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Glossary


ability grouping  The practice in elementary school of grouping children according to their presumed academic ability; thought by some, when not used in conjunction with other grouping possibilities, to stigmatize and limit children's potential, particularly minority students, at an early age; see tracking.
accommodation  A term used by Piaget to describe how children change existing schemes by altering old ways of thinking or acting to fit new information in their environment; contrast with assimilation.
achievement motivation  An internal mechanism that energizes, directs, and terminates achievement behavior; explained by theorists variously as an enduring psychological need, an environmentally activated state, or a set of cognitions and beliefs.
action research  Research conducted by teachers, administrators, and other change agents in the school to improve the educational environment for their students. The goal of action research is to understand a specific problem or to improve teaching practices within a specific classroom or school setting.
adaptation  One of two basic principles referred to by Piaget as invariant functions; the ability of all organisms to adapt their mental representations or behavior to fit environmental demands; contrast with organization.
adolescent egocentrism  A cognitive limitation emerging in adolescence, characterized by difficulty distinguishing thoughts about one's own thinking from thinking about the thoughts of others. This limitation may manifest itself in heightened self-absorption and self-consciousness.
age norms  The estimated age, often established by cross-sectional studies, at which certain psychological or behavioral characteristics emerge.
aggression  Behavior that is intentionally aimed at harming or injuring another person; see instrumental aggression, hostile aggression.
alphabetic system  The structure of some languages, including English, whereby single shapes in the written language make up letters, which in turn, are linked to specific sounds; contrast with ideographic system.
amniotic sac  A structure present at implantation of the zygote that begins to function and mature during the embryonic period. See placenta.
androgens  Sex hormones generally associated with male characteristics, yet produced and present in both sexes.
androgyny  A blend of masculine and feminine traits that develops gradually as young people mature and become more flexible in their attitudes toward gender-typed behaviors through encounters with new activities and interests.
animism  According to Piaget, children's inclination during the preoperational stage to attribute intentional states and human characteristics to inanimate objects.
anorexia nervosa  An eating disorder, mainly affecting adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 18, characterized by a 25 to 50 percent loss in body weight through excessive dieting and exercise; usually treated with a combination of hospitalization and family counseling.
assimilated  A personal attitude and stance of a minority member characterized by adopting the norms, attitudes, and behaviors of the dominant culture and rejecting one's ethnic or racial culture.
assimilation  A term used by Piaget to describe how children mold new information to fit their existing schemes in order to better adapt to their environment; contrast with accommodation.
attachment  The close, affective relationship formed between a child and one or more caregivers.
attention deficit hyperactive disorders (ADHD)  Behavior, diagnosed by a qualified professional, characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and unusual or excessive activity.
attribution theory  A cognitive theory of motivation that examines how individuals interpret their successes and failures in achievement situations.
authentic assessment  A currently preferred performance assessment method with the underlying principle that students are more apt to understand a concept that has real-life application.
authoritarian parenting  A parenting style characterized by rigid rules and often unrealistic expectations for children; contrast with authoritative and permissive. It is high on the demand/control dimension but low on acceptance/ responsiveness. It is also characterized by low warmth and little positive involvement. Rigid rules are set with the expectation they will be followed due to parental authority.
authoritative  A parenting style characterized by high levels of warmth, acceptance, and responsiveness as well as reasonable expectations for children and firmly enforced rules; contrast with authoritarian and permissive.
authoritative parenting  A style of parenting characterized by warm, responsive involvement, and the setting of appropriate and clear standards for behavior. The child's autonomy is encouraged by providing rationales for rules and showing respect for his or her rights and opinions.
autism  A lifelong developmental disability that is neurologically based and affects the functioning of the brain; disabilities vary from mild to severe and include deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication, problems with reciprocal social interaction, and a restrictive set of activities and interests.
automaticity  A factor in the development of children's attentional processes whereby familiarity with an object or task allows them to use it or perform without thinking.
Autonomy  The ability to be independent and self-motivated; to control and assume responsibility for one's own actions.
basic emotions  Fundamental emotional reactions or expressions that are limited to fear, joy, anger, and surprise; contrast with self-conscious emotions.
basic sense of trust  In Erikson's theory, the first stage of psychosocial development, in which infants must form a sense that their caregivers and their environment are safe, secure, and predictable; establishes a foundation for confidence in one's self. See Table 6.1.
behavioral geneticist  Scientists who study the degree to which psychological traits, such as sociability, aggression, and mental abilities, are inherited.
biculturalism  The maintaining of ties of both the dominant and ethnic culture and developing an identity that allows the child to alternate between dominant and ethnic identities depending on the situation.
bidilectal  An ability to speak several varieties of English, including SAE and a home dialect.
bilingual  The ability to speak two languages.
bilingual-bicultural program  A learning program focused on producing balanced learners who are competent in both English and their home language; contrast with transitional bilingual program.
bilingual education  A perspective or approach to teaching children that uses at least two languages during instruction, usually a child's native language and the second language the child is acquiring.
binge drinking  Drinking five or more alcoholic drinks in a row.
birth order  The child's position in the family, whether born first, second, last, and so forth.
blended family  A family configuration that includes a biological parent, stepparent, and child. It is formed when two partners bring together children from a previous marriage.
blind  Those who have either 20/200 vision or a 20 percent or less field of vision; see low vision.
bulimia nervosa  An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by vomiting or use of laxatives to purge the body; more common among older teens and young adults. This disorder generally is associated with a distorted body image and an inability to control one's impulses; treatable through family and individual therapy.
bullying behavior  The most common form of aggression, often taking the form of embarrassing people, hitting, destroying property, and ridiculing.
case study  A research design for in-depth investigation of a person or small group of individuals; not a reliable source for generalized statements beyond those investigated in the study.
causal relationship  When the results of a study indicate there is a systematic cause-and-effect result between two factors.
centration  A developmental limitation present during the preoperational stage that makes young children focus their attention on only one aspect, usually the most salient, of a stimulus.
cephalocaudal  One of two patterns characterizing growth in infancy; growth begins at the head and proceeds downward. As a result, the infant's brain, neck, and trunk develop before the legs.
character education  A direct approach to teaching core values and virtues, such as responsibility, respect, honesty, cooperation, and compassion.
child-centered instructional approach  An instructional approach whereby teachers serve as facilitators and partners in children's learning by guiding their learning and enabling them to take greater and greater responsibility for their learning; contrast with didactic instructional approach.
chromosomes  The structures that carry the genes; composed of long threadlike molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
chronosystem  Term used by Bronfenbrenner to refer to involving the timing and patterning of events in an individual's life and the position of that individual's life in the larger flow of historical time.
circular reactions  Piaget's term for patterns of behavior during the sensorimotor stage that are repeated over and over again as goal-directed actions.
class inclusion  A concept acquired during the concrete operational stage that involves children's understanding of hierarchies; knowledge that objects in a subcategory (tulips) must be smaller than the superordinate category (flowers).
classical conditioning  A behavioral principle of learning by which a new response is learned through the pairing of two stimuli. The response that naturally occurs in the presence of one stimulus (food) that begins to occur following the presentation of a second stimulus (bell) when the two stimuli are repeatedly paired.
classification  A mental operation achieved during the concrete operational stage that allows children to impose order on their environment by grouping things and ideas according to common elements.
