Early Childhood Cognitive Development CH 9 Children in

Early Childhood – Cognitive Development CH 9

Children in Piaget’s Preoperational Stage § Develop symbolic thought and play: use of symbols to represent objects § Move from more sensorimotor play to more functional play with objects, and then to more elaborate 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 § Lack of logical operations § No flexible or reversible mental operations § Egocentrism: Mainly view the world through their own perspective § Three-mountain test

The Three-Mountains Test

Characterizing the Logic of the Preoperational Child § Causality § Influenced by egocentrism; Why is it dark; Because I need to sleep § Precausal thinking § Transductive reasoning: from specific to specific § Animism: attribute life qualities to inanimate objects § Artificialism: environmental features were made by people § Confusion between mental and physical phenomena § Believe their thoughts reflect external reality; Believe dreams are true

Cognitive skills § Conservation: Properties remain the same even if you change the shape or arrangement; Preoperational children fail to demonstrate conservation § Centration (focus on one dimension of objects) § Irreversibility: don’t understand that actions can be reversed § Sorting, matching, classifying § Class inclusion: Requires the child to focus on more than one aspect of situation at once; the child cannot think about two subclasses and the larger class at the same time § Counting, number and letter recognition, size, color, and shape concepts

Conservation Figure 9. 2

Summary of preoperational cognition- Piaget (Table 9. 1) § Symbolic thought § Egocentrism § Precausal thinking § Confusion of mental and physical events § Focus on one dimension at a time

Vygotsky’s Views on Early Childhood: How Children Learn § Cognitive Scaffolding; often occurs with interactions with older more knowledgeable individuals § Zone of Proximal Development (gearing assistance to the child’s level) § Greatly influenced by family/home environment, preschool education, and TV; § EARLY LEARNING experiences do affect a child’s intellectual functioning (exposure to cognitive tasks, parents involved, sensitive to the child’s skills and level of understanding, reinforcing learning etc)

Effects of Early Childhood Education § Preschool enrichment programs for children in poverty § Designed to increase school readiness § Provide health care and social services to children and families § Encourage parental involvement § Short-term benefits § Positive influence on IQ scores § Gains in school readiness and achievement § Long-term benefits § Better high school graduation rates § Less likely to be delinquent, unemployed, or on welfare

Effects of Television on Cognitive Development § Educational Television § Sesame Street – most successful educational TV show § Regular viewing = increased skill in numbers, letters, sorting, classification; May increase impulse control and concentration among preschoolers § Vocabulary and expressive language development § Mixed findings based on show § Commercials: Difficulty discerning commercials from program content § Heavy TV watchers are more likely to believe commercial claims § Couch-Potato Effects: Number of hours watching TV and relationship to obesity

Theory of mind: What Are Children’s Ideas About How the Mind Works? § Theory of Mind § Understanding of how the mind works; Allows us to explain and predict behavior § Preschool-aged Children § Predict and explain behavior and emotion by mental states § Beginning to understand source of knowledge § Elementary ability to distinguish appearance from reality § Ability to separate beliefs from another who has false knowledge of a situation develops by age 4; Ability to deceive others § By age 4 or 5, children have no trouble identifying their sources of knowledge

Memory Tasks § Recognition § Indicate whether items have been seen before § Recall § Reproduce material without any cues § Preschool children recall meaningful activities and events better than objects; recall sequenced events better § Interest level and motivation enhances memory § Younger children depend on retrieval cues from adults, and parental elaboration improves child’s memory

Recognition and Recall Memory Figure 9. 6

Competence of 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 § Scripts § Formed after one experience and become more elaborate with repetition § Autobiographical memory § Seldom last into adulthood; Linked to development of language skills § Strategies can be taught to enhance memory or remembering: Rehearsal (Not used much before age 5), Looking, pointing, touching

Language Development During Early Childhood? § Development of Vocabulary EXPLODES after age 2; learn 910 words per day § Fast-mapping: Quickly attach new words to appropriate concept § Whole-object assumption: Assume words refer to whole objects, not parts or characteristics § Contrast assumption: Assume objects have only one label § Over-regularization: apply regular grammatical rules “daddy goed away” § Expand telegraphic speech to include articles, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and possessive adjectives § Combine phrases into complex sentences

Wugs Figure 9. 7

What Language Developments Occur During Early Childhood? § Development of Grammar § Questions § First questions are telegraphic with rising pitch at the end § Later incorporate wh questions § Passive sentences § Young children have difficulty understanding passive sentences § Do not use passive sentences § Pragmatics § Adjust speech to fit the social situation § Between 3 and 5 years, develop more pragmatic skills § Represents the ability to comprehend other perspectives

LANGUAGE MILESTONES § 2 -2. 5: uses 2 -3 word sentences; articulation is poor uses up to 500 or more words; uses past tense, plurals, possessives; no more babbling § 3 years: over 1000 words 75 -100% intelligible; L’s” and “r”s are hard; 30 word in a sentence; asks “wh” questions; yes/no answers’ uses negatives § 4 -5 years: 1500 -2000 words; speech is fluent; coordinates 2 or more 5 -6 word sentences § LANGUAGE used to comment, request, share, give info, ask for info, express feelings