Chapter 9 Cognitive and Language Development In Early Childhood Preoperational Development Preoperational stage Piaget s period from age 3 6 o Operations is used to refer to the logical systems of thought which eventually emerge in middle childhood Ex A horse is an animal but not all animals are horses preoperational is used to describe preschoolers as incapable of these advanced forms of reasoning The Symbolic Function Symbolic function the ability to use symbols to represent or stand for perceived objects and events Takes distinct forms deferred imitation symbolic or pretend play mental images and language o Deferred imitation children observe the behavior of a model and imitate that behavior after a delay and in some cases when the model is no longer present Symbolic or pretend play children pretend that an object is something other than what it really is Ex Pretend tea parties playing with dolls There are a number of distinct cognitive skills required to initiate and sustain pretend play Shifting Context two and three year old children typically require support from the play setting to initiate and sustain their pretense Ex Will only pretend to eat in the kitchen versus the backyard Substituting Objects children often substitute one object for another in their pretend play Ex Using sticks as utensils having imaginary friends Substituting other agents for oneself around age 3 children begin to pretend that dolls can talk walk etc Sequencing and Socialization of Pretend Episodes Although pretense begins with single acts children coordinate such acts into sequences of increasing length and complexity through the preschool years goes from brushing hair to having a whole morning routine Such sequences also begin to incorporate behavior patterns for agents which reflect conventional roles police men don t do house work o Mental images internal representations of external objects or events o Deferred imitation pretend play and mental images express private idiosyncratic meanings derived from personal experience This limits their ability to communicate their thoughts to others challenging caregivers interpretive skills and patience The Advent of Preconcepts Centration to center a process where preschool age children tend to focus their attention on minute and often inconsequential aspects of their experience Ex A 3 year old remembering nothing about his babysitter except her bright earrings Preconcepts disorganized illogical representations of the child s experiences These are derived from centrated perception Ex A child remembering the zoo as a lion and his mother tearing her dress Transductive Reasoning Thinking With Preconcepts Induction we derive general principles from particular examples age 7 9 Ex A little boy sees that teachers favor the girls so he induces the general principle that girls are teacher s pets Deduction we use general principles to predict particular outcomes age 7 9 Ex The same child will predict that his teacher next year will favor girls o o o o o o o o o Transduction reasoning with the unsystematic collections of images which constitute their Preconcepts Toddlers to age 6ish Ex Somebody s interpretation of a story Piaget believed that preoperational children are incapable of thinking inductively or deductively so they think by transduction Egocentrism Irreversibility of thought Egocentrism the child s inability to conceptualize the perspective of other individual s Three mountain problem Children between 4 12 were shown a 3D model of a mountain scene Piaget asked each child to examine the model from different perspectives He then moved a doll to various vantage points around the model and asked the child to select a picture that represents the doll s point of view at each location Children under 8 identified their own view as that of the doll a clear demonstration of egocentrism Irreversibility the notion that preschoolers cannot mentally reverse their transductive sequences of thought Ex When a child is asked if they have a sister they will say yes But if asked if their sister has a sister they will say no They are incapable of mentally reversing the concept of the relationship Ex Climbing up on something but can t find a way down Reasoning in Content Domains Limitations in the preoperational stage have profound effects on their ability to adapt to their physical and social environment The following is examining how these limitations affect children s reasoning in specific content domains Classification Classification the tendency to group objects on the basis of particular sets of characteristics Stage 1 children 5 and under had no plan for sorting but produced pictures made with objects Ex Formed a rectangle and called it a house Stage 2 Children 6 8 sorted in a more organized way producing a series of collections of objects each based on a different dimension of similarity non graphic collections Stage 3 Children understood the relationship the rule of class inclusion Can separate big groups into smaller groups Quantitative Reasoning o Quantitative reasoning the ability to estimate the amount of things and changes in the amounts of things in terms of number size weight volume speed time and distance Ex Throwing a ball passing out candy in a 1 1 ratio Conservation the notion that certain attributes of objects and events may remain unchanged Ex Don t understand the water in glass scenario Concepts of number 1 1 correspondence counting the number of items in a line instead of just looking at how long the line is Young preoperational children did not understand this Concepts of Counting o o o o o o o o o o To give a child credit for counting they must be able to systematically assign numbers to items in an array using the following principles One to one principle one and only one distinctive number name must be assigned to each item in the array No item can be counted more than once Stable order principle number names must be assigned in a stable repeatable order Cardinal principle The final number in a counting sequence gives the total number of items in the array How many are there Abstraction Principle Virtually anything can be counted tangibles such as objects and events and tangibles such as ideas values or emotions Order irrelevance principle the order in which objects are counted is irrelevant when counting stuffed animals it doesn t matter the order 3 4 years olds incorporate all 5 of the principles but it isn t until 1st grade when they do it
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