ASSIGNMENT

MAY 2017 SEMESTER

ECE 112
CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

STUDENT’S NAME : MARGARIT @ MAGERIT BT, ANGCOT @ ANGKUT

MATRIC NO. : E30301170299
ACADEMIC FACILITATOR : MADAM MARIA TAMBAGAS
LEARNING CENTRE : KOTA BELUD

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGES

PART A
HOW CHILDREN LEARN
Introduction 3
Skinner and Bandura on how children learn 3–5
Piaget and Vygotsky on how children learn 5–7
Information Processing Model on how children learn 7–8
Conclusion. 8

PART B
INFLUENCE OF PARENTS ON THE BEHAVIOUR 9 - 10
OF CHILDREN

PART C
CHILDREN AND THEIR PEERS 11 - 13

PART A

HOW CHILDREN LEARN

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Introduction

Everyone in this world needs to learn. Learning is very important for every human living
a very challenging world life today. The knowledge we can will help us to live our daily lives. In
the learning sessions, some theories are used to help children more easily understand and explore
what has been taught in school. As well as all the reasons why you should study, there are many
reasons that you will want to. Deeply understanding aspects of the world can really change your
experience of it. Learning how to think critically, and to understand how your chosen profession
fits into society as a whole, can open up new and interesting worlds. And the more you know the
world the more you can make an impact on it. We study to broaden our horizon towards life. It
help us grow mentally, intellectually, financially in the world of knowledge. Maturity comes
through this. This makes us able to understand the views of others in a better way. It also helps us
in a better life by making us get a respected life. Besides helping our country achieve the
presence in the global scenario.

Skinner and Bandura on how children learn

Albert Bandura is famous for social learning theory (Social Learning Teory) one of the
concepts in the flow of behaviorism that emphasizes the cognitive component of thought,
understanding and evaluation. He is a well-known psychologist with social learning theory or
social cognitive and self efficacy. A very famous experiment is the Bobo Doll experiment that
shows children imitating the aggressive behavior of adults around them.
Social cognitive theory (cognitive theory) proposed by Albert Bandura states that social
and cognitive factors and factors actors play an important role in learning. Cognitive factors in
the form of expectations / acceptance of students to achieve success, social factors include
student observation of the behavior of parents. Albert Bandura is one of the designers of social
cognitive theory. According to Bandura when students learn they can represent or transform their
experiences cognitively. Bandura developed a deterministic reciporal model consisting of three
major factors: behavior, cognition and the environment. These factors can interact with each
other in the learning process. Environmental factors affect behavior, behavior affect the
environment, person / cognitive factors affect behavior. Bandura personality factors have no

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cognitive tendencies, especially in personality and temperament. Cognitive factors include
expectations, beliefs, thought strategies and intelligence.
In the Bandura learning model, the person (cognitive) factor plays an important role.
Factor person (cognitive) is meant at this time is self-efficasy or self efficacy. Reivich and Shatté
(2002) define self efficacy as a belief in one's own ability to deal with and solve problems
effectively. Self-efficacy also means believing yourself to be successful and successful.
Individuals with high self efficacy are committed to solving their problems and will not give up
when they discover that the strategy being used is not working. According to Bandura (1994),
individuals who have high self-efficacy will be very easy in facing challenges. Individuals do not
hesitate because he has a belief that is full of his ability.
This individual according to Bandura (1994) will quickly face the problem and be able to
rise from the failure that he experienced. According to Bandura the process of observing and
imitating the behavior and attitudes of others as a model is a learning act. Bandura's theory
explains human behavior in the context of continuous interaction between cognitive, behavioral
and environmental influences. Environmental conditions around the individual is very influential
on social learning patterns of this type. For example, someone who lives and is raised in a
gambling environment, then he or she tends to choose to play gambling, or otherwise assume
that gambling is not good.
Skinner's conceptual concepts of learning outweigh the concept of the previous figures.
He was able to explain the concept of learning in a simple, yet more comprehensive way.
According to Skinner, the relationship between the stimulus and the response that occurs through
interaction with the environment, which then leads to changes in behavior, is not as simple as the
previous figures put forward. According to the response received by someone is not that simple,
because the stimulus-stimulus provided will interact and interaction between the stimulus will
affect the response generated. This given response has consequences. These consequences will
later influence the emergence of behavior (Slavin, 2000). Therefore, in understanding the
behavior of a person must correctly understand the relationship between one stimulus to another,
and understand the concepts that may arise and the various consequences that may arise due to
the response. Skinner also noted that using mental changes as a tool to explain behavior only
adds to the complexity of the problem. Because every tool used needs more explanation, and so
on.

