This summary regards the sixth edition of How Children Develop, 2020. The summary has been updated to reflect the changes made to the fifth edition of the book from 2017. The authors of the book are Robert Siegler, Jenny R. Saffran, Elizabeth T. Gershoff, and Nancy Eisenberg. They all conduct research into the development of children.

This summary provides a global overview of the developments and milestones in development of children. First, there's an introduction to child development and then prenatal and infantile development will be described. Secondly, the focus will be on the relationship between biology and behavior. Then, the different theories on cognitive development of children will be explained. We will discuss the development of perception, action, and learning in the infantile period. The development of language, the conceptual development, and the development of intelligence will also be discussed. We will then continues with theories on children's social development, emotional development, and theories of attachment. We will deal with the role of the family in child development, and then we will talk about the role of peers. We will discuss moral development of children, and the topic of gender development. Eventually a conclusion will be made with the most important points that can be drawn from the previous chapters.

Exam Tickets

• Genotype and phenotype can be separated because in genotype the word 'gene' is present. Phenotype begins with the 'ph' = physical: external characteristics.
• A tip to keep crystallized and fluid intelligence apart: a crystal needs a long time to form, so crystallized intelligence is the form of intelligence that gradually gets higher and higher during life, because more and more knowledge is being collected. On the other hand, fluid intelligence has a peak during the 20th year of life, which you can remember when you are around your 20th life year in your most optimal physical state, in which (among other things) your sporting performances will be at its peak. In addition, fluid intelligence requires a certain degree of flexibility because it is about understanding relationships between concepts that are new. Flexibility also decreases with aging.
• Chapter 16 is one of the most important chapters from the entire book. Here the core principles from the book are treated once again; in addition, connections are made between all the different subjects. This chapter is therefore important to understand and know well.

• Three reasons why the development of children is studied: (1) to help parents learn how to deal with negative emotions of their children, (2) to develop a responsible policy and (3) to better understand the nature of people.
• A tip for separating and visualizing reliability and validity. Imagine yourself a dartboard, you want to get your darts in the bullseye. Imagine, you have ten arrows ('measurements') and you throw them all in the bull's eye: in the statistics your research would now be both valid (because you have thrown them all into the bullseye) and are reliable (all measurements sit at the same point). However, suppose that the measurements are all at the top left of the dartboard, your measurement is reliable (repetition provides the same result), but not valid (not in the rose).
• The development process of the fertilized egg consists of four processes, to be remembered with the letters M-Cm-Cd-A: M itose: cell division, this takes place from 12 hours after fertilization; Celmigration: the displacement of newly formed cells away from their original location; Celdifferentiation: all embryonic stem cells can develop in any type of cell, these cells will now specialize in structure and function; Apoptose: cell killing, here, for example, the membranes between fingers and toes are removed.
• REM and non-REM sleep can be distinguished by remembering that the letters REM represent Rapid Eye Movement, REM sleep is characterized by rapid eye movements and is thus an active sleep phase, while the non-REM sleep is not.
• Piagets theory consists of the following stages, which are to remember with S - PO - CO - FO: the phase sensorimotoric, preoperational phase, the concrete operational phase, and the formal operational phase.
• To summarize how the different theories, describe learning of the child: Piaget's theory sees a child

Why and how is child development studied? - BulletPoint 1

• Plato argued that self-control for children and discipline for parents are the purpose of good parenting and education. He also believed that knowledge is innate. Aristotle stressed the importance of the individual character of children. Hereby, the quality of parenting is important. Aristotle believed that knowledge is acquired through experiences. Locke argued that parents should raise their children with discipline.
• Nature is our biological heritage, the genes we receive from our parents, the innate aspects of a human being. Nurture is the environment, both physical and social, influencing our development, the acquired aspects of a human being. Nature and nurture interact. The genome (the complete set of hereditary information) influences behavior and experiences, but behavior and experiences also influence the genome. This discovery has given rise to the epigenetics, the study of stable changes in gene expression that are mediated by the environment. Evidence for the enduring epigenetic impact of early experiences and behaviors comes from research on methylation, a biochemical process that reduces expression of a variety of genes. To conclude, both genes and environment are important in development.
• A continuous development is the idea that changes with age occur gradually, in small steps, quantity is important. A discontinuous development is the idea that changes with age include sudden large steps, quality is important. According to the stage theories, development consists of four large steps which are discontinuous, and age related. One of the best-known stage theories is Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the development of thinking and reasoning. This theory holds that children go through four stages of cognitive growth, each characterized by distinct intellectual abilities and ways of understanding the world. However, many researchers have concluded that developmental changes are mostly gradual.
• In the development of effortful attention, brain activity, genes and learning experiences play a role. Effortful attention involves voluntary control of one's emotions and thoughts. Difficulty in exerting effortful attention is associated with different behavioral problems.
• The scientific method is an approach to test beliefs that involves choosing a question, formulating a hypothesis (testable predictions of the presence or absence of phenomena or relations), testing the hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion. Different measures exist to test hypotheses. These measures need to possess reliability, validity and relevance to the hypothesis. Reliability is the degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent. Interrater reliability is the amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behavior. Test-retest reliability is the degree of similarity of a participant's performance on two or more occasions. Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure. Internal validity is the degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing. External validity is the degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the research.

What does prenatal development look like? – BulletPoint 2

• Gametes

Nederlandse samenvatting met Engelse bulletpoints en oefenvragen van het boek How Children Develop, 5e editie, geschreven door R. Siegler, J. R. Saffran, N. Eisenberg, J. DeLoache en E. Gershoff.