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Explore Piaget's pre-operational thought & Vygotsky's sociocultural view on cognitive development in early childhood, focusing on language development, intuitive thought, and educational implications. Piaget's conservation theory & Vygotsky's ZPD are examined.
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World of Children 1st ed • Chapter 8:Cognitive Development • in Early Childhood • Piaget’s Pre-operational Thought • Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View • Information Processing • Language Development • Early Childhood Education • Kindergarten Readiness
Piaget’s Theory2nd stage (ages 2 to 7) • Preoperational thought – children use mental representations for objects and events that are not physically available to see, hear and touch. • Operations – logical processes that can be reversed – example: pouring liquid into a container • Children at this age do not think with operations – thus, preoperational
Use of mental representation in language • Average 2 yr old knows 200 words • Average 6 yr old knows 10,000 words • Language development is based on children’s mental representational abilities. • Increased vocabulary gives children the ability to talk about things that are not present.
Use of mental representation in art • Increased complexity in art work
Use of mental representation in play • Symbolic play – children use one object to stand for another • At 18 months, children can pretend to talk on a phone if they have a play phone • At age 2, they can use a banana as a phone • At age 5, they can use almost anything as a phone – object does not have to look anything like a phone
Beginning of Intuitive Thought • Intuitive thought : reasoning based on personal experience rather than formal logic • Children reason on what “seems like” • ex: pg 258
Evidence of Intuitive thought • Egocentrism: inability to take another person’s perspective
Evidence of Intuitive Thought • Animism : inanimate objects have feelings • ex: sun is shining b/c it’s happy. • ex: putting pencil down b/c it’s tired. • Artificialism : natural events are under people’s control • ex: sun went down b/c someone switched it off. • ex: moon isn’t shining b/c someone blew it out. • As children have more experiences, they move towards logical thought.
Piaget’s research • Conservation: the idea that certain properties of an object remain the same even if physical appearance changes • Piaget analyzed children’s responses to conservation problems to understand preoperational thought
Piaget’s Theory • Why do preoperational children give “incorrect” answers? • Centration : focus on one aspect of a situation – height of liquid • Static endpoints : focus on beginning and end, not process in the middle • Lack of reversibility: cannot visualize reversing the process
Piaget’s legacy • Piaget influenced education in many ways • the development of interactive and hands-on materials for active learners • guidelines for when to introduce topics based on cognitive development • challenges to children’s existing cognitive structures to help them grow in understanding
Vygotsky’s Theory • Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) • born in what would be part of Soviet Union • firm believer in Marxism – equality for all • wrote several books and articles before death from tuberculosis at age 38 • most of his work was not published until long after his death
Vygotsky’s Theory • Central idea – children develop cognitive structures from their culture and their social interactions, mainly by listening to the language that is around them • Children listen to social speech – what is said to them, and turn it into privatespeech– the speech they say out loud to themselves
Vygotsky’s Theory • ex: girl learning to draw a circle • “Start your mark going around like this, then bring it all the way around until the marks meet each other.” • Almost all children use private speech • When learning a new or difficult task, children rely on private speech • Children who use private speech the most do better in difficult tasks.
Vygotsky’s Theory • internalization : the process of taking external speech and making it internal and mental. • as children master a concept they need less private speech • eventually they internalize the concept as silent inner speech.
Vygotsky’s Theory • Mediation : the introduction of concepts, knowledge, skills and strategies to the child • Adults may break down the task into smaller steps, give hints on how to accomplish it, provide tips on what to look for, etc. • Successful mediation depends on making sure it is appropriate to the child’s level of understanding and ability.
Mediation example • How would an adult mediate to a child on how to do a difficult puzzle?
Vygotsky’s theory • Zone of proximal development : the range of problems that the child can solve with some assistance • The cognitive structures in this zone are ones that the child has started to internalize but have not been completely internalized.
Vygotsky’s Theory • Effective instruction involves giving child challenges, along with help in solving them. • Adults provide scaffolding – temporary support for child while cognitive structure is being developed • Doing part of the task • Simplifying difficult tasks • Talking the child trough the task • Giving reminders
Peers also provide instruction and support during collaborative learning. • Help each other solve problems • Share their knowledge & skills • Discuss strategies & knowledge
Piaget pride in autonomy and independence believed that children construct their own cognitive structures as they adapt to environment Vygotsky cultures and society change over time and how that change influences cognitive development believed that children adopt cognitive structures of people around them Piaget and Vygotsky
Information Processing Theory • Central idea - that humans receive, process, sort, store and retrieve information similar to the way computers do • = • Key assumption – humans are limited in capacity to process information • We can only do so much!!!!!!
