Chapter 9 - Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Piaget's Theory: The Preoperational Stage

Advances in Mental Representation

Most obvious change is a large increase in REPRESENTATIONAL or SYMBOLIC ACTIVITY

Piaget disregarded the importance of language in cognitive development, rather he believed that sensorimotor activity leads to internal images of experiences, which children label with words

Make-Believe Play

Important changes in make-believe play during early childhood

Play becomes less self-centered. Ex: move from the self towards playmates.

Play includes more complex combinations of schemes. Ex: Combines and coordinates several schemes of play together

Play detaches from the real-life conditions associated with it. Ex: children pretend with less realistic toys; use objects for things that they are not originally used for

SOCIODRAMATIC PLAY: when children combine schemes with those of peers, the make-believe with others that is underway by the end of the second year and that increases rapidly in complexity during early childhood. They can create and coordinate several roles in elaborate plots.

Contributions of make-believe play to development

Social development: seen as more socially competent by their teachers. Increased ability to regular one's own emotions and behavior, and take another's perspective.

Cognitive development: Strengthens sustained attention, memory, logical reasoning, language, literacy, imagination, creativity, ability to reflect on one's thinking

Imaginary friends: kids that have them display more complex and imaginative pretend play, are advanced in understanding others' viewpoints and emotions, and are more sociable with peers.

Strategies for enhancing preschoolers' make-believe play

Offer a variety of both realistic materials and materials without clear functions

Ensure that children have many rich, real-world experiences to inspire positive fantasy play

Encourage children's play without controlling it

Help children solve social conflicts constructively

Provide sufficient space and play materials

Symbol-Real-World Relations

DUAL REPRESENTATION: refers to the ability to view a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol. Ex: small children do not grasp that a line drawing can represent a building

Factors that contribute children's understanding of dual representation

Explain the similarities between models and real-world spaces

Exposure to diverse symbols

Limitations of Preoperational Thought: Piaget described preschoolers in terms of what they cannot understand

Young children are not capable of OPERATIONS, or mental actions that obey logical rules

EGOCENTRISM, the inability to distinguish the symbolic viewpoints of others from one's own, is a limitation of preoperational thought

ANIMISTIC THINKING - the preoperational belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities, such as thoughts, wishes, and intentions

CONSERVATION: refers to the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes.

Inability to conserve highlights three aspects of preoperational children's thinking

Children are easily distracted by the PERCEPTUAL APPEARANCE of objects

Children treat the initial and final states of water as unrelated events, ignoring the dynamic transformation between them

Understanding is CENTERED - they focus on one aspect of a situation, neglecting other important features

IRREVERSIBILITY - an inability to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then reverse direction, returning to the starting point; most important illogical feature

HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION: the organization of objects into classes and subclasses on the basis of similarities and differences.

Demonstrated by the CLASS INCLUSION PROBLEM - kids shown 16 flowers, 4 blue and 12 red. Asked "are there more red flowers or flowers?" The limitation is demonstrated when kid answers "more red flowers," failing to understand that blue flowers count as flowers

Follow-up research on preoperational thought - Piaget's research has been challenged by more recent research

Examples of nonegocentric responses

Adjust their speech to fit needs of listeners (little kids)

Begin to infer others' intentions and perspectives

Overestimated animistic beliefs of preschoolers - preschoolers begin to divide objects as living and non-living; give psychological explanations for people and animals

Between 4-8 years, children's magical beliefs declines

Kids are capable of logical thought when given tasks that are simplified and relevant to their everyday lives

Development of categorization: first basic-level categories, second general categories, third subcategories

Factors behind rapid increases in categorization

Increase in general knowledge

Rapidly expanding vocabularies

How can adults strengthen childrens' categorical learning

Picture book reading

Get informative answers from adults to their questions

Label and explain categories to children

Children's questions: mostly information-seeking; they typically build on fact-oriented questions with follow-up questions that ask for causes and explanations. Older children get "mechanism" explanations compared to simpler "prior cause" explanations

Piaget and Education: major educational principles are derived from Piaget's theory

SENSITIVITY TO CHILDREN'S READINESS TO LEARN. Willingness to meet children where they are at, on needs and prior knowledge.

ACCEPTANCE OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES. Plan for and evaluate children individually

DISCOVERY LEARNING: Children learn on their own via spontaneous interaction with the environment

Greatest challenge to educational applications of Piaget's theory - his insistence that young children learn primarily through acting on the environment

VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY

Private Speech

Piaget's view - "talk for self" allows expression of whatever the child wants, regardless of if the listener understands. Begins to decrease in favor of social speech when kids mature.

Vygotsky's view: Believe language ws the foundation for all cognition. They speak to themselves for guidance, and this eventually is internalized as silent, inner speech - internal verbal dialogues that carry on while thinking and acting. Supported by research.

Children use private speech when tasks are appropriately challenging (within their zone of proximal development) where things are neither too hard nor too easy.