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 Skinner's learning theory states that behavioral change occurs because of the
reinforcement acquired when the behavior arises. The basic concept is behavior arises because of
the individual's knowledge of what will happen when the behavior is done. And Skinner believes
that individual behavior is influenced by the constant interaction with the environment.
According to Skinner (J.W. Santrock, 272) the most important element in learning is the
reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is a consequence that increases the probability of
a behavior. Conversely, punishment is a consequence that lowers the probability of a behavior.

Piaget and Vygotsky on how children learn

Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was mostly ignored throughout
much of history. Children were often viewed as small versions of adults rather than individuals
and little attention was paid to the many advances in cognitive abilities, language usage, and
physical growth. It wasn't until early in the 20th-century that interest was taken in the field of
child development. This then tended to focus on abnormal behaviour. The following are some of
the theorists that specialized at looking at cognitive development; these include Piaget, Bruner
and Vygotsky.
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was a constructivist whose work has been a major influence
both on child development and on learning and education. Piaget's view was that from birth to
adulthood children pass through a number of different stages of cognitive and mental
development. As well as this he highlighted that the individual child played a big role in their
own development and learning. He also recognized that the social environment plays a part
alongside this. Although recognizing this he did not emphasize it, therefore his work focuses on
the individual child impacting his or her own development.
Piaget broke his cognitive development in to four different stages; Sensori-motor (birth to
around two years), pre-operational (two to around seven years), concrete-operational (seven to
around twelve years) and finally formal-operational (twelve years and onwards). As I said above
although these stages have ages against them all individuals learn and development at their own
rate and so may not hit these stages at the same time as all their peers do. This is something you
see in schools and why work needs to be differentiated for the different abilities as they are all
learning at their own rate.

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 Piaget also believed that children learn through processes of adaptation which is known
as assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. An example of assimilation can be that child
A establishes the concept of cats as black. Child A then progresses to accommodation where the
toddler ‘accommodates' new information that cats can be different colours. Equilibration is
where child A then needs to have this reinforced by further experiences before accommodating
this in to their understanding.
Schemas are one thing that came out form Piagets work. These are early ideas and
concepts based on linked patterns of behaviour and are part of the children's way of
understanding their experiences. Schemas often occur in clusters and dominate a child's play at
any one time. For example the idea of transporting, children will take time to investigate the
different ways in which to move objects, such as using bags, trucks and trolleys.
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) built on Piaget's theory. They stressed the role of play, talking
with adults and interacting with the social world. Piaget's view of the child being a solitary
learner is here replaced by that of the child as a social being. Children use their learning skills
and knowledge of their own culture, received from adults to develop their ideas and learning that
they could not do as a solitary learner.
Vygotsky saw children as active organisers of their own lives which agreed with Piaget
however he extended this to believing that social relationships and interaction with other people
where needed to develop intellectually and that “knowledge develops through interaction with
others” (Mistry, M 2009) So where Piaget emphasized the individual learner, Vygotsky is now
emphasizing the role of the adults in helping children learn. From this he identified the ‘zone of
proximal development', which is where children show signs about being ready to move on in
their own development and learning. Adults then need to intervene and “help children to move
into the zone of actual development and the cycle goes on.” (Smith, M 2006, p117).
There are other areas in which theorists have specialized in, one of them being behaviour.
Some of these theorists are Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura and Watson. These theories are part of the
transmission model which builds on the thinking of the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704).
Transmission theories are less to do with what goes on inside the mind and more to do with what
goes on with the external outputs and influences of learning. There are two main components of
transmission theory: learning theory and social learning theory. This is where those theorists
come in so will look at them in more detail.

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Information Processing Model on how children learn
The Information Processing model is another way of examining and understanding how
children develop cognitively. This model, developed in the 1960's and 1970's, conceptualizes
children's mental processes through the metaphor of a computer processing, encoding, storing,
and decoding data.
By ages 2 to 5 years, most children have developed the skills to focus attention for
extended periods, recognize previously encountered information, recall old information, and
reconstruct it in the present. For example, a 4-year-old can remember what she did at Christmas
and tell her friend about it when she returns to preschool after the holiday. Between the ages of 2
and 5, long-term memory also begins to form, which is why most people cannot remember
anything in their childhood prior to age 2 or 3.
Part of long-term memory involves storing information about the sequence of events
during familiar situations as "scripts". Scripts help children understand, interpret, and predict
what will happen in future scenarios. For example, children understand that a visit to the grocery
store involves a specific sequences of steps: Dad walks into the store, gets a grocery cart, selects
items from the shelves, waits in the check-out line, pays for the groceries, and then loads them
into the car. Children ages 2 through 5 also start to recognize that are often multiple ways to
solve a problem and can brainstorm different (though sometimes primitive) solutions.
Between the ages of 5 and 7, children learn how to focus and use their cognitive abilities
for specific purposes. For example, children can learn to pay attention to and memorize lists of
words or facts. This skill is obviously crucial for children starting school who need to learn new
information, retain it and produce it for tests and other academic activities. Children this age
have also developed a larger overall capacity to process information. This expanding information
processing capacity allows young children to make connections between old and new
information. For example, children can use their knowledge of the alphabet and letter sounds
(phonics) to start sounding out and reading words. During this age, children's knowledge base
also continues to grow and become better organized.
Metacognition, "the ability to think about thinking", is another important cognitive skill
that develops during early childhood. Between ages 2 and 5 years, young children realize that
they use their brains to think. However, their understanding of how a brain works is rather