clinical interview method  An interview technique attributed to Piaget of probing children's reasoning processes; a way of combining performance assessments and interviews.
clique  A small peer group, generally same sex and same race, that has a clear social structure with one or two members serving as leaders.
code-switching  A personal attitude and stance, usually by a minority member, characterized by successful shuttling between the dominant and one's ethnic or racial culture.
coercive family process  A family dynamic characterized by inconsistent, ineffective, or punitive parental discipline during early development that leads to aggressive behavior in children.
cognitive behavior modification  Meichenbaum's developmental program that helps children control and regulate their behavior; children are taught self-regulatory strategies to use as a verbal tool to inhibit impulses, control impulses and frustration, and promote reflection.
collective monologue  A characteristic conversational pattern of preschoolers who are unable to take the perspective of others and thus make little effort to modify their speech for their listener so that remarks to each other seem unrelated.
communication disorders  Specific impairments in speech and/or language.
communicative competence  Learning to use language in an appropriate manner; knowing what words and structures to use on what occasion. This is the major area of linguistic growth during childhood, through adolescence, and continuing into adulthood.
compensation  One of three basic mental operations including negation and identity needed to perform Piagetian conservation tasks; a form of reversibility that involves an understanding that one operation can compensate for the effects of another operation. In Piaget's conservation of liquid task, the height of one glass can compensate for the breadth of another glass.
componential intelligence  One of three components of intellectual behavior in Sternberg's triarchic model of intelligence involving such skills as the ability to allocate mental resources, to encode and store information, to plan and monitor, to identify problems, and to acquire new knowledge; contrast with experimental intelligence and contextual intelligence.
comprehension  An active process in which readers strive to construct a meaningful interpretation of written or oral information.
computer-assisted instruction (CAI)  Instructional assistance provided by computer software or specialized devices such as alternative communication devices or optical character recognition; type of instruction often used to support children with special needs in the regular education classroom.
concrete operational stage  The period of life from 7 to 11 years old when, Piaget believed, children's thinking becomes less rigid, and they begin to use mental operations, such as classification, conservation, and seriation to think about events and objects in their environment.
conditional knowledge  Children's understanding about why learning strategies are effective in specific situations; contrast with declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.
conduct disorders  A pattern of behaviors characterized by overt aggression, disruptive or antisocial behavior, and/or serious violations of rules. Caused by a complex set of environmental and biological influences, the behavior pattern causes serious impairments in social and academic function.
conflict resolution program  School-based intervention program designed to help students acquire the skills they need to resolve conflict; components include defining the problem, brainstorming about possible solutions, and choosing solutions that benefit both sides (called win-win solutions).
conservation  A mental operation in the concrete operational stage that involves the understanding that an entity remains the same despite superficial changes in its form or physical appearance.
constructivist approach  An approach to learning purporting that children must construct their own understandings of the world in which they live. Teachers guide this process through focusing attention, posing questions, and stretching children's thinking; information must be mentally acted on, manipulated, and transformed by learners in order to have meaning.
context knowledge  A decoding strategy; using the surrounding text and one's background knowledge to identify an unknown word; contrast with phonic knowledge and sight word knowledge.
contextual intelligence  One of three components of intellectual behavior in Sternberg's triarchic model of intelligence involving the ability to adapt to a changing environment or to shape the environment to capitalize on one's abilities or skills; contrast with componential intelligence and experiential intelligence; also see practical intelligence.
conventional level  According to Kohlberg, the second level of moral judgment, characterized by individuals who accept society's rules for right and wrong and obey authority figures; contrast with preconventional level and postconventional level.
core-knowledge theories  A type of cognitive theory that attempts to explain the sophistication of young children's reasoning about domains important for survival and everyday interactions, such as living things (biology), inanimate objects (physics), and the mind (psychology). Children use core-knowledge theories to predict and explain their world.
corporal punishment  Use of physical punishment with the intention of causing a child to experience physical pain, but not injury; used as a means for reducing or eliminating undesirable behavior in children.
corregulation  Control of behavior shared by parents and children; develops in middle childhood.
correlational coefficient  The statistic that measures the strength of relations between two measures (e.g., self-esteem and school achievement); expressed in a positive or negative ratio from 1.0 to [H11001]1.0.
correlational study  A widely used design for developmental research studying what different factors influence one another or go together; such studies are not able to test cause-and-effect hypotheses.
critical literacy  The ability to use written language to solve problems and to communicate.
critical period  (1) Periods of development during which certain basic structures are formed or a child is most vulnerable or responsive to environmental influences.
(2) Lenneberg’s hypothesis that language development has a biological basis and there is a time in infancy when particular neurological faculties develop. It states that if certain internal or external conditions related to language development are missing, then a child will never be able to acquire language.
cross-sectional study  A study that gathers information simultaneously on one or more aspects of development among children of different age groups.
cross-sequential study  A study that follows a group of different-aged children for 2 or 3 years; can reliably identify antecedents and stability of behavior patterns during the course of the study.
crowds  The largest adolescent group that is made up of individuals with similar reputations and stereotyped identities that is not conducive to close interpersonal relations.
crystallized intelligence  In intelligence theories, one of two kinds of intelligence that develops from learning experiences; measured by word fluency, general information, and vocabulary and verbal comprehension; contrast with fluid intelligence.
cumulative deficit effect  A phenomenon found in some studies showing that under poor environmental conditions, differences in IQ scores among races increase with age.
deaf  Those who cannot hear or understand speech; see hard of hearing.
deaf-blindness  A condition characterized by the unique debilitating effects of hearing and vision impairments.
declarative knowledge  Children's understanding about what learning strategies are available to help them; contrast with procedural knowledge and conditional knowledge.
decoding  The process that readers use to determine the oral equivalent of written words.
deferred imitation  A Piagetian concept in representational thinking in which children are able to repeat a simple sequence of actions or sounds after the sequence is observed; an early form of representational thinking.
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)  Long threadlike molecules that twist around to form a double helix and make up chromosomes; believed to contain about 100,000 genes, the basic units of heredity; see dominant gene and recessive gene.
dependent variable  The outcome measure or variable in a research study.
depression  An affective disorder characterized by disturbances in cognitive and behavioral functioning that last longer than 2 or 3 weeks; symptoms include an inability to concentrate, feelings of hopelessness, weight changes, an inability to have fun, and thoughts of death.
development  The systematic and successive changes that follow a logical or orderly pattern over a long period of time and enhance a child's adaptation to the environment.
developmental dyscalculia  A condition or disorder that causes difficulty in mathematics; a deficit in the processing of numerical and arithmetic information related to neurological impairments.
developmentally appropriate practices  A phrase used to describe teaching strategies, curricula, discipline practices, learning approaches, classroom environments, and interpersonal relationships that promote children's development at all ages.
dialect  A variation of a single language spoken by members of a speech community; contrast with accent; see social dialect.
didactic instructional approach  An instructional approach defined by high levels of teacher instruction, structure, and control; teachers play a central role in selecting activities, instructing students, and determining classroom rules; contrast with child-centered instruction; see also direct instruction and teacher-directed instruction.
direct instruction  A teaching strategy in which the teacher explains, demonstrates, and then provides supervised practice for a learning task.
