable, focusing on the harm and distress they have caused others.
  • Encourage students to comfort others
  • Model sympathetic responses; explain what you are doing and why you are doing it.
  • Recognise that some selfish behaviour is typical for the age group; when it occurs, encourage more prosocial behavior.



  • Talk about how rules enable classrooms and other group situations to run more smoothly.
  • Explain how students can often meet their own needs while helping others.
  • Use prosocial adjectives (e.g., kind, helpful) when talking to children.










  • Make prosocial behaviour a high priority in the classroom.
  • Involve students in group projects that will benefit their school or community.
  • When imposing discipline for moral transgressions, remember that induction may be especially important for students who have deficits in empathy and moral reasoning.



  • Explore moral issues in social studies, science, and literature.
  • Enourage community service to engender feelings of commitment to helping others. Ask students to reflect on their own experiences through group discussions or written essays.
  • Assign autobiographies and other literature that depict heroic figures who have actively worked to help others.

Sources: Damon, 1988; Eisenberg, 1982; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998; Eisenberg , Lennon, & Pasternack, 1986; Farver & Branstetter, 1994; C. A. Flanagan & Faison, 2001; Gibbs, 1995; D. Hart & Fegley, 1995; Helwig & Jasiobedzka, 2001; Helwig et al., 2001; Hoffman, 1975, 1991; Kohlberg, 1984; Krebs & Van Hesteren, 1994; Kurtines, Berman, Ittel, & Williamson, 1995; Laupa & Turiel, 1995; Nucci & Weber, 1995; Rushton, 1980; Smetana & Braeges, 1990; Turiel, 1983, 1998; Yates & Youniss, 1996; Yau & Smetana, 2003; Younis & Yates, 1999; Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992.

 

Cognitive Development

Age

Infancy
(Birth - 2 Years)






























Early Childhood
(2-6 Years)























Middle Childhood
(6-10 Years)

























Early Adolescence
(10-14 Years)






























Late Adolescence
(14-18 Years)
Observations

  • Physical exploration of the environment becoming increasingly complex, flexible, and intentional over time.
  • Growing awareness of simple cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Emergence of ability to represent the world mentally (e.g., as revealed in daily conversations and make-believe play.











  • Rapidly developing language skills.
  • Reasoning, by adult standards, often illogical.
  • Limited perspective-taking ability.
  • Frequent self-talk.
  • Sociodramatic play.
  • Limited understanding of how adults typically interpret events.







  • Conversation, class inclusion, and other forms of adult-like logic.
  • Limited ability to reason about abstract or hypothetical ideas.
  • Emergence of group games and team sports that involve coordinating multiple perspectives.
  • Ability to participate to some degree in many adult activities.






  • Increasing ability to reason about abstract ideas.
  • Emerging scientific reasoning abilities (e.g., formulating and testing hypotheses, separating and controlling variables).
  • Increasing ability to reason about mathematical proportions.
  • Some idealism about political and social issues.
  • Increasing ability to engage in adult tasks.










  • Abstract thought and scientific reasoning skills becoming more prevalent, especially for topics about which adolescents have considerable knowledge.
  • Idealistic notions tempered by more realistic considerations.
  • Ability to perform many tasks in and adult-like manner.
Diversity

  • Temperamental differences influence exploratory behaviour.
  • Infants and toddlers who are emotionally attached to their caregivers are more willing to venture out and explore their environment.
  • In some cultures adults encourage infants to focus more on people than on the physical environment. When people rather than objects are the priority, children may be less inclined to touch and explore their physical surroundings.


  • Shyness may limit children's willingness to talk with adults and peers and to engage in cooperative sociodramatic play.
  • Adult-like logic is more common when children have accurate information about the world.
  • Children learn to interpret events in culture-specific ways.





  • Development of logical thinking skills is affected by the importance of those skills in a child's culture.
  • Formal operational reasoning may occasionally appear for simple tasks and in familiar contexts, especially in 9- and 10-year olds.
  • Regular involement in adult activities is more common in some cultures than in others.





  • Adolescents can think more abstractly when they have considerable knowledge about a topic.
  • Adolescents are more likely to separate and control variables for situations with which they are familiar.
  • Development of formal operational reasoning skills is affected by the importance of those skills in one's culture.
  • Adolescents' idealistic notions may reflect their religious, cultural, or socioeconomic backgrounds.




