Introduction

Question 1

What is childhood?

Answer 1

*“Every human being below the age of 18 years”
*A human that is physically immature, brain and body are not fully developed.
*What about psychologically speaking? Children are psychologically different than adults.

Question 2

What does it mean to be a child? There are 2 main points. Name the first main point.

Answer 2

1) Dependent on adult caregivers (children/infants cannot take care of themselves).
*Longer childhood compared to others species (Humans have the longest childhood among primates (chimps, apes).
*Long childhood makes children very vulnerable, thus caring for them is very time-consuming.
- it takes constant care, lots of resources from caregiver.

Question 3

Why is childhood so long? (reason #1)

Answer 3

1. Large-brain, narrow hips trade-off
   * Our brains are large for our size and more complicated/neuron-dense than any other animal –> larger brain necessitates larger head (skull)
   * We have a big ratio brain:body
   * At the same time, the evolution of our ability to stand upright (bipedalism) favoured narrower hips/pelvis
   
   • Narrower hips necessitate smaller heads to pass through the birth canal. SO, if evolution is favouring narrow hips, it should also favour smaller heads = contradiction.
     
     • Conflict between large head and narrow hips:
   • To solve this conflict, babies evolved to be born earlier (premature state, underdeveloped)
   • Brain continues to develop once born

Question 4

Why is childhood so long? (reason #2)

Answer 4

2. Being born not fully formed allows for more learning (it maximizes our ability to learn a bunch of things).

Question 5

What does it mean to be a child? There are 2 main points. Name the second main point.

Answer 5

• Fundamentally about learning (period of time more about learning and acquiring info about the world)
  - Long childhood is adaptive for maximizing learning
  - Focus on learning is only possible if taken care of by adult

Question 6

What aspects of childhood demonstrate that children are “adapted” to focus on learning.

Answer 6

• Highly curious (constantly asking “why”?)
• Highly suggestible, not critical thinkers (basically accept any info that comes their way)
• Readily imitate others (form of learning)
• Overestimate own abilities (less self-conscious)
• Brains are malleable

Question 7

Child Development overall

Answer 7

• Process of learning of perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities that allows an individual to grow from the dependence of infancy to the independence of adulthood