discontinuous process  The emergence of drives, needs, and cognitive processes in a series of discrete stages of maturation that influence the way a child relates to the environment; psychoanalytic and cognitive development (Piagetian) theories argue that development is a series of discrete stages.
dizygotic twins  Two siblings who come from separate eggs that are released at the same time from an ovary and are fertilized; also known as fraternal twins.
dominant gene  A gene inherited from one parent, such as brown hair, that will mask the expression of a recessive gene from the other parent.
down syndrome  A genetic disorder of varying degree that is due to the presence of an extra twenty-first chromosome or a piece of one, causes a range of physical and mental handicaps, and occurs in 1 out of 800 live births. Mothers over the age of 35 have an increased risk of conceiving a child with this disorder, because of their longer exposure to environmental substances. The presence of this abnormality can be detected through the genetic screening process of amniocentesis in the fourth month of pregnancy.
dynamic assessment  A type of assessment that assesses a child's learning potential and developing processes through the use of progressively more challenging and continuous feedback; a type of assessment used to assess a child's learning potential; contrast with static assessment.
dyslexia  A condition that causes difficulty with reading or writing in spite of normal or above-average cognitive abilities.
ecological perspective  Bronfenbrenner's contextual or systems model of development that embeds the developing child in nested layers of social systems, from the family and school to the larger cultural, economic, and historical contexts.
ectoderm  The outermost layer of the embryonic structure that will develop into the nervous system and skin.
effectance motivation  According to White, an inherent need that propels individuals to engage in activities from which they can derive a sense of personal mastery or competence.
egocentric speech  One of three stages of children's use of language identified by Vygotsky, during which children begin to use speech to regulate their behavior and thinking through spoken-aloud self-verbalizations; contrast with social speech and inner speech.
ego-oriented goals  See performance-oriented goals.
egocentrism  The tendency to think about, see, and understand the world from one's own perspective; an inability to see objects or situations from another's perspective.
elaboration  A memory encoding strategy in which one forms a personally meaningful mental image of items to be remembered.
embryonic period  The second stage of prenatal development marked by the implantation of the zygote and lasting from weeks 2 to 8, during which all the basic structures of the child (the central nervous system, the skeleton, and the internal organs) are established and begin to function.
emergent literacy  The concept that literacy learning is ongoing from birth.
emotion-focused coping  A coping strategy that involves expressing emotions, seeking solace and support from others, and avoiding stressful situations.
emotional competence  The understanding, expression, and regulation of emotions. Also called emotional intelligence.
emotional maltreatment  Rejection and consistent lack of concern for another's emotional well-being.
emotional or behavior disorders  Characterized by significantly different psychosocial development from one's peers, including hyperactivity, aggression, withdrawal, immaturity, and learning difficulties.
empathy  The ability to know and feel another person's emotional state.
encode  To process information and place into memory through the use of cognitive strategies such as elaboration, organization, and rehearsal.
endoderm  The innermost layer of the embryonic structure that will develop into the digestive tract and vital organs.
English as a second language (ESL)  A special language-learning program for nonnative speakers that focuses narrowly on learning the target language.
entity theory of ability  A theory of intelligence, proposed by Dweck, whereby students believe their ability level is fixed and cannot be improved through practice or effort; contrast with incremental theory of ability.
episodic memory  Long-term memory storage of personal or autobiographical events or information, as well as information about the place, time, and order of events.
equilibration  Piaget's concept that refers to our innate tendency of self-regulation to keep our mental representations in balance by adjusting them to maintain organization and stability in our environment through the processes of accommodation and assimilation.
estrogens  Sex hormones generally associated with female characteristics, yet produced and present in both sexes; crucial to the maturation of the reproductive system, breast development, and the onset of ovulation and menstruation in females.
ethic of care  Gilligan's argument that women are socialized to take responsibility for the well-being of others and therefore emphasize connections between people as well as justice.
ethnic identity  Refers to one's sense of self concerning racial or ethnic group membership.
ethnicity  Refers to a group of people, such as Japanese, Cuban, or Italian, who share a common nationality, cultural heritage, and language; contrast with race.
event sampling  A technique used to record observations of a certain selected behavior, such as aggression.
exceptionality  An umbrella term to describe all who receive special education—children with disabilities as well as children who are gifted.
exosystem  In Bronfenbrenner's theory, the system that influences the child's development only indirectly.
expectancy-value theory  A cognitive model of motivation stressing that individuals are more apt to engage in and persist at learning activities when they expect and want to succeed.
experiential intelligence  One of three components of intellectual behavior in Sternberg's triarchic model of intelligence involving the ability to cope with new situations in an effective, efficient, and insightful manner; contrast with componential intelligence and contextual intelligence.
experimental study  After careful selection and matching on a number of variables, participants are randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group to measure any difference between the groups for a particular outcome, known as the dependent variable; any significant variance between the two groups' outcome measure would support the hypothesis that the treatment caused the outcome.
expert versus novice studies  A research paradigm that shows that more knowledgeable individuals are better able than novices to group or organize information in meaningful patterns and suggests that advances in children's thinking processes are explained by both quantitative changes in their thinking processes and qualitative changes in how knowledge is organized.
external locus of control  A pattern of attributing events to factors outside one's control; a characteristic of children with learning disabilities; see locus of causality.
externalizing problems  The kinds of difficulties a majority of children with emotional and behavioral disorders experience, including argumentative, aggressive, antisocial, and destructive actions; contrast with internalizing problems.
extrinsic motivation  A need to learn or act that rises from external contingencies, such as winning an award, parental demands, or to achieve a high grade; contrast with intrinsic motivation.
false belief problems  Social situations that present difficulties for young children because they are not able to understand that another person will act on beliefs that differ from their own are false from their point of view.
familialism  The strong identification with and attachment to both the nuclear and extended family, and the feelings of loyalty, respect, duty, and reciprocity that accompany such familial attachment.
family structure  The configuration of people who live together in a given family unit.
feeling of inferiority  In Erikson's fourth stage of psychosocial development, children 7 to 11 years old can develop negative attitudes about their abilities and competencies if a parallel internal sense of industry is not encouraged (see Table 6.1).
fetal period  The third and longest stage of prenatal development, from 8 weeks until birth, during which time the fetus increases in size; eyelids, fingernails, taste buds, and hair form; and the respiratory system matures to enable breathing after birth.
fine motor skills  Involve small body movements and small muscle coordination and control.
fluid intelligence  In intelligence theories, one of two kinds of intelligence that reflects innate cognitive abilities; measured by the speed of information processing, memory processes, ability to detect relationships, and other abstract thinking skills; contrast with crystallized intelligence.
formal logic  The development during the formal operational stage of the cognitive tools for solving many types of logical problems; examples are propositional and hypothetico-deductive thinking.
formal operational stage  The period of life between 11 and 12 years of age and onward, during which, Piaget believed, children begin to apply formal rules of logic and gain the ability to think abstractly and reflectively; thinking shifts from the real to the possible; see formal logic.
fragile-X syndrome  A genetic disorder more common in male than female offspring due to the presence of an X chromosome that appears to be pinched or very thin in one area and is likely to break during cell division. May cause mild retardation in females; will cause varying degrees of retardation in males and is associated with both physical (cleft palate, eye disorders) and mental (hyperactivity) deficits. This disorder can be detected through genetic screening.
functionally literate  Able to read and write well enough to negotiate daily life.
