The Play Years: Cognitive Development

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Chapter 9

• The Play Years Cognitive Development

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How Young Children Think Piaget and Vygotsky

• PiagetSwiss developmentalist
• believed young children were limited by their
  egocentric perspective
• egocentrismPiagets term for type of centration
  in which child sees world solely from his/her
  personal perspective
• VygotskyRussian developmentalist
• recognized how childs social/cultural context
  helps shape his/her cognitive development

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Piaget Preoperational Thought

• Preoperational thoughtPiagets term for
  cognitive development between 2 and 6 years
• characterized by
• Centration
• Focus on appearance
• Static reasoning
• Irreversibility

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Obstacles to Logical Operations

• Centrationtendency to focus on one aspect of a
  situation (e.g. Dad as Dad, not a brother or
  friend to others)
• Egocentrism or ego-centration contemplation of
  the world exclusively from childs personal
  perspective
• The Me perspective

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Obstacles to Logical Operations, cont.

• Focus on appearance ignores all attributes
  except appearance (e.g. haircut determines sex)
• Static reasoning assumes that the world is
  unchanging (e.g. world never changing)
• Irreversibility fails to recognize that
  reversing a process can sometimes restore
  whatever existed before transformation (e.g.
  Sister Name )

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Conservation and Logic

• Thinking is intuitive rather than logical
• Conservation principle that amount of substance
  is unaffected by changes in appearance
• applied to liquids, numbers, matter, length
• understanding develops after age 7, and then
  slowly and unevenly

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Conservation and Logic, cont.
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Vygotsky Children as Apprentices

• Children do not strive alone their efforts are
  embedded in social context
• parents guide young childrens cognitive growth
  in many ways
• present new challenges for learning
• offer assistance and instruction
• encourage interest and motivation

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Vygotsky Children as Apprentices, cont.

• Apprentice in thinking child whose intellectual
  growth is stimulated and directed by older and
  more skilled members of society
• Guided participation process by which young
  children, with the help of mentors, learn to
  think by having social experiences and by
  exploring their universe

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How to Solve a Puzzle

• Guidance and motivation
• structure task to make solution more attainable
• provide motivation
• Guided participation
• partners (tutor and child) interact
• tutor sensitive and responsive to needs of child
• eventually, because of such mutuality, child able
  to succeed independently

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Scaffolding

• Scaffoldingsensitive structuring of childs
  participation in learning encounters (P. 222)
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD) skills too
  difficult for child to perform alone but that can
  be performed with guidance and assistance of
  adults or more skilled children
• lower limit of ZPD can be reached independently
• upper limit of ZPD can be reached with assistance
• ZPD is a measure of learning potential

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Parts of Scaffolding, cont.

• Private speech internal dialogue when people
  talk to themselves through which new ideas are
  developed and reinforced
• verbal interaction is a cognitive tool
• Social mediation use of speech to bridge gap
  between childs current understanding and what is
  almost understood

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Theory of Mind

• We each have our own personal understanding of
  human mental processes, and child develops this
  too
• complex interaction of human mental processes
• emotions
• thoughts
• perceptions
• actions

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Emergence by Age 4

• Social referencing
• Sudden understanding that mental phenomena may
  not reflect reality
• people can be deliberately deceived or fooled

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Contextual Influences on Theory of Mind

• Brain maturation (prefrontal cortex)
• General language ability
• An older sibling
• Culture that anticipates the future

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Language

• Emergent literacyskills needed to learn to read
• Is early childhood a sensitive or a critical
  period for language development?
• ages 2 to 6 do seem to be a sensitive perioda
  time when a certain type of development (in this
  case, emergent literacy) occurs most rapidly

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Vocabulary

• 2 to 6 olds learn average of 10 words per day
• Fast mappingspeedy and not precise way a child
  assimilates new words by mentally charting them
  into interconnected categories
• logical extension, or application of newly
  learned word to other unnamed objects in same
  category, closely related to fast mapping
• fast mapping aided by the way adults label new
  things for children

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Vocabulary, cont.

• Fast mapping, cont.
• children use basic assumptions about syntax and
  reference to fast map
• children cannot comprehend every word they hear
• difficulties may occur
• with words expressing comparisons
• with words expressing relationships of time and
  place

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Grammar

• The grammar of a language includes the
  structures, techniques, and rules used to
  communicate meaning
• Young children learn grammar so well they tend to
  apply its rules when they should not, a tendency
  called overregularization
• examples plural nouns (foots), past tense
  (breaked the glass)

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Learning Two Languages

• Two points of view
• bilingualism is an asset, even a necessity,
• child should become proficient in own 1st
  language
• How easy is it to be bilingual?
• many 6-year-olds have difficulty pronouncing
  certain sounds
• but auditory sensitivity helps young children
  master pronunciation over time, a much harder
  task if language learned after puberty

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Learning Two Languages, cont.

• Best solution children become balanced
  bilinguals, fluent in 2 languages
• research confirms children can become equally
  fluent in 2 languages
• easiest way for child to become bilingual is if
  parents speak 2 languages
• ideally, each parent represents 1 language and
  helps child with mastery
• sending child to preschool where 2nd language
  taught also effective

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Early-Childhood Education

• Controversy over whether, when, and where

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Many Types of Programs

• Distinct educational curricula have been
  developed
• Maria Montessori (100 years ago) developed
  structured, individualized projects for poor
  children
• Today, Montesorri schools emphasize pride and
  accomplishment

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Child-Centered and Readiness Programs

• Many newer programs are child-centered or
  developmental
• use a Piaget-inspired model that allows children
  to discover at their own pace
• Alternative programs stress academic readiness
• some readiness programs explicitly teach basic
  school skills

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Reggio-Emilia

• Reggio-Emiliaa new form of early-childhood
  education pioneered in the Italian city of that
  name
• children encouraged to master skills not normally
  seen until age 7
• artistic expression, exploration of the
  environment, and collaboration between parents
  and teachers encouraged

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Reggio Emilia, cont.

• Early childhood is the prime learning period for
  every child and some learn even more
• The above has led to conclusion nations should
  provide quality early education
• Head Start
• has provided half-day education for millions of 3
  to 5 year olds, boosting abilities and skills, at
  least temporarily and probably for longer

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Quality Learning

• Three research projects have shown excellent
  longitudinal data
• High/Scope (Michigan)
• Abecedarian (North Carolina)
• Child-Parent Centers (Chicago)
• Children in these programs have scored higher on
  math and reading achievement tests than other
  children from same backgrounds, schools, and
  neighborhoods

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Quality Learning, cont.

• High-quality early education is associated with
  positive outcomes for all children
• what is high-quality education?
• safety, adequate space, and equipment
• low adult-to-child ratio
• trained staff
• curriculum geared to cognitive development
• learning includes creative/constructive play

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Credits
The PowerPoint Templates were prepared by Cathie
Robertson, Grossmont College for Worth
Publishers. The lecture slides were adapted by
Mayte Insua-Auais, Psy.D. Miami Dade College
Department of Social Sciences for her DEP 2000
courses.
Please maintain the credits so credit can be
given where it is due.