Permanent Teeth

The second set of teeth that children get, beginning at about 6 ot 7 yars of age; sometimes called "adult teeth"

Stunting

Failure to grow to normal stature during childhood; usually defined as height below the third percentile for age and gender

Dental Caries

A bacterial disease that affects tooth surfaces, cuasing tooth decay; often called cavities

Cortisol

A hormone often found to be at elevated levels when children are under stress

Extracurricular Activities

Children's activities, such as organized sports, music lessons, or after-school clubs, that occur outside the regular school schedule

Myopia

Nearsightedness, which makes it difficult to see objects clearly when they are far away

Hyperopia

Farsightedness, which makes it difficult to see objects nearby

Strabismus

A condition in which the two eyes do not align properly with one another

Learning Disabilities (LD)

A cluster of problems in learning that affect 5% to 6% of elemenary school children in the US, the most common of which involve unusual difficulties learning to read

Dyslexia

Learning disabilities that involve unusual difficulties in reading

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A behavior disorder that involves ongoing inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulivity that takes place in multiple settings and more often than is typical for a child's age and gender

Class inclusion

In Piaget's theory, the knowledge that a subordinate class (for example, red balls) must always be smaller than the larger class to which it belongs (for example, balls)

Selective Attention

The ability to concentrate on specific stimuli without being distracted by competing stimuli

Short-term memory

Temporary storage of information for immediate recall

Memory Span

The number of items, such as numerical digits, that a person can hold in short-term memory

Digit Span

The number of digits that a person can keep in short-term memory; a form of memory span

Memory Strategy

An activity intended to improve memory performance

Rehearsal

A memory strategy that involves repeating over and over again the information that needs to be remembered

Organizational Strategies

In memory tasks, strategies that involve putting the material to be remembered into an orderly framework

Elaboration

The strategy of creating a relationship or meaning between two objects in order to help remember an association between them

Metamemory

Knowledge about memory itself, including awareness of one's own memory skills

Mental Age

Level of cognitive funtioning measured by the number of items answered correctly on an intelligence test; once used together with chronological age to calculate IQ

Standard deviation

A statistical measure of spread or distribution of data around a mean

Flynn Effect

Upward trend in IQ scores reported in the 20th century; the effect is named after James Flynn, who identified and studied it

Triarchic theory of intelligence

Sternberg's theory of intelligence, which holds that intelligence has three main components: prectical, creative, and analytical

Practical intelligence

In Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, the extent to which we are able to accomplish ouraims in the context of different environments

Creative Intelligence

In Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, the ability to invent or create solutions to novel problems

Analytical Intelligence

In Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, the component of intelligence mate up of may inftormation processing skills, such as computational ability

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Gardner's theory proposing that intelligence is not a single unitary pfenomenon but a collection of many different kinds of abilities, such as musical, liguistic, mathematical, and scientific

Pragmatic skills

The ability to use language to achieve varied aims (for instance, to persuade) in different circumstances

Whole Language Approach

An approach to reading instruction that involves exposure to complex texts from the begining and encourages children to develop automatic recognition of whole words

Basic Skills Approach

An approach to reading instruction that involves heavy emphasis on connections between souns, letters and words

English as a Second Language (ESL)

An approach to teaching a new language to children that involves instruction only in the new language

Bilingual Education Approach

An approach to teaching children a new language taht involves instruction in both the first and second languages

Additive bilingualism

A type of bilingualism in which people add fluency in a new language to their already estabilshed fluency to their first language

Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

Less-than-fluent grasp of English by many non-native speakers of the language

Achievement Gap

The difference in academic scores between children from middle- and low-income families

Coregulation

Process of parent and child jointly planning and regulating the child's behavior

Minimal Parenting

A mode of parenting that involves reduced monitoring and guidance, often used when parents are under stress

Divorce Mediation

Process of negotiating temrs of marital separation, child custody, and visitation rights with a trained mediator

Gender segregation

The tendency of boys to want to play exclusively with ohter boys and girls to want to play with ohter girls; this peaks during middle childhood

Two Culture Theory

Thorne and Maccoby's theory that gender segregation is sufficiently complete during middle childhood that it is as though boys and girls live in two different cultures

Sociometric methods

Quantitative methods for assessing the qualities of different children's peer status within a defined group, such as a classroom

Sociometrically popular

A status in which children receive many positive nominations (for liking) and few negative nominations (for disliking) from members of a peer group

Sociometrically controversial

A status in which children receive many positive nominations (for liking) and many negative nominations (for disliking) from members of a peer group

Sociometrically rejected

A status in which children receive few positive nominations (for liking) and many negative nominations (for disliking) from members of a peer group

Sociometrically neglected

A status in which children receive few positive nominations (for liking) and few negative nominations (for disliking) from members of a peer group; often true of children who are new to a school

Sociometrically Average

A status in which children receive typical numbers of positive and negative nominations from members of a peer group

Bully-victim

A child with the characteristics of both bully and victim; most are at serious risk for social and emotional problems

School refusal

A syndrom in which children feel anxious, experience physical symptoms, and refuse to attend shcool, usually in response to a stressful event such as the death of a parent

Hostile attribution biases

Ways of understanding other people's behavior that interpret even neutral behavior as hostile