How is the Holly dilemma used to assess perspective-taking abilities in children? What will be an ...

Answer to q. 1

A story about Holly, whose father asked her not to climb a tree after he saw her falling from one, is told to a child. In the story, Holly's friend's kitten gets stuck in a tree and Holly has to decide what to tell her father. The children's responses to the story are assessed in terms of the level of egocentrism and ability to take the perspectives of other individuals in the story. Less mature responses tend to focus on egocentric responses to the story and more mature responses are based on the ability to focus on multiple relationships.

Answer to q. 2

Canalization refers to the tendency to return to one's genetically determined pattern of growth. In other words, if something has happened that has interfered with the child's growth, such as an illness or poor nutrition, the child will tend to catch up once that challenge has passed or been taken care of. Frequently, this means that a child who has shown a deficiency will demonstrate acceleration in development and will return to approximately the normal course of development for that individual.

Answer to q. 3

Some research has shown that teachers who expect children to do well in school tend to have students who perform well compared to those whose teachers expect little of them. Teachers can also do the following to help their students do well: Provide a classroom with lessons that are interesting and inviting. Provide opportunities to students to profit from social interaction, both with teachers who will be role models as well as with peers. Provide a safe and pleasant classroom. Understand the unique backgrounds of students and that the students may have unique needs. Help students take appropriate responsibility for their successes and failures, linking their efforts with their achievements. Help students set attainable short-term goals and also understand they can affect how they reach these goals.

Answer to q. 4

Cephalocaudal development essentially means from head to tail. In other words, human beings tend to develop from the top down. For example, the most highly developed part of the body at birth is the head and brain. This is important because the brain is involved in all aspects of development that occur after birth, and as such, it needs to be the most highly developed. As the infant gains strength, this pattern continues. She can lift her head and torso off the ground, for example, before she can exert much control over her arms and legs. Proximodistal development is a pattern that means from the center out. Infants can control their trunks or torsos before they can control their fingers and toes.

Answer to q. 5

Conduct disorder, depression and separation anxiety are serious childhood conditions that can impair social and emotional functioning. Children with conduct disorders break rules and violate the rights of others. These children may also engage in truancy and cruelty to animals. Conduct disorder shows a great deal of stability across time. Children with this disorder are more likely to develop substance abuse problems and to display antisocial behavior as adults. Treatment of conduct disorder has largely been unsuccessful, but new cognitive-behavioral techniques are showing some promise. Childhood depression affects an estimated 5 to 9 percent of children in any given year. Situational stressors, such as family problems, appear to contribute dramatically to depression in middle childhood. The most common anxiety disorder of middle childhood is separation anxiety disorder. The typical manifestation of this disorder is school phobia. Although some incidents of school phobia are related to problems at school or difficulty with classmates, more often than not these incidents have to do with stressful life changes.

Answer to q. 6

In a simple sense, there are three main parts to a neuron. The dendrites are branch-like fibers that are considered to be the receivers for the neuron. They will gather messages from other neurons and send that information to the cell body for processing. If a threshold is reached in the cell body, it will send that message down the axon for potential transfer to another neuron. The cell body is like the processing unit and the axon guides where the output goes. The axon contains neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that may be deposited into the gap between neurons. The messengers may be received by dendrites of connecting neurons and the process continues. Another important structure is myelin. This is a fatty substance that wraps around neurons, insulating them and increasing the efficiency of the communication of messages.

Answer to q. 7

Generally, schools are a positive influence in a child's life, particularly those that set high expectations for students and value mature behavior. Competitiveness in school, however, can have detrimental effects on children. Many children who do not attend formal prekindergarten programs may have difficulty making the transition from home to school. The diversity and inequity of children's early life experiences, individual differences in children's learning, and the degree to which schools establish reasonable expectations for children, all impact student educational success.