Psychology Question and Discussion Board Read the story below and only answer the three questions (250 words) use the sources I provided. 1.Ask at least o

Psychology Question and Discussion Board Read the story below and only answer the three questions (250 words) use the sources I provided.

1.Ask at least one question in response to an original peer post that you would like the author to explore further.

2. compare and contrast your respective thoughts regarding how sensory systems work and impact childhood development, and offer constructive criticism and recommendations on how to address and offer advice to parents.

3. Additionally, identify any insights you have gained as a result of reading the responses of others.

The story:

The human body is design of various systems to protect us from harmful bacterial infections and viruses. It is also designed to help us learn how to survive efficiently without causing harm to ourselves. One of the very first systems that reacts is our sensory system. Our sensory system is part of our nervous system. Our sensory system is made up different sensory receptors, neural pathways and parts of the brain that encode and decode messages that involve our sensory perception (National Geographic, 2011). There five main sense that our body functions off these is vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. When we enter the world outside of the whom, our body immediately reacts to the environment around them. For example, our bodies do use the muscle in our lungs to breath while inside the mother’s body. Once the infant is exposed to the outside world, the body immediately shocks the muscles in the lungs to react. This helps us as infants learn how to breathe correctly (National Geographic, 2011).

One of the first sensory systems that infants use is taste. Hours after birth the infant is ready for its very first feeding. This is when the infant first taste something new, the mother’s milk. There are almost 9,000 sensory receptors on an infant’s tongue alone. Therefore taste and touch are so popular among infants and toddlers. When our sensory receptors taste or touch a new object, it immediately travels through our nervous system into the brain sending a specific message (National Geographic, 2011). This message is then decoded from the brain and is then translated. The brain then sends the signal back down to the sensory receptors inform us of a human what the object or taste is. Our mind eventually will remember certain objects, tastes and smell through reinforcement. For example, as we continue to feed the infant breast milk, this will ultimately be coded into our hippocampus as a source of food. The pattern of sucking the fluid through the mother’s breast will also be code as well. The infant will then learn to receive milk he or she must suck the milk from their mothers’ breast to obtain food (National Geographic, 2011).

The next sensory system is hearing. This system immediately starts to react and is a big part of the infant’s development. As early as one month old our hearing is as clear as it will ever be. Our ear is constructed through sound waves that enter our eardrum. Ossicles are behind our eardrum and in turn, have small vibrations in response to the sound waves. The ossicles are the smallest bones in the body, but without them, we would be able to hear at all (National Geographic, 2011). The vibrations then enter the cochlea or inner ear. As mentioned above our ears are playing a huge role in our development. For example, around 8months to a one year of age, an infant starts to learn how to balance and walk. This process is through muscle development and the liquid that lies in our ears. In our ears, we have individual tubes. These tubes have liquid inside of them that allow us to learn how to balance. Once an infant masters the ability to balance he/she will be able to walk.

As an infant, our perception of the world changes over time. As early as one month we cannot see objects clear or with color. It is not until about two months children can see colors and shapes. At four months children can identify their mothers face. Around eight months children then have 20; 20 visions and can understand and identify objects. For example, in our eyes, we have what is called the retina. Inside the retina, the image we view is captured upside down, and then is passed to the rods and cones in our eyes. This message in sent to the occipital part of the brain where the image is then coded and decode to the correct format (right side up). The cons allow us to see color while the rods allow us to see things in the dark (National Geographic, 2011).

Smelling is another important sensory system, that plays a huge role in our development as a youth. The smells we inhibit travel through special nerves that are dangling inside our nose. These detect specific chemicals in the air and send a special message to our brain. These signals are then coded into smells. The taste of breast milk is transcribing through the tongue of the infant, but the smell of it will transcribe through the infant’s nose. Allowing the infant to be able to distinguish if he or she is drinking breast milk (National Geographic, 2011).

