Chapter 9 - Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Advances in mental representation

• as children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage (years 2 to 7), representational activity increases

• language is the most flexible means of mental representation

• thinking in words allows dealing with the past, present, and future at once, combining concepts in unique ways

• Piaget underestimated the power of language to spur children’s cognition

make believe play

through pretending, young children practice and strengthen new representational schemes

Development:

• play detaches from real life conditions associated with it

• play becomes less self-centered

• play includes more complex combinations of schemes

sociodramatic play

• make believe with others that is underway by the end of the second year

• increases rapidly in complexity in early childhood

make believe is difficult to study because

• it involves spontaneous qualities, including intrinsic motivation, positive emotion, and child control of the experience

• much make believe takes place when observers are not present

ways of enhancing make-believe play

• provide sufficient space and materials

• encourage children’s play without controlling it

• offer a variety of realistic materials as well as materials without clear functions

• ensure that children have many rich, real-world experiences to inspire positive fantasy play

• help children solve social conflicts constructively

symbol-real-world relations

experiences with diverse symbols strengthen preschoolers understanding that one object can stand for another

dual representation

viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol

dual representation is aided by:

• pointing out similarities between models and real-world spaces

• providing opportunities to make drawings and label them and to observe others doing the same

egocentrism

failure to distinguish others’ symbolic viewpoints from ones own

conservation

the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when outward appearance changes

• deficiencies on preoperational thought related to conservation: centration and irreversibility

centration

focusing on one aspect of a situation while neglecting other important features

irreversibility

an inability to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then reverse direction, returning to the starting point

hierarchical classification

organization of objects into classes and subclasses on the basis on similarities and differences

egocentric thinking

on simplified tasks with familiar objects, 3 year olds show clear awareness of others’ vantage points

animistic and magical thinking

• by age 2 ½ , children give psychological explanations for people and other animals, but rarely for objects, and seldom attribute biological properties to objects

• preschoolers notions of magic are flexible and appropriate

• magical beliefs decline with age

logical thought

• on simplified, relevant tasks, preschoolers display logical thinking

• young children also engage in impressive reasoning by analogy about physical changes

categorization

• preschoolers flexibly organize knowledge into categories using both nonobvious and perceptual information

• by age 3, they easily move between basic level categories and general categories, and they break down general categories into subcategories

evaluation of the preoperational stage

• Piaget was partly wrong and partly right about childrens cognitive capacities

• evidence of the gradual development of logical operations poses a serious challenge to Piaget’s assumption of an abrupt change toward logical reasoning around age 6 or 7

• neo-Piagetian theorists combine Piaget’s stage approach with the information-processing emphasis on task-specific change

Three educational principles derived from Piaget continue to influence teachers and classrooms

1. discovery learning involves opportunities for spontaneous interaction with the environment

2. sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn builds on children’s current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the world

3. acceptance of individual differences means planning for activities for individual children and small groups

private speech

• in Vygotsky’s view, child and social environment collaborate to mold cognition in culturally adaptive ways

• Piaget called children self-directed speech utterances egocentric speech

Vygotsky viewed private speech as the foundation for all higher cognitive processes:

• used more when tasks are approriately challenging

• with age, internalized as silent, inner speech

• used more and over a large period by children with learning problems

to promote cognitive development, social interaction must have two vital features:

intersubjectivity and scaffolding

intersubjectivity

two participants who begin a task with different understandings arrive at a shared understanding

scaffolding

adjusting the support offered during a teaching lesson to fit into child’s current level of performance

social origins of early childhood cognition

• parents who are effective scaffolders have children who are more advanced in executive function and overall intellectual performance

• improved scaffolding explains why home-based interventions aimed at enhancing parenting skills in poverty-stricken families result in cognitive gains in early childhood

Vygotskian classrooms promote…

assisted discovery

• teachers guide children’s learning with explanations, demonstrations, and verbal prompts

• children with varying abilities engage in peer collaboration, working together in groups

challenges to Vygotsky’s ideas

• verbal dialogues are not the only means through which children learn

• Vygotsky says little about how basic motor, perception, attention, memory, and problem solving skills contribute to socially transmitted higher cognitive processes

Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME)

assesses aspects of 3 to 6 year old’s home lives that foster intellectual growth:

• homes rich in educational toys, books, and games

• warm, affectionate parents who stimulate language and academic skills and arrange interesting outings

• modelling and encouragement of socially mature behavior

• resolution of conflicts with reason instead of physical force and punishment

academic programs

• teachers structure learning through formal lessons, often using repetitive drills

• despite evidence that formal academic training undermines motivation and emotional well being, early childhood teachers are pressured to take this approach

child-centered programs

• teachers provide activities from which children select, and much learning takes place though play

• Montessori education: a child-centered approach that places equal emphasis on academic and social development

teaching though guided play

guided play integrates child autonomy and playful exploration with adult guided instruction, or scaffolding:

• enables teachers to preserve the voluntary, engaging and flexible features of play

• also ensures that children focus on content relevant to learning goals

adults can implement guided play in two ways

1. providing materials that emphasize a learning goal

2. observing child-controlled, playful activities and making comments and suggestions

benefits of preschool intervention for children living in poverty:

• attain higher IQ and achievement scores in the first two or three years of school

• less likely to be placed in special education or retained in grade

• greater number graduate from high school

signs of developmentally appropriate early childhood programs:

• safe, clean, richly equipped physical setting

• no more than 18-20 children with two teachers

• child-selected group and individual activities

• positive child-adult interactions

• college level teacher preparation

• parents encouraged to observe and participate

• state licensing and voluntary accreditation

fast mapping

connecting new words with underlying concepts after only a brief encounter

mutual exclusivity bias

the assumption that words refer to entirely separate categories

syntactic bootstrapping

discovering word meanings by observing how words are used in syntax

grammar

between ages 2 and 3, English speaking children use simple sentences that follow a basic subject-verb-object word order

overregularization

overextension of grammatical rules to words that are exceptions

pragmatics

the practical, social side of language

• effective and appropriate communication

• involves taking turns, staying on topic, stating messages clearly, and conforming to cultural rules for social interaction

recasts

when adults restore inaccurate speech into correct form

expansions

when adults elaborate on children’s speech, increasing its complexity

role of adults in children conversation skills:

• listening attentively

• elaborating on what children say

• modelling correct usage

• stimulating children to talk further