Social Origins of Early Childhood Cognition

Vygotsky said that all of children's learning takes place within their ZPD. This means that there a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but are possible with the assistance of others.

Two features of social interaction that facilitate children's cognitive development

INTERSUBJECTIVITY - the process by which two participants who begin a task with different understandings arrive at a shared understanding.

SCAFFOLDING - Adjusting the support offered during a teaching session to fit the child's current level of performance

GUIDED PARTICIPATION - refers to shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants without specifying the precise features of communication. Scaffolding is specific to school, does not include the greater range of contexts learning can take place in.

Influences on Early Childhood Education

PEER COLLABORATION - where children of varying abilities and skill levels work together

ASSISTED DISCOVERY - where teachers guide children's learning

PLAY is the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development because kids learn to follow internal ideas/social rules rather than own impulses; enhances a diverse array of cognitive and social skills

Evaluation of Vygotsky's Theory

Contributions

Criticisms

Underscores vital role of teaching

Helps us to understand wide cultural variation in children's cognitive skils

Verbal communication may not be the only means where thinking develops - culture specific

Says little about how basic motor/perceptual skills contribute to cognition

Cultural Differences

Village/tribal cultures - no school, kids join in with adult work, ever increasing their responsibilities. Practical. Little need to rely on conversation and play to teach children.

Middle SES parents - focus on preparing kids to do well in school. Building language, literacy, knowledge. Play based. More likely to display attention-getting behaviors.

When adults and older children are working, young children make decisions for themselves and become highly competent at self care. Play is limited.

Information Processing

Gains in sustained attention are due to an increase in their ability to inhibit impulses and keep their mind on a competing goal.

Attention

Planning abilities of preschoolers: can generate and follow a plan if the task is familiar and not too complex; Limitations: difficulties with searching, several step tasks are confusing (where to begin and what happens next)

Memory

Recall memory is much worse than their recognition memory

Working memories are limited - they have difficulty holding on a pieces of information while simultaneously applying a strategy

EPISODIC MEMORY: your memory for everyday experiences. Example: recalling bits of lists

Use SCRIPTS (general descriptions of what occurs and when it occurs in a particular situation. They help children organize, interpret, and predict everyday experiences; help predict what will happen; are often used in play

Autobiographical memory becomes better organized in time, more detailed, enriched with a personal perspective and related to the context of their lives.

Styles that adults use for promoting children's autobiographical narratives

REPETITIVE: Provide little information and keep repeating the same questions, regardless of child's interest

ELABORATIVE: Adults follow kid's lead, ask varied questions, add info to child's statements and volunteer their own recollections and evaluations of events; leads to better recall of memory

Cultural differences: Collectivist societies - kids offer less of their own thoughts, less detailed recall. They talk more about others.

Problem Solving

SIEGLER'S OVERLAPPING WAVES THEORY: when given challenging problems, children try out various strategies and observe which work best, which work less well, and which are ineffective. Two criteria that children use to select their strategies: accuracy and speed

Factors that promote movement from less efficient to more efficient problems solving strategies

Certain problems dramatize the need for a better strategy

Rapid adoption of new approaches (once they are discovered)

They discover a faster procedure by using a more time consuming technique

Young Child's Theory of Mind: TOM aka METACOGNITION - a coherent set of ideas about mental activities

Milestones in achievement of TOM

  1. Realize that other people differ from each other and from themselves, at about 2 years
  1. Understand that thinking takes place inside their heads, about 3 years
  1. Able to view people as intentional beings who can share and influence one another's mental states; happens at 1 year
  1. Realize that both beliefs and desires determine behavior; understand concept of false beliefs, about 4 years

Benefits from gaining an understanding of false belief

Associated with early reading ability

Allows self-reflection and reflecting on others

Good predictor of social skills

Factors that contribute to TOM development

Cognitive abilities

Make-believe play

Language

Social interaction

How are preschoolers' awareness of inner cognitive activities incomplete?

They often say that they have always known information that they have just learned

They pay little attention to the process of thinking

Autism: associated with abnormal brain functioning usually due to genetic or prenatal environmental causes

Deficits associated with ASD

Language is delayed and stereotyped. Often use words to echo and get things that they want rather than exchange ideas.

Engage in much less make-believe play than other children

Limited ability to engage in nonverbal behavior for successful social interaction. Ex: eye gaze, facial expressions

Interests are often narrow and overly intense

Believed to be caused by deficient TOM

Hard to attribute mental states to themselves or others

Rarely use mental state words (ex: believe, think, know, feel, pretend)

Difficulty with false belief

Impairments in executive functioning - kids with ASD are deficient in skills involved in flexible, goal-oriented thinking - difficulty with shifting attention, inhibiting responses, using working memory successfully and generating plans

Early Literacy and Mathematical Development

EMERGENT LITERACY: young child's active effort to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: refers to the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language

Low SES is associated with decreased literacy and language learning opportunities. Typically get 25 hours of reading before preschool (compared 1000). Gap increases over time.

