Self-Control and Temperament in Young Children

Friday, April 27, 2001
Gleacher Center, 450 N. Cityfront Plaza Drive, Chicago, IL 60611
Registration: 8:00a.m. to 9:00a.m. Symposium: 9:00a.m. to noon


About the Symposium

Why are young children sometimes unable to demonstrate in their behavior what they have already learned? How does temperament interact with developing self-regulation to predict adaptive and maladaptive social behavior in children?

This symposium examines how biological factors, such as the development of the prefrontal cortex portion of the brain, and environmental factors, including caregiver input and support, affect the emergence of self-control and adaptive social behavior. Recent research findings bring new understanding of the factors influencing behavior in young children.

Funding is provided by the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the Harris Foundation

The Relation of Intention to Action:
Prefrontal Cortex and Early Cognitive Development
Adele Diamond, Ph.D.

The prefrontal cortex occupies a substantial portion of the human brain. It is the neural region thought to carry out "executive functions," such as working memory and inhibitory control. Executive functions are critical for higher-level problem solving and creative thought. Although the prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until early adulthood, it is capable of supporting cognitive operations before a child's first birthday. As a result, infants are capable of sophisticated cognitive functioning during their first year of life.

Dr. Diamond has found that while memory appears to be quite robust very early in life, inhibitory control shows a protracted progression that continues into adulthood. She proposes that a child's development proceeds not only by acquiring new knowledge but also by the increasing ability to inhibit action tendencies that get in the way of demonstrating what the child knows. (One example of an action tendency is the tendency to repeat a response that worked well in the past, even if it is now inappropriate.) Because of such underdeveloped inhibitory abilities, infants and young children sometimes know and understand more than they are able to demonstrate in their behavior under ordinary circumstances.

Dr. Diamond is director of the Center for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and professor of psychiatry at UMMS. Widely published and honored, she was one of the first people to work in both cognitive development and neuroscience. Dr. Diamond was named a distinguished scientific lecturer by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1997 and named one of the "2000 Outstanding Women of the 20th Century" last year. In addition, she is a fellow of the APA in both developmental psychology and behavioral neuroscience.

For more information about Dr. Diamond, go to http://www.shriver.org/Research/IRC/CDCN/staff/Diamond.htm

The Influences of Temperament and Self-Regulation on the Development of Social Behavior
Nathan A. Fox, Ph.D.

Researchers study temperament by assessing an infant's or young child's initial reactions to sensory stimuli and to novel or stressful situations. Infants vary in the level of tolerance they exhibit in responding to such stimuli, and they vary in the intensity of their emotional reactions to novel or stressful situations. During the first years of life, young children develop the abilities needed to adjust these reactive responses. At first, children depend heavily on caregiver input and support for cues on how to react. Later, they develop internal strategies for self-regulation. Many of these strategies, such as the abilities to switch attention from one task to another and to resist distraction, are made possible through the maturation of certain regions of the prefrontal cortex.

Caregiver input and support in the first years of life may underlie the development of successful and adaptive emotional regulation. At the same time, such regulation is initially constrained by the temperament of the young child. Dr. Fox will describe the manner in which early temperament and self-regulation skills interact to predict adaptive and maladaptive social behavior in young children.

Dr. Fox is professor of human development at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has just completed a term as editor of the journal Infant Behavior and Development and was previously associate editor of the journal Developmental Psychology. He has also served as president of the International Society of Infant Studies and received a 2001 merit award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

For more information about Dr. Fox, please visit http://www.education.umd.edu/Depts/.Fox/

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