CHD FINAL EXAM Chapter 9 Cognitive Language Development In Early Childhood Piaget s Preoperational Stage of Development o Period from 3 6 years o Operational logical systems of thought in middle childhood Ex All dogs are animals but not all animals are dogs o Preoperational incapable of advanced forms of reasoning The Symbolic Function o Piaget says end of 2nd year major turning point in development o Deferred imitation pretend play mental images language Deferred imitation child observe behavior and imitate it at a later time when the model is no longer present The child maintains modeled behavior in symbolic form over relatively long periods of time imitating the behavior only when it becomes adaptive to do so Symbolic Pretend play children pretend an object is something other than what it really is Distinct cognitive skills required to sustain pretend play Shifting context Two and three year old children typically require support from the play setting to initiate and sustain their pretense A toddler for example is more likely to pretend to eat in a setting such as a kitchen than in the back yard In contrast older children are capable of shifting context performing routine behaviors outside of their typical setting Performing routine behaviors outside of their particular setting Substituting objects children substitute one object for another ex Using a stick for a fork during play o 14 19 months act out pretense on realistic dolls will little use of unrealistic or ambiguous substitute objects such as blocks or sticks o 3rd year realistic prop use children able to transform any object o 3 4 years incorporation of imaginary guests use of props fades Substituting other agents for oneself how children use agents in into needed props by 4th year their pretense o Early in 2nd year toddlers are the agents of their own acts of pretense child may pretend to feed herself by bringing empty spoon to mouth or pretend to go to sleep by putting her head down o Later in 2nd year child may use dolls in pretend play but only as passive agents o By 3rd year use dolls as active agents with their own behaviors ex Doll has its own personality and can do thinks on its own Sequencing and socialization of pretend episodes children coordinate acts into sequences of increasing length and complexity through the preschool years o Ex 2 year old combing hair may turn to a 4 year old grooming sequence washing combing dressing putting on makeup o Incorporates behavior patterns for agents which reflect conventional roles police catch bad guys but do not clean o Symbolic function also expressed in ability to form mental images internal representations of the outside world o Mental images free children from the here and now enabling them to think about objects when the objects are not physically present and to think about events before during and after their occurrence o For the first time the child can integrate experiences from the past into the present to plan for the future o Deferred imitation pretend play and mental images express private idiosyncratic meanings derived from personal experience The private and idiosyncratic nature of the symbolic function in young children limits their ability to communicate their thoughts to others challenging caregivers interpretive skills and patience The Advent of Preconcepts o Piaget believed preschool age children focus their attention on minute and inconsequential aspects of their experience known as centration Centers perception on a few or 1 aspect of a situation instead of the situation as a whole experience 3 year old may remember nothing about babysitter except her big earrings Results in unsystematic sampling of isolated bits of info from any given Collections of images derived from centrated perception merge into preconcepts disorganized illogical representations of child s experiences Less than adequate but establish foundation for emergence of logical o When kids enter a unique experience the brain aggregates things together concepts synchrotism Transductive Reasoning Thinking With Preconcepts o In induction general principles are derived from particular examples ideas Ex An 8 year old boy who observes that a teacher favors girls in his class may induce the general principle that girls are teacher s pets o In deduction general principles are used to predict particular outcomes Ex The same child above could use his general principle to deduce that when he enters his next grade his new teacher will be likely to favor girls o Piaget says preoperational children are incapable of thinking inductively Instead they think by transduction reasoning within the unsystematic collections of images which constitute their preconcepts private and meaningful only within her preconceptual understanding of the story Lashonda believed that Little Red Riding Hood took the fine red hat from the wolf because he had been so bad Her logic is transductive private and meaningful only within her preconceptual understanding of the story Egocentrism one of the major limitation in preoperational thought is the child s inability to conceptualize the perspective of other individuals 3 mountain experiment with kids o does not mean children are selfish merely that they have trouble seeing the world as others see it Irreversibility second limitation of preoperational thought notion that preschoolers cannot mentally reverse their transductive sequence of thought o Ex Girl can tell you how she walked to school but has trouble retracing her steps o Ex Ask a 3 year old girl do you have a sister Yes does your sister have a sister No o Ex Getting lost easily o Can be a significant liability in problem solving during this period why preschoolers have a way of taking things apart but not being able to put them back together Preoperational Stage kids CANNOT o Classification class inclusion Tendency to group objects based on similarities Adult classification systems organized on basis of class inclusion a class must be smaller than any more inclusive class in which it is contained Ex Adults know that all dogs are animals but not all animals are dogs Piaget s 3 stage developmental progression Stage 1 children 5 and younger o No overall sorting plan o Graphic collections pictures made with objects o Child might arrange several of the forms into a rectangle and refer to it as a house Stage 2 children 6 8 o Sorted in a more organized way shapes together o Non graphic collections o Child might first place
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