Chapter 9 Cognitive and Language Development in Early Childhood PREOPERATIONAL STAGE SYMBOLIC FUNCTION Preoperational stage Piaget 3 6 years old children s limitations to advanced forms of reasoning logical systems of thought Symbolic function ability to use symbols to represent or stand for perceived objects and events Deferred imitation child observes the behavior of a model and imitates that behavior after a delay and sometimes when the model is no longer present o Advances in perception allows infant to engage in more detailed study of model s bx o Improvements in memory retain bx for longer periods o Developmental improvements in motor physical capability more precise imitation of bx pretend play children pretend an object is something other than what it really is empty cup drink doll real person o Shifting context performing routine bx s outside of their typical setting o Substituting objects children become increasingly able to transform virtually any object into the props needed for pretend play age 3 o Substituting other agents for oneself by age 3 most children use dolls as active agents pretending the dolls initiate and sustain their own bx as in talking running or playing with other dolls o Sequencing and socialization of pretend episodes children coordinate single acts into sequences of increasing length and complexity through the preschool years begin to incorporate bx patterns for agents which reflect conventional roles Mental images internal representations of external objects or events enable children to think about objects not present and events before during and after an occurrence PRECONCEPTS TRANSDUCTION Centration preschool age children tend to focus their attention on inconsequential minute aspects of their experience results in unsystematic samplings of isolate bits of info Preconcepts collections of images derived from centrated perception merge into disorganized illogical representations of the child s experiences Illogical nature of preconcepts severely limits quality of children s reasoning and problem solving Induction derive general principles from particular examples Deduction use general principles to predict particular outcomes Transduction reasoning within the unsystematic collections of images which constitute their preconcepts Egocentrism inability to conceptualize the perspective of other individuals can t see the world as others see it Three mountain problem Piaget experiment in which children were shown a 3D mountain scene with each mountain comprising of a different color size shape and object on its peak Under 8 years could not identify a picture of a doll s POV only their own Irreversibility preschoolers cannot mentally reverse their transductive sequences of thought ex have a sister yes sister have a sister no EGOCENTRICITY IRREVERSIBILITY DOMAINS CLASSIFICATION Classification tendency to group objects on the basis of particular set of characteristics Piaget experiment children sorted geometric shapes of different size shape color Stages of organization principles 1 5 years and younger no plan for sorting produced pictures made with objects 2 6 8 years organized based on non graphic collections circles in a pile squares in a pile then small large piles but not able to classify on 2 dimensions simultaneously Late child adolescence understood class inclusion classified using multiple dimensions small red square pile large blue circle pile 3 Quantitative reasoning ability to estimate the amount of things and changes in the amounts of things in terms of number size weight volume speed time distance Conservation notion that certain attributes of objects and events may remain unchanged despite transformations or changes in other attributes o Ex can have equal liquid amounts despite taller thin glass vs short glass Experiment Row of white beans set out Children matched amount using black beans Stretched out white bean row to appear longer Children determined there were more white beans QUANTITY CONCEPTS OF QUANTITY CONCEPTS OF NUMBER 1 1 correspondence ignoring physical appearances to determine the relationship between quantities of objects achieved at 7 8 years CONCEPTS OF COUNTING Counting ability based on 5 principles 1 1 1 principle only one number name is assigned to each item no item is counted more than once no number is used more than once 2 Stable order principle number names are assigned in a stable repeatable order 3 Cardinal principle final number in a sequence gives the total number in the array 4 Abstraction principle anything both tangible and intangible can be counted 5 Order irrelevance principle order in which objects are counted in irrelevant as long as each object is eventually assigned a number 3 4 year olds count using all 5 when counting small numbers End of preschool age can count to 20 30 accurately APPEARANCE REA Distinguishing appearance and reality refers to the fact that adults generally sense that appearances do not always reflect reality people don t always mean what they say intend what they do emotions don t equal face 3 year olds make realism errors 5 year olds can distinguish between appearance and function INFORMATION PROCESSING Views cognitive development as a continuous process of change in children s information processing capabilities Generally reject idea of stages of development Use of attention and memory to gain and retain info about their environment and their use of info to solve problems ATTENTION REMEMBERING Difficulty sustaining attention on play materials for long periods of time Capacity for retaining info for up to 20 seconds If info is to be retained for 20 sec must use strategies to move it into long term memory o Limited LTM capacity 4 yr 4 digits 6 yr 5 digits Strategies purposeful efforts to facilitate memory o Rehearsal repeating items over and over o Organization grouping items by category Metacognition ability to conceptualize own cognitive processes o Includes knowing how much you know knowing how to improve your knowledge or performance on a mental task o Skills improve around 1st grade Memory strategy training can improve use of strategies and recall content can be enhanced if encouraged to act out content with toys THEORY OF MIND theory of mind used to explain and predict human bx mindreading cognitive process by which we attribute desires and beliefs to other individuals in order to explain and predict their bx o different people think differently even in the same situation o
View Full Document
Unlocking...