I am currently a mother of an 8-month-old infant myself. I find all this information very interesting as I am witnessing my son throw this stage of development now. I am grateful to know and understand what he is going through so that I can better assist him with his progress. Some of the different avenues I have taken to help my son with his development while keeping him safe are baby proofing around the house. This is very common and necessary as well. Young children even during the toddler and pre-school age are curious about different chemicals and objects that lie around the house. It is best to store away all cleaning products, sharp objects, and ropes or strings where children cannot reach. I have placed all my cleaning products in baskets inside my top shelves so that my son cannot go inside the floor cabinets and try to drink any of the liquids. Based on the information touch and taste are one of the most popular sensory systems. So be very cautious. I would also recommend buying outlet cover to block children from a place any objects inside the three-prong holes. I would also recommend purchasing a push- walker for children to use when learning to balance. My son is now learning how to balance. He feels confident to walk when he has an object hold on to, and this is where the push walker comes in handy. He can push the walker around the house and learn how to balance as well. My last recommendation would be to reinforcement with children. This could be teaching them how to eat, showing them their alphabet doesn’t matter. The old saying practice makes perfect is right. I practice with my son every day how to eat his food. I show him with my hands on how to place the food in his mouth. Now he is picking up the food with his hands and feeding himself.

Use the references below

Hansen, C. C., & Zambo, D. (2005). Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(1), 39–45. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1007/….

