Intellectual Development of the Infant

2. 9 Intellectual Development of the Infant

3. intellectual development stimuli binocular vision perception perceptual learning object identity object permanence depth perception vocabulary coo babble cognition sensorimotor stage imitating concept object constancy object concept monotone inflections reduplication babbling passive vocabulary active vocabulary Key Terms continued

4. object identity object permanence depth perception vocabulary coo babble monotone inflections reduplication babbling passive vocabulary active vocabulary Key Terms

5. Describe how and what infants learn. Objective

6. Intellectual development is how people learn, what they learn, and how they express what they know through language also called mental and cognitive development Stimuliare changes in the environment that affect sensory organs causing a person to react How Infants Learn

7. Brain Development Supports Learning • Motor center • wiring begins at about two months • development is a multi-year process • learning of voluntary gross-motor movements begins • wiring for fine-motor movements begins at two or three months continued

8. Brain Development Supports Learning • Vision center • very active in early infancy • see objects at many distances very clearly by two or three months • binocular vision is the goal • approximately three months • window of opportunity is brief • activity in vision center peaks at eight months continued

9. Binocular vision is necessary for recognizing how far away an object is Brain Development Supports Learning continued

10. Thinking and memory centers infants make sense of what is happening and then attempt to make something happen themselves Brain Development Supports Learning continued

11. research suggests activity begins at six months wiring continues for about 10 years need a rich environment for optimal development Brain Development Supports Learning

12. What Do You Think? • Brain development research has provided information suggesting a rich environment is needed to stimulate thinking and memory centers of babies’ brains. • What are some examples of a rich environment for babies?

13. Perception • Perceptioninvolves organizing information that comes through the senses • how things are alike and different in size, color, shape, texture • speed of organization • reaction to different sensory experiences • Perceptual learning is the process of developing mental images continued

14. Changes in preferences Perception

15. Cognition • Cognition is the act or process of knowing or understanding • Piecing together perceptions • Theoretical foundation • Jean Piaget • Lev Vygotsky

16. Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage • Infants explore with their senses and motor actions • Sensorimotor stage begins at birth, most children complete it in two years • work through four substages in first year • substages 1 and 2 involve baby’s own body • substages 3 and 4 involve people and objects • Basis for future mental development continued

17. Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage continued

18. Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage • Substage 1 • find stimulation through inborn reflexes • practices reflexes making them strong and more efficient • Substage 2 • uses voluntary actions from reflexes • adapt basic actions continued

19. Substage 3 notice responses to actions practice action/response sequences begin imitating actions of others Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage continued

20. Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage • Substage 4 • begin to have goals • example: want to hear a rattle make noise • problem-solve by combining two or more actions • example: pick up rattle, shake it • use tools to attain goals • example: use handle of rattle, pull closer

21. Vygotsky’s Basic Theory • Child’s culture and his or her social environment determine how a child will think • Children learn by imitating and/or working on projects with an adult or more accomplished peer • scaffolding continued

22. Vygotsky’s Basic Theory • Adults should follow lead of children continued

23. Vygotsky’s Basic Theory • Adults must work in a child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) • shows respect for what the child is learning and for child’s interests • following the child’s lead • Adults must find the child’s ZPD • children can be challenged, without feeling overwhelmed • finding the match

24. What Would You Do? • If you were advising a child care provider on infant development, how would you suggest scaffolding a nine-month-old child’s learning? • Give two specific examples.

