cognitive and language development in children

piaget’s preoperational stage

• ages 2-7

• don’t have mental pathways/steps for doing things

• imaginative/pretend play

symbolic thought

imagination

• animism: assign human/living characteristics to inanimate objects

intuitive thought

why? → questions about everything

• trying to understand/build knowledge

egocentrism

everyone sees the world the way I do, unaware of the existence of other perspectives

centration

problems with conservation (cares about number of pieces rather than how big each piece actually is)

theory of mind:

knowledge of differing perspectives or opinions

• individual differences: empathy, pretend play, bilingualism

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

ages 7-11

• begin to understand logical reasoning (conservation)

• building operations based on real objects

• categorization/classification

  • seriation: putting in order

  • class inclusion: more dogs/animals

Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory

• social constructivist approach (funnel)

  • outer circle: what I cant do

  • middle circle: what I can do with help

  • center circle: what I can do on my own

  • scaffolding: supported learning

• private speech: talking yourself through it outloud

generic memory

memory of routines (LT)

episodic memory

memories → tied to a point in time → events (LT)

• autobiographical memory: memory with strong emotional context

semantic memory

things you know/understand about the world

metamemory

thinking about memory → reflection on memories

• rehearsal: repetition to keep in working memory

• elaboration: adding info to what you already know

metacognition

thinking about thinking

• effort and motivation: more interested/motivation results in better metacognition/memory

attention and executive function

• control over thoughts, emotions, and behavior

• sustained & selective attention: can be practiced, related to impulse control, ability to sustain attention/focus

vocabulary

continue fast mapping, children are learning 3,000-5,000 words per year (impacted by education & reading)

phonology

involves phonemes & phonetics

morphology

the way that words change to fit new meanings

pragmatics

• communicating differently in different circumstances

• theory of mind: use this here, use that there

• improved conversationalists

emergent literacy

• oral language skills: reading comprehension

• phonological skills: word recognition