gender constancy  The understanding by around age 4 or 5 that one's sex is permanent and cannot be altered by changes in clothing, hairstyle, or activities.
gender-role conceptions  The images we have of ourselves as males and females.
gender-role identity  Children's perceptions of themselves as a female or male.
gender-role socialization  The process by which children learn the attitudes and behavior that society defines as appropriate for their gender; see gender-typed behavior. Same as sex-role socialization.
gender schema  Children's understanding of gender and gender-role expectations.
gender-typed behavior  Preferences demonstrated by the age of 3 for choosing toys and activities; can be influenced by stereotypical social values.
general intellectual factor  In intelligence theories, the idea that a general ability factor (g) underlies all intellectual functioning. Someone with a high general intelligence is expected to do well on all intellectual tests.
generalizability  An important determination, in judging the quality of a study, of whether or not the findings apply or do not apply to groups other than the one studied.
gene  A unit of the chromosome by which hereditary characteristics are transmitted.
genotype  A person's genetic characteristics as determined by the genes a person inherits from both parents for any particular trait; contrast with phenotype.
germinal period  The first stage of prenatal development, encompassing the first 2 weeks of fetal development. The fertilized egg rapidly divides, travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus, and prepares for implantation.
giftedness  Individuals identified with a minimal IQ score of about 130 and above-average academic achievement, usually 2 years above grade level.
goal theory of motivation  A cognitive theory of motivation that emphasizes students' personal reasons for choosing, performing, and persisting at various achievement levels.
grammar  Language rules that extend from the simplest level of combining sounds to the complex level of extended conversations including phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, and the lexicon; see Figure 5.1.
gross motor skills  Involve the movement of the head, body, legs, arms, and large muscles; see Table 2.7.
guided participation  Rogoff's term used to describe transferring responsibility for a task from the skilled partner to the child in a mutual involvement between the child and the partner in a collective activity. Steps include choosing and structuring activities to fit the child's skills and interests, supporting and monitoring the child's participation, and adjusting the level of support provided as the child begins to perform the activity independently.
habituation procedure  A technique researchers use to study infant memory by assessing changes in the intensity of infants' responses to various forms of stimulation over a period of time.
hand dominance  A preference for using either the right or left hand that develops around the age of 5 for more than 90 percent of all children.
hard of hearing  Those who have sufficient hearing to enable them to understand speech; may require amplification of speech through a hearing aid; see deaf.
heritability  The proportion of observed variance for a behavior that can be ascribed to genetic differences among individuals in a particular population; a population statistic that applies only to the sample from which it is derived.
hierarchial classification  A mental operation learned during the concrete operational stage that allows children to organize concepts and objects according to how they relate to one another in a building-block fashion. For example, all matter is composed of molecules and molecules are made up of atoms, which in turn are made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons.
holophrases  Refers to single words intended to convey more complex meaning; typically utilized by children aged 18 to 24 months.
homophobia  An irrational fear and hatred of homosexuals.
homosexual orientation  Consistent sexual attraction toward persons of the same gender that includes fantasies, conscious attraction, romantic feelings, or sexual behaviors.
horizontal decalage  Piaget's term for children's inconsistency in thinking within a developmental stage; explains why, for instance, children do not learn conservation tasks about numbers and volume at the same time.
hostile aggression  In 3- and 4-year-old children, behavior that is intended to hurt or harm another person; see aggression. Contrast with instrumental aggression.
hostile attribution bias  The tendency of some aggressive children to interpret social situations as personally threatening or hostile, even when the intentions of other actors are unclear.
hypothalamus  A structure at the base of the brain that controls the pituitary gland.
hypothesis  A statement of prediction derived from a theory that has not yet been tested.
hypothetico-deductive thinking  A form of formal logic achieved during the formal operational stage Piaget identified as the ability to generate and test hypotheses in a logical and systematic matter.
ideal self  The image of the self created during middle childhood that is developed by comparing one's real self to a set of desired characteristics, including the expectations, values, and ideals of peers and adults.
identity  (1) In Piaget's theory, one of three basic mental operations including negation and compensation needed to perform conservation tasks; involves an understanding of cognitive constancy, that people, objects, and quantities remain unchanged despite changes in appearance. (2) In Erikson's theory, the fifth stage of psychosocial development when adolescents commit themselves to a set of beliefs, values, and adult roles in forming a basic sense of self. If adolescents are unable to explore alternative roles and options, they will experience a parallel internal state of role confusion; see Table 6.1.
identity achievement  Marcia's term for an adolescent's determination of definite goals or choices after having explored different options.
identity foreclosure  The state adolescents are in when they have not explored different possibilities but have committed to specific choices.
identity moratorium  Marcia's term for an adolescent's exploration of different occupational plans, ideological stances, and personal relationships when she or he is not ready to make a choice or commitment.
identity versus identity confusion  In Erikson's theory, the central issue that defines adolescence whereby the adolescent must feel his identity informed by his past, future, and current identities, and how he sees himself and how others see him.
ideographic system  The structure of some languages, including Chinese, whereby each character in the written language represents the meaning of an individual word; contrast with alphabetic system.
imaginary audience  The belief that one is constantly being watched and evaluated, which is an expression of adolescent egocentrism, defined by Elkind as resulting from the inability of adolescents to distinguish between their thoughts about themselves and their thoughts about others.
incremental theory of ability  A theory of intelligence, proposed by Dweck, whereby students believe their ability level can improve through a greater investment of effort or by trying different strategies; contrast with entity theory of ability.
independent variable  A variable or factor hypothesized to influence a particular outcome or result in a research study.
individual Educational Plan (IEP)  A written plan developed by teachers, school specialists, and parents to address the specific needs of children with disabilities.
inductive discipline  A discipline technique in which parents offer explanation for their rules and ask children to reflect on their behavior; helps children develop self-control and self-discipline.
infant attachment  The process by which infants form strong affectional ties with their caregivers; generally takes place within the first 6 months of age and is important for the development of a basic sense of trust that can have long-term effects on an infant's later emotional and cognitive development.
infant mortality  A term referring to the number of infants that die within the first year of life; often caused by a short gestation period or low birth weight.
inner speech  One of three stages of children's use of language identified by Vygotsky, during which children internalize their self-verbalizations and are able to manipulate language in their heads to think about problem solutions and action sequences. A self-regulatory process by which children guide their own thinking and behavior; also called private speech; contrast with social speech and egocentric speech.
insecure-avoidant attachment  In Ainsworth's theory, a behavior pattern in which infants appear indifferent to the departure of their mothers and avoid them when they return. Distinguished from secure attachment.
insecure-disorganized attachment  Another form of insecure attachment in which infant shows disorientation and contradictory behavior in Ainsworth's Strange Situation. Distinguished from secure attachment.
insecure-resistant attachment  In Ainsworth's theory, a behavior pattern in which infants show high levels of distress upon separation, but ambivalence when parents return.
instructional conversations  A collaborative process between teachers and students used to teach reading comprehension. The teachers invite children to relate the text to their own experiences, then assist children in understanding the text by providing feedback, modeling, questioning, organizing the content, and so on.
instrumental aggression  In young children, behavior that is intended to obtain an object, to protect a play space, or to get one's way; behavior that is not intended to hurt or harm another person; see aggression. Contrast with hostile aggression.
