3.2 early childhood cognitive development

preoperational period

2-6

thinking is fundamentally limited, not fully connected, and lacks concrete and operational thinking

symbolic representation 

understanding that one object or action can stand for another 

• impacts pretend play, language, drawing, writing, and reading

pretend play

acting out scenarios where one object/person represents another

cooperative pretend play

taking turns pretending to be something or someone

sociodramatic play

playing different roles in simple skits

dual representation 

understanding that an object can be both an object itself and a symbol for something else 

conservation

understanding that basic properties of number, mass, and volume remain the same even if appearance changes

centration

focusing on only one aspect of dimension of a problem

egocentrism 

assuming everyone sees and knows what they see and know 

animism

attributing qualities of living things to inanimate objects

piagets underestimate about young children

underestimated their cognitive competence

theory theory 

children create and test theories to learn about the worls 

theory of mind

understanding that others have thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives different from ones own

false belief understanding

recognizing that others can have beliefs that are incorrect

consequences of developing theory of mind 

children begin to lie better and better interpret others emotions 

factors impacting theory of mind development

biological: prefrontal cortex, temporal and parietal lobes

environmental: older siblings, parents using mental state words, pretend play

sustained attention

ability to focus on a particular task over time

selective attention

ability to focus only on relevant stimuli

executive attention 

ability to shift and divide attention among multiple stimuli or tasks 

brain area most important for attention control

prefrontal cortex

influences attention development

biological (brain maturation) and sociocultural/economic factors (home environment, maternal interaction, cumulative risk)

infantile amnesia 

inability for adults to recall memories from before about 3-3.5 years of age 

autobiographical memory

memory for personal experiences

why early autobiographical memories are weak 

underdeveloped brain areas, lack of verbal encoding, use of scripts, immature self-awareness, and narrative skills 

typical 16mo vocab

169 words

typical 5-6yo vocab

10k words 

fast mapping

learning an approximate meaning of a word based on context after only a few exposures

grammar development

moving past telegraphic speech, using inflections (making plural, adding ed, etc.) and sometimes overregularization

pragmatics 

using language for social and communicative goals 

simultaneous bilingualism

being exposed to 2 languages from an early age

sequential bilingualism

learning a second language after mastering the first

code switching

using a word from one language while speaking in another

does bilingual exposure slow first-language development?

no

emergent literacy

early development of literacy skills before children can read/write

print-related skills

phonological awareness (analyzing sounds) abd alphabetic knowledge abc reciting, letter-name knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, writing letters)

oral language skills 

understanding vocab and grammar, promoted through book sharing and dialogic reading 

one-to-one principle

assigning only one number to each object when counting

stable order principle

saying number words in the same order each time

cardinality 

the last number counted represents the quantity of the set 

features of childcare linked to better cognitive development

warm, responsive caregivers, and verbally stimulating, age appropriate activities

preschool programs and benefits

head start REDI: improved phonological decoding, learning engagement, and social problem-solving

montessori: skill development for child-directed learning

average screen time to 2-4yo

2.5 hours/day

potential effects of screen exposure

mixed evidence, possible attention and executive function inhibition, video deficit in younger children, and language development impacts

4 pillars of media

active: promotes active learning

engaged: participants remain interested

meaningful: relatable

socially interactive: engaging with someone else while watching