  • Abstract thinking tends to be more common some content areas (e.g., mathematics, science) than in others (e.g., history, geography).
  • Formal operational reasoning skills are less likely to appear in cultures that don't require those skills.
  • Teenagers' proficiency in particular adult tasks varies considerably from individual to individual and from task to task.
In the Classroom

  • Set up a safe, age-appropriate environment for exploration.
  • Provide objects that stimulate different senses.
  • Suggest age-appropriate toys and activities that parents can provide at home.



















  • Provide numerous opportunities for children to interact with one another during play and other cooperative activities.
  • Introduce children to a variety of real world situations and environments through picture books and excursions.
  • Talk with children about their experiences and possible interpretations.




  • Use concrete manipulatives and experiences to illustrate concepts and ideas.
  • Supplement verbal explanations with concrete examples, pictures, and hands-on-activities.
  • Allow time for organised play activities.
  • Introduce children to various adult professions, and provide opportunities to practice authentic adult tasks.



  • Present abstract concepts and principles central to various academic disciplines, but tie them to concrete examples.
  • Have students engage in scientific investigations, focusing on familiar objects and phenomena.
  • Assign math problems that require use of simple fractions, ratios, or decimals.
  • While demonstrating how to do a new task, also talk about how to effectively think about the task.





  • Study particular academic disciplines in depth; introduce complex and abstract explanations and theories.
  • Encourage discussions about social, political, and ethical issues; elicit multiple perspectives regarding these issues.
  • Involve adolescents in activities that are similar or identical to the things they will eventually do as adults.
  • Explain how experts in a field think about the tasks they perform.

Source: McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. Ellis. (2010). Child development and education. 4th ed., Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Pearson Education.



Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage

Sensorimotor
Begins at birth


















Preoperational
(Appears at about age 2)















Concrete Operations
(Appears at about age 6 or 7)




















Formal Operations
(Appears at about age 11 or 12)
Description

Schemes are based largely on behaviours and perceptions. Especially in the early part of the stage, children cannot think about things that are not immediately in front of them, and so they focus on what they are doing and seeing at the moment.












Due to their more sophisticated symbolic thinking abilities, children can now think and talk about things beyond their immediate experience. However, they do not yet reason in logical, adult-like ways.










Adult-like logic appears but is limited to reasoning about concrete, real-life situations.



















Logical reasoning processes are applied to abstract ideas as well as concrete objects and situations. Many capabilities essential for advanced reasoning in science and mathematics appear.
Acquisitions

  • Trial-and-error experimentation: Exploration and manipulation of objects to determine their properties.
  • Goal-directed behaviour: Intentional behaviour to bring about a desired result.
  • Object permanence: Realisation that objects continue to exist even when removed from view.
  • Symbolic thought: Representation of physical objects and events as mental entities (symbols).



  • Language: Rapid expansion of of vocabulary and grammatical structures.
  • Extensive pretend play: Enactment of true-life or fanciful scenarios with plots and assigned roles.
  • Intuitive thought: Some logical thinking based on "hunches" and "intuition" rather than on conscious awareness of logical principles.



  • Distinction between one's own and others' perspectives: Recognition that one's own thoughts and feelings may be different from those of others and do not necessarily reflect reality.
  • Class inclusion: Ability to classify objects as belonging to two or more categories simultaneously.
  • Conservation: Realisation that amount stays the same if nothing is added or taken away, regardless of alterations in shape or arrangement.



  • Reasoning about abstract, hypothetical, and contrary-to-facts ideas: Ability to draw logical deductions about situations that have no basis in physical reality.
  • Separation and control of variables: Ability to test hypotheses by manipulating one variable while holding other variables constant.
  • Proportional reasoning: Conceptual understanding of fractions, percentages, decimals, and ratios.
  • Idealism: Ability to envision alternatives to current social and political practices.

Source: McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. Ellis. (2010). Child development and education. 4th ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education.



Piaget in Practice

Discovery Learning

Make sure students have the necessary prior knowledge for discovering new-ideas and principles.
During a first grade lesson ask students what they already know about air. After establishing that the students have some awareness that air has substance, conduct an experiment in which a glass containing a crumpled paper towel is turned upside down and completely immersed in a bowl of water. Remove the glass from the water and ask students to explain why the paper towel didn't get wet.

