Annual Editions: Child Growth and Development 12/13

The Annual Editions series is designed to provide convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Annual Editions are updated on a regular basis through a continuous monitoring of over 300 periodical sources. The articles selected are authored by prominent scholars, researchers, and commentators writing for a general audience. The Annual Editions volumes have a number of common organizational features designed to make them particularly useful in the classroom: a general introduction; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; and a brief overview for each section. Each volume also offers an online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing materials. Using Annual Editions in the Classroom is a general guide that provides a number of interesting and functional ideas for using Annual Editions readers in the classroom. Visit www.mhhe.com/annualeditions for more details.

Annual Edition: Child Growth and Development 12/13, Nineteenth Edition

Preface

Series

Correlation Guide

Topic Guide

Internet References

Unit 1: Conception to Birth

Unit Overview

1. New Calculator Factors Chances for Very Premature Infants, Denise Grady, The New York Times, April 17, 2008

Researchers have developed a statistical tool to determine the chance of a premature baby's survival and the likelihood of birth defects. Gender and birth weight are key factors in helping babies born as early as 22 to 25 weeks survive. The calculations influence medical decisions that are to be made for the care of these premature infants.

2. Genes in Context: Gene–Environment Interplay and the Origins of Individual Differences in Behavior, Frances A. Champagne and Rahia Mashoodh, Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2009

The old-fashioned nature–nurture debate is giving way to more sophisticated approaches, such as epigenetics, to unravel how genes and experience interact to shape development. Environment can determine which genes can "turn on" or stay silent.

3. Effects of Prenatal Social Stress on Offspring Development: Pathology or Adaptation?, Sylvia Kaiser and Norbert Sachser, Current Directions in Psychological Science, April 2009

This article describes how prenatal stress can affect development in humans and animals. Social instability and stress can cause hormonal changes for the fetus that may lead to masculinized effects in daughters and decreased masculinization in sons.

Unit 2: Cognition, Language, and Learning

Unit Overview

Part A. Early Cognition and Physical Development

4. Infants' Differential Processing of Female and Male Faces, Jennifer L. Ramsey-Rennels and Judith H. Langlois, Current Directions in Psychological Science, April 2006

This article about infants' processing of faces discusses infants' difficulty in forming a male prototype and also the fact that infants preferred female faces to male faces. This is explained in terms of environmental experiences with female faces and evolutionary dispositions.

5. The Other-Race Effect Develops during Infancy: Evidence of Perceptual Narrowing, David J. Kelly et al., Psychological Science, December 2007

Additional support for environmental influences on face processing is presented in this article. Infants learn to discriminate faces in their own race from other races by 9 months of age, a form of "perceptual narrowing" that may facilitate the development of the other-race effect seen in adults.

6. New Advances in Understanding Sensitive Periods in Brain Development, Michael S. C. Thomas and Mark H. Johnson, Current Directions in Psychological Science, January 2008

The human brain is marked by plasticity early in life but also is susceptible to the power of experiences at different ages. Sensitive periods occur when the brain seems optimally prepared to learn certain skills and knowledge, such as imprinting and attachment and even second languages.

7. Contributions of Neuroscience to Our Understanding of Cognitive Development, Adele Diamond and Dima Amso, Current Directions in Psychological Science, February 2008

Neuroscience has shown that biology is not destiny—that experience affects the growing brain. Authors Diamond and Amso describe recent neuroscience research in several areas, including infant imitation and mirror neurons, neurotransmitters, maternal touch and infant stress, and the intergenerational transmission of biological and behavioral characteristics.

8. Infant Feeding and Cognition: Integrating a Developmental Perspective, Elizabeth Soliday, Child Development Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 1, 2007

It is widely assumed that breast-feeding is good for babies' health and cognitive growth. However, this article argues that optimistic conclusions may be premature. More precise research is needed on infant feeding practices, cognitive development, and individual differences before coming to a more certain answer on breast-feeding.

9. Do Babies Learn from Baby Media?, Judy S. DeLoache et al., Psychological Science, vol. 21, no. 11

Parents are gobbling up educational videos assuming that they will help their babies learn. However, this hope seems misplaced, as this article shows that toddlers' vocabulary did not improve due to baby videos, though it did thanks to old-fashioned mother-child interaction.

10. Developmental Narratives of the Experiencing Child, Katherine Nelson, Child Development Perspectives, vol. 4, no. 1, March 11, 2010

In contrast to most theories that analyze the child as an object, this paper describes childhood development by emphasizing the child's personal experiential perspective. The child's meaning of life is shaped by language, memory, and shared experience in different contexts of interactive encounters.

11. Social Cognitive Development: A New Look, Kristina R. Olson and Carol S. Dweck, Child Development Perspectives, April 2009

The field of social cognitive development uses methods to study how children's thinking about other people and social relationships develops. This research is illuminating how children think about people's good and bad actions and understand people who are similar or different.

12. Evidence for "Rose-Colored Glasses": An Examination of the Positivity Bias in Young Children's Personality Judgments, Janet J. Boseovski, Child Development Perspectives, 2010, vol. 4, no. 3

From the preschool years through middle childhood, children display a positivity bias—the tendency to think of themselves and other people in a good light, by exaggerating the impact of positive behaviors or traits and minimizing negative ones. This tendency, the author claims, arises from metacognitive immaturity, early socialization, and cultural factors and may be adaptive for helping young children persevere in the face of failure.