instrumental conditioning  See operant conditioning.
intelligence quotient (IQ)  Represents a score obtained by comparing a child's mental age score with other children's of the same chronological age; currently determined through a deviation IQ score procedure.
intelligence theories  A theory that focuses on how cognitive processes explain individual differences in children's performance on intelligence tests and other cognitive measures; see also psychometric theories.
interactional perspective  A theory that supports the interplay of innate and environmental influences on a child's development.
intercoder reliability  See interobserver reliability.
intermodal perception  The ability to integrate information across the five senses (e.g., auditory, tactile, and visual cues).
internalization  Vygotsky's term for the process of constructing a mental representation of external physical actions or cognitive operations that first occur through social interaction.
internalizing problems  The kinds of problems some children with emotional and behavioral disorders experience, including depression, withdrawal, anxiety, and obsession; contrast with externalizing problems.
interobserver reliability  A reliability estimate used in interview and observation studies whereby more than one person observes or codes the same events and a percentage of agreement is computed to guard against subjective interpretations and judgments; also called intercoder reliability.
interview  A self-report measure in which subjects are asked a standard set of questions.
intraindividual variation  The unique pattern of strengths and needs related to each child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth; see interindividual variation.
intrinsic motivation  A desire to learn or act that arises from internal sources of curiosity, interest, enjoyment, and innate strivings for mastery and growth; contrast with extrinsic motivation.
intuitive theory  Piaget's explanation for young children's attempts to explain natural phenomena by using their personal experiences; characterized by animism.
invented spelling  Unconventional ways children spell words in their early attempts at writing.
language  A symbolic system in which a series of sounds make words to represent an idea, an object, or a person and eventually becomes the medium through which we think.
language acquisition device (LAD)  Chomsky's idea that children are born with a mechanism in their brains that enables them to recognize the universal rules that underlie all languages and the structure and grammar of their native language.
lateralization  Specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain.
lateralized  A theory about cognitive functioning suggesting that each of the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain, the left side and the right side, performs a special set of functions and becomes the dominant center of brain functioning.
low birth weight  Many premature and some full-term babies who weigh less than 5.5 pounds or 2,500 grams at birth.
low vision  Those who cannot read newsprint-size letters, even with corrective lenses; see blind.
learned helplessness  A feeling of helplessness that develops when one encounters difficulty or failure, especially in situations when one does not have control. This reinforces low self-confidence.
learning centers  Structured areas in the classroom set aside to provide multilevel activities to address a broad range of interests, skills, and objectives; a teaching method used to provide individualized instruction in the classroom.
learning-oriented goals  Outcome desired because of the child's intrinsic interest in learning something new.
limited English proficiency (LEP)  A minimal knowledge of Standard American English (SAE); often characteristic of nonnative speakers.
literacy  Constructed meaning; meaning created through the interaction of reader or writer and written text.
literate environment  A place in which children encounter print with authentic purposes and adults value and participate in reading and writing.
literate thinking  The ability to think and reason like a literate person within a particular society; see literacy.
locus of causality  In attribution theory, the motivational source, either internal or external, to which people attribute their actions or achievements.
logical rule of class inclusion  A mental operation achieved during the concrete operational stage that allows children to understand the relationship of something's whole to its parts; see class inclusion.
logical rule of progressive change  The understanding that develops during the concrete operational stage that various stimuli can be ordered in terms of increasing and decreasing size.
logical rule of transitivity  The understanding that develops during the concrete operational stage that objects in the middle of a series are both shorter and longer than others; a necessary concept in solving seriation problems.
logico-mathematical knowledge  In Piaget's theory, the type of knowledge consisting of the mental construction of relationships involved in the concrete operations of seriation, classification, and conservation, as well as various formal operations that emerge in adolescence.
longitudinal study  A study that collects different types of data (e.g., early experiences, education, personality characteristics) on a regular basis and tracks the development of a group of children over a number of years.
long-term memory  A component of the information processing system into which information passes from short-term memory if it has been transformed or worked on in some personally meaningful way; has a large capacity, and can store information indefinitely.
macrosystem  In Bronfenbrenner's model, the larger culture and possibly subculture in which the individual lives— including ideologies, traditions, and values. Elements of the macrosystem include regional identity, nationality, ethnicity, and religious affiliation.
marginality  Living within a dominant culture but remaining estranged or alienated from it.
mastery oriented  When the desired outcome is the ability to perform, rather than attainment of new knowledge.
matrix classification  In Piaget's theory, a concept achieved during the concrete operational stage that involves ordering items by two or more attributes, such as by both size and color.
memory script  A mental representation of often-repeated events in a child's daily life; a basic method for organizing and interpreting familiar experiences.
memory strategy  A cognitive operation, such as repeating a list of items over and over again, that will help one to remember abstract, unfamiliar, or meaningless information.
menarche  The beginning of a girl's menstrual cycle; generally the last physical change to occur in puberty.
mental age (MA)  The score represented by the number of test items a child gets correct that was formerly used in calculating an IQ score; see intelligence quotient.
mental retardation  Characterized by a lower than normal level of intelligence and developmental delays in specific adaptive behavior.
mesoderm  The middle layer of the embronic structure that will become the skeleton and muscles.
mesosystem  In Bronfenbrenner's model, interactions among components of the microsystem.
metacognition  Knowledge about one's own thinking; involves an understanding of how memory works, what tasks require more cognitive effort, and what strategies facilitate learning; plays an important role in children's cognitive development during the middle childhood years and in the development of self-regulated learning.
metalinguistic awareness  The ability to think and talk about the relationship between print and sound in a language; for instance, a child's ability to identify the first sound as making the difference between the words rat and bat.
metamemory  Knowledge about memory; improves with development. See also metacognition.
microsystem  In Brofenbrenner's model, the child's immediate environment (the family, peer group, school).
mitosis  The process through which chromosomes produce duplicate copies of themselves and divide into new cells; each new cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes.
mixed speech  A single language system lasting until about 2 years of age in which a simultaneous bilingual combines features of both languages he or she is exposed to.
monozygotic twins  Two siblings who come from the same fertilized egg and contain the same genetic instructions; also known as identical twins.
motherese  A type of child-directed speech also known as parentese in which parents or caregivers modify language they direct toward their children from birth; thought to assist children's language development by simplifying structure to make language acquisition simpler.
multidimensional conception of intelligence  The concept that intelligence represents several different mental abilities or intellectual competencies; contrast with unitary conception of intelligence.
multilingual  The ability to speak more than two languages.
myelin  The fatty substance that coats neurons and dendrites to enable myelination.
myelination  The second of two changes during brain development after birth; the process during which neurons and dendrites become coated with a fatty substance (myelin) to enable neural impulses to travel faster.
neglect  A form of child abuse involving inattention to basic needs such as food, clothing, and medical care.
neglected peers  Children who are seldom chosen as work or play partners by their peers.
neo-Piagetian theories  Cognitive theories that add greater specificity to Piaget's theory of development while adhering to the basic assumptions of his theory. Case's neoPiagetian theory links stage-like changes in knowledge to the development of cognitive and memory strategies.
neurons  Long thin cells within the central nervous system, different from other cells because they are not closely packed, that are formed during the first 5 months of gestation.
neurotransmitters  Chemicals released by neurons that cross over synapses in the central nervous system to communicate with other neurons.
