2. Children are brought up in multiple
systems
Children are at the centre of many influences
(Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory).
They absorb these influences and express them
through their words and behaviour.
To understand a child we need to understand the
systems around them, and how these change over
time.
3.
4. 3-5 year olds
Language develops rapidly.
Thinking is still concrete. Find it hard to think of two
emotions at the same time.
Most children pass a theory of mind tests by 5.
Children begin to regulate themselves more.
After 2 ½ years, fathers initiate play periods more than
mothers. Mother’s play is more didactic and verbal.
Fathers tend to engage more in rough and tumble,
non-intellectual play.
5. 3-5 year olds
Fathers are also more likely to spend time playing
together with toys – valuable for early language and
social development.
The more complex fathers’ toy play interactions were
with their child the better their children’s cognitive,
language, and emotional developmental outcomes.
Differences between mother and father play is not
observed in certain cultures e.g. Sweden or Israeli
kibbutz. More egalitarian gender roles?
6. Getting the most out of 3-5 year
olds
Children more likely to play with new toys when
playing with a same-sex playmate. But, play more
gender typed when playing with same-sex playmate.
Can still only concentrate for short periods of time,
and need to move a lot.
Give them a clear structure and clear boundaries.
7. Middle childhood (6-11 year olds)
Children start to ‘reason’ around the age of 6 (which is
why schooling around the world tends to start 5-7
years old)
Erikson’s stage of “industry v inferiority” – if don’t
master skills at this stage can feel hopeless leading to
low self-esteem.
During this age, children move from being defined by
their family and their role in it, to being defined
according to what they do and their skills e.g. I go to
Rainbows, I play football, I’m in the top set.
8. Middle childhood
Most 6 year olds will think they are good at everything
(ranking themselves as best in their class, top musician
etc.), and have unrealistic expectations e.g. they are
confident they can solve a puzzle even if they’ve just
failed to do a similar one.
By the age of 10, children are more realistic. This more
realistic expectation of success and ability can be
accompanied by a lowering in self-esteem and
sometimes a decrease in motivation.
9. Play in middle childhood
Make believe play reduces from age of 5 as children are
making greater efforts to adapt to reality rather than
distort reality.
Play more to do with refining skills and promoting
acceptance e.g. skate boarding, computer games.
Passion for collecting e.g. stickers, Barbies, cards.
Trading then teaches children negotiation skills and
concepts of fairness. Status from getting a full set.
10. How to get the most out of 6-11
year olds
Mix ages – scaffolding effect.
Single sex groups may do better than mixed sex
groups.
Give measured praise. e.g praising with “beautiful
drawing” instead of “incredibly beautiful drawing”.
11. How to get the most out of 6-11
year olds
Having something to fiddle with can help them
concentrate.
Timetable short bursts of work interspersed with
legitimate physical activity.
Use games, races, quizzes and activities.
Rewards (stickers, points) for team and individual
work.
12. Adolescence
Important cognitive changes including thinking
hypothetically, about abstract notions, across a number of
dimensions over longer time frames.
Facilitates idealism in adolescence.
Adolescents are preoccupied with who they are and how
they relate to others. Regularly act according to an invisible
audience.
While they become more aware of what others are
thinking, they still believe others think and feel as they do.
Due to frontal lobe developments, can be irrational.
Decisions based on emotional rather than logical
processes.
13. Adolescence – the role of peers &
parents
There is a natural distancing between adolescents and
parents. This may be evolutionary – it facilitates
independence and autonomy.
Peer pressure can be very powerful. Conformity to
peers peaks around 12-14 years of age
Intense desire to fit in, but also a need to be unique.
14. Adolescence – the role of peers &
parents
Typically, early adolescents agree with their parents
around moral, political, educational and/or religious
views. At this stage, peers have more influence on
appearance (hair, clothing), music and activities.
After this, adolescents can take very different
standpoints from their parents around values.
15. Getting the most out of
adolescents
Adolescents need intimacy in their relationships in a
way that younger children don’t. This intimacy allows
the adolescent to communicate more. So, use small
intimate groups?
Check with adolescents how their views relate to
others – who has the same and different views. This
will indicate who is the strongest influence for that
adolescent at that point.
Adolescents are very self-conscious. Give them time to
get comfortable-shared task to start?
16.
17. When do children learn to lie?
Lying demonstrates cognitive skills such as theory of
mind and executive functioning.
Lying starts between 2-3 years of age. Most 2 year olds
can’t lie, most 3 year olds can. But can’t keep the lie
going during follow-up questions.
Around 7– 8 years of age, children conceal their lies by
consistent responses at follow-up. But they give the
game away with exaggerated positive expressions .
Lying get more sophisticated with age.
18. Detecting lies
Widely thought we avert our gaze when we lie. Not
strictly true. We can learn to keep our gaze and we can
look away due to cognitive overload.
Also widely thought that liars fidget more. But, liars
fidget less with their hands and illustrate their story
with fewer gestures than truth tellers.
Adults can detect deceit in older children and other
adults about 50% of the time.
19. Detecting lies
We’re not that good at detecting lies because we focus
on the wrong things – the non-verbals. We need to
focus more on verbal cues. Liars tend to use more
negative statements than truth tellers , their stories are
rated as less plausible and less immediate.
Adults have a bias towards rating boys as lie tellers and
girls as truth tellers.
May reflect a developmental lag in boys in their ability
to disguise their lies relative to girls.
20. Detecting lies
Older children are better than adults at detecting lies
in other children. Possibly because they pay attention
to non-verbals as well as facial expressions, while
adults tend to focus on facial expressions only.
This is especially true when children are with same age
peers. So, use children to tell you if another child is
lying!
21. What helps us to pick up on lies?
The more experience with children they have, the
better adults are at picking up lies in children.
Seeing the same children under different interview
conditions can help detection accuracy.
Asking follow-up questions. Children’s control of their
verbal expressive behaviours lags behind their
nonverbal control, so will give the game away with
what they say.
22. Why do children tell the truth?
Because they’ve promised to. Asking children to
promise to tell the truth can reduce their tendency to
lie.
Politeness. In adults, the need to be polite and not
hurt someone overrides the need to be truthful. This is
encouraged in children.
Prosocial lying increases between 7-11 year olds (in
experimental setting). Younger children lie in order to
avoid being told off (by the gift giver for example),
whereas older children explicitly say they’re lying in
order to be polite and not hurt someone’s feelings.
23. Helping children to tell the truth
Ask them to promise that they will tell the truth.
Let them know that you want them to tell the truth,
that it will make you more happy if they told the truth
than if they tried to be polite.
Ask the child what they think you want them to do –
be polite, or be honest?
Tell them a story about a child who was honest, even
though this meant that they were critical about
something, and how this made someone happy.
24.
25. Conclusions
How children think will be a combination of their age
and the systems they are growing up in.
Do not assume that children are experiencing life the
way you did. Be curious.
Development isn’t complete until mid-20s.
To get the most out of children, genuinely listen to
them, respect them and enter their world rather than
fit them into yours.