Ways to promote emergent literacy in early childhood

Engage in interactive book reading

Provide outings to libraries, museums, parks, zoos, etc.

Provide literacy-rich home and preschool environments

Point out letter-sound correspondences, play rhyming and other language-sound games, and read rhyming poems and stores

Support children's efforts at writing, especially narrative products

Model literacy activities

Milestones of mathematical reasoning

2-3 years: children can count rows of about 5 objects

3.5 - 4 years: children display a beginning grasp of cardinality

14-16 months: children display a beginning grasp of ordinality

4-5 years: children can use counting to solve simple arithmetic problems

Once children understand basic arithmetic, they are able to ESTIMATE or generate approximate answers

Basic arithmetic knowledge emerges in a universal sequence around the world

Individual Differences in Mental Development

Early childhood intelligence tests: usually include nonverbal and verbal tasks, by age 6-7, scores stabilize and are good predictors of future performance

Minorities and low-SES kids react with anxiety at times when asked questions by unfamiliar adults; may not realize that the results of testing "count"...this can me fixed by spending time playing before testing and using verbal encouragement while the test is in progress

Home environment and mental development

Characteristics of homes that foster young children's intellectual growth

Warm and affectionate parents who simulate language and academic knowledge and who arrange interesting outings

Homes rich in educational toys and books

Make reasonable demands for socially mature behavior

Parents resolve conflicts with reason instead of physical force and punishment

Preschool, Kindergarten and Child Care: number of young children enrolled in preschool or child care has steadily increased, reaching approximately 60% in the US

Preschool: Program with planned educational experiences aimed at enhancing the development of 2-5 year olds

Child care: a variety of arrangements for supervising children of employed parents

ACADEMIC PRESCHOOLS - literacy and mathematical skills are taught using drill and repetition; do NOT result in higher levels of mastery

CHILD-CENTERED PRESCHOOLS - teachers allow children to select activities, learning takes place through play

Montessori schools

Benefits associated

Features

Teaching materials designed to encourage exploration and discovery

Long periods for individual and small group learning in child-chose activities

Multi-age classrooms

Equal emphasis on academic and social development

Increased performance in literacy, math, cognitive flexibility, false-belief understanding

Increased concern with fairness in solving conflicts with peers and cooperative play with agemates

Long-term benefits of preschools

Decreased pregnancy and delinquency rates

Increased IQ

Increased employment rates

Characteristics of high quality child care

Small group size

Small caregiver-child ration

Clean, organized, rich physical setting

Child-centered daily activities

Educational Media

Benefits of watching educational programs: gains in early literacy,, math skills and academic progress in elementary school. Higher grades, reading more books, placing more value on high school achievement

Too much TV viewing means that there is decreased time reading and interacting with others and therefore the poorer their academic skills

Benefits of educational computer programs: increased general knowledge, diversity of language and emergent literacy skills. Increased elaboration and production of written text.

Language Develop - at age 2 average kid has 200 word vocab, by age 6 average kid has 10000 words.

FAST MAPPING: Ability to connect new words with their underlying concepts after only a brief encounter...Asian kids learn verbs first...most other cultures learn nouns first

PRINCIPLE OF MUTUAL EXCLUSIVITY BIAS: refers to an assumption made by children in the early stages of vocabulary growth that words refer to entirely separate (nonoverlapping) categories

SYNTACTIC BOOTSTRAPPING: occurs when children figure out the meaning of a word by observing how it is used in the structure of a sentence

Supporting vocabulary growth

Provide rich social information that adults frequently provide when they introduce new words

Inform children directly about word meanings and highlight the meaning of adjectives by using the new label with several objects

Explanation for vocab development

Kids are innately biased to induce word meanings using certain principles (ex: mutual exclusivity and syntactic bootstrapping)

Governed by the same cognitive strategies that children apply to nonlinguistic info - they use a bunch of cues (perceptual, social and linguistic) which shift in importance with age

Grammar

English speakers use simple sentences that follow a subject verb object word order, gain most of the grammatical constructions they need

OVERREGULARIZATION: occurs when children overextend grammatical rules to words that are exceptions. Ex: "I runned fast"

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Perspectives in grammar acquisition

Children rely on semantics or word meanings to figure out grammatical rules - an approach called SEMANTIC BOOTSTRAPPING

Children have a special language making capacity - a set of procedures for analyzing the language they hear, which supports the discovery of grammatical regularities.

Conversation

PRAGMATICS - the practical, social side of language that is concerned with how to engage in effective and appropriate communication with others

Preschoolers typically have lots of good conversation skills: take turns, respond appropriately, increased ability to sustain attention and maintain a topic over time

Conversation breakdown will be likely to occur when a preschooler cannot see their listeners' reactions or they have to rely on typical conversation aids (gestures)

Supporting Language Learning in Early Childhood

RECASTS: Restructuring inaccurate speech into correct form

EXPANSiONS: Elaborating on children's speech, increasing its complexity