Neural and Cognitive Development

1. Neural and Cognitive Development The Early Years

2. Outline • I. Brian Formation • II. Piaget’s theory of learning • III. Objects • IV. Memory • V. Intentions and Agency • VI. Preoperational Thinking • VII. Language Development • VIII.Cultural Considerations • IX. Why it matters

3. I. Prenatal Brain Formation • 4th month prenatally brain’s basic structures are formed • Communication occurs in the brain using electrochemical messages • Myelination speeds the process. Myelination begins prenatally in the sensorimotor area

4. Prenatal Brain Development • So around 4 months prenatal the neurons begin to fire spontaneously • Sounds can be heard by 15 wks • Eyes open & close by 25th wk and fetus turns toward light. This sensory experience is critical for healthy brain development

5. Prenatal Brain Development • Neurons continue to produce rapidly thru the 1st year • 0-12- neural pruning • New connections are made thru life, but not new neurons • Thus, Babies are not “blank slates”

6. Sensory Integration Dysfunction

7. II. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory • Adaptation • Assimilation • Accommodation

8. III. Understanding Objects • Intersensory Integration • Object Permanence • Representational Thought

9. IV. Memory • Sensory Memory • Short-term • Rehearsal • Long-term • Consolidation • Recall • Recognition • Forgetting

10. Memory • Declarative- learning about information and events • Procedural or Implicit- automatic, habitual responses • Verbal vs spatial

11. Memory • Requires the ability to attend (attention) • At this stage of development we will focus on Recognition and Recall

12. Recognition • Ability to differentiate between new experiences and those we have had before • Improves thru out infancy • Duration and speed of habituation improve with age • How quickly babies habituate (recognition speed) is correlated with later IQ

13. Recall • Ability to bring to mind experiences that happened in the past • Requires mental representation, thus occurs later in infancy • Deferred imitation- begins late in 1st year • Social learning requires deferred imitation • Separation anxiety begins with recall ~ 8 months

14. V. Infant’s own intentions • Intentional action • ~ 3 mo- Making interesting sights last • ~8-12 mo- Means ends behavior • ~12-18 mo- Invent and try out new ways to problem-solve • ~24 mo- Invent new ways to problem solve and try them out in their heads

15. Other’s Intentions • Agency • Intention

16. VI. Pre Schooler’s Cognition-Preoperational Thinking • Centered- Can only think one thing at a time • By age 2: • They develop Object permanence- the understanding that objects exist apart from their own thoughts and perceptions • Can Recall • Can Plan and execute behaviors- even new ones • Understand agency and intention • Can use symbols • Can begin to understand some counting principals • Can figure out if you see something or you don’t • Can use words for what they desire: need, feel, want

17. By age 3: • Children can use symbolic artifacts • Begin counting in versatile order • Have trouble understanding “underlying realities” but can be taught to attend to them. This learning is still fragile and easily disrupted • Can understand that another person sees something different then they do (such as a picture being upside down), but can not understand that the other has a totally different view “mountain exercise” • Use cognitive words such as think, forget, remember

18. By age 4-5: • Can begin to understand that other’s have a different knowledge and knowing

19. Implications for Preschoolers • They do not understand that adults want something different than they do • More fragile under stress or when emotionally or personally involved • Perspective taking improves as child develops the cognitive skills to decenter and receives feedback from others in social interactions

20. VII. Language Development • Phonology • Semantics • Syntax • Voicing • Grammar • Code Switching • Pragmatics

21. Development • 12 wks prenatal- recognizes patterns of sounds • ~6 mo • Begins to lose unimportant distinctions, begins to babble most sounds • ~9 mo: babbles only sounds of native language • ~18-24 mo • After 50 words- vocabulary spurt, 2 word strings, increased comprehension, end of sensorimotor period • ~2-3 yrs: Narratives begin • ~5 yrs • Can produce most sentence structures • ~15,000 words

22. Language Development Implications • Vocabulary size is a key predictor of later literacy and success in school • So: • Educate parents to increase parent child conversations that are lengthy, detailed and include discussions of past experiences of the child • Engage in joint book reading • Encourage preschool for children at risk (or if this is not culturally appropriate, engage extended family or other resources)

23. VIII. Culture and Development • Thinking is mediated by tools of the culture • Mediated learning • Scaffolding • Egocentric speech

24. IX. Why does any of this matter to a therapist • In working with children and adults, you must take into account • Their cognitive developmental level, as well as their level of social and emotional functioning. • if their language is concrete vs. abstract and if they have understanding of cause/effect • Their culture and cultural differences in child raising

25. You can educate parents and teachers on: • Prenatal interventions: Patterns and sounds to sooth baby • Provision of a sensory stimulating environment • Egocentricity and centered cognitions • Scaffolding vs disciplining • Need for immediate consequences due to limited memory sequencing • Use of accommodation and assimilation • Use of repetition needed • Preschool interventions