copyright © allyn & bacon 2007 world of children 1 st ed chapter 8:cognitive development in...

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

World of Children 1st ed

Chapter 8:Cognitive Development

in Early Childhood

Piaget’s Pre-operational Thought Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View Information Processing Language Development Early Childhood Education Kindergarten Readiness


Piaget’s Theory2nd stage (ages 2 to 7)

Preoperational thought – children use mental representations for objects and events that are not physically available to see, hear and touch.

Operations – logical processes that can be reversed – example: pouring liquid into a container

Children at this age do not think with operations – thus, preoperational


Use of mental representation in language

Average 2 yr old knows 200 words

Average 6 yr old knows 10,000 words

Language development is based on children’s mental representational abilities.

Increased vocabulary gives children the ability to talk about things that are not present.


Use of mental representation in art

Increased complexity in art work


Use of mental representation in play

Symbolic play – children use one object to stand for another

At 18 months, children can pretend to talk on a phone if they have a play phone

At age 2, they can use a banana as a phone

At age 5, they can use almost anything as a phone – object does not have to look anything like a phone


Beginning of Intuitive Thought Intuitive thought : reasoning based on

personal experience rather than formal logic

Children reason on what “seems like”

ex: pg 258


Evidence of Intuitive thought

Egocentrism: inability to take another person’s perspective


Evidence of Intuitive Thought

Animism : inanimate objects have feelings

ex: sun is shining b/c it’s happy.

ex: putting pencil down b/c it’s tired. Artificialism : natural events are under people’s

control

ex: sun went down b/c someone switched it off.

ex: moon isn’t shining b/c someone blew it out.As children have more experiences, they move towards

logical thought.


Piaget’s research

Conservation : the idea that certain properties of an object remain the same even if physical appearance changes

Piaget analyzed children’s responses to conservation problems to understand preoperational thought


Piaget’s research


Piaget’s Theory

Why do preoperational children give “incorrect” answers?

Centration : focus on one aspect of a situation – height of liquid

Static endpoints : focus on beginning and end, not process in the middle

Lack of reversibility : cannot visualize reversing the process


Piaget’s legacy

Piaget influenced education in many ways the development of interactive and

hands-on materials for active learners guidelines for when to introduce topics

based on cognitive development challenges to children’s existing cognitive

structures to help them grow in understanding


Vygotsky’s Theory

Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) born in what would be part of Soviet

Union firm believer in Marxism – equality for all wrote several books and articles before

death from tuberculosis at age 38 most of his work was not published until

long after his death


Vygotsky’s Theory

Central idea – children develop cognitive structures from their culture and their social interactions, mainly by listening to the language that is around them

Children listen to social speech – what is said to them, and turn it into private speech – the speech they say out loud to themselves


Vygotsky’s Theory

ex: girl learning to draw a circle“Start your mark going around like this,

then bring it all the way around until the marks meet each other.”

Almost all children use private speech When learning a new or difficult task,

children rely on private speech Children who use private speech the

most do better in difficult tasks.


Vygotsky’s Theory

internalization : the process of taking external speech and making it internal and mental.

as children master a concept they need less private speech

eventually they internalize the concept as silent inner speech.


Vygotsky’s Theory

Mediation : the introduction of concepts, knowledge, skills and strategies to the child

Adults may break down the task into smaller steps, give hints on how to accomplish it, provide tips on what to look for, etc.

Successful mediation depends on making sure it is appropriate to the child’s level of understanding and ability.


Mediation example

How would an adult mediate to a child on how to do a difficult puzzle?


Vygotsky’s theory

Zone of proximal development : the range of problems that the child can solve with some assistance

The cognitive structures in this zone are ones that the child has started to internalize but have not been completely internalized.


Zone of Proximal Development


Vygotsky’s Theory

Effective instruction involves giving child challenges, along with help in solving them.

Adults provide scaffolding – temporary support for child while cognitive structure is being developed

Doing part of the task Simplifying difficult tasks Talking the child trough the task Giving reminders


Peers also provide instruction and support during collaborative learning.

Help each other solve problems Share their knowledge & skills Discuss strategies & knowledge


Piaget and Vygotsky

Piaget

pride in autonomy and independencebelieved that children construct their own cognitive structures as they adapt to environment

Vygotsky

cultures and society change over time and how that change influences cognitive developmentbelieved that children adopt cognitive structures of people around them


Information Processing Theory

Central idea - that humans receive, process, sort, store and retrieve information similar to the way computers do

=

Key assumption – humans are limited in capacity to process information

We can only do so much!!!!!!


