| child development | Processes of change and stability in children from conception through adolescence.
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| cognitive development | Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
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| cohort | A group of people born at about the same time.
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| critical period | Specific time when a given event or its absence has a specific impact on development.
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| culture | A society's or group's total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products— all learned behavior passed on from parents to children.
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| environment | Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development.
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| ethnic gloss | Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural group that blurs or obscures variations within the group or overlaps with other such groups.
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| ethnic group | A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, and/or national origins, which contribute to a sense of shared identity.
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| extended family | Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children, and other relatives, sometimes living together in an extended-family household.
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| heredity | Inborn characteristics inherited from the biological parents.
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| historical generation | A group of people strongly influenced by a major historical event during their formative period.
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| imprinting | Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in early development, a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees, usually the mother.
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| individual differences | Differences among children in characteristics, influences, or developmental outcomes.
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| maturation | Unfolding of a universal natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes, including readiness to master new abilities.
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| nonnormative | Characteristic of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or a typical event that happens at an unusual time of life.
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| normative | Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group.
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| nuclear family | Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children, or stepchildren.
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| physical development | Growth of body and brain, including patterns of change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and health.
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| plasticity | Modifiability of performance.
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| psychosocial development | In Erikson's eight stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.
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| qualitative change | Change in kind, structure, or organization, such as the change from nonverbal to verbal communication.
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| quantitative change | Change in number or amount, such as in height, weight, or size of vocabulary.
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| risk factors | Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome.
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| sensitive periods | Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.
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| social construction | Concept about the nature of reality based on societally shared perceptions or assumptions.
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| socioeconomic status (SES) | Combination of economic and social factors, including income, education, and occupation, that describe an individual or family.
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