ECE 354 Assessment & Intervention During Early Childhood / week 5 discussion 1 and 2, Final projects

· Encoding

· Mental Models

· Domain-general and domain-specific knowledge

· Developmental differences

· Processes of Change

Still struggling to understand intelligence?  Watch this video!

Fostering Intelligence - We can foster the development of intelligence by teaching a child to plan, to have causal inference, use analogies, use their thinking tools, and use scientific and logical reasoning to map out and solve problems. Parents and/or educators can support this process by having an accessible and patient attitude when working with children. We can further encourage a child’s growth and development of intelligence by allowing them plenty of time every day to free-play, where the child creates problems in which he/she solves independently. When a child asks us to engage in their dilemmas, follow the child’s lead and support their efforts to accomplish their goals. Praise the child for their ideas and efforts and let them know you value their opinion. Finally, ask open-ended questions about the activity and help the child to see the problem in new and different ways, thus helping him/her see other solutions as well. Through this cause and effect thinking method, children develop intellectually (Klem, 2014). Measuring Intelligence - Intelligence is measured by a series of standardized (administered and scored in a consistent, or ‘standard’, manner) tests that are given to thousands of people to determine where one individual’s intelligence compares to another. The scores are plotted on a graph and when all the scores are connected a bell-shaped curve forms showing that the majority of people (children included) fall in the middle of the curve with a few on either end of the curve. This representation below demonstrates that most people are of ‘average’ intelligence with a few being at the higher or lower end of the spectrum.

Two standardized tests that are used primarily for children are the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler Scale of Intelligence for Children (WISC-IV). Both tests have subtests, tests within the bigger test, that show where the person compares to others his or her age on the same items like vocabulary, working memory, general knowledge, and quantitative and spatial reasoning. The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (Second Edition) allows for a quick assessment of children who might be suspected of needing remedial assistance for academics. The table below contains some videos that help to explain the Stanford-Binet, WISC-IV, and Kaufman tests further.  This table is not an all-inclusive list.  There are a myriad of tests used to measure intelligence that you can locate by referring to the course text.

In the second discussion forum of the week you will be able to use this knowledge as you will be discussing intelligence in children using a case study from the text. Cognitive Development and Learning - How are intelligence, cognitive development, and learning connected? Intelligence is not a single ability or attribute, but rather as a global construct encompassing many different and separate cognitive abilities. What this means, is that learning occurs much like building a house. For instance, a roof does not make a house; you must have a foundation, walls, doors, windows, and a roof. Learning is the same, the child must first learn to talk, then recognize letters, then words, then string the words together to form a concept, then continue to add to those sentences and a global construct forms and learning has connected many smaller segments into one. As we have learned these past weeks, cognitive development is the emergence of the ability to think and understand. Finally, learning is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, and/or values that may require the learner to combine different types of information into a new skill or behavior. Therefore, intelligence describes a child's capability to recognize, comprehend, and understand intricate ideas, to adapt to his/her surroundings, to learn from experiences, and to engage in reasoning and decision-making in new and/or familiar situations. This will be the focus of the first discussion forum this week.

As the Calvin and Hobbs comic strip demonstrates without previous learning, the child cannot learn a new skill. Children first must learn to crawl before they learn to walk, they must babble before they speak, and they must speak before they learn to read. All of these tasks require the development of a previous skill, like building stairs. Intelligence, cognitive development, and learning are connected via these developmental stage stairs that every infant begins to build. Brain Waves - The brain waves section of the weekly guidance is a place for you to see how the content that you are learning this week relates to your daily life. These are not questions that you need to answer, but instead ideas for you to reflect on as you deepen your understanding of the content being learned this week. This week’s brain waves will focus on intelligence. The rules for Math were taught in stages. First, we learned to add, then subtract, then multiply, and finally divide. However, when faced with a complex Math problem, we learned the order of operations. First we multiply or divide and then add and subtract; in that order. Now you try it. Brain Wave Scenario:  Do you remember the rule? 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1x0+1=?

Critical Reflections

· How would you present to a team that you suspect a child might be struggling academically?

· Is intelligence impacted by environment?

· How do you store or stack your memory and intelligence?

References