Information Processing Theory


Changes in cognitive processes

Older children are able to process more information,

process it faster, and control attention span better then

young children.

Processing capacity

amount of information that a person can remember or think about at one time – increased flexibility of thought



Processing efficiency speed and accuracy of processing information.

1. Operating space2. Storage space

Older children have better memories.



Automaticity : ability to perform task with little conscious effort – increased complexity of thought

Important for increasing processing efficiency. frees up more cognitive capacity for other tasks.

Learning to read

1. recognizing letters

2. forming words

3. reading sentences

4. reading with expression, comprehension, what will happen next?

5. Compare and contrast w/ other books



Attention : ability to focus on specific information without being distracted by other stimuli – increased accuracy

as children get older

1. maintain focus for longer periods of time

2. ignore distracting information


Metacognition

Metacognition:the understanding that people have about their own thought processes and memory

Includes knowledge of Tasks- long list of words more difficult to

remember than short list Strategies- repeating telephone # will help

you remember it for a short time People- limits to what a person can

remember


Metacognition

Rapid improvement after age 5 young children are optimistic about their

own memory abilities more accurate when estimating how

much a peer can remember

How is overestimating their abilities good for children?


Theory of the Mind

Theory of the Mind : an integrated understanding of what the mind is, how it works, and why it works that way.

Research on children’s theory of mind has looked at:

1. What children know about thinking in general

2. How well they understand the thoughts of people


Theory of the Mind

3 year olds know: -that mental objects are different from

real objects. - it is possible to carry out mental

activities that could not happen in the real world

- dreams are not real life - many believe that different people

have the same dream


Theory of the Mind

Young children are still dev. their understanding of mental actvitties

Indicator of theory of mind – appearance-reality distinction

young children do not understand the difference between how something appears to be, and how it really is


Theory of the Mind

Ex: Cat named Maynard had a dog’s mask put on his face. Children thought that Maynard was a dog.

Change in appearance changed reality


Mastering Theory of the Mind

Children must learn that Other people have thoughts different

from theirs All people have different thought

processes

Talking to children about thinking, feeling, memory, etc. helps in the development of a theory of the mind


Language Development

From age 2 to age 6, children learn approximately 7 new words every day.

How? Fast-mapping : the ability to learn a word after only one

exposure Syntactical bootstrapping : using what is known about

grammar to figure out meanings of new wordsex: Nina is pidding her food. action Nina threw her pid. object Imitation Reinforcement from adults


Learning grammar

Children learn how to combine words and form sentences gradually

where Daddy?

where Daddy is?

where is Daddy?


Learning grammar

Around age 3, children begin to add word endings such as –s, -ing, -ed

Overregularization : applying rules of grammar and producing incorrect forms of words

“foots” “go-ed”


Learning social rules of language

Social rules of discourse: conventions (rules) that people use in conversation with others

turn taking answer-obviousness – if answer to

question is obvious, the question is actually a request or demand

“do you have to yell in the house?”


Learning social rules of language

Rules of language differ between cultures

African Americans don’t use question demands

How might an African American child interpret,

“Must you jump on the bed?” Must take their turn and hold audiences

attention rather than waiting for someone to finish and they are given their turn


More than one language

Bilingual : fluent in two languages

Additive bilingualism : second language is learned while first language is maintained

Subtractive bilingualism : second language is learned while fluency in first language is lost

Simultaneous bilingualism : two languages are learned at the same time, starting in infancy

Sequential bilingualism : one language is learned, and then 2nd language is learned.



Children who begin learning 2nd language before age 3 are usually just as fluent in both languages.

Older learners have trouble with accent, but learn vocabulary and grammar faster



In early stages, children may mix words from both languages – frequency decreases as each language gets stronger

Children understand the difference between the two languages and may restrict use of each to specific situations, but learn to switch back and forth easily


Early Childhood Education

Project Head Start : federally funded program begun in 1965 to improve achievement in young children

Abecedarian Project : program to assess impact of full time high quality intervention beginning in infancy

High/Scope Perry Preschool : high quality part-day intervention during school year for 3 to 5 yr olds


Effects of Early Education Programs

immediate gain in IQ which fades during elementary school

higher scores on reading and math tests fewer students placed in special ed

classes higher graduation rates better overall health


Effects of Early Education Programs

Adapted with permission from L.J. Schweinhart, H.V. Barnes, & D.P. Weikart. (1993). Significant benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool study through age 27 (Monographs of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Number 10); pp. xvi-xvii. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.)

copyright © allyn & bacon 2007 world of children 1 st ed chapter 8:cognitive development in...

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preoperational thought

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preoperational children