cognitive development in early childhood chapter 8

Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Chapter 8

Cognitive Development based on Multiple Factors

• Parallels the growth of the brain– Increased levels of myelinization– Continued pruning– Elaboration based on experience

• Enhanced by the broader range of experience– Expanding peer networks– Greater diversity in interactions with adults – The child’s own increased mobility

Three Theoretical Perspectives

• Piaget

• Vygotsky

• Information Processing

Piaget’s Perspectives

• Transition from Sensorimotor into Preoperational Thought– Capable of using symbolic thought to perform

mental tasks– According to Piaget’s work, lacks the ability to

operate on those mental tasks– Mental operations may not be available for

reflective consideration

Piaget’s Perspectives–Progression of mental capabilities• Use of language to represent symbols– Recognizes when stories are told out of order– Explanations are more complex

• Use of art to represent symbols– Drawings tend to be more realistic as the child

progresses across the early childhood years• Use of play to model roles and objects– Can use one object to represent other objects

Piaget’s Perspectives: Preoperational Thought

• Intuitive thought – Based on personal experiences– Logic based on unanalyzed personal experiences

(e.g. flag theory of wind and air conditioner theory of summer)


• Egocentrism – Failure to take others’ perspectives– Sees others as having one’s own perspective

• Animistic thought– Attributes animate qualities to inanimate objects

• Artificialism– Attributes natural phenomena (sunsets, tides) to

direct human action


• Conservation– Ability to recognize the constancy of invariants

(e.g. number, mass) in spite of transformations of variable attributes• Discontinuous fluids• Continuous fluids• Number• Mass


• Centration• Tendency to isolate one attribute as a focus of attention

and ignore other relevant aspects (e.g. height and diameter of a cylinder in the liquid conservation task)

• Reversibility• Failure to mentally reverse the operations that led to

the change in attribute or end point.

• Static endpoints• Tendency to focus on beginning and end states

regardless of the nature of the transformation

Vygotsky’s Perspective

• Theoretical orientation reflected a Marxist dialectical view

• Social speech—interaction with others—precedes private speech monologue by the child

• Private speech precedes the internalization of the concept to a mental representation

Vygotsky’s Perspective• Development (for Vygotsky)– occurred in a social or intermental plane first and

then on an internal or intramental plane

– required the presence of a more competent other

– required the more competent other to mediate the process of learning and development

–

Vygotsky’s Perspective• Concepts for Application:– Zone of Proximal Development: more competent other

assists the child in moving from what the child can do independently to that which the child can do only with support

– Scaffolding: the process of supporting the child across the zone of proximal development

– Impacts on educational practices:• Teacher as a coach or facilitator• Emphasis on cooperative learning with mixed ability

groups

Information Processing Theory

• Encoding—initial input of information from environment (sense organs; perception; attention)

• Transformation—processes operating on that information (strategies—depth of processing)

• Storage—retention of the information (network models—schema structures)

Information Processing Theory

• Retrieval—recall or recognition of the information from memory (strategies—search of memory)

• Executive function—management, monitoring, and control of cognitive domain (metacognition; cognitive monitoring; selection and use of strategies;

Developmental Considerations

• Capacity increases—amount of information one can process – Maturation of the CNS (central nervous system)– Increased practice at particular tasks (e.g. naming,

answering questions)– Rehearsal strategies (e.g. rote vs. meaningful)


• Efficiency increases—amount and /or complexity of processing by unit time– Maturation of the CNS– Acquisition of more efficient strategies– Transition from controlled to automatic

processing

Developmental Considerations• Controlled Processes– Conscious (child is aware of the steps)– Each step is monitored (child knows outcomes)– Requires additional processing resources (limited

capability for parallel tasks—multitasking) – Examples:• Early reading behavior• Early mathematics computation• Learning to drive a manual transmission


• Automatic Processes – Steps largely outside of awareness (Child is not

aware of discrete processes)– Overall progress is monitored (outcomes of each

step likely not monitored but overall task success is monitored)

– Requires fewer conscious processing resources (multi-tasking is possible)

– Examples:• Reading familiar texts• Simple arithmetic computations• Driving a manual transmission car after practice


• Transition from automatic to controlled processes occurs through – Practice– Acquisition of knowledge base– Acquisition of more efficient strategies

