Early Childhood - Cognitive Development

Preoperational Stage

approximately two to seven years of age – operations are internalized sets of actions that are highly organized and conform to certain rules and principles of logic.

PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES

Symbolic Function Sub-stage

Egocentrism

Animism

Intuitive Thought Sub-stage

Centration

Conservation

Symbolic Function Sub-stage

two to four years of age – where the child gains the ability to represent an object mentally that is not present.

Egocentrism

feature of preoperational though where child is unable to distinguish between one’s own perspective and that of others.

Animism

second feature of preoperational thought where child has belief that inanimate objects have “lifelike” qualities.

Intuitive Thought Sub-stage

four to seven years of age – where children begin to use primitive reasoning and have many questions; this stage is characterized by a child’s assuredness that she is correct in her thinking.

Centration

a focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.

Conservation

the preoperational child has a lack of conservation in that he feels an amount becomes larger or smaller when it is manipulated.

Vygotsky’s Theory of Development – described in three basic principles:

1.Child’s cognitive skills are understood only when developmentally analyzed.

2.Cognitive skills are mediated by words and language, which facilitate mental activity.

3.Cognitive skills originate in sociocultural background of the child.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

range of tasks beyond the mastery of the child but that are learned with guidance.

Language and thought

Language issued for self-regulation and is called inner speech, is considered an important tool of thought in each childhood.

Teaching strategies based on Vygotsky’s theory

Child is challenged through use of ZPD and scaffolding to bring her to higher levels of performance. Learning should be with skilled peers and teachers who monitor the child’s use of private speech and assess her ZPD, not her IQ.

Evaluation and comparing Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories

Piaget considers inner speech to reflect immaturity, not a tool in development

Vygotsky is a __________

social constructivist &

Piaget ___________ and believes children construct knowledge through transforming and organizing prior knowledge.

rejects the impact of social influence

Attention

In early childhood, a moving away from habituation and dishabituation toward selective attention – focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.

Control of attention

Preschool children begin to focus their attention specifically (on television, for example) versus toddlers who wander their attention.

Salient versus relevant dimensions

From preschool year to age six to seven there is a gradual shift toward attending to relevant aspects versus those that stand out and are flashy when solving a problem.

Planfulness

A focus on detain when making comparisons is found as children grow older.

Adjusting attention

A child’s ability to change the rate of attention when confronting easy to difficult material (i.e., reading).

Knowledge of attention

Preschool versus older children do not seem to have control over how to focus on a subject in order to remember it.

Information Processing

Memory plays a key role in cognitive development.