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Kathleen Stassen Berger

Part III

Early Childhoods: Cognitive Development

Chapter Nine

  • Piaget and Vygotsky
  • Children’s Theories
  • Language
  • Early-Childhood Education

Piaget and Vygotsky

  • Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are famous for their descriptions of cognition.

Piaget: Preoperational Thinking

  • preoperational intelligence: cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6.
  • languages
  • imagination

  • four characteristics of thinking in early childhood which make logic difficult:

  • centration
  • focus on appearance
  • static reasoning
  • irreversibility

Obstacles to Logical Operation

  • centration: characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child focuses on one idea

  • egocentrism: children’s tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective
  • literally means self-centered

  • focus on appearance: characteristic of preoperational thought where young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent

  • static reasoning: thinking that nothing changes
  • whatever is now has always been and always will be

  • irreversibility: idea that nothing can be undone
  • inability to recognize that something can be restored

Conservation and Logic

conservation: idea that amount of a substance remains the same when appearance changes

Vygotsky: Social Learning

  • First leading developmentalist to emphasize the other side of early cognition.
  • young children not always egocentric
  • can be very sensitive to the wishes and emotions of others

  • Emphasizes social aspect of young children’s cognition in contrast to Piaget’s emphasis on the individual.

Scaffolding

  • zone of proximal development (ZPD): skills a person can exercise only with assistance
  • ideas or cognitive skills a person is close to mastering as well as to more apparent skills.

  • scaffolding: temporary support tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities
  • aimed at helping master next task

  • private speech: internal dialogue that occurs when people talk to themselves
  • silent or out loud

  • social mediation: function of speech where person’s cognitive skills are refined and extended
  • both formal instruction and casual conversation

Children’s Theories

  • Both Piaget and Vygotsky realized that children actively work to understand their world.
  • seek to explain what they experience
  • why and how people behave as they do

  • theory-theory: idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing theories

  • theory of mind: person’s theory of what other people might be thinking
  • must realize other people are not thinking the same thoughts that they are

Language

  • Critical period for language learning due to:
  • brain maturation
  • myelination
  • social interaction

  • Early childhood is a sensitive period for rapidly and easily mastering:
  • vocabulary
  • grammar
  • pronunciation

Grammar

  • Grammar of language includes structures, techniques, and rules that are used to communicate meaning.
  • word order
  • word repetition
  • prefixes and suffixes
  • intonation
  • emphasis

Learning Two Languages

  • Bilingualism is an asset.
  • Important to speak the majority language as well as the minority one.
  • Is a nation better off if all its citizens speak one language?
  • Should there be more than one official language?
  • Switzerland has 3
  • Canada has 2

Bilingualism, Cognition, and Culture

  • Debate over bilingual education inseparable from issues of:
  • ethnic pride
  • identity
  • prejudice
  • fear

  • These subjective factors get in the way of objective developmental research.

  • Bilingualism has both advantages and disadvantages for early cognition and literacy.

  • Children who speak two languages by age 5 are:
  • less egocentric.
  • more advanced in their theory of mind.

Constant Change

  • Basics of language learning apply to every language a young child learns.
  • naming
  • vocabulary explosions
  • fast-mapping
  • overregularization
  • extensive practice

  • Established languages continually change as each new generation revises it to meet current needs.

Early-Childhood Education

  • Early educational institutions:
  • preschool
  • nursery school
  • day care
  • pre-primary

  • Each early-childhood educational program emphasizes somewhat different:
  • skills
  • goals
  • methods

Child-Centered Programs

  • Programs that stress children’s development and growth.
  • Child-centered programs that use a Piaget-inspired model allows children to discover ideas at their own pace.
  • physical space and materials
  • puzzles
  • blocks of many sizes
  • toys
  • Child-centered programs also encourage artistic expression.

Early-Childhood Education

Child Centered:

Montessori Schools

The Reggio Emilia Approach

Teacher-Directed

Head Start and Intervention Programs

  • Costs and benefits of the different approaches:
  • safety
  • adequate space and equipment
  • low adult-child ratio
  • positive social interaction among children and adults
  • trained staff and educated parents
  • continuity helps
  • “How long has each staff member worked at the center?”