Developmental Considerations• Controlled Attention—ability to sustain focus

of mental resources– Early on, young children typically require an adult

or more competent individual to help sustain attention (ala Vygotsky)

– As CNS matures and more effective strategies are acquired, child is able to manage own focus (pruning, mylination, elaboration)

Developmental Considerations• Metacognition

• Executive function• Monitors ongoing mental processing• Controls strategic thinking• Can manage attention• Becomes able to assess performance on relatively

simple mental tasks• Tends to develop rapidly across early childhood• Tend to overestimate their knowledge—unclear

whether the overestimation is a true overestimation or a desire to please an adult questioner

Developmental Considerations• Theory of Mind (ToM)—Attributing mental states to

oneself and other– Appearance—reality distinction (Maynard the cat who

wore a dog mask)• Younger children were sure Maynard became a dog• Older children did not succumb to the prank

– Recognizing the difference between one’s own feelings and others’ is key to understanding mental states differ

– Maturation, experience with language, opportunities to communicate specifically but one’s mental states seem to be linked to development of ToM.

Language Development across Early Childhood

• Vocabulary Development occurs through:– Exposure and reinforcement– Repetition– Child’s own analysis and construction of rules and

structures


• Syntactic Development– Syntactic structure learned through exposure &

attempts– Telegraphic speech is an early syntactic form• Noun (agent) verb (predicate); object implied• Verb (predicate) noun (object); agent implied• Noun (agent) noun (object); predicate implied


• Syntactic Development– Rules can be overregularized • Child recognizes a rule should be applied• Application of a rule is syntactically appropriate but

incorrect (e.g. runrunned instead of ran)• Indicates the child is constructing rules and structures

– Errors typically reflect syntactic rather than semantic errors (errors in structure, not meaning)

Language Development across Early Childhood• Pragmatic Development—rules of usage– What cognitive resource or capability might be

required?• Perspective taking• Recognizing non-verbal cues and emotional expression

– Domains of Pragmatic Development• Turn taking• Context dependent vs. context independent language• Answer obvious questions (Do you have to make that

much noise?)• Deference to authority


• Bilingual Children– Three models• Simultaneous

– Both languages learned simultaneously– Most effective if each parent consistently uses one language– Tend to be more fluent in both

• Additive – One language is learned first– Second language is learned following some fluency in first

language– Most common in the USA culture

Language Development across Early Childhood• Bilingual Children– Three models• Subtractive– First language is learned to some fluency– Second language is learned as a preferential

language or as a replacement for the first language

– Cultural norms and bilingualism• Cultures that value bi or multilingualism tend to have either

simultaneous or additive bilingualism• Cultures that devalue one of the two languages tend to have

subtractive bilingualism• True bilingualism (simultaneous or additive) tends to be related to

more astute language users

Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education Child Care

Nature of Program Structured Curriculum Play and Free Activities

Entry Criteria Readiness Assessment Open Access

Placement w/in Program Placement Tests Some Age Leveling

Movement across levels Advancement based on achievement

Social Skills

Early Childhood Education: National Programs

• Head Start/ Abecedarian/High-Scope– Ages of service range from birth—five years

depending on the program– Typically comprehensive—health, parental

involvement, educational– Typically includes home visits for parental

education


• Factors impacting success rate– Population served– Teacher training (VPK vs. Certified Teachers)– Staff turnover– Comprehensive nature of the program– Staff development– Parent training– Follow-up beyond exit from program (Project

Follow Through)

Early Childhood Education• Kindergarten Readiness– DAIL-3

• Motor – Gross Motor—jumping, catching; – Fine Motor—block building, copying’

• Language– Answering personal questions (name, age, sex)– Articulation (for referral to speech assessment)

• Concepts– Naming body parts– Counting– Naming parts of a house


• Kindergarten Readiness• DAIL-3• Self-Help

– Skills at feeding, grooming, hygiene– Dressing oneself

• Social– Play with other children– Compliance with adult-given instructions– Following rules


• Educational issues around Readiness Levels– Many of those who test as not ready for kindergarten can

be accommodated in regular kindergarten classes– Old-for-grade tends to be more predictive of problems

than movement into kindergarten with some additional support

– Schools might be reconstrued as being ready for children vs. children as being ready for schools

cognitive development in early childhood chapter 8

Documents