Bahrick, L. E., Todd, J. T., & Soska, K. C. (2018). The Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol (MAAP): Characterizing individual differences in multisensory attention skills in infants and children and relations with language and cognition. Developmental Psychology, 54(12), 2207–2225. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1037/… (Supplemental) Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 33, No. I, August 2005 (© 2005)
DOI: 10.1007/s 10643-005-0020-8
Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development
through Picture Book Characters
Cory Cooper Hansen^’^ and Debby Zambo^
Picture books appeal to readers of all ages for many different reasons. As instructors of child
development, we use them as one strategy to help students conceptualize the physical,
cognitive, and socioemotional growth of children. We use picture books to introduce principles, explain vocabulary, and encourage students to make connections between theory and
practice in early childhood education, tn this article, we provide examples of picture books
that can be used to understand children from infancy (birth-2 years) to early childhood (26 years). Twenty-four suggested titles accurately narrate and illustrate early development.
KEY WORDS: Picture books; child development; physical development; cognitive development; socioemotional development; early childhood education; preservice teachers; early development; teaching
strategies.
early childhood educators. Our discussion begins
with one of the most noted theorists: Jean Piaget.
Piaget studied his own children to discover the
origins of knowledge, how children acquire knowledge, and the forms that knowledge takes at different
ages. He used careful observation, interviews, and
hands-on tasks to examine the reasoning abilities of
children. Through his ingenuity and effort, Piaget
remains influential in child psychology today (Dixon,
2003). Now, imagine what it would have been like if
Piaget met and studied the lovable, independent
character Lilly, from the picture book Lilly’s Purple
Plastic Purse (Henkes, 1996). At their meeting, Piaget
might have asked Lilly to perform some of the tasks
he had developed and would have talked to her about
the strategies she used as she solved them. One task
Piaget might have asked Lilly to perform was a
conservation of number task. He would have laid out
Lilly’s shiny quarters in one row and placed an equal
number of quarters right below in a parallel row.
Piaget would then ask Lilly which row contained
more, or if they were the same. Next, he would have
spread out the bottom row of quarters so that it
looked longer and once again ask Lilly which row
contained more, or if they were the same. From
Lilly’s answers, Piaget would determine if her logical
Every time we discover a new picture book, we
eagerly explore it, lookitig for links between what
happens in the story and the theories and principles
we present in our child development courses. We
scrutinize the story for characters who behave in ageappropriate ways. We examine each illustration for
accuracy in representing physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. As early childhood
instructors in a teacher preparation program, we are
always looking for stories that can promote lively
discussion and critical thinking about child development theory. Our goal is to identify books that can
help our students make connections between picture
book characters, the children that they know, and the
theories we want them to learn. In this article, we
present a rationale for including children’s literature
in child development and education courses and
share titles and practical recommendations for other
‘Department of Elementary Education, Arizona State University,
Arizona, USA.
^Correspondence should be directed to Cory Cooper Hansen,
Department of Elementary Education, Arizona State University,
4701 W Thunderbird Road, Glendale, Arizona 85069-7100, USA;
e-mail: cory.hansen@asu.edu
39
1082-3301/05/0800-0039/0 © 2005 Springer Science-fBusiness Media, Inc.
40
reasoning abilities included conservation of number.
Let’s assume that Lilly was distracted by physical
appearance and thought there were more quarters in
the bottom row. From her answer, Piaget would have
evidence that Lilly’s level of cognitive development
was at the preoperational stage. Piaget might want to
support his assessment with more data and so he
would take time to observe Lilly at school. If he went
on the day Lilly brought in her shiny quarters and
glittery movie star sunglasses in her purple plastic
purse, Piaget would have had more data to confirm
his conclusion because he would have noticed that
Lilly had difficulty being considerate and waiting
until recess to share the contents of her wonderful
purse. From his observation, Piaget would confirm
that Lilly was a preoperational thinker because she
was egocentric: reasoning that everyone’s feelings
about her newfound treasures would be the same as
hers. Piaget would also have noted Lilly’s angry
response and inability to understand why her teacher,
Mr. Slinger, would take her treasures away. From
Lilly’s egocentric perspective, she could not see Mr.
Slinger’s point of view nor understand why she
should have to wait until sharing time.
If Piaget were then hired to teach a child development course, he could talk about Lilly to conceptualize his theory and make it come alive in his
lectures because placing theory in context of a story
helps students relate it to the children in their lives.
Stories are a natural and easy way to learn because as
humans, we enjoy listening to narrative tales. Good
teachers intuitively utilize and create stories to convey
and pass on what they know (McCauley, 2000). As an
instructor, Piaget could use examples about Lilly to
help his students understand and remember his theory. Without stories to illustrate theory, it often
becomes lifeless and abstract (Gillespie, 1992).
Pictures of Lilly would further enhance Piaget’s
theories of child development. The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words would apply because
pictures would help his students visualize and
understand points in his theories. For example, the
engaging illustrations of Lilly pretending to be a
teacher or a diva emphasize the importance of sociodramatic play within cognitive development.
According to Sadoski and Paivio’s (2001) concept of
dual coding, providing both a story and a visual cue
provides a cognitive boost and leads to deeper
understanding of content.
Dual coding is inherent in the reading, listening,
looking and talk about picture books. Used well,
picture books generally heighten interest and
Hansen and Zambo
response for learners of all ages. However, there have
been few articles written specifically about using
