The Developing Person Through the Life Span 8e

by Kathleen Stassen Berger

Chapter 9- Early Childhood: Cognitive Development

PowerPoint Slides developed by Martin Wolfger and Michael James Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington

Reviewed by Raquel Henry Lone Star College, Kingwood

Piaget and Vygotsky Piaget: Preoperational Thought

•

Preoperational

means “before (pre) logical operations (reasoning processes).” • The child’s verbal ability permits symbolic thinking.

– Language frees the child from the limits of sensorimotor experience.

Piaget and Vygotsky

Four Limitations of Preoperational Thought •

Centration-

a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others.

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Egocentrism-

“self-centeredness” • • •

Focus on appearance-

appears to be a thing is whatever it

Static reasoning

- belief that the world is unchanging

Irreversibility

- what is done cannot be undone

•

Piaget and Vygotsky

Conservation

- The principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (is conserved) when its appearance changes.

Piaget and Vygotsky

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Animism

- Belief that natural objects and phenomena are alive.

•Children simultaneously hold rational and magical ideas.

Piaget and Vygotsky

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Vygotsky: Social Learning

• Every aspect of children’s cognitive development is embedded in the social context.

Guided participation-

process by which people learn from others who guide their experiences and explorations (mentor).

Piaget and Vygotsky

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Zone of proximal development (ZPD)-

Vygotsky’s term for the skills—cognitive as well as physical —that a person can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently.

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Scaffolding-

Temporary support that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process.

Language as a Tool

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Private speech-

The internal dialogue that occurs when people talk to themselves (either silently or out loud).

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Social mediation-

Human interaction that expands and advances understanding, often through words that one person uses to explain something to another.

Children’s Theories

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Theory-theory-

The idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear using theories •

Theory of mind-

A person’s theory of what other people might be thinking. – In order to have a theory of mind, children must realize that other people are not necessarily thinking the same thoughts that they themselves are.

– That realization is seldom achieved before age 4.

Language

• Language is pivotal to every kind of cognition in early childhood.

• Early childhood is a sensitive period

,

the best time to master vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

• The average child knows about 500 words at age 2 and more than 10,000 at age 6.

Language

Fast-mapping

•The speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

Language

Language

Basic Grammar • The

grammar

of a language includes the structures, techniques, and rules that communicate meaning. Word order and word repetition, prefixes and suffixes, intonation and emphasis —all are part of grammar.

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Overregularization-

The application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur, making the language seem more “regular" than it actually is.

Learning Two Languages

• Young bilinguals site both languages in the same areas of the brain but keep them separate when speaking, not so in adults • Pronunciation is hard to master after childhood •

Balanced Bilingual

: fluent in two languages, not favoring one over the other

Early Childhood Education

• • Child-Centered Programs • Stress children’s natural inclination to learn through play rather than by following adult directions.

• Show the influence of Vygotsky, who thought that children learn from other children and through cultural practices that structure life.

Montessori schools

emphasize individual pride and accomplishment, presenting literacy-related tasks.

Reggio Emilia

approach- A famous program of early childhood education that originated in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy; it encourages each child’s creativity in a carefully designed setting.

Early Childhood Education

Teacher-Directed Programs • Stress academic subjects taught by a teacher to an entire class.

• Children learn letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, as well as how to listen to the teacher and sit quietly.

• Make a clear distinction between work and play.

• Are much less expensive, since the child/adult ratio can be higher.

Early Childhood Education

Intervention Programs • Project Head Start- The most widespread early-childhood education program in the United States, begun in 1965 and funded by the federal government.

• At first, the program was thought to be highly successful at raising children’s intelligence; ten years later, early gains were said to fade.