Show puzzling results to create disequilibrium.
During a science lesson, show the class two glasses of water. In one glass an egg floats at the water's surface. In the other glass an egg rests on the bottom. The students give a simple and logical explanation for the difference: One egg has more air inside and so must be lighter. But then switch the eggs into opposite glasses. The egg that the students believe to be "heavier" now floats, and the "lighter" egg sinks to the bottom. Discuss with students. (Ordinarily, water is less dense than an egg, so an egg placed in it will quickly sink. But in this demonstration, one glass contains salt water - a mixture denser than an egg and so capable of keeping it afloat).

Structure and guide a discovery session so that students proceed logically toward discoveries you want them to make.
Students in an eighth grade science class believe that some very small things are so light that they don't have any weight. The teacher asks them to weigh a pile of 25 lentil beans on a balance scale, and the students discover that all the beans together weigh about 1 gram. The students discover that if 25 beans have weight, a single bean must also have weight.The teacher then asks them to use math to estimate how much a single bean weighs.

Help students relate their findings to concepts and principles in the content area.
After students in a social studies class have collected data on average incomes and voting patterns in different electorates, ask "How can we interpret these data using what we've learned about the relative wealth of members of the two major political parties?"

Sources: Bruner, 1996; de Jong & van Jooligen, 1998; N. Frederiksen, 1984; Hardy et al., 2006; D. T. Hickey, 1997; R. E. Mayer, 2004; Minstrell & Stimpson, 1996; E. L. Palmer, 1965; C. L. Smith, 2007; B. Y. White & Frederiksen, 1998, 2005.



Vygotsky's Social Cognitive Theory

Central Ideas

  • Some cognitive processes are seen in a variety of species; others are unique to human beings.
  • Through both informal interactions and formal schooling, adults convey to children the ways in which their culture interprets the world.
  • Every culture passes along physical and cognitive tools that make daily living more effective and efficient.
  • Thought and language become increasingly interdependent in the first few years of life.
  • Complex mental processes begin as social activities and gradually evolve into internal mental activities that children can use independently.
  • Children acquire their culture's tools in their own idiosyncratic manner.
  • Children can perform more challenging tasks when assisted by more advanced and competent indiviudals.
  • Challenging tasks promote maximum cognitive growth.
  • Play allows children to stretch themselves cognitvely.

Artifact 2:

Vygotsky in Practice

Scaffolding

Ask questions that get children thinking in appropriate ways.
In a science class the teacher might ask, "What do you think causes this to happen?" "What other possible explanations are there?"

Provide explicit guidance about how to accomplish a task, and give frequent feedback.
When a physical education teacher takes 12-year-olds on their first camping trip, he has the children work in groups of two or three to pitch their tents. Although he has previously shown the children how pitch a tent, this is the first time they've actually done it themselves, and so he provides written instructions that they can follow. In addition, he circulates from campsite to campsite to check on each group's progress and provide assistance as necessary.

Provide a calculator, computer software, or other technology that makes some aspects of the task easier.
Children in third grade class have mastered basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts. They are now applying their knowledge of arithmetic to determine how much money they would need to purchase some sporting equipment from a mail order catalogue. Because the list of items is lengthy and includes varying quantities of each item, their teacher gives them calculators to do the necessary muliplication and addition.

Teach children how to talk themselves through a complex new procedure.
A physical education teacher shows beginning tennis players how to use self-instructions to remember correct form when swinging the racket:
  1. Say ball to remind yourself to look at the ball.
  2. Say bounce to remind yourself to follow the ball with your eyes as it approaches you.
  3. Say hit to remind yourself to focus on contacting the ball with the racket.
  4. Say ready to get yourself into position for the next ball to come your way.

Divide a complex task into several smaller, simpler tasks, and perhaps ask children to tackle it in small groups.
A fourth grade teacher has her students create a school newspaper that includes news articles, a schedule for upcoming events, a couple of political cartoons, and classified advertisements. Several students work together to create each feature, with different students assuming different roles and occasionally switching roles.

Gradually withdraw guidance as children become more proficient.
A pre-school teacher has the 2- and 3-year-olds in her class take turns distributing the crackers, fruit, and napkins at snack time, and she asks them to bring their dishes and rubbish to the kitchen after they have finished eating. initially, she must show the children how to carry the food so that it doesn't spill. She must also remind them to make sure that every child gets a serving and to clean up when they are done. As the year progresses, such explicit guidance and reminders are no longer necessary.