picture books with adults to understand the development and education of young children. The purpose of this article is to bridge this gap by providing
connections between theories and the picture books
we use to enrich our teaching.
USING PICTURE BOOKS IN THE COLLEGE
CLASSROOM
Picture books provide a cognitive boost and
have intrinsic appeal for all learners including those
at the college level (Routman, 1994; Wilhelm, 1997).
For example, Smallwood (1992) uses children’s literature with adult English learners in her courses
because the text is contextually whole and provides
concrete illustrations of the vocabulary she wishes to
teach. When faced with the challenge of engaging
remedial-reading college students in complex literature, Juchartz (2004) uses the work of Dr. Seuss and
Shel Silverstein to scaffold learning and help students bridge the gap between their levels of literacy
proficiency, the meanings found in complex texts,
and their lives. Forging this connection helps students become active meaning makers and engaged
with text. Once students are involved, Juchartz leads
them to more complicated texts with similar issues
and themes. Juchartz gets no objections from his
students when he uses picture books in his college
classroom noting that his students are “consistently
delighted to engage in such nontraditional material”
(p. 337).
College textbook writers have used children’s
literature to illustrate the concepts and ideas they
present. For example, Charlesworth (2000) uses the
beloved character Ramona (Cleary, 1968) in her child
development text to illustrate changes in thinking as
children move from preoperational to the concrete
operational stage. The teacher’s edition of Child
Development (Santroek, 2004) suggests using Miss
Rumphius (Cooney, 1982) to spark discussion about
adolescent thinking and idealistic views. Fish is Fish
(Lionni, 1970) is recommended in a book called How
People Learn (National Research Council, 2000) to
help readers understand Piaget’s concept of assimilation. These examples show that using children’s
literature with readers of all ages is informative,
motivating, and appealing. Picture books contextualize concepts, illustrate vocabulary and ideas, and
help students make connections, scaffold their
learning, and develop reasoning skills.
Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters
Choosing and Using Books
A key point to using picture books with adult
learners is a thorough knowledge of theory, access to
children’s literature, and an ability to make connections between theory and appropriate books. Stories
and illustrations should match the theory presented
in a clear and well-defined way and be of high enough
quality and interest to promote lively discussion and
critical thinking. We like stories with human characters, or animal characters with decidedly human
characteristics, that display a wide range of physical,
cognitive, and socioemotional features.
We use carefully selected picture books that meet
the above criteria as one strategy to supplement the
course text. They are used to introduce theories, help
students understand vocabulary and concepts, and to
encourage students to make connections between
everyday experiences with children and concepts. Our
students are open and enthusiastic to our use of
picture books. One student wrote that she looked
forward to coming to class because she would hear a
story that she could connect to the children in her life.
Stories were important to her because she was able to
shut out everything else and prepare herself for the
learning to follow.
To introduce theories and concepts, we read
books aloud to our students, and encourage them to
discover connections between theory and a character’s behaviors and ideas. For example, we read
Munsch’s (1996) Stephanie’s Ponytail to help students
discover the importance of modeling in social learning theory (Bandura, 1977). Bandura’s theory reveals
that children learn from models and imitation and
our students are quick to discover how Munsch’s
characters imitate Stephanie’s hair no matter how
ridiculous they look. As the semester progresses, we
encourage students to create their own connections,
make analogies, and develop meaning within the
comforting confines of picture book discussions.
Besides using picture books to help students relate to theory, we also use them to help our students
understand specific terms and vocabulary within a
theory. For example, to help our students understand
the meaning of Piaget’s term assimilation, we use an
idea provided by the National Research Council
(2000). We read Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni and discuss how the fish assimilates new information into his
existing schema. In the story, frog returns to the pond
where he grew up to tell his friend, the fish, all about
his land adventures. When frog tells fish about cows,
he sees them as large fish with horns and udders.
41
When he hears about birds, he imagines them to be
like fiying fish with wings. When he hears about
people, they are fish-like creatures dressed in clothing.
Fach of his mental representations is a fish-like form
that is slightly altered to fit the frog’s description. We
tell our students that this illustrates how children
construct new knowledge based on what they already
know. Using Fish is Fish (Lionni, 1970) helps us
provide a visual of Piaget’s notion of assimilation.
Our students go to field placements several days
a week. One way to encourage connections between
the theories they learn in class and the children in
their lives is to read humorous portrayals of life in the
classroom like David Goes to School (Shannon, 1999).
After listening to and examining the pictures in this
short story, students get into small groups to discuss
the theories or principles displayed by the main
character, David. David’s plea to go the bathroom,
again, always starts discussion about the physical
development of young children. Students relate their
ideas about the children they personally know and
these lively case study discussions help students see
the practical use of theories to understand children,
plan developmentally appropriate instruction, and
address everyday classroom events.
Virtually every theory or principle, with a little
creativity and a good selection of stories, can come
alive in the pages of a book. We have found the
following six titles especially effective to illustrate and
narrate physical, cognitive, and socioemotional
development during infancy, toddlerhood (birth2 years), and early childhood (ages 2-6 years).
INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD
Physical Development
The first years of life are a time of growth and
refinement as both nature and nurture work to unfold
an infant’s body and mind. Basic reflexes develop into
motor skills and children learn how to roll over,
crawl, and eventually walk. Improving fine-motor
