Developmental and Sociocultural Approaches to Cognitive Development

Piaget's Concepts: Assimilation

- integrating a new experience into a pre-existing schema. ex. a little girl going to the dog park and learns that dogs have four legs → looks at a chihuahua is a dog

Piaget's Concepts: Accommodation

- modifying or creating a scheme in light of new information. ex. the girl looks at a cat but says she says "dog", someone corrects her and creates a new concept/ idea of interacting with the world

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Perspective

Social interactions with a child is the primary source of cognitive development

emphasizing the role of culture and language in shaping thought processes.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Perspective: Guided Participation

- more skills partner (ex. parent, caregiver, older sibling, etc.) is attuned to needs of the child and guides her to accomplish more than she could do alone

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Perspective: Zone of Proximal Development

- the gap between a child's competence level (what she can do alone) and what she can do with assistance