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simplistic; a brain is a simply a container (much like a toy box) where thoughts and memories
are stored. By ages 5 to 7 years, children realize they can actively control their brains, and
influence their ability to process and to accomplish mental tasks. As a result, school-age children
start to develop and choose specific strategies for approaching a given learning task, monitor
their comprehension of information, and evaluate their progress toward completing a learning
task. For example, first graders learn to use a number line (or counting on their fingers) when
they realize that they forgot the answer to an addition or subtraction problem. Similarly, children
who are learning to read can start to identify words (i.e., "sight words") that cannot be sounded
out using phonics (e.g, connecting sounds with letters), and must be memorized.

Conclusion

Today in schools, the cognitivist, behaviourist theories and information processing model
are used. Without even knowing it, the teacher and whole school will have conditioned their
children in to their overall daily routine as well as routines they take part I throughout their day.
It is also shown in day to day lesson the differentiation that the teacher puts in to them in order
for the children to be able to work at their own rate but still be pushed and progress through the
work they are doing. Through the school planning and class planning these theories are used in
everyday circumstances.

PART B

INFLUENCE OF PARENTS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF CHILDREN

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Introduction

Parents greatly affect their children’s behavior. Children are like sponges, they model
everything a parent does and incorporate what they see into their own lives. It is important that
parents set the right examples for their children. Negative examples can be detrimental to a
child’s development and can lead to bad behavior.

Social Skills Count

Antisocial children learn their behavior from their parents’ examples, according to
research done by the University of Chicago published in the Journal of Abnormal Child
Psychology. Social skills can be interpreted as everything from the basic polite “please” and
“thank you” to speaking in front of crowds. Children model their parents and learn from them.

A Stressed-Out Legacy
A parent’s reaction to stress affects the way a child reacts to stress. If a parent reacts
negatively, a child will learn to react negatively as well. In addition, negative reactions to stress,
such as yelling and lashing out, can scare a child. Children can learn to shut themselves down
and may even think that they are the cause of the stress. If stress is handled positively, it helps
children see that their parents' love for them never changes, even when they are stressed out.

Keep Discipline Positive

The way a parent disciplines greatly affects their children's behavior. When a parent
elects to use physical punishment, such as spanking, it does not teach the child how to change his
behavior. Children can also react aggressively to physical punishment. When parents chooses
alternate forms of punishment, such as time-outs, they are helping modify the child’s bad
behavior in a calm manner.

Fighting Frenzy
If arguing among parents is done fairly and with maturity, a child can actually benefit
from seeing how conflicts are resolved. Verbal and physical fights are extremely hard on kids.

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Children may blame themselves for their parents’ arguments and may be traumatizing for years
to come. Children may develop low self-esteems and may even behave violently toward other
children. Dysfunctional families breed dysfunctional children. Children often repeat this
behavior in their future relationships.

Child Abuse Destroys

Child abuse causes a range of antisocial and destructive behaviors. This is because
abused children try to cope and to understand why they are being abused. Parents who abuse
their children may cause their children to be aggressive and violent, experience learning
problems and even become involved in drugs or alcohol. Parents who abuse provide the opposite
of what a child needs to grow up healthy. Instead, they destroy the inside and outside world of a
child.

Conclusion

Parenting decisions affect how children turn out physically, socially, and emotionally, but that is
not to say parents should be obsessed with following certain steps to have a perfectly well-
adjusted child. We accept that there is no perfect formula for parents to model behavior or speak
to children in certain ways to make them have a perfect emotional development experience, and
that places a limit on our exploration of this subject. Parents can help their children develop into
emotionally stable people by giving them a supportive environment, positive feedback, role
models of healthy behavior and interactions, and someone to talk to about their emotional
reactions to their experiences.

PART C

CHILDREN AND THEIR PEERS.

