Stop and Ponder - definitions on child developement

Sometimes when reading it's possible to get bogged down by definitions.  Looking at the text we have come up with a few key terms to consider when looking at child development. 

Cognitive Development- gradual orderly changes by which mental processes become more complex and sophisticated

Critical Periods- if learning doesn't happen during these periods it never will

Later Experiences- experiences that occur later in life, researches have found that influences over childhood events does not necessarily have a dominating effect over behavior throughout life

Continuity-(quantitative)- change that occurs smoothly over time- gradual, continuous change

Discontinuity-(qualitative)- going through a series of steps- there are level periods and then you go to the next step all at once.  Piaget’s theory is discontinuous

Nature- nature of an individual (heredity, genes, biological process, maturation, etc)

Nurture- nurture of environmental contexts (education, parenting, culture, social policies, etc)

Source:tdmcfrost.bloggspot.com

Three examples of how the term nature can affect child development:
         1. the genes a person is born with

2. their biological process of development in utero

3. heredity