25. A concept is an idea formed by combining what is known about a person, object, place, quality, or event What Infants Learn continued

26. What Infants Learn • Concepts change from • simple to complex • concrete to abstract • incorrect to correct • Concepts are different for each person • During the first year, infants form many concepts continued

27. Perceptual Concepts • Object constancyis knowing that objects remain the same even if they appear different • begins during the first year • not fully developed until the second or third year continued

28. Object concept is the understanding that the world of objects, people, and events are separate from one’s interactions with them Perceptual Concepts continued

29. Perceptual Concepts • Object concept has two parts • object identityis knowing that an object stays the same from one time to the next • object permanenceis knowing that people, objects, and places still exist even when they are no longer seen, felt, or heard • begins to develop as early as a month or two of age continued

30. Perceptual Concepts • Depth perception is the ability to tell how far away something is • Requires the development of binocular vision • Needed for safety purposes • Rather well developed by seven to nine months of age

31. Explain how infants express what they know through language. Objective

32. Language: Brain Development Research • Language is closely related to mental development • Brain development research shows language wiring begins at birth, if not before • first wiring has to do with sounds of language, which are needed to understand speech and to speak continued

33. Sequence of brain development Language: Brain Development Research continued

34. Language: Brain Development Research • Vocabulary consists of the words a person understands and uses • infants speaking vocabularies lag behind what they understand • Relationship between language and social and emotional growth • language used to express feelings or emotions • before language is developed, infants express feelings physically

35. Identify the order in which infants learn. Objective

36. Crying and cooing Babbling First words How Babies Communicate

37. Crying and Cooing • Newborns do not have control over the sounds they make • During first month, babies communicate by crying • Between the sixth and eighth week, most babies begin to coo • coo more when others talk to, smile at, and touch them

38. Babies babbleby making a series of vowel sounds with consonant sounds slowly added to form syllables Babbling continued

39. Babbling • Important pretalking skill • Practice all sounds of the world’s languages • around one year, babies make only the sounds needed to speak languages they hear • Babies babbling is not monotone (at a single pitch), but with inflections • express happiness, requests, commands, questions

40. Babies can begin to talk within the last three months of the first year Same sounds must be used each time to refer to a specific person, object, place, or event to be classified as a word First Words continued

41. First Words • Before talking, babies must • understand object permanence • understand that people, objects, places, and events have names • remember words that go with people, objects, places, and events • have the ability to make sounds • realize that talking is important continued

42. First words often come from babbling Reduplication babblingis the repetition of the same syllable over and over First Words

43. Passive Versus Active Vocabulary • Passive vocabularyincludes the words that people understand, but cannot say or write • Active vocabularyincludes the words used in talking or writing • Babies’ passive vocabulary far exceeds their active vocabulary

44. Baby Signing • Baby Signs is a formal sign language for hearing babies • 100 plus gestures come from American Sign Language (or ASL, the sign language for people who are deaf) • some baby-friendly modifications of ASL gestures • Parents should begin signing when the baby is six or seven months old • babies begin signing about two months later

45. Did You Know? ASL is a complete language. You communicate using hand shapes, direction and motion of the hands, and facial expressions. ASL has its own grammar, word order, and sentence structure. You can share feelings, jokes, and complete ideas using ASL.

46. Glossary of Key Terms • active vocabulary. Words a person uses in talking or writing. • babble. Making a series of vowel sounds with consonant sounds slowly added to form syllables. • binocular vision. Type of vision that involves fusing an image so it appears as one image using both eyes. • cognition. Act or process of knowing or understanding.

47. Glossary of Key Terms • concept. Idea formed by combining what is known about a person, object, place, quality, or event. • coo. Light, happy sound babies begin to use to communicate between six and eight weeks after birth. • depth perception. Ability to tell how far away something is. • imitating. Copying the actions of someone else. • inflections. Changes of pitch.

48. Glossary of Key Terms • intellectual development. How people learn, what they learn, and how they express what they know through language. • monotone. Sounds all in a single pitch. • object concept. Ability to understand that an object, person, or event is separate from one’s interaction with it.

49. Glossary of Key Terms • object constancy. Ability to understand that objects remain the same even if they appear different. • object identity. Ability to understand that an object stays the same from one time to the next. • object permanence. Ability to understand that people, objects, and places still exist even when they are no longer seen, felt, or heard.

50. Glossary of Key Terms • passive vocabulary. Words a person understands, but does not say or write. • perception. Organizing information that comes through the senses. • perceptual learning. Term used to describe the process of developing mental images. • reduplication babbling. Repeating the same syllable over and over again.