niche-picking  The tendency of older children to choose an environment that compliments their heredity as part of the active gene-environment effect described by Sandra Scarr and her associates.
natural experiment  Studies that use natural settings (home, school, playground) in which to study children to avoid skewing experimental evidence due to overly controlled laboratory-like settings that do not resemble the real world.
naturalistic observation  An observation situation that uses real-life environments in which to collect data; see natural experiment.
need to achieve  In motivation theory, a person's desire to excel in achievement situations.
negation  In Piaget's theory, one of three basic mental operations including compensation and identity needed to perform conservation tasks; a form of reversibility that involves an understanding that operations can be undone (negated) or can have an inverse relationship (subtraction is the inverse of addition).
negative identity  A possible outcome for ethnic or racial minority young people who fail to establish a strong sense of self and reject their community's values as well as those of the dominant culture.
obesity  A greater than 20 percent increase over average body weight for an individual's age, sex, and body build; contributing factors can be heredity, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, abnormal metabolism, and family trauma.
object permanence  Piaget's term for an infant's understanding during the sensorimotor stage that objects continue to exist even when they can no longer be seen or acted on.
operant conditioning  A behavioral principle of learning through which behavior is increased or extinguished by rewards and punishments; same as instrumental conditioning.
organization  (1) In Piaget's theory, one of two basic principles referred to as invariant functions that guide children's intellectual development; the innate predisposition to integrate simple physical patterns or mental schemes into more complex systems; contrast with adaptation. (2) In information processing theory, a memory encoding strategy in which one tries to group items to be remembered into meaningful categories.
parenting style  Common patterns of parenting styles including authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative.
partial participation  A teaching approach in which a student from a separate special classroom spends time in the general classroom engaged with activities modified to fit his or her abilities; see reverse mainstreaming.
peer  A person equal in age, rank, or maturity to another person.
peer-directed learning  An instructional approach that allows children and adolescents to learn from one another; examples include cooperative learning, peer tutoring, and the buddy system.
peer popularity  A popular peer is one whose presence or opinion is sought after by others of the same age; the key determinants are the abilities to initiate and to maintain positive interactions with others.
peer rejection  Ignoring or avoiding those who are strongly disliked by their peers; those rejected are often inattentive, aversive, threatening, hostile, and disruptive.
performance assessment  A method of collecting information that measures children's ability to perform specific cognitive or physical tasks correctly.
performance-oriented goals  One type of achievement goal identified by motivation theorists, whereby students are motivated to achieve by a desire to demonstrate high ability or to avoid negative evaluations of ability; same as ego-oriented goals. Contrast with task-oriented goals.
permissive-indifferent parenting  A style of parenting in which children are left to make their own decisions and regulate their own behavior that often results from or leads to neglect.
permissive-indulgent  A style of parenting in which parents are very warm and responsive, and put few demands or expectations on their children. Rules are not clearly communicated or enforced, leaving children to make their own decisions and regulate their own behavior.
permissive parenting  A parenting style characterized by a lack of rules and expectations for children and by inconsistent discipline; contrast with authoritative and authoritarian.
personal fable  A second aspect of adolescent egocentrism that follows from the belief in an imaginary audience, resulting in an increased concern about appearance and behavior as an expression of one's uniqueness and sense of self-importance.
perspective-taking skills  One of the important aspects of the development of social cognition that involves being able to imagine what others may be thinking and feeling.
phenotype  A person's observable physical and behavioral characteristics; when individuals receive a recessive gene from one parent and a dominant gene from another, their genotype will be different from their phenotype.
phonemic awareness  The ability to connect the distinctive sounds, or phonemes, in words to letters.
phonic knowledge  A decoding strategy; the rules for combining sounds to make words and the stress and intonation patterns of a language (Figure 5.1); contrast with context knowledge and sight word knowledge.
physical abuse  Purposeful bodily injury caused by another.
physical disabilities  Congenital or acquired disabling conditions that result from damage to the central nervous system, either to the brain or the spinal cord.
physical knowledge  One of three types of knowledge as described by Piaget; knowing the attributes of objects such as their number, color, size, and shape; knowledge is acquired by acting on objects, experimenting, and observing reactions.
pincer grasp  Develops at the end of the first year of life as an infant learns to use the thumb and index finger to pick up small objects.
pituitary gland  A small endocrine gland near the base of the brain responsible for the release of hormones affecting growth.
placenta  A structure present at implantation of the zygote that begins to function and mature during the embryonic period. This structure, the umbilical cord, and the amniotic sac make up the life-support system for the developing embryo.
plasticity  The ability of the brain, especially in the early years of development, to change.
polygenetic traits  Human characteristics, such as intelligence, skin color, and height, that result from the combination or interaction of two or more genes.
postconventional level  According to Kohlberg, the third level of moral judgment, characterized by individuals who develop their own set of principles to define what is morally right and wrong; contrast with preconventional level and conventional level.
power assertive discipline  A discipline style in which parents attempt to control their children's behavior by use of commands and imperatives based solely on their authority.
practical intelligence  Sternberg's theory that an intelligent person can use skills effectively in a particular context; involves applying contextual intelligence to everyday problems; see Figure 4.8.
pragmatics of language  The strategies for using language appropriately in different contexts, such as turn-taking, interrupting, beginning a new topic appropriately; see Figure 5.1.
preconventional level  According to Kohlberg, the first level of moral judgment, characterized by individuals who approach moral issues from a hedonistic or pleasure-oriented perspective; contrast with conventional level and postconventional level.
prejudice  Unfounded negative feelings toward a person because of his or her membership in a group.
prenatal development  The time from conception to birth; follows a universal sequence that is mainly directed by genetic influences but also can be affected by environmental factors.
preoperational stage  The period of life from 2 to 7 years old when, Piaget believed, children demonstrate an increased ability to use symbols (gestures, words, numbers) to represent real objects in their environment.
primary sex characteristics  Changes in the gonads (testes and ovaries) and the development of eggs and sperm stimulated by a change in the levels of sex hormones in male and female adolescents during puberty.
private speech  See inner speech.
problem-focused coping  A coping strategy that involves seeking information, generating different solutions, and taking action to modify a situation; contrast with emotion-focused coping.
procedural knowledge  Children's understanding about how learning strategies should be applied; contrast with declarative knowledge and conditional knowledge.
propositional logic  A form of formal logic achieved during the formal operational stage that Piaget identified as the ability to draw a logical inference between two statements or premises in an "if-then" relationship.
prosocial behavior  Actions stemming from an appreciation that others' needs are as important or more important than one's own; supportive actions, such as sharing, helping, and care giving.
proximal-distal  One of two patterns characterizing growth in infancy; development begins in the center and proceeds outward. As a result, the organs develop before the arms or hands.
psychological need  An internal tension or conflict that leads to or influences a person's goal-directed behavior.
psychological self  A developmental gain during which adolescents begin to understand that they have an inner self—thoughts and feelings hidden from others unless they share them.
psychometric theories  Theories that focus on how cognitive processes explain individual differences in children's performance on intelligence tests and other cognitive measures; see also intelligence theories.
puberty  Refers to the period in which a young person becomes capable of sexual reproduction; the average age of onset for girls is 10 to 12 years old and for boys, 12 to 14 years old.
