COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY

• Chapter 7

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (intellectual development)

• Piagets Sensorimotor developmental stage
• Birth to age 2 years
• Babies find out about the world by interacting
  with their environment
• Babies become more reflective over time
  through exploration using movement and
  information acquired through senses

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BIRTH TO 1 MONTHSubstage 1

• See chart, page127
• Reflexes (random, involuntary actions) become
  more refined and organized

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ONE TO FOUR MONTHSSubstage 2

• Primary circular reaction learning to control
  own bodyBaby does not understand causality

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FOUR TO EIGHT MONTHS Substage 3

• Secondary circular reactions using objects
• No clear understanding of cause and effect

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EIGHT TO TWELVE MONTHSSubstage 4

• Coordination of secondary circular reactions
• Cause and effect starts to make sense
• Object permanence

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12 TO 18 MONTHSSubstage 5

• Causal thinking (can control consequences)
• Trial and error experimentation

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18 TO 24 MONTHSSubstage 6

• Internalized thought
• Mental manipulation
• Egocentric thought

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MULTICULTURAL CRITIQUE

• Piaget may underestimate kids abilities ex.
  object permanence
• Piagets stages are universal
• Timing of stages may differ depending on culture,
  genetics, other factors

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MEMORY

• Newborns apparently remember whole situations-
  objects, people, actions
• Visual memory develops by about 6 months
• By 13 months, kids can recall complex actions
  after significant delays verbal cues may
  stimulate memory
• Visual memory is associated with IQ

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PRETEND PLAY

• Important in guiding symbolic thought
• Emerges about age 1
• Begins with using familiar objects (ex toy phone
  to enact conversation)
• Later, symbolic objects represent real ones ex.
  Block of wood reps a phone

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VARIATIONS IN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

• Differences in infant cognitions due to
• culture
• individual differences
• family
• cultural differences
• debilitating conditions
• poverty/nutrition/parenting/
• medical conditions

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IMPROVING COGNITION IN CHALLENGING SITUATIONS

• Interventions are most effective when they are1.
  Intensive,
• 2.Home based,
• 3.Comprehensive
• 4. Culturally sensitive

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EDUCATIONAL CLASSROOM

• For infants/toddlers
• 1. Large motor activities encouraged
• Multi-sensory activities available
• Object permanence activities
• Causality activities

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MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY

• Number of props increases over time
• Modeling and prompting by adults
• Dolls and other items from childs every day
  environment
• Abstract props

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PLAY

• Play nonliteral, intrinsically motivating,
  self-chose, pleasurable
• Enhances intellectual abilities, cognitive
  development
• Helps children make sense of their world
• Forms of play
• Motoric see chart, page 134