Chapter 9

Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Key Questions

What are the characteristics of children’s thinking during the preoperational stage?

In what ways do others assist children in learning?

What are examples of executive function displayed in early childhood?

What changes occur in children’s language development during early childhood?

What are some important skills that help prepare children for school?

Piaget’s Theory and Preoperational Thought

Constructivism: Children construct knowledge based on their experiences and interactions with the world around them.

Preoperational Thought: Children in this pre-logical stage of thought process have predictable ways of reasoning and limitations in their thinking (ages 3–7)

Animism

Animism: the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities

Egocentrism Egocentrism: the belief that others experience the world the same way you do

Egocentric Speech: self-talk that is said aloud

Socialized Speech: speech taking into account the perspective of the listener

Piaget’s Three Mountain Task

Centration Centration: the tendency to focus on one aspect of a task

Decenter: the ability to focus on several aspects of an object or problem and relate them

Conservation

Conservation: a recognition that the core component of a substance remains the same despite transformations in the appearance of the substance.

Children in the preoperational stage struggle with tasks about conservation and core components of liquid volume, numerical quantity, length, and mass, which require the child to consider more than one attribute at the same time.

Piaget’s Conservation Tasks

Class InclusionClass Inclusion:

requires the understanding that a superordinate class of objects contains subordinate classes

Implications of Piaget’s Theory for Preschool Classrooms

Children learn best by being engaged in an activity.

Children need many opportunities to explore objects and their properties.

Children’s reasoning is best explored through strategic questioning.

Children can be encouraged to be less egocentric by sharing their viewpoint and being exposed to the viewpoint of others

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Emphasized co-construction of knowledge: Children construct knowledge with the assistance of others; learning first at the social level, then gradually internalizing that learning

Focused on how children’s development language and dialog advances their cognitive development

Focused on the sociocultural context in which children are developing

Features of Vygotsky’s Theory

Inner speech: internal speech used to guide behavior; serves as a foundation for self-guidance and self-regulation

Scaffolding: guidance or support given to a child by a person who is more skilled and who can adjust the guidance offered according to the child’s level of performance, promotes development as it helps the child move to the next level of accomplishment

Zone of proximal development: the range of abilities that a person can perform with assistance but cannot yet perform independently

Scaffolding

Cultural and Social Contexts of Development

Children learn the cultural tools of their society through interactions with others.

Children learn of the tools through guided participation in the everyday activities of their group.

Implications of Vygotsky’s Theory for Preschool Classrooms

The role of the teacher or caregiver is vital in helping a child learn.

Consider the ZPD in determining types of support that will lead to next steps in learning.

Provide scaffolding for task mastery.

Encourage more skilled children to help children who are less skilled.

Encourage children to use inner speech to talk through difficult tasks.

Who’s Theory contains the Zone of Proximal Development?

A. Piaget

B. Vygotsky

C. Erikson

D. Gardner

The Role of Executive Function

The executive function regulates the flow of information.

It forms the critical link to other processes.

It manages the cognitive processes of children: planning, decision making, and inhibition

Advances in Executive Function

Improvement in focusing and shifting attention

Steady increase in the working memory

Increases in response inhibition

Delay of gratification

Requires effortful control

Advances in cognitive flexibility, shifting sets

Language Development

Overregularization: A process by which children apply rules of grammar even in cases where exceptions apply

How children progress past overregularization: Blocking hypothesis Competition hypothesis

Speaking Two Languages

Bilingual: equal skills in two languages

English-language learners or dual-language learners: stronger skills in a language other than English

Code switching: a form of language alternation based on the context, usually referring to bilingual language use

Parenting: Helping Preschool Children Become Readers

Have daily conversations and read with them.

Keep lots of printed materials in the home.

Set up a reading and writing space.

Let children observe you reading and writing.

Read with children everyday!

Call children’s attention to reading/writing in everyday situations.

Make a message board for children and display their work.

Encourage looking at books, magazines, etc.

Take children to the library.

Limit TV and technology to DAP usage.

Early Number Concepts

Cardinality

Number Order

1-to-1 Correspondence

Written Number Symbols

Early Number Concepts

Counting Objects: knowing that each object needs to be counted only once

Linear Number Line: the sense that numbers proceed in order and differences between numbers are the same

Manipulating Numbers: computation such as adding or subtracting

Preschool Education

The United States has no federal policy supporting child care and preschool for typically developing preschoolers!

More children are in such programs than ever before!

High enrollment is due to parents’ interest in improving children’s readiness for school and federal reforms related to employment of low-income women.

Preschool Education

Quality in Preschool Programs: Safety in the setting, cleanliness, sanitation Good nutrition, healthy blend of rest and exercise DAP stimulation involving learning through play Positive interactions with adults and peers Encouragement of emotional growth Racial socialization Inclusion

Preschool Programs for Children from Low-income Families

High/Scope Perry Preschool Project

Abecedarian Project

Chicago Child-Parent Centers

Head Start

Head Start

Federally funded for 3- and 4-year-olds whose families live at, or below the poverty level

Broad-based, holistic program

Research indicates gain in early writing skills, vocabulary, letter recognition, and word knowledge

Preschoolers still lag behind national norms of same age peers from middle to upper SES

State-Supported Pre-K Programs

State-Supported Programs

Most programs target children from low-income families.

Programs differ in length of day and ages served.

Programs are similar in maintaining low class size and high standards for teacher qualifications.

Early studies indicate the effectiveness of programs.