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Chapter9Rathus.pptxChapter 9
Early Childhood: Cognitive Development
Symbolic or Pretend Play
A leap in cognitive ability where a child can make believe objects, toys or people are something other than what they are.
-Can use symbols as mental representations of things.
-by 30 months children can pretend objects are “active”
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
Ages 2 years old to 7 years old
Egocentrism
Being unable to see the world from another viewpoint other than your own. Putting oneself at the center of things.
-not cognitively able to understand people may have a different thought/perspective than they do.
“It’s all about me” “Did you see that?” (which you must have because everyone watches me.
Embedded video: Youtube Egocentrism
The three mountain test
Some terms to explore in Piaget’s Preoperational Stage: Precausal, transducive reasoning, animism, artificialism
Conservation: or the lack of...
To understand conservation children need to be able to focus on TWO characteristics at a time. Some cognitive barriers to this: (terms to know)
Centration
Irreversibility
Class Inclusion
Embedded video: Youtube: Conservation Task
Vygotsky
Scaffolding
Cognitive Scaffolding: like scaffolding used in building it is a TEMPORARY structure/guidance given by the educator/adult to a learning child.
ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky’s focus was on social learning and what modeling.
Through apprenticeship learning masters/educators can find the level of learning that will keep the learner interested.
To easy: learner may get bored→ DISENGAGE
To hard: learner may get frustrated→ DISENGAGE
Also known as the sweet spot of learning or the Goldilock Zone.
Home Environment
HOME: the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory
The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)* Inventory is designed to measure the quality and quantity of stimulation and support available to a child in the home environment. The focus is on the child in the environment, child as a recipient of inputs from objects, events, and transactions occurring in connection with the family surroundings.
*(Caldwell, B. M., & Bradley, R. H. (2003). Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment: Administration Manual. Tempe, AZ: Family & Human Dynamics Research Institute, Arizona State University.)
Follow the link to search the inventories and the multiple items that are scored http://fhdri.clas.asu.edu/home/index.html For example, in the early childhood inventory there are 55 items clustered into eight subscales: 1) Learning Materials, 2) Language Stimulation, 3) Physical Environment, 4) Parental Responsivity, 5) Learning Stimulation, 6) Modeling of Social Maturity, 7) Variety in Experience, and 8) Acceptance of Child.
Preschool
In our text the types are referred to ACADEMIC, CHILD-CENTERED, AND PUBLICALLY-FUNDED ENRICHMENT
Maria Montessori
¨Maria Montessori (in 1936) believed that children need structured, individualized projects that give them a sense of accomplishment.
Some core components include multi age classrooms and a focus on child directed work with uninterrupted free time- although the child is encouraged to work with the Montessori materials in a pre planned method.
Pretend/dramatic play is notably absent from a Montessori environment. The focus is on small lessons the child can work through on their own.
Reggio Emilia Approach
¨Reggio Emilia is a region in Italy in which early education is high-quality and funded by the city.
¨The schools value art and creative play, and have a low teacher-child ratio, and high parent and teacher involvement.
¨Project Head Start is a federal program for low-income children (since 1965). Head Start History
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¨Goals include preparing kids for school, involving parents, providing nutrition and health care.
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¨Programs vary in quality and outcomes
¤San Diego Head Start Neighborhood House Association
Quality Preschool Benefits
•Short-term benefits
–Positive influence on IQ scores
–Gains in school readiness and achievement
•Long-term benefits
–Better high school graduation rates
–Less likely to be delinquent, unemployed, or on welfare
Quality Matters!
A consistent finding in developmental research is that high-quality early childhood programs are associated with high-quality outcomes for children.
Quality measures include trained staff, low adult-child ratio, positive interactions, safety, adequate space, and a curriculum.
Media/Screen time and its impacts on children
Some educational programming can be beneficial to children. But the long term effects of too much screen time can lead to obesity and other health issues.
Parents should:
Limit screen time
Talk about commercials and educate children on the differences between the programming and the ads
Share the time together to help interaction and critical thinking
“Evidence is sufficient to recommend time limitations on digital media use for children 2 to 5 years to NO MORE THAN 1 HOUR PER DAY to allow children ample time to engage in other activities important to their health and development and to establish media viewing habits associated with lower risk of obesity later in life,” (AAP policy statement, 2016). http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/5/e20162591
Be sure to review the “couch potato effect”
Theory of Mind
•Theory of Mind
–Understanding of how the mind works
–Allows us to explain and predict behavior
-A person’s awareness of their own mental process and the mental processes of other people
•Preschool-aged Children
–Can predict and explain behavior and emotion in terms of mental states
–Beginning to understand source of knowledge
–Rudimentary ability to distinguish appearance from reality
Requires the realization the people’s thoughts are unique and personal
Memory
Early Childhood Memory Skills
•Recognition
–Indicate whether items have been seen before
•Recall
–Reproduce material from memory
•Recognition memory develops before recall memory
Can you trust this memory?
•Best for meaningful and familiar events and activities
•Scripts
–Begin forming after experiencing the event once
–Becomes more elaborate with repetition
•Autobiographical memory
–Seldom last into adulthood
–Linked to development of language skills
Influences on memory skills
•Types of Memory
–Activities are easier to recall than objects
–Logically-ordered events are easier to remember
•Interest Level
–Attention, individual interest and motivation
•Retrieval Cues
–Younger children depend on retrieval cues from adults
–Parental elaboration combined with questions improves child’s memory
•Types of Measurement
–Verbal report measurements appear to underestimate children’s memory
MEMORY STRATEGIES:
•Rehearsal and categorization
–Not used extensively until age 5
•Concrete memory aids used by young children
–Looking, pointing, touching
•Strategies can be taught!
Language Development
Vocabulary Development
•Learn average of nine new words per day
•Early cognitive biases
–Fast-mapping process
–Whole-object assumption
–Contrast assumption
Fast mapping is the speedy and imprecise way in which children learn new words by mentally charting them into categories
Grammar Development
•Expand telegraphic speech (age 3)
–Include articles, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and possessive adjectives
•Combine phrases into complex sentences
(age 3-4)
•Overregularization
–Strict application of grammar rules
–Represents advances in syntax
I swimmed
I losted my tooths
Connections to Theory
•Cognitive development precedes language development (Piaget)
–Understand concept then describe it
–Vocabulary explosion (18 months) follows categorization
Inner speech ( (private speech)Piaget
–Initially, children’s thoughts are spoken aloud
–Eventually becomes internalized
–Language functions as self-regulative
•Language development precedes cognitive development
–Create cognitive classes to understand things labeled by words
•Interactionist View (Vygotsky)
•Outer Speech
–During first year, vocalizations and thoughts are separate
–During second year, thought and language combine
•Children discover objects have labels
•Learning labels becomes more self-directed