qualitative changes  The emergence of discrete competencies and behaviors during different stages of development. Those theorists who view development as discontinuous.
quasi-experimental studies  A type of research design that utilizes comparison groups without random assignment. Also known as a causal-comparative design.
questionnaire  A self-report measure that contains carefully written questions for subjects to answer; a very common method of data collection.
race  Refers to a group of people, such as African. Americans or Asian Americans, who share biologically transmitted traits that are defined as socially significant, such as skin color or hair texture; contrast with ethnicity.
rating scale  A form of questionnaire or interview in which research subjects are asked to rate themselves or others on a set of dimensions, such as aggression, temperament, and intelligence.
reaction range  A concept used by researchers to understand an individual's unique, genetically determined response to environmental influences. Genes may determine the upper and lower boundaries for development, but the reaction range defines the degree to which the environment can affect development.
reading readiness approach  An outdated conception of literacy development that emphasized a set of skills children needed to master before beginning formal reading instruction; contrast with emergent literacy.
realism  According to Piaget, children's inclination during the preoperational stage to confuse physical and psychological events in their attempts to develop theories of the internal world of the mind.
recall memory  A form of information retrieval that involves the free recall of information without any cues or prompts to aid the process; requires more cognitive effort than recognition memory; children display better recall memory as they get older.
recessive gene  A gene inherited from one parent, such as blond hair, not always expressed, because its genetic directions are masked by a dominant gene of the other parent. A child needs to inherit a recessive gene from each parent for the gene to be expressed.
reciprocal determinism  Defined by Bandura's social learning theory as a bidirectional relationship between a child and his or her social environment; children have as much an influence on their environment as it has on them.
role confusion  In Erikson's fifth stage of psychosocial development, adolescents can experience uncertainties about themselves and their future if they are unable to explore different roles and options; contrast with identity.
reciprocal teaching  Palincsar and Brown’s learning model designed to help poor readers acquire comprehension skills. Teachers and students take turns being the discussion leader, and through collaborative learning dialogues, students learn how to regulate their own understanding of what they are reading.
recognition memory  A basic form of information retrieval that involves recognizing a familiar stimulus when it is seen, heard, or experienced again; requires less cognitive effort than recall memory tasks; infants are able to display recognition memory by attending more to an unfamiliar than a familiar stimulus.
reflective abstraction  A concept that allows children to use information they already have acquired to form new knowledge; begins to emerge during the concrete operational stage but is more characteristic of adolescent thinking.
rehearsal  The first memory encoding strategy to be learned, involving the repetition of information over and over again to assist with recall.
reinforcement  A repeated response to an action in which individuals modify their behavior on the basis of the expected response.
reliability  The consistency or precision of a measurement when repeated under similar circumstances; can be tested by administering the same test several times within a short interval of time (e.g., a few weeks) to check the consistency of results over time.
representational thinking  A Piagetian concept that develops during the preoperational stage in which children gain the ability to use words to stand for real objects.
research design  The plan or structure of an investigation, which is determined in part by the investigator's research question.
resiliency  The capacity of young people to cope with difficult and challenging circumstances in their lives to develop competence.
retrieval strategy  Any of the cognitive operations a learner might use to recover information from memory.
reverse mainstreaming  A teaching approach in which students from the general classroom spend some time in the separate special classroom, interacting with children with disabilities in learning activities; see partial participation.
reversibility  A concept achieved during the concrete operational stage that allows children to mentally reverse operations; involves an understanding that actions can be undone and is important for understanding conservation problems.
scaffolding  The process by which adults provide support to a child who is learning to master a task or problem by performing or directing those elements of the task that are beyond the child's ability.
scheme  Also referred to as schema (pl. schemata) in some research areas; in Piaget's theory, the physical actions, mental operations, concepts, or theories people use to organize and acquire information about their world.
script  See memory script.
secondary sex characteristics  Changes in genitals, breasts, and the growth of facial, pubic, and body hair stimulated by a change in the level of sex hormones in male and female adolescents during puberty.
secular trend  A shift in normative patterns of development exemplified in today's average adult height and the onset of puberty.
securely attached  In Ainsworth's theory, infants who are distressed by parental separation and easily comforted by the parent upon return. Distinguished from insecure attachment.
selective attention  A development that allows children to focus their attention on task-relevant information and ignore irrelevant information so they use their cognitive resources more efficiently.
self-concept  The beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and ideas people develop or construct about their personality, physical skills, and mental abilities; see self-esteem.
self-conscious emotions  Feeling such as pride, shame, and guilt requiring a connection between one's actions and feelings that involve an evolving sense of self; generally emerges between the ages of 2 and 4.
self-control  Being able to control negative emotions, persist at difficult and challenging activities, and inhibit impulses.
self-determination  In motivation theory, the ability to act independently and to choose one's own course of action.
self-efficacy  In motivation theory, an individual's judgment of personal ability to perform a task given the skills he or she possesses and the circumstances he or she faces; according to Bandura, shaped by prior experience, peer models, and corrective feedback.
self-esteem  Personal evaluation of one's own traits, abilities, and characteristics; a judgment of one's own worth, value, or competence; see self-concept.
self-evaluation  A learning strategy that teaches children to evaluate their own performance as they progress through or end a learning activity.
self-instruction  A learning strategy that teaches children to use private or inner speech to guide themselves through a task in a step-by-step manner; see inner speech.
self-monitoring  A learning strategy that teaches children to check and track their own progress through a learning task; effective strategy for children with special learning needs.
self-regulated learning  Children's increasing regulation and control of their own learning processes due to their development of their metacognitive knowledge.
self-report  A method of collecting information in which individuals being studied report on themselves through questionnaires, rating scales, or interviews.
semantic memory  Long-term memory storage of information, skills, and concepts of a general nature. Much of what is learned in school is included in semantic memory.
semantics  The meaning of words; only certain strings of sounds are meaningful as words and words are related in complex networks and have special properties; see Figure 5.1.
semiotic functioning  See representational thinking.
sense of guilt  In Erikson's third stage of psychosocial development, children 3 to 6 years old can develop guilt feelings if their caregivers demand too much self-control or initiative; contrast with sense of initiative.
sense of industry  In Erikson's theory, the fourth stage of psychosocial development in which children 7 to 11 years old must begin to identify their strengths and to take pleasure in their accomplishments; if they are unsupported in their mastery efforts, a parallel internal feeling of inferiority or inadequacy may develop. See Table 6.1.
sense of initiative  In Erikson's theory, the third stage of psychosocial development in which children 3 to 6 years old develop a sense of purpose and direction and learn to balance their actions with the demands of others. If children are unable to live up to parental expectations, a parallel sense of guilt will develop; see Table 6.1.
sensorimotor stage  The period of life from birth to 2 years old when children acquire what Piaget believed are the building blocks of symbolic thinking and human intelligence—schemes for two basic competencies, goal-directed behavior, and object permanence.
sensory register  According to information processing theories, the place where information is stored in the cognitive process for a few milliseconds until it is recognized or lost; each sense has its own sensory register.
separation  The rejection of the dominant culture by the minority, who then only associates with members of his or her own minority group.
seriation  In Piaget's theory, the understanding that develops during the concrete operational stage that involves the ability to order objects in a logical progression, such as from shortest to tallest; important for understanding the concepts of number, time, and measurement.
