1.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 World of Children 1 st 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

2.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Piaget’s Theory 2 nd 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

3.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

4.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Use of mental representation in art Increased complexity in art work

5.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

6.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Beginning of Intuitive Thought  Intuitive thought : reasoning based on personal experience rather than formal logic Children reason on what “seems like” ex: pg 258

7.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Evidence of Intuitive thought Egocentrism: inability to take another person’s perspective

8.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

9.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

10.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Piaget’s research

11.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

12.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

13.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

14.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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 private speech – the speech they say out loud to themselves

15.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

16.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

17.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

18.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Mediation example How would an adult mediate to a child on how to do a difficult puzzle?

19.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.

20.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Zone of Proximal Development

21.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

22.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007  Peers also provide instruction and support during collaborative learning.  Help each other solve problems  Share their knowledge & skills  Discuss strategies & knowledge

23.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Piaget and Vygotsky 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

24.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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!!!!!!

25.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Information Processing Theory

26.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Changes in cognitive processes 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

27.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Changes in cognitive processes  Processing efficiency speed and accuracy of processing information. 1. Operating space 2. Storage space Older children have better memories.

28.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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 1. recognizing letters 2. forming words 3. reading sentences 4. reading with expression, comprehension, what will happen next? 5. Compare and contrast w/ other books

29.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

30.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

31.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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?

32.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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: 1. What children know about thinking in general 2. How well they understand the thoughts of people

33.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

34.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

35.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

36.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

37.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

38.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Learning grammar Children learn how to combine words and form sentences gradually where Daddy? where Daddy is? where is Daddy?

39.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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”

40.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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?”

41.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

42.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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 2 nd language is learned.

43.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 More than one language Children who begin learning 2 nd language before age 3 are usually just as fluent in both languages. Older learners have trouble with accent, but learn vocabulary and grammar faster

44.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

45.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

46.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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

47.  Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 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.)