Sources: Gallimore & Tharp, 1990; Good et al., 1992; Lajoie & Derry, 1993; Lou et al., 1996; Meichenbaum, 1985; Rogoff, 1990; Rosenshine & Meister, 1992; R. J. Stevens & Slavin, 1995; D. Wood et al., 1976; S G. Ziegler, 1987.


Intellectual Development

Age

Infancy
(Birth - 2 Years)



























Early Childhood
(2 - 6 Years)


























Middle Childhood
(6 - 10 Years)






























Early Adolescence
(10 - 14 Years)

























Late Adolescence
(14 - 18 Years)
Observations

  • Success on test items that involve early developmental accomlishments (e.g., recognition of previously seen objects, visual preferences, eye-hand coordination.
  • Distractability and short attention span.
  • Variability in performance from one assessment to the next.
  • Performance dependent on examiner's ability to establish a positive relationship with the infant.




  • Success on test items that involve naming objects, stacking blocks, drawing circles and squares, remembering short lists, and following simple directions.
  • Short attention span, influencing test performance.
  • Variability in test scores from one occasion to the next.










  • Success on test items that involve defining concrete words, remembering sentences and short sequences of digits, understanding concrete analogies, recognising similarities among objects, and identifying absurdities in illogical statements.
  • Some consistency in test scores from one occasion to the next.
  • Noticeable differences among children in mastery of classroom subject matter.




  • Success on test items that involve defining commonly used abstract words, drawing logical inferences from verbal descriptions, and identifying similarities bewteen opposite concepts.
  • Considerable individual differences in the ability to understand abstract material.








  • Success on test items that involve defining infrequently encountered words, identifying differences between similar abstract words, interpreting proverbs, and breaking down complex geometric figures into their component parts.
  • Relative stability in most adolescents' IQ scores.
  • Increasing independence to seek out opportunities consistent with ability levels.
Diversity

  • Temperamental differences affect infants' willingness to interact with the examiner and test materials.
  • Compared to full-term infants, infants born prematurely are less physically developed and more easily fatigued. However, many premature infants gradually develop into healthy, intelligent individuals.
  • Exposure to drugs or alcohol before birth may adversely affect test performance.




  • Significant developmental delays in the early years may indicate mental retardation or other disabilities.
  • On average, children from lower income families perform at lower levels on measures of cognitive development than children from middle income families; however, enriching preschool experiences can narrow and occasionally eliminate the gap.



  • For this age range, many intelligence tests become increasingly verbal in nature; thus proficiency with the English language can significantly affect test performance.
  • Children with learning disabilities may perform poorly on some parts of an intelligence test.
  • Children from some ethnic minority groups may perform poorly in situations where the examiner has not established rapport.





  • Some adolescents may not perceive high test performance as having personal benefits and so may not be motivated to perform at their best.
  • Some adolescents who are gifted may try to hide their talents; cultures that stress traditional male and female roles may actively discourage females from achieving at high levels.




  • Concerns about appearing "too smart" may continue into the high school years.
  • Some members of minority groups may underperform because thier awareness of negative group stereotypes creates anxiety during a test.
In the Classroom

  • Create a secure and comfortable examiner-child relationship before beginning assessment.
  • Use results only to identify significant developmental delays; refrain from making long-term predictions about intellectual growth.
  • Communicate honestly with parents about their child's test performance, while also describing the test's strengths and weaknesses as an assessment tool.



  • Use IQ tests primarily to identify significant delays in cognitive development; follow up by seeking intervention programs for children with such delays.
  • Provide preschool experiences that foster children's language skills, knowledge of numbers and counting, and visual-spatial thinking.







  • Individualise instruction to match children's varying abilities to learn in particular content domains.
  • Do not assume that poor performance in some domains necessarily indicates limited ability to learn in other areas.
  • Take children's cultural and linguistic backgrounds into account when interpreting IQ scores.










  • Expect considerable diversity in adolescents' ability to master abstract classroom material, and individualise instruction accordingly.
  • Make sure that school enrichment programs include students from ethnic minority groups; do not rely exclusively on IQ scores to identify students as gifted.