Older children are able to process more information, process it faster, and control attention span better then young children. Processing capacity amount of information that a person can remember or think about at one time – increased flexibility of thought Changes in cognitive processes
Processing efficiency speed and accuracy of processing information. Operating space Storage space Older children have better memories. Changes in cognitive processes
Automaticity : ability to perform task with little conscious effort – increased complexity of thought Important for increasing processing efficiency. frees up more cognitive capacity for other tasks. Learning to read recognizing letters forming words reading sentences reading with expression, comprehension, what will happen next? Compare and contrast w/ other books Changes in cognitive processes
Attention : ability to focus on specific information without being distracted by other stimuli – increased accuracy as children get older 1. maintain focus for longer periods of time 2. ignore distracting information Changes in cognitive processes
Metacognition • Metacognition:the understanding that people have about their own thought processes and memory • Includes knowledge of • Tasks- long list of words more difficult to remember than short list • Strategies- repeating telephone # will help you remember it for a short time • People- limits to what a person can remember
Metacognition • Rapid improvement after age 5 • young children are optimistic about their own memory abilities • more accurate when estimating how much a peer can remember • How is overestimating their abilities good for children?
Theory of the Mind • Theory of the Mind : an integrated understanding of what the mind is, how it works, and why it works that way. • Research on children’s theory of mind has looked at: • What children know about thinking in general • How well they understand the thoughts of people
Theory of the Mind • 3 year olds know: • -that mental objects are different from real objects. • - it is possible to carry out mental activities that could not happen in the real world • - dreams are not real life • - many believe that different people have the same dream
Theory of the Mind • Young children are still dev. their understanding of mental actvitties • Indicator of theory of mind – appearance-reality distinction • young children do not understand the difference between how something appears to be, and how it really is
Theory of the Mind • Ex: Cat named Maynard had a dog’s mask put on his face. Children thought that Maynard was a dog. • Change in appearance changed reality
Mastering Theory of the Mind • Children must learn that • Other people have thoughts different from theirs • All people have different thought processes • Talking to children about thinking, feeling, memory, etc. helps in the development of a theory of the mind
Language Development • From age 2 to age 6, children learn approximately 7 new words every day. • How? • Fast-mapping : the ability to learn a word after only one exposure • Syntactical bootstrapping : using what is known about grammar to figure out meanings of new words • ex: Nina is pidding her food. action • Nina threw her pid. object • Imitation • Reinforcement from adults
Learning grammar • Children learn how to combine words and form sentences gradually • where Daddy? • where Daddy is? • where is Daddy?
Learning grammar • Around age 3, children begin to add word endings such as –s, -ing, -ed • Overregularization : applying rules of grammar and producing incorrect forms of words • “foots” “go-ed”
Learning social rules of language • Social rules of discourse: conventions (rules) that people use in conversation with others • turn taking • answer-obviousness – if answer to question is obvious, the question is actually a request or demand • “do you have to yell in the house?”
Learning social rules of language • Rules of language differ between cultures • African Americans don’t use question demands • How might an African American child interpret, • “Must you jump on the bed?” • Must take their turn and hold audiences attention rather than waiting for someone to finish and they are given their turn
More than one language • Bilingual : fluent in two languages • Additive bilingualism : second language is learned while first language is maintained • Subtractive bilingualism : second language is learned while fluency in first language is lost • Simultaneous bilingualism : two languages are learned at the same time, starting in infancy • Sequential bilingualism : one language is learned, and then 2nd language is learned.
More than one language • Children who begin learning 2nd language before age 3 are usually just as fluent in both languages. • Older learners have trouble with accent, but learn vocabulary and grammar faster
More than one language • In early stages, children may mix words from both languages – frequency decreases as each language gets stronger • Children understand the difference between the two languages and may restrict use of each to specific situations, but learn to switch back and forth easily
Early Childhood Education • Project Head Start : federally funded program begun in 1965 to improve achievement in young children • Abecedarian Project : program to assess impact of full time high quality intervention beginning in infancy • High/Scope Perry Preschool : high quality part-day intervention during school year for 3 to 5 yr olds
Effects of Early Education Programs • immediate gain in IQ which fades during elementary school • higher scores on reading and math tests • fewer students placed in special ed classes • higher graduation rates • better overall health
Effects of Early Education Programs Adapted with permission from L.J. Schweinhart, H.V. Barnes, & D.P. Weikart. (1993). Significant benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool study through age 27 (Monographs of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Number 10); pp. xvi-xvii. Ypsilanti, MI: The High/Scope Press.)
