chapters 9 & 12 cognitive development in early and middle childhood © 2013 the mcgraw-hill...

Chapters 9 & 12

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

IN EARLY AND MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

JEAN PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE


COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

• Symbolic thought and play

• Pretend play• 12-13 months – familiar activities; i.e. feed themselves• 15-20 months – focus on others; i.e. feed doll• 30 months – others take active role; i.e. doll feeds itself

• Imaginary Friends• More common among first-born and only children


LOGIC AND THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD

• Lack of logical operations• No flexible or reversible mental operations

• Stages:• Symbolic Function (Preconceptual) 2-4 years• Intuitive 4-7 years


• Preoperational stage: Piaget’s second stage, lasting from 2 to 7 years of age, during which time children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings

• Operations: Internalized set of actions; Mental manipulations of concepts and ideas

PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE


• Symbolic function stage• First substage of preoperational thought• Occurs in ages 2 to 4, imaginative drawings• Ability to mentally represent object not present• Thoughts limited by beliefs:• Egocentrism• Animism


Figure 9.1

THE THREE-MOUNTAINS TEST


• Intuitive thought substage• Uses primitive reasoning, seeks answers to all• Occurs about 4 to 7 years of age

• Limits in preoperational thought• Centration• Lack of Conservation• Irreversibility• Lack of Class Inclusion


Figure 9.2

CONSERVATION

Figure 9.3

CONSERVATION OF NUMBER


LACK CLASS INCLUSION

• Class inclusion means separating things into main classes as well as subclasses.

• Requires child focus on more than one aspect of situation at once

• Cannot think about two subclasses and the larger class at the same time

CLASS INCLUSION

THE CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE


• Concrete operational stage; ages 7-11• Reversible mental actions applied to real, concrete

objects• Focus on several characteristics at once

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL THOUGHT

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL ABILITIES

• Conservation skills• Object can have several properties or dimensions• Child can de-center and focus on more than one

dimension

• Horizontal Decalage• Conservation of mass develops first

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE STAGE OF CONCRETE OPERATIONS?

• Beginnings of adult logic• Capable of operational thinking• Involves tangible objects, not abstract ideas

• Characterized by• Reversibility and flexibility• Less egocentric• Decentration• Transitivity


• Social constructionist approach • Focuses on cognitive development• Children - Active construction of knowledge and

understanding by actions and interactions• Depends on tools used by society• Shaped by cultural context

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY


• The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)• Lower limit - What child achieves independently • Upper limit - What can be achieved with assistance of

able instructor• Cognitive skills in process of maturing

• Scaffolding: Changing level of support over course of teaching session to fit child’s current performance level

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY


• Language and thought• Children’s language uses solving tasks and social

communication• Plans, monitors, guides behavior• Private speech: self-regulation

• All mental functions have external, social origins

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY


• Teaching strategies• Assess and use child’s ZPD in teaching• Use more-skilled peers as teachers• Monitor and encourage private speech use• Place instruction in meaningful context• Transform classroom with Vygotsky’s ideas

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY


• Evaluating the theory:• Inner speech important to development• Social interaction affects learning/knowledge• Extends ‘endpoint’ of cognitive development • Teachers serve as facilitators, Piaget agrees• Criticisms:• Age-related changes not specific enough• Over-emphasized role of language• Socioemotional-cognitive link needs more

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY


• Attention• Focusing of cognitive resources• Visual attention dramatically increases during

preschool years; still has deficits• Executive attention: Action planning, focus on

goals, detects errors, deals with novel or difficult circumstances

• Sustained attention: Focused, extended engagement with object, task, event

• Selective attention: Pay attention to relevant features of a task

INFORMATION PROCESSING

DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION

• Ability to focus attention and screen out distractions improves over time

• Early Childhood• Attention dramatically increases, but children still ignore salient

information for more flashy information.• Plannfulness: Haphazard strategies in problem-solving

• Middle Childhood• Control: Increases dramatically from 6-9• Adaptability: Flexible, adjust to situation and to own learning• Planfulness: Can order how they attend to things.

