opinion of module 3

Tonya Klemmer 

3 posts

Re:Module 3 DQ 1

Piaget found dramatic differences in development between preschoolers and elementary-age children. Discuss several of these differences from cognitive, physical, and psychosocial perspectives.

Children seem to grow as each day passes in more ways than one.  There are differences in each stage of childhood.  Piaget reported that there were multiple differences between preschool, approximately ages 2-6, and elementary age, which is around ages 6-11, children.  Preschoolers would be in the preoperational stage and elementary age children would be in the concrete stage.  Early childhood is the time that Piaget reported the development of preoperational intelligence.  Pre- school children have not yet developed the ability to think logically.  As reported by Simatwa (2010), during this stage intuitive mode of thought prevails characterized by free association, fantasy and unique illogical meaning.  Logic does not begin to develop until they are elementary aged.  Berger (2013) reported that, however, preoperational children are past sensorimotor intelligence because they can think in symbols, not just via senses and motor skills. Another difference would be that most preschooler’s are only able to see their own point of view.  Piaget called this as being egocentric.  As far as physical differences a preschooler’s arms and legs begin to get longer and their fat starts to become muscle. 

Berger, K. S. (2013). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. 

Simatwa, M. E. W. (2010).  Piaget’s theory of intellectual development and its implication for instructional management at presecondary school level. Educational Research and Reviews, 5(7), pp. 366-371.

Yolanda Valenzuela 

3 posts

Re:Module 3 DQ 1

Piaget found dramatic differences in development between preschoolers and elementary-age children. Discuss several of these differences from cognitive, physical, and psychosocial perspectives.

It is evident that Piaget found dramatic differences in development between preschoolers and elementary age children. As an example,  Miller, Grabowski and Heldmeyer (1973) makes a point that the younger preschool children do not rely on length as much as the older preschool children suggests that using length to estimate amount is a strategy which is learned during development. This strategy may require more experience with objects than the younger children have had versus that of older children. Development comes with some experience in learning as the child increases in age. In another example, Peter, Glück & Beiglböck(2010) note that an evaluation study with 134 -3-to 9-year-old children showed that the majority of 3-year-olds had a grasp of symbolic representation, whereas use of spatial relations emerged only at 6 years and mental rotation not before the age of 7 (as Piaget’s theory would suggest). In spite of a continuous improvement of map understanding with age, the data suggested qualitative steps in the development map use, such as remarkable differences in performance between 6- and 7-year-olds.

According to Diachenko (2011) children’s cognitive imagination at four to five years old is associated with the rapid development of role play, painting and construction games. By the age of four to five years old, the process of imagination is supplemented with staged planning. Children plan a step of their action, perform the action, see the results
and then plan the next step. Where children were asked to say what they would paint and then paint it, four- to five-year-old children switched to staged planning. This was in contrast to younger children, whose activity was disrupted by this suggestion. Children named each step of their plan (for example, ‘I will paint a house here’), realized it quite accurately (usually giving a schematic representation of a house), and then, having seen the result, built a chain of transformations (added details to the picture, painted something else nearby, etc). Children build on their current knowledge and learn to begin to think at a higher level in order to get to the established goal. Of course one should always take care to normalize the situation in that, as an example, with the foster kids we work with they are typically behind the levels of most children their own age. The great thing is that they can receive added assistance and to try to get them back on track and at the suggested levels.

References:

Diachenko, O. M. (2011). On Major Developments in Preschoolers' Imagination. International Journal of Early Years Education, 19(1), 19-25.

Miller, P. H., Grabowski, T. L., & Heldmeyer, K. H. (1973). The Role of Stimulus Dimensions in the Conservation of Substance. Child Development, 44(3), 646-650. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.ep12115633

Peter, M., Glück, J., & Beiglböck, W. (2010). Map understanding as a developmental marker in childhood. Journal of Individual Differences, 31(2), 64-67. doi:10.1027/1614-0001/a000011