13. Talking about Science in Museums, Catherine A. Haden, Child Development Perspectives, vol. 4, no.1, March 2010

Parent-child conversation is a major influence on children's development. This article examines such communication, specifically about science topics, in an interesting setting: museums. Children's knowledge is enhanced by parents' use of elaborative conversation with many questions and expansions on children's comments.

14. Should Learning Be Its Own Reward?, Daniel T. Willingham, American Educator, Winter 2007-2008

The author uses recent initiatives by several schools in several states to pay students for performance on high-stakes standardized tests as a way to examine the use of an impact of rewards on student learning. He then summarizes the arguments against the use of rewards into three categories and suggests ways teachers can appropriately use rewards while avoiding their potentially detrimental effects.

15. Recess—It's Indispensable!, NAEYC, Young Children, September 2009

Recess used to be a staple of school, as much a part of a normal day as reading, writing, and lunch. But recess is now under attack, as school districts are cutting recess for more instructional time. This article criticizes this recent change and argues that children have a "right" to recess and that it promotes physical, cognitive, and social development.

16. Social Awareness + Emotional Skills = Successful Kids, Tori DeAngelis, Monitor on Psychology, April 2010

Although schools have emphasized academic intelligence, evidence is mounting to show that emotional intelligence matters, too. This article reviews research confirming that children who complete a social and emotional learning program score significantly higher on achievement tests and appear healthier on depression and anxiety scales.

17. Kindergartners Explore Spirituality, Ben Mardell and Mona M. Abo-Zena, Young Children, July 2010

Beginning at very young ages, children ask philosophical and spiritual questions. This article describes a creative kindergarten project—the Beliefs Project—that emphasized children's dramatic play, writing, and art to explore spirituality. Through it all they learned about themselves, about others, and about differences, and even their teachers and parents grew in the process.

Unit 3: Social and Emotional Development

Unit Overview

Part A. The Child's Feelings: Emotional Development

18. Don't!: The Secret of Self-Control, Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker, May 18, 2009

Learning how to control one's emotions, desires, and actions is a crucial task of early childhood. The article describes fascinating research that tests when such skills develop, how they are related to children's behavior and brain maturity, and how self-control matters for long-term development.

19. The Moral Life of Babies, Paul Bloom, The New York Times Magazine, May 3, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html

Can babies be moral? Despite theorists' claims of infants' immaturity, many fascinating new studies reveal that babies seem to possess a rudimentary moral sense, a naïve morality. Bloom's article describes numerous experiments that use ingenious methods to measure infants' understanding of good and bad in the first year of life.

Part B. Entry into the Social World: Peers, Play, and Popularity

20. Social Context Influences on Children's Rejection by Their Peers, Amori Yee Mikami, Matthew D. Lerner, and Janetta Lun, Child Development Perspectives, 2010, vol. 4, no. 2

Some children are cast out by their peer group, and the assumption has been these rejected children have social or emotional deficits. This article presents evidence that factors in the social context in which children interact are key, including deviation from peer norms and a social dominance hierarchy. Suggestions are offered to reduce peer rejection through better classroom intervention and teacher training.

21. Same Place, Different Experiences: Bringing Individual Differences to Research in Child Care, Deborah A. Phillips, Nathan A. Fox, and Megan R. Gunnar, Child Development Perspectives, 2011, vol. 5, no. 1

Research on children's development has often overlooked the role of individual differences among children. The authors describe how children's temperament and reactivity to stress are key aspects of early personality that influence how children are affected by early environments.

22. When Girls and Boys Play: What Research Tells Us, Jeanetta G. Riley and Rose B. Jones, Childhood Education, Fall 2007

Play has many benefits for all children, but research shows that girls and boys often play in different ways. The authors review research on gender patterns in social interactions, physical play, and language usage. Implications for educators and parents are also discussed.

23. Playtime in Peril, Lea Winerman, Monitor on Psychology, September 2009

Recess and free play time are diminishing in children's lives, replaced by electronic media and "edutainment" toys. This article argues for the valuable role pretense and play have in children's cognitive and academic growth.

24. The Role of Neurobiological Deficits in Childhood Antisocial Behavior, Stephanie H. M. van Goozen, Graeme Fairchild, and Gordon T. Harold, Current Directions in Psychological Science, March 2008

Some children early in childhood engage in antisocial behavior. There are biological and social influences on these problem behaviors. This article describes the interplay between children's adverse early environments and certain neurobiological deficits that lead to antisocial behavior later in childhood.

Unit 4: Parenting and Family Issues

Unit Overview

25. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents, Charlotte J. Patterson, Current Directions in Psychological Science, October 2006

Does parental sexual orientation affect child development? After years of research, it has been determined that there is little difference between the children of heterosexual and homosexual parents. In fact, the quality of relationships in the family seems to matter more than the parents' sexual orientation.

26. Evidence of Infants' Internal Working Models of Attachment, Susan C. Johnson, Carol S. Dweck, and Frances S. Chen, Psychological Science, June 2007

Internal working models of attachment underlie the instinctual behaviors children display in their attachment relationships. The authors use an ingenious visual habituation technique to measure infants' internal working models of attachment, showing that infants' personal attachment experiences are reflected in their abstract mental representations of social interactions.

27. Pa...