  • Provide challenging activities for teenagers who are gifted.
  • Encourage bright adolescents from lower-income families to persue a college education.

Sources: Bayley, 2005; Brooks-Gunn, 2003; Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, & Duncan, 1996; Colombo, 1993; G. A. Davis & Rimm, 1998; S. I. Greenspan & Meisels, 1996; Luckasson et al., 2002; Mayes & Bornstein, 1997; McLoyld, 1998b; Obgu, 1994; Steele, 1997; Terman & Merrill, 1972; A. Thomas & Chess, 1977; Thorndike et al., 1986; Wechsler, 2002, 2003.


Linguistic Development

Grade Level

Reception - Grade 2




























Grades 3 - 5


























Grades 6 - 8


























Grades 9 12

Characteristics

  • Knowledge of 8,000 - 14,000 words by age 6.
  • Difficulty understanding complex sentences.
  • Overdependence on word order and context when interpreting messages.
  • Superficial understanding of being a "good listener".
  • Literal interpretations messages and requests.
  • Increasing ability to tell a story.
  • Mastery of most sounds; some difficulty pronouncing r, th, dr, sl, and str.
  • Occassional use of regular word endings with irregular words (e.g., sheeps, goed, gooder).
  •  Basic etiquette in conversations.
  • Reluctance to initiate conversations with adults.



  • Increasing understanding of temporal words.
  • Occasional confusion about when to use the versus a.
  • Incomplete knowledge of irregular word forms.
  • Increasing awareness of when sentences are and are not grammatically correct.
  • Pronunciation of all sounds in one's language mastered by age 9.
  • Sustained conversations about concrete topics.
  • Increasing ability to take listeners' prio knowledge into account during explanations.
  • Construction of stories with plots and cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Linguistic creativitiy and word play.



  • Knowledge of about 50,000 words at age 12.
  • Increasing awareness of the terminology used in various academic disciplines.
  • Some confusion about when to use various connectives.
  • Ability to understand complex, multiclause sentences.
  • Emerging ability to look beyond literal interpretations; comprehension of simple proverbs and increasing ability to detect sarcasm.
  • Emerging ability to carry on lengthy conversations about abstract topics.
  • Significant growth in metalinguistic awareness.




  • Knowledge of about 80,000 words.
  • Acquisition of many vocabulary words specifically related to various academic disciplines.
  • Subtle refinements in syntax, mostly as a result of formal instruction.
  • Mastery of a wide variety of connectives.
  • General ability to understand figurative language.

Classroom Strategies

  • Read age-appropriate storybooks.
  • Give corrective feedback when students' use of words indicates inaccurate understanding.
  • Work on listening skills.
  • Ask follow-up questions to make sure students understand important messages.
  • Ask students to construct narratives about recent events.














  • Teach irregular word forms (e.g., the past tense of ring is rang).
  • Begin instruction about parts of speech.
  • Use group discussions as a way to explore subject matter.
  • Have students develop short stories to present orally or in writing.
  • When articulation problems are evident, consult with a professional.
  • Encourage jokes and rhymes that capitalise on double meanings and homonyms (i.e., sound alike words).







  • Assign reading materials that introduce new vocabulary.
  • Introduce some of the terminology used by experts in various learning areas.
  • Conduct structured debates to explore controversial issues.
  • Present proverbs and ask students to consider their underlying meanings.
  • Explore the nature of words and language as entities in and of themselves.










  • Consistently use the terminology associated with various learning areas.
  • Distinguish between similar abstract words (e.g., weather vs. climate).
  • Explore complex syntactic structures (e.g., multiple embedded clauses).
  • Consider the underlying meanings and messages in poetry and fiction.
  • When students have a native dialect other than Standard English, encourage them to use it in informal conversations and creative writing; encourage Standard English for more formal situations.


Sources:Bowey, 1986; L. Bradley & Bryant, 1991; Capelli, Nakagawa, & Madden, 1990; S. Carey, 1978; Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Karmiloff-Smith, 1979; Maratsos, 1998; MDevitt et al., 1990; McDevitt & Ford, 1987; Nippold, 1988; O'Grady, 1997; Owens, 1996; Reich, 1986; Sheldon, 1974; Stanovich, 2000; Swanborn & de Glopper, 1999; Thelen & Smith, 1998.