Children's friendships have inevitable ups and downs. Yet the feelings of satisfaction and
security that most children derive from interacting with peers outweigh periodic problems. For a

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number of children, however, peer relations are persistently problematic. Some children are
actively rejected by peers. Others are simply ignored, or neglected. It even appears that some
popular children have many friends but nevertheless feel alone and unhappy.
Children who are unable to form close or satisfying relationships with peers should be of
concern to parents and teachers alike. For one thing, these children miss out on opportunities to
learn social skills that will be important throughout their lives. Especially critical are the skills
needed to initiate and maintain social relationships and to resolve social conflicts, including
communication, compromise, and tact. Children who lack ongoing peer involvements also may
miss opportunities to build a sense of social self-confidence.
These children may develop little faith in their own abilities to achieve interpersonal
goals and, thus, are easily overwhelmed by the normal ups and downs of social interaction.
Implications for the children's future social and professional adjustments are obvious.
Finally, children without satisfying friendships may suffer from painful feelings of
isolation. School may be an unpleasant place for the children. They may ultimately become
truant or drop out altogether. Or, in their search for a sense of group belonging, the children may
become vulnerable to the influence of delinquent or drug-abusing peers.
As a result of my observation of the students in my school I found that children had some
skills while associating with their friends.
1) Parallel play - Children from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years old continue to play independently, but
now they are among their peers and use toys that are similar to those of the children around
them. Just as parallel lines run side by side, children in this play stage play beside, but not
with, others. There is an awareness of the children nearby but little interaction, as in the
following example of parallel play: While playing with blocks, the infant is learning by
using the sense of touch.
I observed Adriana and Bella are both 4 years old and are playing in the sandbox. Both
girls are digging holes and filling up buckets with sand. Although they are both engaged in
the activity, they do not speak to one another or interfere with each other’s area. After some
time of playing in the sand, their only interaction with each other is when Bella takes
Adriana’s bucket and a conflict arises. When the bucket is returned, the two girls go back to
playing in the sand, keeping to themselves for the remainder of the time.

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2) Associative play - As children mature, they begin to engage in associative play, which
begins at about 3 1/2 years old. In this type of play, children truly play with others.
Children loan and borrow play materials among one another. Parten (1933) suggests that at
this point, the associations are more important than the play activity itself. Children begin
to form small playgroups and spend considerable time moving from one activity to the
next, with playmates remaining together. The following is an example of associative play:

Clara is almost 6 years old and has a younger brother who is 4 years. She carefully watches
over him and is often instructing him in what he can and cannot do. When he wanders off,
she is quick to stop him from going anywhere, even when it is unnecessary to do so. He
usually consumes most of her time; however, today her friend Thyea comes to the park.
Within moments of the two girls spotting one another, Clara loses all interest in her brother
and replaces it with interest in Thyea. Clara is following Thyea all over the play structure,
and the girls become nearly inseparable during their playtime. When the girls decide to go
down the slide, Thyea instructs Clara to go down the other slide (which is parallel to her
slide) so they can go down at the same time. Then the two girls choose the swings for some
entertainment, but quickly change their minds when they see that only one is available and
they wanted to swing together. At the end of the play day, Clara’s brother attempts to come
on the play structure, and Clara instructs him to go away and tells him, “There are no
babies allowed here.” When Thyea states, “It’s OK, he can play with us,” Clara yells for
her brother to come back. These girls demonstrate associative play. They are discussing
what they are going to do and disregard plans that do not allow the two of them to be
together. Also, they decide together who can be a part of their play and who cannot; when
Thyea gives her approval of the new child in their play, Clara is quick to agree.
3) Sociodramatic play is a form of dramatic play with more than one player socially
interacting around a theme and a time trajectory over which the play continues and evolves.
Children enact real-life types of play activities.

Haven and Requelme are 6 years old and are playing together at a park. The two boys are
imitating army men and are pretending the play structure is their ship. Haven exclaims,
“Take the wheel, I see land!” Once they decide they have landed, they proceed to crawl on

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 the wood ships, dragging their stomachs to a nearby tube. Both boys struggle in the new
shelter and take their shoes off. After whispering for some time about the enemy, they
continue to throw their shoes and make explosion noises. Following the shoe explosions,
both boys take off in opposite directions screaming and looking for cover. These boys are
engaged in sociodramatic play. They have taken an object (their shoes) and turned it into
something completely different, drawn from their imaginations. Also, they are not just
children anymore; they have taken on the role of people in the army. Not only are they
army men, but they are busy running from pretend people. In addition, they have taken a
typical play structure and turned it into a ship.

Conclusion

Peers play important roles in children’s lives at much earlier points in development than we
might have thought. Experiences in the first two or three years of life have implications for
children’s acceptance by their classmates in nursery school and the later school years. Children
who are competent with peers at an early age, and those who show prosocial behaviour, are
particularly likely to be accepted by their peers. Aggressive children are often rejected by their
peers, although aggression does not always preclude peer acceptance. It is clear that peer
relations pose special challenges to children with disorders and others who lack the emotional,
cognitive and behavioural skills that underlie harmonious interaction. The risk for children with
early behavioural and emotional problems is exacerbated by the peer rejection they experience.
Conversely, early friendships and positive relations with peer groups appear to protect children
against later psychological problems.

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