Cognitive Development in Childhood

Self-Concept

The ability to understand and evaluate ourselves

• gradually emerges

• 5-18 months, kids can recognize themselves in a mirror

• school age, kids can name their own traits

• 8-10 years, self-image is stable (until you’re a teen)

Jean Piaget

Regarded as the godfather of cognitive development in children

• made the most famous theory of cognitive development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Kid’s minds pass through an upward sequence of stages of cognition

Schemas

Piaget found out that children use ? to organize and interpret info

Assimilate

Interpreting new experience in the context of our existing schemas

Accommodate

Changing our schemas to adapt to new experiences and info

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development theory

• birth - 2 years

sensory, motor, circular

In the sensorimotor stage, kids learn mostly through ? impressions and ? activities

• these methods of learning are called ? reactions

Primary Circular Reactions

Using one’s own body to learn

Secondary Circular Reactions

Responding to other people or objects

Tertiary Circular Reactions

Devising different activities to do with objects

• kick a ball, put ball into a box, throw the ball, etc

Object Permanence

In the sensorimotor stage, there’s a lack of ?, or the awareness that things exist even when you can’t perceive them

underestimated

Piaget actually ? kid’s abilities since they actually show comprehension of

• basic physics

• sense of mathematics

and was slightly wrong about the stage being so sequential as they can be continuous

Preoperational Stage

Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development theory

• 2 years - 6/7 years

Logic

In the preoperational stage, children can use language, but lack ?

Conservation

In the preoperational stage, children lack the concept of ?, understanding that properties like mass and volume stay the same even if the form of the object changes

Egocentric

In the preoperational stage, children are ?, meaning they can’t see other pov’s other than their own

Theory of mind

In the preoperational stage, kids start to develop the ?, allowing them to recognize other’s mental states

Animism

In the preoperational stage, kids believe that inanimate objects have human characteristics, like a stuffed animal having feelings

Artificialism

In the preoperational stage, kids believe that natural events are man-made

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development theory

• 6/7 years - 12 years

concrete events

In the concrete operational stage, kids begin to be able to think logically about ?

conservation, seriation

In the concrete operational stage, kids begin to understand ? and also ?, or the ability to categorize objects

• they also understand reversibility like how 5+6=11 and 6+5=11

less

In the concrete operational stage, kids become ? egocentric

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development theory

• 12+ years

• not everyone makes it to this stage…

abstract

In the formal operational stage, people can start to think logically about ? concepts, such as virtual reality, symbolism, art, etc

adolescent egocentrism

In the formal operational stage, people start to feel ?, the feeling that one is invincible

spotlight effect

In the formal operational stage, people fall victim to the ?, beliving that everyone is always paying attention to them

scientific thinking

In the formal operational stage, people start to show the ability to use ?

earlier

Most of the abilities Piaget suggested can actually be shown ? than he thought

safe

The fact that young kids are incapable of adult logic keeps them ? as they’re always sticking to their protective parents

Vygotsky

Made an underated theory of cognitive development focused more on social interaction

social environment

Vygotsky’s theory focused on how a child’s mind grows by interacting with their ?

scaffolds

Caretakers and teachers provide ?, or problems that get progressively more difficult

watching, help

Vygotsky believed that children learn best by ? others and receiving ? from peers and role models

words

By age 7, kids think in ? and use them to solve problems

Zone of Proximal Development

Area between what a kid can and can’t do, which forces the kid to just slightly push further beyond their current skill level to improve overall