Figure 12.4

THE STRUCTURE OF MEMORY

TYPES OF MEMORY

• Sensory Memory• Fraction of a second• Original sensory form

• Working or Short-term Memory• 7+/- 2 chunks of information by adolescence• 5- or 6-year-old – 5 chunks

• Cognitive strategies used to promote memory• Long Term Memory• Unlimited in Capacity and Duration• Organization in long-term memory • Recall memory is improved by categorization


• Memory• Explicit memory • Episodic• Semantic

• Implicit memory• Procedural



MEMORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

• Best for meaningful and familiar events• As young as 11 months remember sequences just

experienced• 16 months can reenact sequence after delay of 6 weeks• By 4 years, can remember events up to 18 months earlier• Less likely than older children to reject false suggestions

about events

• STM• Increases from 2 digits at 2 years old to 5 digits for 7 year

old• Better able to transfer information to LTM• More room to process information• Speed increases


FACTORS THAT AFFECT MEMORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

• Types of Memory• Memories for activities better than for objects

• Interest Level• Individual interest and motivation

• Retrieval Cues• Younger children depend on retrieval cues from

adults• Parental elaboration improves child’s memory

• Types of Measurement• Younger children are limited in measurement by use

of verbal reports


MEMORY STRATEGIES

• Strategies for Remembering• Rehearsal

• Not used extensively until age 5• Concrete memory aids used by young children

• Looking, pointing, touching

• Moving information to long-term memory• Rehearsal• Elaboration• Organization skills• Use of Memory Strategies

ADVANCED SKILLS IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

• Metacognition• Knowledge and control of cognitive abilities

• Metamemory • Children’s awareness of the functioning of their

memory

• As children develop they utilize more strategies for memory


• Strategies and Problem Solving• Strategies: deliberate mental activities to improve

processing information• Toddlers can learn a strategy• Early childhood: stimulus-driven changes to goal-

directed problem solving• Some cognitive inflexibility in ages 3 to 4 due to lack

of understanding



• The Child’s Theory of Mind• Awareness of mental processes of self, others• Ages 18 months to 3 years, child understands three

mental states are related to behavior• Perceptions• Emotions• Desires

• Ages 3-5: realizes there are ‘false beliefs’• Ages 5-7: deeper appreciation of mind itself


Figure 9.5

FALSE BELIEFS


• The Child’s Theory of Mind• Ages 5-6: knows different experiences exist• Age 7: realizes knowledge is subjective• Theory focuses on preschool years to age 7• Individual differences include: number of siblings,

disabilities, parental interactions

• Important developments occur after age 7



• Theory of Mind and Autism• Autism: in 2-6 of every 1,000 children• Linked to genetic and brain abnormalities (impairment

ranges from severe to mild)• Difficulty in social interactions and developing theory

of mind affected by:• Inability to focus• Some general intellectual impairment

• Some areas of brain may be above normal



• Preschool years: • Increased sensitivity to spoken sounds and ability to

produce sounds of their language• Vowels, consonants (simple, complex)• Notice rhymes, poems, silly names

• Knows morphological rules• Learn and use rules of syntax • Vocabulary development is dramatic• By 1st grade: knows 14,000 words

UNDERSTANDING PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY


• Age, maturity improve language skills• Better conversationalists• Engage in extended discourse• Learn culturally-specific rules, behaviors• Talk more about events in time, absent objects and persons

• Ability to change speech style to fit situation develops by age 4-5; more polite and formal

ADVANCES IN PRAGMATICS


• Re-examining early education in U.S. • Concerns about abilities to read and write• Supportive environment needed earlier• Precursors to literacy and academic success:• Language skills• Phonological and syntactic knowledge• Letter identification• Conceptual knowledge about print• Conventions and functions of print

YOUNG CHILDREN’S LITERACY


• 38 states publicly fund preschool programs• Child-centered Kindergarten• Educate the whole child• Instruction: interests, needs, learning style• Stress how learned; not what is learned• Play is important, various activities used

VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION


• Preschool programs• Montessori approach• Considerable freedom and spontaneity• Encourage decisions, teacher as facilitator• Self-regulated, independent problem solving• Effective time management, responsibility

• Criticisms:• Deemphasizes verbal interaction, neglects social development,

restricts imagination



• Developmentally appropriate education• Children • Learn best from active, hands-on teaching• Need individual differences considered• Need socioemotional development

• Developmentally inappropriate education• Rely on abstract paper-and-pencil activities• Extensive use of rote drills, seatwork, tests



• 1965 - U.S. tries to break cycle of poverty• Project Head Start• To provide opportunity for children from low-income families

to acquire experiences, skills important for school success• Not all programs are created equal• Most provide quality childhood education

EDUCATING YOUNG CHILDREN WHO ARE DISADVANTAGED


• The curriculum• Universal preschool education• School readiness

CONTROVERSIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION


• Japan• Preschools - Little emphasis on academics• Experience being a member of the group

• Kindergartens have specific aims• Identical uniforms and caps worn• Classrooms: identical in equipment• In large cities: kindergartens tied to universities

• Outside U.S.: children given fewer choices

DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

chapters 9 & 12 cognitive development in early and middle childhood © 2013 the mcgraw-hill...

Documents

conservation slide

time slide

mcgrawhill companies

class inclusion slide

conservation of number

stage of concrete operations

mountains test slide

symbolic function stage