skills and eye-hand coordination allow babies to explore everything in their world. Recent research has
shed new light into the rapid brain development of
infants and toddlers. Their brains consume much
energy as dendrites expand their reach to inner areas
and synapses grow in density in areas devoted to
vision and hearing (Diamond & Hopson, 1998).
Interaction with all the sounds, sights, tastes, smells,
and touch in the environment provide the stimulation
for growth.
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Waddell (1989) presents many aspects of physical development through narrative and pictures in
Once There Were Giants. On the first page, an older
sister carefully holds a swaddled infant, which can
remind students of the importance of physical contact
on the neural development of the infant brain. The
next page features the growing infant dropping
everything from her highchair as she practices her
motor skills and gains an understanding of her power
to get others to react to her needs.
A tangle of baby toys on the next page indicates
objects that help develop sensory and perceptual
skills. An illustration of her crawling celebrates
advancing loeomotor skills and the telltale, flat-footed waddle of toddler, reaching out to one of the
consistent and important people in her life, is accurately portrayed as she continues to grow. The illustrator. Penny Dale, carefully presents advances in
physical development and stimulation needed during
the early years.
Cognitive Development
Piaget proposed that children proceed through
four stages of cognitive development with different
reasoning skills at each stage (Piaget & Inhelder,
1969). According to Piagetian theory, infants in the
sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years) actively construct
knowledge about the world using all their senses. As
cognitive abilities expand, language skills advance
from gurgling and cooing to a vocabulary explosion
around two years of age (McDevitt & Ford, 1987).
Children learn to speak through interactions with
caregivers, who intuitively respond to their cues
(Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl, 1999).
Rylant (1987) highlights cognitive development
during the sensorimotor stage in Birthday Presents.
The story begins with a mother and father holding,
kissing, and talking to their infant daughter as they
celebrate her birth. The infant’s face turns towards
her mother’s big smile and her father is nearby gently
touching her bald, little head. The words and pictures
emphasize the importance of touch and language to
stimulate an infant’s cognitive growth.
Each birthday celebration, over the next pages,
illustrates general trends in development. At one
year, she is sitting in the grass and reaching out to
touch her star-shaped birthday cake. The pages that
follow continue to focus upon the rich kind of sensory experiences babies need to provide stimulation
for cognitive development; being tossed on her mother’s knee, smelling flowers, eating birthday cake.
Hansen and Zambo
and exploring nature with her father during a trip to
the park.
A clown cake hallmarks her next birthday and
wrapping paper, toys, and a book surround the twoyear-old. These age-appropriate presents are further
examples of the types of stimulation growing toddlers
need. Amid the excitement, the girl is crying and her
parents tend to her needs by settling her down on a
colorful quilt. Birthday Presents can promote discussion on newborn reflexes, stimulation and the
brain, and sleep and rest habits as babies develop
cognitively.
Socioemotional Development
Attachment—the strong emotional bond between babies and their caregivers—and development
of a sense of self are key concepts in understanding
the socioemotional development of infants and toddlers. When children attach to others, a secure base
forms from which to explore the world (Siegel, 1999).
However, children must sometimes be away from
their caregivers and find ways to calm themselves.
Self-soothing can be done by stroking a security
blanket, rocking oneself to sleep, or thumb sucking.
Frikson’s theory of psychosocial development
(1980) espouses these ideas. Frikson suggests that
children pass through eight stages, each with particular goals, accomplishments, and concerns. At each
stage, a child must resolve a developmental crisis to
develop a positive self-image and social view. For
example during trust versus mistrust, an infant (birth
to 18 months) will develop a sense of trust if caregivers are responsive and meet needs regularly.
In Owen, (Henkes, 1993) attachment and positive socioemotional development clearly influence the
life of a toddler and his family. Owen finds comfort
when playing by himself because Fuzzy, the yellow
blanket he has had and loved since he was a baby, is
always nearby. Owen uses the blanket to help selfregulate and manage stress as he begins to discover
his sense of self and growing independence. Owen’s
parents, although wishing to wean him from the beloved blanket, continue to be sensitive and responsive
to his needs—characteristics of parenting that contribute to secure attachment. Cutting the blanket into
smaller, less obtrusive pieces is a mutually satisfactory compromise when continuing to carry a security
blanket becomes a social issue. Owen has become
instrumental in promoting discussions among our
students that include the child’s perspective, understanding why children attach to blankets or teddy
Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters
bears, and the role of parenting in fostering strong
bonds that lead to a child’s growing independence
and strong sense of self.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Physical Development
Farly childhood (ages 2-6) continues to be a
time of rapid physical growth with many changes
in body proportion and advancing fine and gross
motor skills (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004). Children begin to run, jump, and hop during this
time and, in doing so, become increasingly aware
of their bodies and the space surrounding them.
These growing abilities cause them to lose their
rounded, babyish appearance. Fine motor skills
are tuned and children are able to hold and use
pencils, cut with scissors, and dress themselves.
Pretend roles are often infused into physical play
that includes chasing, throwing, climbing and
swinging. Balance develops to the point that
young children begin such culturally specific
activities as riding a bicycle and using playground
equipment.
Parts (Arnold, 1997) is told from the point of
view of a five-year-old boy who does not understand
all the changes happening to his body and reasons
their occurrence with a young child’s logic. When he
discovers his first loose tooth, he thinks all his teeth
will fall out forever and when some…
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