service learning  A form of character education that involves meaningful community service to teach civic responsibility and to foster positive youth development; examples include designing neighborhood playgrounds, preparing food for the homeless, and recycling programs.
sex chromosome  The twenty-third chromosome; humans have two types, X and Y; females have two X chromosome, and males have an X and a Y chromosome.
sex-linked characteristic  Some recessive traits carried on the female sex chromosome, such as baldness, color blindness, and hemophilia; generally expressed in male rather than female offspring.
sex-role socialization  The process by which children acquire the knowledge, skills, and traits appropriate for their gender.
sexual abuse  Contacts between the child and adult in which the child is being used for sexual stimulation.
short-term memory  A component of the information processing system into which information passes and is held for a brief period of time once it has been interpreted or encoded in terms of prior knowledge; also known as working memory; contrast with long-term memory.
sight word knowledge  A decoding strategy; the developing recognition and understanding through exposure of the meaning of words; contrast with context knowledge and phonic knowledge.
simpatía  The felt need for behaviors, such as conformity and empathy, that promote harmonious, pleasant social relations.
simultaneous bilingual  Learning several languages at the same time.
social cognition  A Piagetian concept defined as knowledge about people, including their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
social comparison  A developmental change that occurs during the school years as children begin to compare themselves with others in terms of actions or abilities.
social constructivist  An approach to learning and teaching based on Vygotsky's theory of development.
social convention reasoning  Children's understanding of the rules, customs, and rituals that govern social interactions and organizations, such as turn-taking, dress styles, and table manners.
social desirability  A tendency of individuals to overestimate desirable behavior and underestimate undesirable behavior on self-report measures.
social dialect  Speech patterns of a particular ethnic, social, or regional group.
social information processing theories  A view based on information processing theory that information in social situations is encoded, interpreted, evaluated, and responded to in a sequential manner.
social knowledge  In Piaget's theory, this type of knowledge is derived in part through interactions with others. Examples of this knowledge include mathematical words and signs, languages, musical notations, as well as social and moral conventions.
social referencing  The process of incorporating facial cues into response sequences in infants.
social speech  One of three stages of children's use of language identified by Vygotsky that is used primarily for communicative purposes in which thought and language have separate functions; contrast with egocentric speech and inner speech.
socialization  The social processes in which a child is prepared to be a productive and competent member of society.
stability of IQ  In intelligence theories, the degree to which an IQ score remains constant over time; central to the heritability of intelligence issue. For instance, if IQ is not stable over time, researchers could point to the influence of environmental factors in the outcome of people's intellectual potential.
standard American English (SAE)  The language of instruction in schools.
standard deviation  A statistical estimate used with IQ scores that represents the average amount individual scores within a sample vary from the mean.
standardized tests of intelligence  The most common method of assessing individual differences in cognitive development; referred to as the psychometric approach.
static assessment  A type of assessment teachers and other educational professionals can use that provides information about the present state of children's existing skills; contrast with dynamic assessment.
statistically significant  When the relation between two measures is stronger than would have been predicted by chance.
stereotype threat  A person is experiencing stereotype threat when he or she is fearful of performing an academic task or test in a manner that would confirm negative social stereotypes of one's gender or ethnic group. This condition can lead students to devalue the importance of academic success or to invest less effort in their academic studies.
strange Situation  Ainsworth's procedure for assessing behaviors of caregivers and children; used to establish quality of attachment.
strategic learner  Any learner who uses cognitive strategies (attention, encoding, memory, and retrieval) to enhance his or her learning.
structured immersion  A method for serving English-learning students in which children receive up to a year of intensive training in English before they are placed in an English-speaking classroom.
structured observation  An observation situation that uses a carefully controlled setting and standardizes the conditions under which data are collected.
submersion  A "sink or swim" approach to teaching students with limited proficiency in English in which learners are placed into a monolingual, English classroom without any instructional support.
substance abuse  Frequent or excessive use of a drug, including cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana.
successive bilingualism  A person who learns the dominant language (English) but retains his or her native language as well (Spanish); the stages of language development will be different from bilingual or multilingual learners; see mixed speech.
synapses  The tiny gaps between neurons in the central nervous system where fibers from different neurons come close together but do not touch and neurotransmitters cross over.
syntax  The structure of language; the way words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
task-oriented goals  One type of achievement goal identified by motivation theorists, similar to intrinsic motivation, whereby students are motivated to achieve by a desire to improve or develop their competencies; same as learning-oriented goals. Contrast with performance-oriented goals.
teacher-directed instruction  Activities, instructional practices, and classroom accommodations planned and implemented by the teacher; see direct instruction.
telegraphic speech  Early speech that is characterized by typically short, simple sentences composed primarily of content words: "Kendall swim pool."
temperament  An infant's characteristic style of responding to the environment; includes activity level, predictability, and emotionality; believed to be early component of personality development.
teratogen  Any environmental substance or disease (alcohol, caffeine, radiation, caustic chemicals, chicken pox, AIDS) that can have an adverse effect on a fetus during prenatal development.
testosterone  Hormone affecting the development of the penis, testes, and other organs of the reproductive system in males.
test-retest reliability  A measure used to determine the consistency of a test's results; see reliability.
theories of mind  Children's naïve or intuitive psychological theories about the causes of human behavior; inferences children make about inner mental states such as beliefs, intentions, desires, and emotions.
theory  A set of general rules, assumptions, propositions, and principles used to explain facts; a developmental theory provides a framework for observing, interpreting, and explaining children's changes over time.
theory of multiple intelligences  Gardner's proposal that there are at least seven different intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spacial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal; see Table 4.1.
time sampling  A technique used to record on a coding sheet all observations listed that happen within a predetermined length of time, say, within a 5-minute time frame.
tracking  The ongoing practice in middle and high schools of grouping students according to their presumed academic ability; thought by some to limit learning and achievement opportunities due to the kinds and quality of instruction and to students' resulting low motivation and self-esteem; see ability grouping.
traumatic brain injury (TBI)  An acquired injury to the brain from either an open or closed head injury that has significant impact on learning, including problem solving, speech and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, and information processing; learning difficulties may be permanent or temporary, depending on the location and extent of the injury.
triangulation  The use of multiple data collection methods to compare findings across sources and to find consistent patterns.
triarchic model of intelligence  Sternberg's concept that intelligence is divided into contextual, experiential, and componential subcomponents; see componential intelligence, contextual intelligence, and experiential intelligence; see also multidimensional conception of intelligence.
umbilical cord  A structure present at implantation of the zygote that begins to function and mature during the embryonic period. See placenta.
validity  The degree to which a research instrument or test accurately measures what it claims to measure.
whole language  A language philosophy characterized by a set of beliefs, including the beliefs that the purpose of language is to create and share meaning; that language is language, regardless of whether it is spoken or written; and that language is best learned by using it in a social context for authentic purposes.
working memory  See short-term memory.
writing across the curriculum  A program approach in which writing is incorporated into all subject areas, from music to mathematics.
zone of proximal development  A concept in Vygotsky's theory regarding children's potential for intellectual growth rather than their actual level of development; the gap between what children can do on their own and what they can do with the assistance of others (see Figure 3.10).
zygote  The human cell that is formed by the union of the female egg and male sperm and contains one set of 23 chromosomes from the mother and another set of 23 chromosomes from the father.





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